Hi, I have two problems:1) I bought one of those telephone line testers made by GB Instruments for $5. I plugged it in, and it came out as "red", which means "reversed line". What does this mean?I checked at the NID (the part inside the house), and only a red and green line are connected there, with the yellow and black not connected and being wrapped around the green and red; but my phone works fine.BTW, I'm furious that the yellow and black wires are not connected, since I am getting a second phone line in the next few months. Why would someone install the phone line this way? Is this normally how the pros do it?2) My other telephone jack in the house is testing as "dead", since no light lights up on the tester. I checked at the NID in the house again, and the red and green wires are connected there. I traced the line about half way, in the basement, and it appeared to be ok. The other half was inaccessible, since the landlord has about 1-2 feet of books, newspapers, magazines, etc. piled on the entire floor, which is blocking my access to the part of the basement where the line runs.Does anyone know why my phone jack is reading dead? I haven't check the actual jack yet.Thanks!

I'm pissed because now I have to go back and repair someone's shoddy work. I wish I could bill someone for this.

Reversed Phone Line???

May 12, 2005 21 Replies

Rate this thread:

larry 21 years ago

yea, reverse the third(&6/9/12/15) pair (lamp) and you blow the lamp fuses in the ksu ;-)

-larry / dallas

and to stay on topic, if Steve's apt is wired with old quad wire (classic red, green, black, yellow -NO TWISTED PAIRS) crosstalk is horrible when you run two lines on it!

Matt wrote:

Vote

Matt 21 years ago

Thks larry....

It's entirely possible, probably more like VERY likely - I'll be needing some fuses shortly.

But where is the fun and learning if you don't f*ck things up from time to time?

Ill let ya know what goes wrong.... updates to follow......

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required