Phone problems

[Kurt Strandberg]

Our son has a new house, built last year, that the builder had the phone wired upstairs to the kitchen, we wired a phone jack (only the computer is plugged into it, not a phone) last fall to the lower level and it has worked perfect untill a couple days ago.

Now, as long as the lower level phone is wired into the outside box, there is no dial tone on the upstairs phone, if we disconnect the wires in the box outside for the lower level, the dial tone comes back upstairs.

Maybe we should try running a new wire downstairs.

The phone company came and they will check up to the house for free, they said it is probably a short inside the house.

[Bob Childress]

The phone company came and they will check up to the house for free, they said it is probably a short inside the house.

And they are probably correct. :(

[Randal Stevenson]

How many phone lines does he have?

What type of wire was used to run the phone line? (old style 4 wire or cat 3 or cat 5?)

One phone line uses one pair. If he has only one, try swapping them, to another pair. (and mark what you did for future reference).

[Mike Henderson]

Our son has a new house, built last year, that the builder had the phone wired upstairs to the kitchen, we wired a phone jack (only the computer is plugged into it, not a phone) last fall to the lower level and it has worked perfect untill a couple days ago.

Now, as long as the lower level phone is wired into the outside box, there is no dial tone on the upstairs phone, if we disconnect the wires in the box outside for the lower level, the dial tone comes back upstairs.

Maybe we should try running a new wire downstairs.

The phone company came and they will check up to the house for free, they said it is probably a short inside the house.
From your description, it sounds like you added the additional wiring some time ago and you have a computer plugged into the added line. At some point, the upstairs phone quit working if you leave the computer line connected at the NID (Network Interface Device - the place where the phone wire comes into the house and your wiring starts).

If it worked in the past, I'd suspect the modem failed and is hosing up the line. You might try disconnecting the computer completely (but not the wire from the NID) and see if the upstairs phone starts to work. Wire is fairly stable and doesn't easily short out. The voltage on the wire is not that high (-48VDC for operation and maybe 130VAC when ringing).

If that doesn't solve the problem, short out the two wires at the outlet. The go to the NID, disconnect the wires and use an Ohm meter to check continuity. Then disconnect the short at the outlet and see if you lose continuity, including continuity to any other wires in the bundle.

The suggestion made by the previous poster to change the pair being used is also a good thing to try. You almost certainly have cheap three or four pair wire for the phone - not Ethernet qualified wire (Cat3/4). Just try using a different pair.

Mike

[Randal Stevenson]

Forgot to ask about DSL? If he has that, could be a failed filter.

[Kurt Strandberg]

How many phone lines does he have?

What type of wire was used to run the phone line? (old style 4 wire or cat 3 or cat 5?)

One phone line uses one pair. If he has only one, try swapping them, to another pair. (and mark what you did for future reference).

it's the old 4-wire, no dsl where we live, I'll try the suggestions tomoorow night.

Thanks

[John Shuk]

First unplug the phone and wall cord of the phone on the offending line. It may be the equipment that has a short.
It could also be a DSL filter with a short.
It could be that jack as well. If it is a slightly damp location or if the pins inside are touching each other you will get a short.

[Ray Dockrey]

A failed modem can cause this. I think somebody mentioned that. I would unhook the modem line and see if that fixes things.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Kurt,

Wires are not active devices and are not prone to shorting out. They can and I've troubleshot a few but if they are not being physically moved it's rare!

As others have suggested, leave all wires connected and disconnect the modem from the telephone line! Odds are it's the cause of your problem.

Good luck!

Ken

[Jeff Kerr]

Kurt,

There are some great tips here. Hope they help. If I understand correctly it sounds like you have 2 separate runs from the outside box, one to the upstairs phone and the other to the computer.

Now to test the house wiring to the outside block you should be able to plug a phone into the block directly on the outside. (Open the cover, there should be a phone jack on the inside of the box where the wires from the phone company meet the wires from inside the house.

With all the wires hooked up, test the jack on the outside. This will tell you if the line is good at the termination point or if it is shorted open there.

If the computer modem does not check out to be faulty then you may want to go to radio shack and get a termination block for inside the house. That will allow you to terminate the 2 sets of wires that are inside the house onto a single wiring block and then run one set of wires to the outside box. (Not the same as what you did). This will put each set on its own mount points. That is what I did for my house and it works great.