# Phone jack color codes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687 "2013-11-24T18:30:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687/1 "2013-11-24T18:30:15Z")
I’m wiring up a phone jack I got from something I’d installed years ago (so I only remember _doing_ it, not _how_ I did it) in a room we no longer need the jack, because the store was out of the ones that go in the face plate I needed (has slots for an ethernet and phone jacks). The color code on it is _not_ the standard phone colors. I googled it, and found that these jacks have a number of different color codes, depending on the application, but I can’t find the particular code it has. Here’s what it’s got, first is the top line label, second is the second line label, third is the color label, 4th is the color of the wire I had attached to that pin years ago: 1 T3 Green/White none 2 T2 Orange/White Blue 4 T1 Blue/White Orange 3 R1 Blue Green 5 R2 Orange Brown 6 R3 Green none Anyone recognize these color codes and know how they correspond to the standard phone Red/Green/Yellow/Black code? I suspect that R & T in the above means Ring and Tip, so the two in the middle _should_ be Red and Green, but that’s just guessing, and I want to know it’s right before I fry a phone or something, and I still have no idea about which ones the yellow and black should go to. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687/2 "2013-11-24T18:45:52Z")
Never mind. I just went and dissected the electrical tape in the original outlet, and it turns out that _I_ didn’t follow the color code because the cable I had wouldn’t attach properly to the connector. So I used a short piece of whatever 4 wire cable I had on hand at the time, matched up the colors to the closest (but not very close at all) fit, and attached that. Dissecting that bundle of electrical tape ‘revealed all’. I’m now at one with the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687/3 "2013-11-25T13:45:52Z")
R = Ring and T= Tip, and 1 means pair 2, 2 means pair 2. You wanted pair one connected. 10mbs and 100 mbs UTP for ethernet was compatible with pair 1 used as a telephone line. There are no spare pairs in 1 gigabit. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687/4 "2013-11-25T20:54:24Z")
The bigger concern would be that you’re using a 6 wire jack (RJ12 OR RJ14) rather than a standard 4 wire. If I remember correctly from the days of installing this stuff, the RJ12 is more commonly used for office phone systems, rather than standard POTS telephone wiring. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-jack-color-codes/674687/5 "2013-11-26T02:17:17Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > The bigger concern would be that you’re using a 6 wire jack (RJ12 OR RJ14) rather than a standard 4 wire. If I remember correctly from the days of installing this stuff, the RJ12 is more commonly used for office phone systems, rather than standard POTS telephone wiring. I was using something ‘stolen’ from a previous install that I no longer needed. I used what I had. BTW, it now works fine. See post #2. I was trying to figure out a ‘color code’ that was based on what I had several years ago, when I improvised it the first time, and then forgot about. Once I realized what I’d done years ago, and discounted it, the thing went together nicely. Oh, BTW, _all_ phone jacks are 6 wire. Most of them only have 2 or 4 wires going into them, but they all have slots for 6.