DIY: Phone System

Phone service

• In order to have a good phone system you have to have good phone service. One option to consider is a multiple-number line for your home or business. This doesn't involve more wires, but you can have a second phone number on the same line as the first. This addition can free up a line for fax machines or other ancillary devices you might want to install. Also, ask for online voice mail and call forwarding. This can take the place of secretaries and answering services when you are away.

Phones

• Relatively low-cost phones will handle two lines, conference calling, call hold and caller ID. Buying two, three or more of these phones can be the center of your self-made phone system. All come with standard jacks for connections; one incoming line will activate either line 1 or line 2, depending on which number is dialed.

Connecting the system

• Once you have your service coming to your phones, all that's left is running the wires and installing the jacks. There may be some effort running lines through walls--so keep in mind that acoustic office ceilings are also a great place for phone lines.

  In the home you may have to get in the attic or under the crawlspace, but running the wires to different rooms is more a matter of time than extended effort or hammers and nails. The only question is how unobtrusive and out of the way you want the lines. Another good place to hide phone lines is under carpeting around the edge of a room where no one ever walks. Once the wire is in the room, connecting jacks is simply a matter of attaching red, black, yellow and green wires to matching red, black, yellow and green connections. Use a screwdriver and plug in the phone: now you have a phone system.