Our telephone line is giving us some trouble. It has a loud buzz, or hum, and our internet dial up connection performance has degraded.
I took a phone out to our 'network box', and plugged it in. No hum, or buzz. I reconnected the network box, and took a cordless phone back out with me. It seems that I can reduce the hum by touching wires that are connected to other phone numbers (at one time this house had FOUR phone numbers). I am not sure of this is a clue, or not.
The phone company wants $85 to come out and troubleshoot, that's TROUBLESHOOT, not repair. They have this long speal that they may not be able to make the repair, and it will still be $85 hour. I'd gladly pay the $85 an hour IF they would repair the problem.
So, any suggestions on what to look for, how to troubleshoot, or even a third party repair person would be helpful.
Disconnect all phones and modems except one and see if the problem can be eliminated that way by narrowing down to a bad phone or modem. If that doesn't work, do the same at another connection box in the house. Maybe you can narrow it down to a bad connection box. If that doesn't work I would try to replace the first wire coming into the house.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Billccm) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m14.aol.com:
Several pieces of information and/or conjecture for you:
It is likely that some, or all, of those telephone numbers are still connected, physically and electrically, to the telephone company network. Disconnects these days are generally done in software at the switch, allowing for emergency service, and simple re-connects.
The telephone company provides its own network power, DC, at -48V. Each of those lines MAY have power over it, depending on its physical connection status in the world.
If your telephone sounded clear when your network interface was bypassed, then the problem MAY be in your 'inside wiring'. 'Inside wiring' is a regulatory, legal term, denoting where you, the building occupant, are responsible for the problem. The 'demarcation point' is generally the network box, or interface.
The telephone company may have installed an active multiplexer (DAML in some company lingo) at some time. They don't last forever, and can cause problems with modem performance, new or old.
In many, if not all, of the United States, the rates for an inside wiring call are determined by regulation. Historically, this was to foster competition, and make certain the monopolist wasn't cross-subsidizing repair services, to drive others away. Not every plan works out the way it was supposed to.
So what to do:
If it were my home, I would disconnect all of the inside wire, not currently in use, at the network interface. In other words, if I had only one number active, I would see that there are no other lines powered.
I would have the telephone company check the lines physically, at the network interface. Many of these have become, over the decades, a rats' nest, with moves, adds, changes, and all sorts of stuff over the years. With competitive telephone providers, DSL and cable companies, things get changed, and not always for the better. If the problem is on their side of the interface, there should not be a charge to you.
And $85 for a visit isn't too bad. Most installers/repair persons really want the problems to go away. Wierd wiring in your building often causes problems elsewhere, too. The ones I know take great pride in their work.
I'd try disconnecting the un-used lines one at a time at the network box and see if the problem goes away. First make a diagram so you can put everything back if necessary.
Do you have a phone extension cord up tight against some 'noise' producing device by any chance? Any new phone equipment or wiring in the house? Have you moved anything that might have pinched a phone extension cord?
Back in my dial-up days I had a problem with our internet connection also. The cause turned out to be our water meter that was tied into the phone line to dial in meter readings. A new meter solved the problem. Seems it was a common problem and a well kept secret of our local water department. After that I ran a wire straight from the phone box to the puter with nothing else on the line and greatly improved the performance of our internet connection.
The hum is likely being picked up from an electrical source inside the house, near a phone line. Make sure the inside lines are not running too close to the electrical wiring. Try unplugging suspect appliances. I suppose you could even turn off the house fuses to see if it fixes the problem, if you don't mind resetting all your electronic clocks. Moving the appliance or phone line could save you $85.
-- "For it is only of the new one grows tired. Of the old one never tires."
The only comment that I have is that if you touch the wires and it goes away. Sounds like you might have a grounding problem. I know that my house has a phone wire that is connected to the water pipe in my crawl space. Just my two cents worth.
I have a similiar problem but with me I could not get on the internet even though it was on a different phone line. I unplugged all of the phones in the house and would keep the computer on and it would suddenly "pop" onto the internet after I unplugged one particular cordless phone. When I plugged the phone back in, that particular phone's main board was fried. I got rid of the phone and replaced it with a good (believe it or not) Radio Shack phone and never had a problem since. I went though 2 cheap phones before i figured out it was the phone and not the lines. Dave G
Well, to make a long story short, the telephone company (QWEST) repairman found a bad ground on a transfromer three miles away. It took him four hours to find the problem. No charge for the repair!
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