Quote Originally Posted by Dave Lehnert View Post
Been having trouble with my land line off and on.
DSL works as it should. I can still make calls and receive calls but at times there is a loud humming sound to the point you can just barely hear the other person.

Am I correct if I disconnect the little gray phone line in the box (photo below) and plug in a telephone. If I still hear the humming the problem is not in the house ?


Phone box 2.jpg
Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
Dave, it has been about 50 years since my employment as a telephone installer/repair person.

Often a hum is caused by a path to ground on one side of the line. In this case it would likely be on what is known as the tip side of the line.

If it was on the ring side of the line you phone would likely not ring.

FYI, the tip side of the line is supposed to be the green wire and the red wire is supposed to be the ring side. Of course now days not all the inside the house wire is the old jacketed wire used by phone companies many years ago. If you have the multi pair wire you may have blue/white pair.

The junction box in your picture is one that likely came into use after my leaving work as a telephone employee.

If you have had lightning strikes in your area the protecter may have arced over and created a connection to ground.

Other likely culprits are dogs, cats or other animals chewing on your wiring inside or under your house.

On the old style protectors there were only two large screws that held carbon rods close to a grounded plate. Unscrewing one of these could make the buzzing sound go away. They would need replacement if that were the case.

It is also possible if a new service in your area (anywhere on the same cable as you) was installed or line work was done some sloppy work could have caused a problem for your line.

Of course there are many other things that could be causing your on line noise.

jtk
The most common local cause for the symptom described is the squirrels eating into the cable coming to the house. We have had this repaired a half a dozen times over the last 40 years.