OK, so you have terminated your CAT3 runs into the patch panel so they are now available to be patched at the front ports.

Where are you running the patch cables to, from the front ports?

So I assume that you are talking about an plain old telephone (POTS) line. That only uses one pair of wires - white-blue.

I would go ahead and terminate all four pairs from the "outlets" - you may want to use them for something else in the future.

Assuming that you didn't use all 24 positions on the patch panel I would take the last six and just jumper the white-blue wire together on them. Then you can run patch cords from any of those to the "outlets" that you want to plug phones into.

Thanks yosemitebill! But you have already reached the extent of my understanding. I can't figure out what to patch to, which makes me think I did not need a patch panel at all. I don't need to control individual rooms or anything. I just want the runs to all connect to the line coming from the cable modem. Is there a relatively basic way to get the patch panel to do that? When I was originally hunting for a solution I could not find something to connect say 14 runs so I went with patch panel. Now I'm 45 bucks into that so I'd like to use it. But if there is a simpler way I'm happy to say sayonara to my small investment...
Thanks!

Thanks Dennisgli! Yes POTS. So if I did what you suggest would that not limit me to 6 outlets?

How many phones are you planning on plugging in? Five is a common limit on how many REN's you can ring at once.

You could also use some alalog phone "splitters" to plug more than one patch cord into a jack.

BTW, you don't need to use CAT3 patch cords. You can just use regular modular "line cords" - they'll be cheaper!

Here's what you need!

Here is a link that might be useful: 5-way Phone Y Splitter Connector Adaptor Phone Line Cable Coupler

dennisgli, that is NOT what he needs. He has Cat3, are you suggesting he puts ends on all the cables to plug into that thing.

He has what he needs: a patch panel.

He has what he needs: a patch panel.

Yes, I already suggested how he should terminate the Cat3 cabling from the "outlets" to the patch panel.

He has Cat3, are you suggesting he puts ends on all the cables to plug into that thing.

No, that's not what I am suggesting.

OK, I am starting to understand. I have something like 12 runs coming in to the patch panel area. So I could punch those down, and then connect them over to the other twelve, which will be run together. I have a crimper, so I can use the extra cat 3 that is lying around. I will only have one or two phones, but I want to have all the lines be active in case somebody wanted to plug in a phone. Is this ok?

Two things I still don't get:
1. How precisely do I 'jumper' the blue/white wires for the last set of lines. (I really don't have much of an understanding about this networking stuff)
2. What is the actual way that the active phone line is going to connect to all of this. When I go to this phonegeeks sites: http://www.phonegeeks.com/cosalitoallp.html (also pasting below) I remain puzzled and that image does not help me.

Gratefully!
John

Here is a link that might be useful: connecting phone lines in patch panel

You mentioned cable modem - so is your telephone service derived off the modem?

What type of connector jack does the modem use - an RJ11?

What type connector jacks are on your patch panel?

Is your CAT3 cable 2 pair or 4 pair?

Do you have one or two incoming telephone lines - or may wish to get a second line down the road?

Without knowing the above, one suggestion would be to make one half of your patch panel all paralleled together by looping - similar to the first picture provided in your link.

You could then plug into one of these paralleled ports from your modem so they are all then a source of your telephone service.

You'd then patch the individual runs, on the other half, over to the telephone service side.

It sounds like you bought a commercial patch panel for your relatively simple home application. A 24 port patch panel is designed to allow you to connect 24 incoming lines to 24 phones, but I think you want to connect 12+ phone jacks to one set of incoming lines. To use a 24 port panel for your application you will have to make some jumpers to interconnect all the jacks.

Home Depot and Lowes sell a Leviton Cat three panel for 9 phone jacks and up to 4 phone lines. You just punch down the incoming network line to the first position, and then punch down the line for each phone to the one of the other positions. All the punch down jacks are electrically connected inside the panel. There is no need for jumpers between the lines because the punchdowns are already interconnected.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Bridged-Telephone-Expansion-Board-R01-47603-110/100013049#.UhM_X5Jq-So

Leviton also has a home security cat 3 patch panel that adds a jack for a home security system to be plugged in.
Bruce

This is an insanely belated thank you to you all for helping. But then again I waited an insanely long time to actually do this job. Almost drove my wife to despair. I eventually got around to it and just ran a connecting loop as was suggested. The patch panel only has punch downs for three lines, so I ran the blues, oranges and greens. I first punched down the wires from the incoming modem, and then on top of that punched down a connecting loop using the looping side of the punch down tool so as not to cut the wires. So that turns the patch panel into a distribution hub, allowing me to have as many telephone lines and outlets as I want. In fact I put in a crazy number throughout the house, but of course only a few will ever have phones plugged into them. It works great! Thanks again!

John