Help w/ Phone Wiring

[rew]

I have had no problems with my phone service until now. Some numbskull went digging and cut through a 600 pair cable somewhere in the neighborhood. Now the phone company has repaired the line (as evidenced by my working DSL connection) but for some reason I cannot get dial tone from any phone on my primary line. Line 2 was never affected by this outage, the line is repaired, the phone company tells me it tests fine, and there is dial tone at the interface, but now my previously-fine wires appear to have some problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can receive incoming calls just fine, but no dial tone. TIA

[MF]

Can you give a little further definition? For instance, you are talking about line 1 and line 2. Are these two distinct phone lines and numbers, or are you talking the first and second phone in your house? What line is the DSL on, or did they separate it at the Demark for you? Sounds to me like the your second line may come from a different switch, and it always worked, but line 1 that was cut was not repaired correctly. Probably still a phone company issue.

I have a couple of other thoughts, but want to hear a little more detail first.

Thanks,

Maury Wylie, TX

[Joseph Meehan]

Phone works, cable cut, phone does not work, telephone company says the fixed line, phones still don't work = phone company did not fix line. They got the other 599; an error rate of 0.166667% Not too bad.

[Igor]

With respect and sympathies for the OP, I love problems like this. I agree with assessment that it is probably a telco issue. To the telco, it seems improbable that the customer is not at fault here with his/her inside wiring -- and I suppose it is improbable. But in my own experience with telcos, I have seen such problems as a loose connection on one pair of wires at the (local) central office making it impossible to call 800 numbers operated only by MCI. Of course, the telco said to call MCI to report the problem, which was impossible (which everyone I spoke with there seemed to have some mental block about) -- in fact, the "system" still has no solution for this reporting issue and my story goes back 15 years. Anyway, I just had to keep pounding on the telco until they said they would test the local switch and then they found the problem.

My guess for the OP is that there is a partial connection/nicked wire and there is a voltage issue -- an incoming call works but an outgoing one, because of wire resistance, does not let the CO that a phone is off-line and needs a dialtone.

Then again, it could be a coincidence that the inside wiring just happened to break down now. Anyway, at least I would like to know how this is solved. -- Igor

[rew]

Line one and two are different numbers coming in on different pairs from the same switch. DSL comes in on line one and is functioning properly. Line one will receive inbound calls, but gets no dial tone and cannot place calls. Line two has worked inbound and outbound throughout the outage. The telco is dispatching a tech tomorrow as the symptoms inside are duplicated at the network interface.

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

If you can receive calls, the cable and your home's wiring is fine. Call the phone company again, this is their problem.

Have you tried dialing out, even when you can't hear a dial tone? The dial tone does nothing other than to reassure us humans that the phone is connected. There may be a problem with the dial tone source on your line.

I'm assuming that you can blow into the phone and hear yourself, indicating that the telco is powering the line. If you can receive calls and talk, you MUST have this power.

Barry

[rew]

Problem was with DSLAM and has been resolved. Thanks for the help.

[barry martin]

REW:

R > I have had no problems with my phone service until now. Some numbskull wen

R > digging and cut through a 600 pair cable somewhere in the neighborhood. No

R > the phone company has repaired the line (as evidenced by my working DSL R > connection) but for some reason I cannot get dial tone from any phone on my R > primary line. Line 2 was never affected by this outage, the line is R > repaired, the phone company tells me it tests fine, and there is dial tone R > at the interface, but now my previously-fine wires appear to have some R > problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can receive incoming calls R > just fine, but no dial tone. TIA

I wonder if when the numbskull cut though the cable if managed to damage one of your telephones/devices? Or if when they repaired the line reversed polarity (or fixed a reverse polarity problem) and an old telephone/device is now not working? Either way since the phone company says they get a dialtone I would disconnect your phone distribution system at the Demarc. Depending on how old the install is may be as simple as unplugging an RJ11 connector at the jack in the basement (or wherever the entrance point is). Wait about a minute, plus back in; test (listen for a dialtone). Sometimes 'resetting' works.

If still no dialtone, unplug at the demarc again, plug in a known working phone - preferably a single-line phone. If you hear the dialtone then you know the phone company was right and the problem is somewhere in the house. The 'fun' starts by locating the problem. Disconnect all phones and telephone devices from Line1 and add back one by one.

BTW, if you have a telephone line tester (the device with one or two LEDs to determine line status) plugging it in will let you know if the wiring is correct but will also load the line enough so you do not have a dialtone. I also found out the 2-line tester I have will give a false-positive reading. (Line1 worked, Line2 did not. Tester said both lines were wired correctly -- both LEDs were green. Found a broken wire in the run; fixed and both lines worked.)

- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

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