No Dial Tone

satchmo

We just activated our phone service, but there is a dial tone only in two of the four phone jacks. Most importantly, the phone jack in the office where we need our DSL service does not have a dial tone.

How do I go about troubleshooting and fixing this problem? If I could do it myself, I would rather take care of it instead of calling a phone repair person (who can charge up to $90 per hour).

Thanks in advance.

space_coyote

I'd start tracing the non-working lines back -- I know that in the various iterations of "phone-goes-here" in our house, things have been disconnected and left to appear as working.

rjniles

I would start at the Network Interface NI (a box usually located on the side of the house, usually marked with NI ot telephone spmething). Open the customer access side and look for disconnected wiring. Hook up the same as the other wiring. If this doesn't work open all the other telephone jacks/outlets in the house and again look for disconnected wiring.

satchmo

Thanks.

I'll start by looking at the NI on the side of the condo.

How do I do that?

space_coyote

I guess it's easy in my one story house with an open basement... If it were my house, I would do my best to physically follow the lines from where they go into the wall and probably into the basement from there. My guess is that you'd probably find a splitter with a line either unplugged, or disconnected.

It helps if you get a partner to help you locate wires between floors (tap tap tap) here? NO! (tap tap tap) HERE!

Just saw the "condo" part--- my advice might be crap!

satchmo

Thanks, space_coyote.

My wife had already tried to trace the line physically, but it goes into the wall.

jwhite

Take a phone out to the ni and unplug the test port. Plug your phone into the test port and see which incomming line was activated.

Next make sure that all of the lines from the house are connected to the live incomming line.

this can all be done on the customer side of the ni. stay out of the utlity side, it is illegal to be in there.

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satchmo

Okay, I've got pictures now.
This is the network interface on the side of the property:

This is a picture of the working jack (i.e. with dial tone):

This is a picture of the jack that I hooked up, but still without a dial tone. They look the same to me.

rjniles

If this is a single family house, plug a phone into the test jacks on the NI and find out which one has the dial tone. Move all of the house wiring (usually red and green wires) to the connections for the jack that has the dial tone. If this is a multiple unit house or apartment ignore this. It looks like you have wires on the C & A labeled jack, I cannot tell about the D jack

satchmo

The property is a bit complicated.

It's officially a single-home residence, but it's actually two condo units.

Due to city zoning laws, both units had to be sold to the same owner. However, the previous owner was renting one of the units out illegally. The previous owner has been dead for two years.

So we purchased unit A and unit C, which had two separate phone lines. Now, we just want one phone line.

But the problem I am having is that we cannot even get all the phone jacks within a single unit (unit A) to work. That's all we want.

Specifically, we need to get the jack working in the office because we need to have the DSL line installed there.

A remote cordless option is not feasible for the home office.

Complicated huh?

hbsparky

hmmmmmm that could get complicated...I am in OC...

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jwhite

So, which of those test ports have dial tone on them, and which of the termials have wires under the screws?

BTW: you only need the red and green wires. yellow and black is for if you have two lines to the same phone.

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rjniles

Find out which jack has dial tone A or C, and move the red/green wires from the dead jack to the live jack.

Jasondt2001

I bought one of those 'telltale' telephone jack checkers at a local lowes, and it will tell you if it's backwards, getting a signal and a bunch of other stuff. it's really worth your weight in gold.

And this may help you also: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/phone_wiring.html

satchmo

Thanks everyone.

My wife went to the hardware store and got a new jack plate, and now it works.

I guess the metal contact was too old.