I had to perform some work on my home phone line including running new cable to a newly installed patch panel. I was suprised to notice that the existing cable had simply been twisted onto the incoming cable pair so this was quickly remedied.

Anyway, the incoming cable contained a single pair comprising of yellow and black wires. There had been several fingers in the pie and the cabling through the house was quite a mess, and figuring out the colour codes took a little bit of work, Here’s a guide for those living in an older NZ home who need to perform work on the phone line:

Cable Type	Tip	Ring
Incoming line	Black	Yellow
Existing house wiring	Red	White
Cat5 cable	White(w/blue)	Blue
Flexible phone leads	Green	Red

If you are still unsure, grab an LED and 10k resistor and connect the across the line. If it glows, the cathode is connected to tip and the anode to ring.

Connector Type	Tip	Ring
BS6312 (BT style)	5	2
RJ11 (6P6C)	4	3
RJ45 (8P8C)	5	4