Someone called me on my cell and told me that they called my home phone, and it just rang and rang.
But I was right here...it never rang, and the machine didn't pick up.
Weird thing is, I can call out. And I can call the home phone from my cell, and I can answer the home phone and connect even though it isn't ringing.
I have a Panasonic DECT phone with 3 handsets. I unplugged this, and still, the wired phones in the garage and laundry room don't ring!
Any ideas?!?
disconnect all of the phones. try them one at a time, see if you can narrow the issue down to one phone. If NONE of them work, try plugging directly into the NID. If that works, you have an issue with the wiring inside the house. If that still doesn't work, call the phone co.
Or just do what I did, go all cellular. Since Verizon seemed unable to provide me with a line that worked reliably, I seemed unable to continue to pay for their service.
nate
If you haven't turned the ringers off on all your phones, call the repair people at your phone service provider...
Uh oh. Deja vu.
Try this:
Call your home from your cell. While it's 'ringing', pick up the home phone. Does your cell keep ringing, or do you 'answer'?
Had this at my parents. Called my cell phone from the landline - and the Caller ID that showed WASN'T the right number.
So I called back the number from my cell. The home phone rang a few times - and then someone picked up. After probably the weirdest "Ummmm Hello, this is going to sound strange..." it turns out it was a neighbor 3 houses away. Yep, Pac... err AT&Whoever came out earlier that day, and party lined my parents house and a neighbors house. That line was going to 2 different houses.
My home phone doesn't ring either. Since I have a cell phone like yourself I stopped the home service. That's my idea.
I've always heard that a bad ground at the service entrance would cause that. Personally never seen it, but everyone who ever reported that problem also reported that as the solution.
If they are indeed standard telephone industry wired phones they should ring. However if they are the sort of phones that need electricity to operate that may be the problem? Also there are wiring options within some, especially old-fashioned and reconditioned Bell system type phones that allow the 'ringer' inside to be connected or not. Did your phones previously ring OK. Have you added or made any other changes such as adding say a FAX machine or voice answering unit or attaching your phone line to a home computer? Or has the phone line been hooked up to say, satellite TV receiver in order to automatically dial and order movies etc. However another possible problem, on very long telephone lines, especially using el-cheapo 3rd world phones such as those often bought for $10 to $20 at 'Around a buck' stores etc. is too many phone low grade ringers on the one line! A particularly aggravating case was a fireman not receiving urgent phone calls after his two sons hooked cheap phones they received 'free' (made in Mexico or somewhere!) free magazine subscriptions. Not saying that's what is happening but just a few suggestions. Please post some more analysis. If you can make outgoing calls without any crackling or noise it is unlikely, but not impossible, that the pair of wires to your house from the telephone building or wire centre, is faulty. The phone company can often do a test without dispatching a repair person to determine if the trouble is 'inside' or 'outside' your premises. Also in these days of competition between telephone providers if the problem turns out to be wiring or other factors within your house, e.g. damp wall outlet phone jacks, condensation in the garage, in this current humid weather etc. or defective or unsuitable phones there may be $ charges.
Going cellular could be what I'd do, if there was decent cellular signal here. It's usually weak (with frequent dropouts during calls). I'm in town, but not that close to a business area.
Strangely, I can go out to the country, walk into the woods, and get a good (4-5 bars) signal there.
Nope. It answers. And it oesn't even say "incoming call." I plugged a know good phone into the test jack. Same behavior, so I guess it's their issue. At least I hope.
I took the AC-powered cordless phones out of the loop. I still have 3 wired phones with ringers turned on.
The last call we received was noon today.
We don't have fax or anything else connected to phone lines.
And that makes it true?
Never assume your friends have accurately reported what happened. Just today a friend told me something was wrong about his lights but it wasn't wrong after all. And he's not stupid at all.
I would call myself... that it, you should call yourself on your cell, and pick up one of your home phones while your cell is ringing, and see if you can talk to yourself.
OOPS. THIS WILL TEACH ME TO READ THE WHOLE POST BEFORE STARTING A REPLY.
If you can do that, I don't think there is any chance it is the pnone company's fault, or your wiring's fault. (If you can't do that, I'd be surprised, given that you can call out.)
Most likely it is the bells on the phones. Maybe your maid turned them off to take a nap. Take the ppones to a neighbor, and one at a time, connect each one and call him with your cell. See if your phones ring at his house. Probably won't. Borrow one of his phones with a bell that rings and see if it rings at your house.
Are these real phones, that weigh almost two pounds and are made by Western Electric? If so, each one has a bell that is 1.0 RE, Ringer EQuivalent. And there is a limit of about 3.0 or 4.0 RE per phone line. But they probably aren't. If they only take 0.4 RE you'd have to have more than 7 of them to overload the ringing circuit.
Based on the symptoms you report, I'd give it a 90%+ chance that the problem is in your SLIC card at the CO or RT, i.e. a telco problem. Plug a single ordinary phone in at the NID box on the side of the house and test there, if the symptoms remain the same it's the telco's issue with the SLIC not sending ring voltage.
CBC
(Can't Be Called)
That is what you report to your telephone provider. It is likely that the "ring generator" for your line has died.
Good luck! :) JR
Mitch@_._ wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
The answering machine is bad. Disconnect it.
Yep...the phone rang this morning, and it was AT&T saying a box had been hit by lightning and some fuses were knocked out.
Weird...I always though phones were all or nothing. I didn't know it was possible for them to work but not be able to ring. Live and learn.
That may have been true in years gone by, however, everything now is on circuit boards including your line circuit and access to switching and ringing. Ringing is special because it is high voltage and must be applied to the line metalically. Voice, on the other hand, is usually converted to digital and then switched as a bit stream.
In the days BEFORE pair-gain systems (remotes AWAY from the Central Office), it WAS pretty much "all or nothing".
Today, especially with lines served by a remote terminal, virtually all operations "reside" on one or more "cards".
A card is an electronic component that provides the dial tone, voice/data transmission and ringing service. These functions, for ONE line, often occupy DIFFERENT cards. The failure of one component can often present "crippled" service but, as you discovered, usable service in many cases.
Most of the CBC calls I handled were simply the ringer on the phone was turned OFF!
Even today, the function of a "landline" uses a technology that was perfected and applied world-wide in the late 19th century: The copper pair operating at 48 VDC. (Ringing is ~100 VAC.)
Only now is the internet changing that inside the home, one Skype or Vonage user at-a-time.
Still, ALL end devices (telephone, modem, cordless phone base station, fax machine, answering machine, EKG remote, etc) use that technology.
My phones don't ring either. But, then again, no one calls me..
Seriously, one time, when I was painting I shoved a cable wire (with a coupler end on it) into the phone outlet to temporarily get it out of the way...
That was a mistake as it shorted out the phones in the whole house so that they never rang. My phone company provided answering service was able to answer the calls when I never picked up. But my GF was not happy and thought she was being avoided..
Wow... you guys know a lot of stuff. That's why I love it here.
Mitch@_._ wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Excellent suck-up statement! :-)
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