I suddenly have heavy noise/static on every phone in the house. Any calls to the house result in busy signals. We can't make outside calls. I also have DSL which is still working.
When I plugged a phone into the jack on the network box on the outside, it worked so it's not the phone company. There is a black cable that runs from the network box into my basement. There is also a phone line that runs from the box into my basement.
The phone line cable was used years ago for a 2nd line. That service was turned off years ago. The black cable runs to a black plate of sorts that has 4 screws. The red/green wires are attached to it and a line runs from it to something that looks like a mini network box.
All the phonelines in my house attach to this 'mini network box'. It has a phone plug plus 4 screws. I attached a phone to this plug and it also works from there.
My 1st idea is to detatch the phone cable used for the 2nd line from the outside network box since we don't use a 2nd line anymore. One of our phones has also been acting up so I plan on unplugging that phone from the wall jack and see if the problem clears up.
If none of that works then I think I should remove the 5 phone cables that attach to the 'mini network box' in the basement and reattach & test them one by one. I think that sound slike a reasonable plan? Anything else that I should look for?
QUES: The 5 phone cables attached to the basement box are all over each other (i.e all the red wires are crammed into one screw, all the green wires are crammed into another screw, none of any yellow/black wires are attached to screws) If the wires (of any one color) are touching each other can that cause problems?
Is there anything to replace the 'mini network box' in the basement that would let me attach each phone wires to a seperate pair of screws for each cable? If so can that be used elsewhere in the house so if I want to go into the attic and add phone jacksto two rooms then I'd only have to run 1 wire down to the basement (i.e kinda like electrical wires tied into a box)?
thanks