6 pin RJ11, RJ14, RJ25 female connector at the phone and wallet socket (Jack).
6 pin RJ11, RJ14, RJ25 male connector at the cable (Plug).
The six-position plug and jack commonly used for telephone line connections may be used for RJ11, RJ14 or even RJ25, all of which are actually names of interface standards that use this physical connector. The RJ11 standard dictates a 2-wire connection, while RJ14 uses a 4-wire configuration, and RJ25 uses all six wires. The RJ abbreviations, though, only pertain to the wiring of the jack (hence the name “registered jack”); it is commonplace but not strictly correct to refer to an unwired plug connector by any of these names. Typically RJ11 carries a single line and RJ14 two lines on a residential Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) connection, while RJ25 carries three lines; all three are analog telephone interfaces.
| position | RJ25 pin | RJ14 pin | RJ11 pin | Pair | T/R | ± | Cat 5e/6 colors | Colors | Old colors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 3 | T | + | 
white/green |
white/green | 
orange | ||
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | T | + | 
white/orange |
white/orange | 
black | |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | R | – | 
blue | 
blue/white | 
red |
| 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | T | + | 
white/blue |
white/blue | 
green |
| 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | R | – |
orange | 
orange/white | 
yellow | |
| 6 | 6 | 3 | R | – |
green | 
green/white |
blue |
Notes
- While the old solid color code was well established for pairs 1 and 2, there are several conflicting conventions for pair 3. The colors shown above were taken from a vendor of “silver satin” flat 8-conductor phone cable that claims to be standard. Other 3 pair solid (old) bellwire cables may substitute white for orange. At least one other vendor of flat 8-conductor cable uses the sequence blue, orange, black, red, green, yellow, brown and white/slate.
- Holding the connector in your hand tab side down with the cable opening toward you, the pins are numbered 1-6, left to right.
- In modern structured wiring Cat5e or Cat6 is commonly used in homes and buildings. The Cat 5e and Cat 6 data lines are often used for both voice or data. The color codes above are the standard and defined within wiring guides.
- Category 3 cable can also be used for RJ-14 wiring, with the same colour code as Cat 5 and Cat 6.
- RJ25 is an analog three-line (6P6C) interface for plain old telephone service. Despite occasional claims to the contrary, it is not an ISDN or digital-services standard; digital circuits such as ISDN and T1 use different registered jacks (for example RJ48).