There isn’t much difference between an Ethernet cable and your in-house telephone wire (the RJ-11 jack that your phones use even plugs into most RJ-45 Ethernet ports, albeit on 4 wires instead of 8). But it still takes a little bit of a leap of faith to patch in your Voice-over-IP service to your home phone lines—not because it’s technologically that difficult (it’s not), but because it means you’ve well and truly left the land-line carriers behind for good. Jake Ludington has a quick write-up of how he patched his Vonage box into his home phone lines and maybe it will serve as some inspiration to you.
VoIP over Phone Wiring [MediaBlab]
Bryan Griffith clarifies:
This is an obscure procedure for a VERY simple operation.
Step 1. Disconnect any incoming POTS lines at the Network Interface
Step 2. Plug in your Vonage, or other VoIP, adapter directly into ANY wall plate.
All POTS service is one big AC loop. All outlets on the same phone line are connected in parallel. Making a connection at ANY of the outlets will make ALL outlets hot. It is important that the phone company is disconnected from the wires first because the incoming phone service voltage may damage your VoIP adapter.
