2torial #0877:
Learn2 Install a Second Phone Line (continued)

Find the network interface device (NID)

The network interface device (NID) is where your phone line enters your house or apartment building. It's a gray box with a cover on it. To find it, follow the phone line from the pole on the street nearest to your building. If it's not on the outside of the building, look inside close to where the line enters the house. NIDs are often attached to basement or closet walls or floor joists.

Do you need to rewire? If all the wiring is properly done in your NID and in your existing wall jack(s), activation will give you access to your new phone line. All you need is a two-line phone or jack adapter, which plugs into an existing jack and splits its current into two or three possible configurations: line 1, line 2, and/or both lines (for a two-line phone).

You can wait until the phone company has activated the new line, then plug a phone into the left and middle holes of the adapter and listen for a dial tone. If you get tones in both, the jack is wired. Or you can follow Step 3 through Step 5 to determine whether the connections are made at the NID and your chosen jack.

Note: If you live in an apartment building, it's likely that several apartments share an NID. You may need your landlord's help finding it--and, in any event, you should tell him or her you're installing a new phone line in your apartment. Depending on your lease, the landlord may be responsible for the installation--or may just prefer to do it him- or herself.