That is a "protector" - not a "busbar".

I'm not sure why they didn't use the top one - maybe it is defective... or maybe they were just being lazy?

Hi Dennisgli,

Thank you for the comment. The thing is, they didn't even use the 2nd protector unless I'm missing something. Note, nothing comes out on the right side of either protector. The blue & white incoming wires are connected straight to the green & red, never passing through the protectors.

That why I'm doubting there is any functioning ground. Even though orange and white connect to the left of the lower protector (and so to the grounded busbar), I don't see how that would ground the direct connection of blue/white to green/red. Of course I'm not even a novice telecom tech, so that's why I'm looking for insights from someone with more knowledge.

By the way, the orange/white was the old connection and they determined that wire (orange) wasn't working for some reason.

Yeah, that's messed up. It looks like at some point in the past, there were two lines wired up here but someone cut the incoming wires and jumped them to the one wire running out the other side.

Not only are the protectors bypassed but these sort of NIDs also have the DSL filter in them. Are there voice lines on this circuit?

The left side of the box should never have been opened by the builder/subscriber. That's for the phone company. You should connect these wires back to the input of either of the protectors and then connect the other wires to the terminals on the protector.

Presumably the wire connected to the big ground terminal actually runs to some ground point?

Hey Ron, thank you for the reply.

Yes, the ground wire does go to an actual grounding rod, and what you've suggested on the rewiring is exactly what I was thinking should be done, but of course I don't know what I'm talking about so needed some confirmation.

So, on the incoming side, is there any way the blue/white wires are grounded somehow via the orange or orange-white wires that are connected to the left lower protector? Or is that just not possible?

There are no voice lines, only internet so I just want to be sure there is grounding to protect equipment.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

The blue/white pair is the one that's obviously in use. You should connect up at least that. If you want to hook up the orange/white pair to the other you can. You want to connect the red/green wire that's running to your DSL modem to the protector that has the blue/white pair feeding the other side.

Note that when you open the protector to get to the subscriber side terminals, there will be typically one that is unfiltered (that is where you want to go) the others will be DSL filtered in case there is voice on the same pair.

Thank you for the tips Ron. Is there a way I can tell which terminal is unfiltered?

They're different colored. There will be one unfiltered one and three filtered ones usually.

I think this is what Ron is referring to...

Thanks for the tips. End result, had them come out, they confirmed not properly grounded, and installed a new module which supposedly has a surge protection mechanism inside, but still is not connected to the grounding rod. Does that sound feasible/functional to you pros?

Post a picture. Seems like a proper protector would have to be grounded!

I agree. I looked up the part and according to the specs it does have some surge suppression built in, although also mentions it should be grounded. It's got one in wire and 1 out wire, that's it.

At this point they've increased my internet speed by triple (with no increased in monthly fee), and the last guy out did at least seem like he knew what he was doing, so maybe it's ok? Don't wanna rock the boat unnecessarily especially since they've sent people out twice and the speed is much better. On the other hand don't want my electronics fried. Here's a question; would a surge on the DSL line burn out the router and stop there, or continue on over ethernet wires to other devices?

Anyway, I put a multi-outlet, also with surge suppression on the inside for both the electrical connections, and for the DSL line. Maybe with both these surge suppressions in tandem it will provide enough protection. Thoughts?

It's hard to comment without a photo of the installation.

With things like lightening hits it's really hard to predict what will survive and what will get fried!

Thanks Chase, this is exactly the kind of insight & detail I was hoping for. Much appreciated.