Jumper two jacks together in a phone punch block?

Question

We moved into a small office that has an old 66 punchdown block. The phone guy came and wired one (and only one) of them into our one voice line.

We have three or four offices, but for now we really just need the one line so I got some little alligator clip jumper cables and I thought if I just was careful and jumpered Office 1 blue/blue-white to Office 2 blue/blue-white it would work. It doesn't.

I would know how to wire these lines in a home, but it's the punchdown block that is making it impossible. Indeed, we need home-like wiring, which is to say several jacks all working on one line.

I've searched a zillion pages, but all search results seem to come back with products, which is why I'm here.

I know that jumping these connections is not ideal, but it just needs to last us for a couple of months until we get more phone lines.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If it is only temporary for a few months you can make it look like home wiring by removing the 66 block and connecting all the tips together and all the rings together w/ wire nuts. When you add your new lines it can all be sorted out by the installer then.

Answer 2

You may need to tone out the other offices to see where they come out on the block. What you did should have worked. Have you checked inside the jacks in the other offices to see what color was actually used previously? Over a period of time wiring will get changed around because of different lines, fax's ect.