Home telephone wiring question

**JasonD** · 08-18-2005, 07:39 PM

Could anything go wrong with a telephone line that could cause a couple phones not to ring anymore?? I know this sounds odd, but we have six telephones in our house, two of which are multi-handset units with one additional phone each, so there`s actually eight phones all together with six jacks.

Anyway, for no apparent reason my two mult-handset units (four phones) have all stopped responding to incoming calls. No caller id or anything, yet I can make calls from all of them with no problem.

I seriously doubt it is a problem with the phones themselves becuase they are on two different jacks and work off of two separate bases, so there`s no way they could break the exact same way on the exact same day.

So is there anything that could have happened to the wiring that these two phones are connected to that could cause this??

**imported_truzoom** · 08-18-2005, 07:52 PM

Is it possible that there was a surge through the main line and the phones that got messed up aren`t very tolerant to surges?

**JasonD** · 08-18-2005, 07:57 PM

I don`t know. They aren`t plugged into surge protectors or anything, but every other function of the phone works fine. I think I am going to plug one into one of the other jacks that I *know* is working and see if that makes a difference. I`ll post back.

**klnyc** · 08-18-2005, 08:00 PM

How many lines u have?

**NYC2SoCal** · 08-18-2005, 08:07 PM

Surge is a good answer.. Besides plugging the "bad" phone into the "good" jack, try plugging a "good" phone into the "bad" jack. Hope that makes sense.. If it turns out to be a bad jack, you can check out the wires. Assuming that all the phones are on the same line, there should be a junction box outside your house. This is the box where the phone company connects to your house. Double check that all the wires are twisted in. The wires may have come loose.

Depending on what wires to check, I would take the wall jack out and see what wires are plugged in.. Then go outside to the juction and check for the colors.

**NYC2SoCal** · 08-18-2005, 08:09 PM

Oh, ideally for a typical phone line, there should be at least 2 wires screwed onto the back of the jack (even though you can have 4)

**JasonD** · 08-18-2005, 08:12 PM

Okay, it`s definitely something in the wiring. I just moved one of the non-working phones to a definitely working jack, and it works fine, rings, caller id works, and all.

klnyc,

I have two lines in my house. One line for the telephones and one fax line. There are seven telephone jacks all together, I`m not using one of them, and the phones that aren`t ringing are plugged into two separate jacks.

Well, Cox is my telephone handler (like my internet and digital cable) and I have a warranty through them that covers all the wiring inside my house so I guess I`ll be giving them a call tomorrow.

**Black240SX** · 08-18-2005, 10:47 PM

Hmm, maybe you are trying to draw too much power from that phone line.

**zippymbr** · 08-19-2005, 04:59 AM

Yes, I would call the provider if you have the INS. They have some specialty equip that traces wires and wiring paths to help find things like bad splices.

**Pats300zx** · 08-19-2005, 05:23 AM

Do you have a "gaurdian service" with your phone carrier. I have Verizon and their service covers interior wiring issues at no extra cost.

**Inthedetails** · 08-19-2005, 07:20 AM

The problem with it being a wiring issue is that you can make calls from the phone. It`s also unlikely that two phone jacks would have wiring issues at the same exact time unless they are daisy chained together.

**6']['9** · 08-20-2005, 07:45 PM

well it can either be a mild short in the wiring on the back of the jack or possibly one of the wires is either loose or about to break. You have a Tip side and a Ring side sometimes in houses the wiring loops so if one jack is having trouble and it loops to that last jack its possible to have trouble on that last jack as well. when you call cox they should be able to figure it out for ya. You can also determine the problem by pluging the jack into the telephone network interface located at the side of the house and plug the phone in to the jack in the box which is connected to a protector and call it with your cell. If the phone rings then your problem is inside. I know you already determined the problem but thats just for future refrence. Since when the tech gets out a lot of the times they ask the customers to try that first just so they know what to look for when they get to the house.

Good Luck