Fed up with fees wanted for in house check of telephone lines by telephone companies. Want to do it myself. What all will I need (instrument/equipment-wise) I figure that after a few years equip will pay for itself. I am in a rural setting a half mile off the the road. My correct e-mail address is gno52 (not gn52) Fake adddress given to avoid spams
Frank Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
What are you trying to test? A simple LED line tester will run you a few bucks.
If you're testing the incoming line, there is usually a test jack inside the junction box on the outside of your house. If you have a problem, the phone company should have you test from the test jack to determine whether the problem is inside or outside the house. You just plug in a regular phone. If it doesn't work from the test jack it's their problem, not yours.
NJBrad
Check out Jensen tools, they have even the stuff you never thought existed for phone line checking. I believe it's
First step is to unplug all the phones in your house and anything that is connected to the phone line (sat TV, TIVO, whatever)
I then just take a phone and plug it into the outside jack at the phone company connection (a test jack provided for the customer) and see if I get a dial tone. If yes, the main phone line from the test box to the house probably has an open wire. Squirrels in the attic have done this to me a couple times.
If no dial tone, I disconnect the wires going into the house and test again. If there IS a dial tone, that means the wires in the house were shorted together. (Or you left something connected that is shorted)
But if still no dial tone, with the house lead-in disconnected, it is happening on the telephone company side of the test box, and it will be repaired by them for free....
It ain't rocket surgery, but it does take a little bit of thinking.
If it turns out that the problem is in YOUR side of the test connection, finding a broken wire, or shorted wires, in the house is a pain. Pretty much trial and error. Good luck.
Andy in Fink, Texas
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