Abstract:
A building entrance box providing an interface between a signal transmission media cable having a first plurality of filamentary signal transmission elements and a second plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements. In a first embodiment, moisture infiltration is reduced by providing potting material in a transition region between a splice chamber of the box and a connector chamber of the box. In another embodiment, a plastic protector panel is specifically shaped to reduce condensation and to reduce the effects of any condensation. Modular protector panels mounted in the box are automatically grounded when mounted to a conductive chassis plate and are so arranged that input and output wires are isolated from each other. Mounting of stacked boxes in a predetermined alignment is effected by a first embodiment of a bracket assembly having a variable overall length but a fixed horizontal alignment, and by a second embodiment of a bracket which is breakable by an installer to achieve a desired bracket length.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a building entrance protector box and, more particularly, to modular protector panels within the box which maintain isolation between input and output wires. 
     Where telephone wires enter a building, there is usually provided a building entrance protector box. The incoming wires, which are typically contained within one or more multi-wire cables, enter a splice chamber in the box, where they are connected to wires which go to a connector chamber holding a protector field, providing protection against lightning, high voltage and high current, and then connections are made to output wires which extend through the building to output jacks at various locations in the building. 
     When modular protector panels are utilized in such a box, care must be taken to isolate the input wires from the output wires to avoid shorting thereof. Further, when several such modules are installed in a box, the input wires of each of the boxes must be isolated from the output wires of all of the other boxes. Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved module which provides such isolation without requiring a separator housing around each set of input or output wires of every module. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to the present invention, each protector module has its input wires exiting the module from a location 180° removed from the location where the output wires exit the module. Accordingly, when the modules are installed in the box, they can be appropriately oriented so that all of the input wires can be bundled together between rows of modules and all of the output wires are on the opposite sides of the modules. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing will be more readily apparent upon reading the following description in conjunction with the drawings in which like elements in different figures thereof are identified by the same reference numeral and wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a building entrance box (without its cover) which may be used with the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the box of FIG. 1 with a first type of protector field installed therein; 
     FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along the line  3 — 3  in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 shows a pair of stacked building entrance boxes with a modular form of protector field installed therein; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the ground connector of the modular protector field of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 6 is a top plan view showing the protector panel of the protector field shown in FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view taken along the line  7 — 7  in FIG. 6 showing the protector panel with the addition of ground conductors; 
     FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the grounding arrangement for the modular protector field of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 9 illustrates a frame for the mounting of the box of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of a first embodiment of a bracket used for mounting the box of FIG. 1 to the frame of FIG. 9; 
     FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing the assembled bracket of FIG. 10; 
     FIG. 12 illustrates the mounting of the box shown in FIG. 1 to the frame shown in FIG. 9 using a pair of the brackets shown in FIGS. 10 and 11; 
     FIG. 13 is a plan view of a second embodiment of a bracket for mounting the box of FIG. 1 to the frame of FIG. 9; 
     FIG. 14 is a side view of the bracket of FIG. 13; 
     FIG. 15 is a cross sectional view taken along the line  15 — 15  in FIG. 14; 
     FIG. 16 is a cross sectional view taken along the line  16 — 16  in FIG. 15; and 
     FIG. 17 is a partial plan view showing the bracket of FIGS. 13-16 during a stage of its manufacture. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a building entrance box, designated generally by the reference numeral  20 , which finds utility with the present invention. It is conventional to install such a box  20  at the entrance of a building to provide an interface between a signal transmission media cable entering the building and having a first plurality of filamentary signal transmission elements, and a second plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements which are routed through the building. The box  20  has a substantially planar base wall  38  adapted for mounting to a support and a plurality of substantially planar surrounding walls  50 ,  52 ,  54 ,  56  each substantially perpendicular to the base wall  38  so as to define an open enclosure. The open enclosure is divided into a splice chamber  22  and a connector chamber  24 . The splice chamber  22  receives the cable and the connector chamber  24  receives the second plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements. A connector field is disposed in the connector chamber  24  to which the second plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements is terminated. A third plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements extends from the splice chamber  22  to the connector chamber  24 , with each of the third plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements being terminated at one end to the connector field and at the other end to a respective cable element within the splice chamber  22 . When the signal transmission media cable is made up of telephone wires, the connector field within the connector chamber  24  includes a protector field having protector blocks for providing lightning, high voltage and high current protection. The third plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements will in that case each be terminated at the one end to one end of a respective protector block. Dedicated wires extend from the second ends of the protector blocks to respective connectors at which the second plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements are terminated. 
     As shown in FIG. 2, a signal transmission media cable  26  enters the splice chamber  22 . The third plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements, or wires,  28  extends from the splice chamber  22  to the connector chamber  24 . The wires  28  are terminated at a first end to a bank of connectors  30  to which are spliced the first plurality of individual filamentary signal transmission elements, or wires,  32  making up the cable  26 . 
     A cover plate  34  is secured to the standoffs  36  (FIG. 1) so as to be parallel to the base wall  38  of the box  20  and be disposed over the connector chamber  24 . The cover plate  34  has secured thereto a protector field  40  with protector blocks  42 , and an output wire connector field  44 . The wires  28  are connected to one side of the protector blocks  42  by means of the downwardly depending wire wrap tails  46 . Wires (not shown) are connected to the other side of the protector blocks and are then routed below the cover plate  34  to the output wire connector field  44 , which includes an array of generally planar insulation displacing connector terminals  48 . The second plurality of filamentary signal transmission elements, or wires, (not shown in FIG. 2) which are routed through the building are terminated at the terminals  48 . 
     The base wall  38  is formed with a recess open to the open enclosure defined by the base wall and the surrounding walls  50 ,  52 ,  54 ,  56 . As best shown in FIG. 1, the recess marks the dividing line between the splice chamber  22  and the connector chamber  24  and preferably includes an elongated groove  58  extending between the walls  50  and  54 , and a pair of recesses  60 ,  62  open to both the groove  58  and the open enclosure and aligned one with the other across the groove  58 . The groove  58  and the recesses  60 ,  62  all extend to the same depth within the base wall  38 . 
     As best shown in FIG. 3, a separator plate  64  is secured, as by welding or the like, transversely to the cover plate  34 . The separator plate  64  extends downwardly from the cover plate  34  toward the base wall  38  to isolate the splice chamber  22  from the connector chamber  24 . The separator plate  64  has its lower portion, preferably along its entire length which extends between the walls  50 ,  54 , extending into the groove  58  to a depth less than the depth of the groove  58 , with the recesses  60 ,  62  being on opposite sides of the separator plate  64 . The wires  28  are routed into the recess  60 , across the groove  58  under the separator plate  64 , and into the recess  62 , as shown in FIG.  3 . 
     When a box of the type shown in FIGS. 1-3 is used in an outdoor application, moisture can enter the box through the opening provided for the cable  26 . This moisture can pass under the separator plate  64  where the wires  28  pass through from the splice chamber  22  to the connector chamber  24  and can condense on the underside of the protector field  40  and the connector field  44 . The problem results because the bottom of the protector field  40  and the connector field  44  are flat. If moisture condenses on a flat surface, it can short out the downwardly extending wire wrap tails  46 . In the past, to prevent such problems, the underside of the protector field  40  and the connector field  44  have been potted. This is a time consuming and costly procedure, requiring a large amount of potting material. To overcome these disadvantages, potting material  66  is placed in the groove  58  and the recesses  60 ,  62  to a level higher than the bottom of the separator plate  64 . This minimizes the required amount of potting material while effectively minimizing the amount of moisture that can pass into the connector chamber  24 . Preferably, the potting material comprises a polyurethane mix. Illustratively, the potting material consists of three parts, all made by BIWAX Corp. The three parts are a resin, a catalyst and an accelerator. Preferably, the resin is BIWAX 622R material; the catalyst is CPD Poly 662C material; and the accelerator is BIWAX 622A material. 
     As further protection, silicone caulking (or some other suitable material) can be added where the cover plate  34  abuts the walls  50 ,  52 ,  54 . 
     FIGS. 4-8 illustrate a building entrance box  20  using modular protector fields. Each module provides protection for twenty five pairs of wires. Modules are added as needed until the box is full. Partly filled boxes are used to reserve enough space for modules to be added later. Accordingly, the modules must be easily added, grounded and wired. As shown, this version of building entrance box includes a substantially planar conductive chassis plate  68  mounted within the open enclosure of the box  20  spaced from and parallel to the base wall  38 . The chassis plate  68  is disposed within the connector chamber  24  and has an edge  70  adjacent to the splice chamber  22  and overlying the groove  58  of the base wall  38 . When a plurality of boxes  20  are stacked, as shown in FIG. 4, a daisy chain of grounding wires must be provided between the boxes. In the past, this has been accomplished using bare number six gauge solid wire segments. The grounding connectors  72  for prior boxes were typically placed above and below the protector field  40 , as shown in FIG.  2 . To daisy chain the ground between stacked boxes required that the boxes be precisely aligned so that the stiff number six gauge solid wire could easily be routed from one box to the next. In addition, each box was typically provided with its own flexible ground conductor which is used to provide a ground connection to the input cable entering the box. With stacked boxes, only the flexible ground conductor of one box is used to ground the input cable passing through all the boxes and the flexible ground conductors of the other boxes are left unused. The arrangement of grounding connectors  74  shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 eliminates the aforedescribed problem encountered with the solid number six gauge solid wire and efficiently utilizes the available flexible ground conductors. 
     As shown in FIG. 5, the chassis plate  68  is bent downwardly along its edge  70  to form a corner. The chassis plate  68  is further formed with an array of openings  76  adjacent the edge  70  and along a line parallel to the edge  70 . The grounding connector  74  is installed in the aforedescribed corner by means of headed screws  78  installed through respective openings  76  and into suitably threaded bores in the grounding connector  74 , which is a solid rectilinear block of conductive material. Preferably, the screws  78  are located at opposite ends of the grounding connector  74  and between the screws  78  are bores holding set screws  80  accessible through respective openings  76 . In addition, the grounding connector  74  is formed with bores  82  extending at right angles into the set screw bores, the bores  82  being accessible through openings  84  in the downwardly bent portion of the chassis plate  68 . The downwardly bent portion of the chassis plate  68  extends into the groove  58  of the base wall  38  and the grounding connector block  74  fits in the recess  62  of the base wall  38 . It is noted that when using the chassis plate  68  with modular protector fields, the aforedescribed potting in the groove  58  and recesses  60 ,  62  is not utilized. 
     Each box  20  is supplied with a flexible ground conductor  86  secured at one end to the upper one of the headed screws  78 , when viewed as in FIG.  4 . When the cable  26  is installed in the box  20 , the other end of the flexible ground conductor  86  is secured to a conductive grounding clip  88  on the cable  26 , as shown in the upper box in FIG.  4 . When a plurality of boxes  20  are stacked, as shown in FIG. 4, the connection to the ground clip  88  is sufficient to provide a ground connection for the entire cable  26  going to all of the boxes  20 . Therefore, it is unnecessary to connect the flexible ground conductor  86  of the lower box  20  to the cable  26 . Instead, the lower flexible ground conductor  86  is routed into the splice chamber  22  of the lower box  20 , into the splice chamber  22  of the upper box  20 , and is connected to the grounding connector  74  of the upper box  20  by the lower headed screw  78 . A local ground wire  90 , which may be a number six gauge solid wire, is then connected to the grounding connector  74  of the lower box  20  by one of the set screws  80 , as shown in FIG. 5, and may then be routed to a suitable local ground within the building. 
     Illustratively, each modular protector field  91  provides protection for twenty five pairs of modules and up to four modules can be installed in a single box  20 . It is required that the modules  91  be easily added, grounded and wired, with the input and output wires from all of the modules being separated so that they cannot short, and with the modules resisting shorting due to condensation without requiring potting. To satisfy these requirements, each protector module  91  includes an insulative protector panel  92 , as best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The protector panel is a generally rectilinear block with a pair of opposed parallel major surfaces  94 ,  96  and four minor surfaces  98 ,  100 ,  102 ,  104  orthogonal to the major surfaces  94 ,  96 . Formed in the panel  92  are sockets  106  which extend between the surfaces  94 ,  96  and orthogonally thereto. The sockets  106  are arrayed in groups, illustratively with five sockets to a group, where each group of sockets corresponds to the terminal arrangement of a protector block  42 . The groups of sockets  106  are preferably arranged in a five-by-five array so that each protector panel  92  can accommodate twenty five protector blocks for twenty five telephone line pairs. Each of the sockets  106  holds a respective connector terminal  108  adapted to receive a mating terminal of a protector block. Of the five terminals in each group, four are provided with wire wrap tails  110  extending to the underside of the panel  92 . These four connector terminals are the two input and two output connector terminals for each protector block. The fifth connector terminal  112  in each group is between the pair of input connector terminals and the pair of output connector terminals and functions as a ground connector terminal. Instead of a wire wrap tail, the end of the ground connector terminal  112  extending underneath the panel  92  is formed with a U-shaped clip  114 , the function of which will be described hereinafter. 
     Grounding and mounting of each protector module  91  is accomplished by providing a conductive ground bar  116 , five conductive ground rods  118 , and a conductive mounting bracket  120 . As best shown in FIG. 8, the ground bar  116  is a generally C-shaped piece of conductive sheet material which is bent so that its legs  122  overlie end portions  124  (FIG. 6) of the protector panel  92  and its connecting portion  126  is adjacent the minor surface  98  of the protector panel  92 . Along the bottom edge of the connecting portion  126  are five U-shaped clips  128  which are each aligned with a row of the clips  114  of the ground connector terminals  112 . For assembly, the ground bar  116  is placed adjacent the protector panel  92  with the legs  122  overlying the end portions  124  and the connecting portion  126  adjacent the minor surface  98 . Screws (not shown) are then inserted through the openings  130  in the connecting portion  126  and into the protector panel  92  through its minor surface  98  to securely hold the ground bar  116  to the panel  92 . With such mounting, the openings  132  in the legs  122  are aligned with the openings  134  in the end portions  124  of the panel  92 . Each conductive ground rod  118  is then passed through an aligned row of clips  114  of ground connector terminals  112  and a clip  128  of the connecting portion  126 . The clips  114 ,  128  are then deformed, as by pliers or the like, to be securely in contact with a respective rod  118  and are then soldered to the respective rod  118 . Accordingly, all of the ground connector terminals  112  are in secure electrical contact with the ground bar  116 . 
     The mounting bracket  120  is then placed over the aforedescribed assembly. The mounting bracket  120 , is formed from conductive sheet material and is bent into a rectilinear shape to overlie the protector panel  92 . The bracket  120  is formed with an opening  136  exposing all of the sockets  106  of the panel  92 . As best shown in FIG. 8, the side wall  138  of the bracket  120  is formed with an opening  140  at one end and below the level of the panel  92  (when the panel  92  is installed, as will be described). Although not shown in FIG. 8, the opposing side wall of the bracket  120  is also formed with an opening corresponding to the opening  140  and diagonally across the bracket  120  from the opening  140 . These openings allow bundles of wire to enter and exit the module  91  for connection to the wire wrap tails  110  below the panel  92 . The pair of openings  140  are so situated on the opposing side walls that when the module  91  is rotated 180° about an axis orthogonal to the major surfaces  94 ,  96  of the panel  92 , each of the openings  140  occupies the position previously occupied by the other of the openings  140 . 
     The bracket  120  is provided with threaded studs  142  extending downwardly from the upper side of the bracket  120  and aligned with the openings  132  of the ground bar  116  and the openings  134  of the panel  92  end portions  124 . Accordingly, when the assembled panel is installed into the bracket  120 , the studs  142  extend beyond the bottom of the panel  92  and may have nuts (not shown) installed thereon to securely mount the assembled panel  92  to the bracket  120  and provide good electrical contact between the ground bar  116  and the bracket  120 . The side wall  138 , as well as the opposing side wall, is bent to form an outwardly extending mounting flange  144  on each side of the bracket  120 . The mounting flange  144  is formed with a mounting hole for receiving an upwardly extending mounting stud secured to the chassis plate  68 . A nut  148  threaded onto this stud  146  completes the mounting of the module  91  to the chassis plate  68  with secure electrical contact between the mounting bracket  120  and the chassis plate  68 , thereby automatically grounding the ground connector terminals  112  of the panel  92 . 
     All of the wires which are connected to the wire wrap tails  110  corresponding to the inputs of the protector blocks  42  are bundled together into a first cable which extends out through one of the openings  140 , and all of the wires which are connected to the wire wrap tails  110  corresponding to the outputs of the protector blocks  42  are bundled together into a second cable which extends out through the other of the openings  140 . Accordingly, the input wires are isolated from the output wires for each module  91 . As shown in FIG. 4, the modules  91  are oriented on the chassis plate  68  so that when they are mounted in the upper of the two rows, the input cables  150  extend out the lower of the openings  140  and the output cables  152  extend out the upper of the openings  140 . Conversely, when a protector module  91  is mounted in the lower row, its input cable  150  extends out the upper of the openings  140  and its output cable  152  extends out the lower of the openings  140 . Thus, the input cables  150  of the protector modules  91  are routed from connectors  151  in the splice chamber  22  above the chassis plate  68  and between the two rows of protector modules  91 . At the same time, each output cable  152  is routed between its module  91  and the closer one of the walls  50 ,  54  to a connector (not shown) in another layer (not shown) of the box  20 . Thus, the input cables  150  and the output cables  152  of all of the modules  91  are isolated from each other. To provide additional isolation, the box  20  is formed with a pair of divider walls  154  which extend into the open enclosure each from one of the walls  50 ,  54 . The divider walls  154  are along the plane separating the splice chamber  22  from the connector chamber  24 . These divider walls  154  extends sufficiently into the open enclosure that their distal ends each butts up against a respective module  91 , as best shown in FIG. 4, thereby closing off the space between that module and the respective wall  50 ,  54  from the splice chamber  22  to further insure isolation between the output cables  152  and the input cables  150 . 
     Since it is disadvantageous to use potting on the protector modules  91  to prevent moisture condensation from shorting the terminals, some other way must be found to provide such protection. Moisture condenses on the plastic of the protector panel because, during temperature cycling, the temperature of the plastic lags behind the ambient temperature, allowing condensation of humidity in the ambient. To prevent such condensation, or at least to prevent the bridging of terminals by any such condensation, the bulk body of the panel  92  is minimized to thin out the plastic geometry of the panel  92 . A thin geometry has a lowered temperature differential with the ambient temperature. This lowers the amount of condensation. Further, the panel block  92  is recessed from both of its major surfaces  94 ,  96  around each of the sockets  106  to increase the electrical path between each socket and all other sockets on the panel  92 . Thus, in effect, the panel  92  can be considered to be a central planar plate having pairs of coextensive cylinders extending in opposite directions away from the plate, with each of the sockets  106  extending within a respective pair of opposed cylinders and through the central plate. 
     FIG. 9 illustrates a typical frame for mounting and stacking building entrance boxes. The frame includes a horizontal top member  156  and a horizontal bottom member  158  which are parallel to and spaced from each other. Joining the top and bottom members  156 ,  158  are left and right vertical mounting beams  160 ,  162 , each having an array of internally threaded mounting holes  164 . When a plurality of boxes  20  are stacked, they must be vertically aligned in order to pass input cables through aligned splice chambers and align the output wires through aligned wiring guides. However, at any given installation, the horizontal spacing between the vertical mounting beams  160 ,  162  can vary. FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate a first embodiment of a bracket assembly  165  which allows a box  20  to be installed to the frame of FIG. 9 in predetermined alignment to the mounting beam  162 , to accommodate variability in spacing between the beams  160 ,  162 . Thus, the bracket assembly  165  includes a first bracket member  166  and a second bracket member  168 . The first bracket member  166  has a C-shaped cross section when viewed orthogonal to its longitudinal axis and is preferably closed at a first end  170 . The second bracket member  168  is also generally C-shaped in cross section with both ends closed and is sized to fit for sliding longitudinal motion within the interior of the first bracket member  166 , as best seen in FIG.  11 . 
     The second bracket member  168  is formed with a pair of open longitudinal slots  172  and the first bracket member  166  is formed with a pair of threaded posts  174  which are received each within a respective one of the slots  172 . Nuts  176  and washers  178  engage the posts  174  to secure the bracket member  168  to the bracket member  166  with the overall length of the bracket assembly  165  being selectively variable. The bracket member  166  has a pair of elongated slots  180 ,  182  at its opposite ends, the slots  180 ,  182  being elongated in a direction orthogonal to the length of the bracket member  166 . Similarly, the bracket member  168  has a pair of elongated slots  184 ,  186  (FIG. 12) at its opposite ends, also elongated in a direction orthogonal to the length of the bracket member  168 . As best seen in FIG. 12, the bracket assembly  165  is mounted to the frame by a first screw  188  which extends through the slot  180  and into a threaded mounting hole  164  of the mounting beam  162  and a second screw  190  which extends through the slot  186  of the bracket member  168  and into a threaded mounting hole  164  of the mounting beam  160 . This arrangement provides a predetermined alignment between the bracket member  166  and the mounting beam  162  and another predetermined alignment between the bracket member  168  and the mounting beam  160 , while allowing variation of the alignment between the bracket members  166 ,  168 . 
     The bracket member  166  is formed on its exterior, which is away from the mounting frame, with a threaded post  192  and with threaded openings  194 . The spacing between the post  192  and the openings  194  corresponds to the spacing between mounting holes  196 ,  198  in the base wall  38  of the box  20 . Thus, the post  192  extends through the mounting hole  196  and has a nut  200  and washer  202  installed thereon, and a screw  204  extends through the mounting hole  198  into an appropriate one of the threaded openings  194 . It is noted that there are a pair of vertically displaced threaded openings  194  in each of the bracket members  166 . The upper one of these threaded openings  194  is for use with the upper mounting hole  198  of the box  20  and the lower one is for use with the lower mounting hole  198  of the box  20 , as best seen in FIG.  12 . The slots  180 ,  186  allow for vertical adjustment of the bracket assembly  165  to insure that it is aligned with the mounting holes  196 ,  198  of the box  20 . Since the post  192  and the openings  194  are fixed on the bracket member  166 , the box  20  is always precisely aligned with the bracket member  166 , which is precisely aligned with the mounting beam  162 . Accordingly, when a plurality of boxes  20  are mounted to the frame by the aforedescribed bracket assembly, they are always precisely vertically aligned. Another function of the vertical slots  180 ,  186  is to eliminate a gap between stacked boxes  20 . 
     FIGS. 13-17 illustrate another embodiment of a bracket  206  for mounting a box  20  to the frame shown in FIG.  9 . The bracket  206  is similar to the bracket member  168 , having a slot  180  at its closed end. However, there are several slots  186  at its open end, each corresponding to a different fixed spacing between mounting beams  160 ,  162 . The bracket  206  is formed with weakened portions  208  outboard of the slots  186 . Preferably, each of the weakened portions  208  consists of a V-shaped groove  210  formed in the material of the bracket  206 , which is preferably metal sheet stock, along with apertures  212  formed in each corner of the C-shaped cross section of the bracket  206 . As shown in FIG. 17, the weakened portion  208  is preferably formed before the bracket  206  is bent into its C-shape by forming the V-shaped groove  210  across the width of the bracket  206  while still flat and punching the apertures  212  at the intersections of the groove  210  and the subsequent bend lines  214 . After a technician has determined the proper length of the bracket  206 , the bracket  206  is cut with a cutter along the groove  210  at both ends up to the apertures  212 . The bracket  206  is then bent back and forth until it snaps along the groove  210  between the apertures  212 . Accordingly, the bracket  206  can be separated along a weakened portion  208  without requiring sawing of the bracket. Thus, excess length of the bracket, which would otherwise stick out beyond the mounting beam  160  and be potentially injurious, can be removed. 
     Accordingly, there has been disclosed an improved building entrance box and mounting structure therefor. While an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed herein, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations to the disclosed embodiment may be made and it is intended that this invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.