Phones out!

Does any of your neighbors have the same problem?

Are you saying you have three, wired, extension phones all on the same number? The one in the out building works but the other two do not?

If the above describes the problem, take one of the phones that doesn't work and, as a test, connect it to the jack in the out building. If the phone works when connected to that jack, then you have a wiring problem in the house.

Take the above working phone and start by connecting it to the jacks in the house from the beginning of the circuit to the end. You should be able to isolate the two points between where the circuit has gone dead.

Odds are, you have a bad splitter or a loose / broken wire at a jack. You could also have a defective jack.

You can use your test set if you like, but you are not going to damage a regular telephone by plugging it into a miss wired jack.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:13a263bb-b728-4e40-ab6d- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

All I know use cells.

Stormin' Norman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yes.

As I said, I'm reluctant to do that. I hate to mess with the only phone line that works. Also, it's my internet connection line. I don't think it's a phone, or at least one of them, where the answering machine doesn't work either. After all, an answering machine is just a specialized phone.

I tried that. Doesn't work as far back towards the splitter as I can get. Odd that both sides of the splitter should fail, but there is a signal in and out of the splitter. The ho,emade 'splitter' is a metal box with a barrier circuit strip. The line from the phone company box goes to two screws on the strip where it branches to four other screws on the barrier strip, which in turn feed the lines to the two phones. All those screw pairs in the splitter show a dial tone. This is about 20 - 30 years old and has worked with no problem up until now.

It would have to be two jacks as there are none before the splitter. Seems unlikely but you never know.

Other questions?

It is a simple two wire system. You have a loose / corroded / broken wire / connection somewhere in the circuit.

I would start with the home made splitter and inspect / tighten / clean all of the connections.

Also, your description doesn't make a lot of sense, if the twisted pair from the street is going to your home made splitter, and then branches off to two extension, just how is the third extension in the out building connected to the circuit?

When ever I called the phone company first thing they would tell me is to directly plug a phone into the box. If it worked, it is not their fault. You could test to make sure phones work by taking them to the one that works in your office. If phones work it sounds like fault is in the splitter. I've seen wires break after many years of slight vibration. Also had one finally break where original installer had stapled to a wall and staple hit wire which finally broke after a year.

Stormin' Norman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

There are two lines leaving the telephone company's box - one to the splitter for the two phones in my home, the other a single line to my 'office'. The signal successfully, according to my alligator-clipped phone, gets to the splitter. The problem is after that point, but that's where I get confused. If signal is ok when arriving at the splitter, how could a problem after the splitter on one output affect the other splitter output? Or just coincidence that two problems arose at the same time? Hard to believe. I'm more confused than usual. Or maybe the alligator phone is misleading me somehow?

You need to unscrew the terminals in the splitter and inspect those wires, it is really quite simple.

From what you are writing, it appears you really don't know if the signal is "leaving" the splitter, you simply know that the signal is present in the splitter.

If you post a picture of the internals of the splitter, it might help me help you.

Do any of the phone have batteries? Are any of them portables?

Do you have any jacks not used? Any jacks that got wet?

All of the above have given me problems at one time or another. An unused jack on the floor got wet once and six months later corrosion caused a short. Portables with deat betteries or phones that rely on batteries for the caller ID screen.

Are both lines in the box working? That's what I asked. I had 2 lines from same box but they were separate and one might work and the other not. That's where phone company's at fault.

Stormin' Norman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Stormin' et al:

Got a chance to work on it yesterday afternoon - in the 114 heat!

Got both phones working. One phone turned out to be bad. Replaced it with an amcient spare. Working now. The other turned out to be a bad splitter- to-phone line. Replaced it outside on the ground. Will bury it or put it under the home when the weather cools off this fall. Now both phones work but both really should be replacrd.

It always pays to test the questionable devices, as I had suggested.

Glad you resolved your problem. You might save yourself some aggravation and purchase a multi-handset cordless phone. Connect the base station to your working jack and forget about repairing the other jacks and wiring. The cordless phone are quite reliable, just keep handy one working corded phone in the event of power failure.

Stormin' Norman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I'll take a look at them at Walmart when I go grocery shopping Saturday, Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, the cordless are aggravation free until they start to go bad and cause aggravation. BTDT. Replaced mine for just that reason about 6 months ago.

Seven phones in this house and while convenient, it increases the odds of something going wrong.

KenK posted for all of us...

Sounds like a broken wire or bad connection. Use a toner and probe to locate.