Inside phone line trouble

[RBurton]

About six weeks ago, I started getting a lot of sqeaking, clicking, and static on my line. It's so bad, you can hear it on the handset. It only occures on the weekend OR evening. Gets so bad that if I can connect, it may only be 9600 and lots of drops. I've had the phone company check twice and they say it is clear. They suggested unplugging phones in the house to see if it clears up. I did....it doesn't. They are sending a serviceman out to check the lines in the house, but the earliest I could get him is Feb 7th!! The house (and wiring) is 4 years old. It's just a two pair, copper line, 5 jacks wired in seris. Any body got any ideas? (I'll be cross posting to Tech help).

[psyklone]

you may have your RING and TIP lines reversed somehow, and if the polarity is reversed it could cause problems like you're experiencing. you may consider dropping by the old RADIO SHACK® and grabbing a line tester for $5-$10 and checking it out.

[Dave_H]

First ask a couple neighbors to see if they have a problem, or if it just you.
If it's just you, see if you can find the service box that the line comes into. Most of the time this box is outside and susceptible to moisture and corrosion. I have helped a few people with noise by removing the wires and by scraping and cleaning them and the terminals and screws.
Put a little dab of greese on them to protect them when there clean. If that doesn't help, check the phone jacks in your house, you may find that a couple work great and the rest don't. This will give you a clue as to where the wire may be going bad, shorting out. The evening symptom you mentioned makes me think condensation someware, but can't explain the weekend part.
Hope this helps http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
sorry, my spelling is worse in the morning.
Dave

[RBurton]

Thanks, Dave. I suspected moisture right away because it was a VERY wet Saturday that it began in early December. The evenings and weekends really has me stumped, though. I can connect at 46000 weekdays(I really gave my ISP a hard time initially, thinking it MUST be them). The phone box has two sides, one for the customer, accesable with a screwdriver. I checked the wiring in there, dry and bright. The phone company side requires a special tool to get into. It's a nut with a sleeve around it. I may have to work getting in there somehow http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by RBurton (edited 01-26-2000).]

[Banti]

If you have the box like I think you do.. you have a phone jack inside this box, on the outside of your house. Plug a phone into it and see if the static is present there. If so, the phone co. side is screwed up. If not, it is inside the house. The telephone co. stating that the line is fine means nothing. They tested my line and said it was fine but, in fact it had been cut in half by a construction crew. I had to get a little mean for the phone co. to accept the fact that my line was in fact cut.

Good Luck,
Banti

[Dave_H]

You may want to wait, they get real bent out of shape if you go into that side because thats where you could "significantly reduce your phone bill" (They would find out pretty quick though).LMAO
Maybe try to follow the line towards your house, sometimes the installer will use a cheep exposed terminal strip to splice off to all the jacks. They will always put this in an easy to get to place, usually right inside the basement or attic opening, depending on witch way the wire goes.
Thats about all I can think of, Good Luck.
Dave

[Banti]

The phone jack is on the customer side. My telephone co. suggested that I try that plug.

Dave_H--the only lines that run into the box belong to the customer, there isn't a way to reduce the long distance, unless you have some extra hardware. And you could wire that up inside your house.

Banti

[This message has been edited by Banti (edited 01-26-2000).]

[Dave_H]

Sorry Banti,
I guess I wasn't thinking that it was a single family residence. In the building where I have my business there is such a box that contains all the lines that enter the building. Once lived in a town house complex that someone liked to listen in on others and do other phone related "stuff".
Dave

[Banti]

Dave_H,

I know what you mean. A friend of mine liked to do that. That is until I reminded him that it was a 5yr/$50,000 per incident if caught. But you are right with a multi-line building one could have a lot of fun... but that would be wrong and Socalgal will only allow so much talk about such a subject...

Regards,
Banti

[RBurton]

The funny thing is, the other evening when I called the trouble number, she could barely hear me over the noise. Within seconds, though, it cleared up. She then tested the line and "it was fine". My son, the telecommunications major, tells me the phone company can "clean" the line by sending a charge down it. I actually asked my wife it she had installed a bugging device http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif. As for the outside jack, if I remember right, the line >from< the company side is a very short male plug, meaning I'd need a gender changer. The line is actually to short to plug into a phone, but I'll check it again tonight. These are all good ideas, I never even thought to ask the neighbor....keep them comming.

[This message has been edited by RBurton (edited 01-26-2000).]

[bell1]

Hey RBURTON,
Don't belive that stuff about the phone company being able to "clean" your line by sending a charge down it. I work as a repairman for Bellsouth,(24yrs)and they send a charge down your line every time someone calls you ,in the form of ringing current(approx 100v ac).As for your problem, do as Banti said , and check your line at the ONI (Outside Network Interface). That is the box where you can plug a phone in to test the line.If you hear static then your the trouble is in the phone company's equipment/wiring (or in the phone/phone cord you are testing with.As for the phone company testing your line and saying it is ok,forget that! Every time we are dispatched on a reported trouble they test the line and give us the results. More than half the time they way off .
Good luck,Bell1

[tonym]

If the telco sends a "charge" down the line, I'll send them a "charge" for the equipment that they nuked with such a boneheaded stunt!

Noise that comes and goes like that is an intermittent connection. I chased down a similar problem in the past and it turned out to be the $1.49 "RJ" wall jack in my office.
Psyklone's idea about the Radio Shack tester is a good one!

Take the time to sweat all the details and check every single connection in your house phone line -- that's where you'll eventually find the problem, IMHO.


Tony

[dab]

hey bell, did this thread make you laugh as hard as it did me??
***/ksu installer 18 years ATLANTIC TEL.
MORE THAN LIKELY
SOMETHING IS GETTING WET, OR ONE SIDE OF THE LINE IS TRYING TO OPEN UP. COULD BE ANYWHERE FROM YOUR TELEPHONE BACK TO THE MAIN FRAME.
THEN AGAIN IT COULD BE A NOISEY LINE CARD TOO!
I can add one thing to check other than plugging a phone in at the nid, look at the pins in all the jacks , and the pins in the ends of the cords, make sure they`re clean, not green, black, burnt looking.
I`d say 75% of all noise problems are station wire, jacks or cords.

sounds like you need to rattle somebodys cage! next month is unacceptable.
remember:
the squeaky wheel gets the grease

[keeper]

When dealing with telco, the operative word is "escalate". It's like a magic potion. If you don't like what you hear, say: "I need to escalate to your manager." And if you don't like what they say, do the same thing. You can get all the way up to Regional VPs if you "escalate" enough!

[bell1]

Hey Keeper
Another operative word/phrase is " Public Service Commission " .

[bell1]

Hey DAB
Rburton's son may have been thinking about a " breakdown box ". I haven't seen one of those in about 15 years.If you remember, that's the one where you could send about 600 volts down the line by operating a toggle switch.It would either burn the cable pair open or weld it shut at the trouble spot.You either fixed the problem or made it
easy to find.

[dab]

yea, about 15 years ago, we had a nohler in dispatch, company paid 300,000 for it, you could burn a line with it, most of the time you could put a temporary fix on it if it was`nt too bad, could also read the line, but if you didnt cut it loose from the house,you still dont know which way the trouble is going. I can say this much, I`ve been doing this a long time and I see the customer get fed a line from time to time,also if the repairman went to the house and the line Sounded clear at the time,he could blame it on customer wiring and probably get away with it. As far as an operator reading the line, yes it`s possible, if it shows no readings, they say it`s clear, if it shows trouble, theres NO WAY they can pinpoint that trouble,they can only make an educated guess, unless a repairman is on site,

[RBurton]

Thanks to all, especially dab and bell1. I've visually checked all the jacks and unplugged all the phones. Still having the problem. Guess I'll pick up a tester at Radio Shack and if that shows nothing, call and raise hell with the Telco.

[RBurton]

Well, the phone guy was supposed to be here between 3 and 7. I left work at 2:30 and got home at 2:55. He'd been here and gone. He found a broken wire on the Telco side of the outside box. How does that happen inside a box?? But the kicker was he told the wife if I have the problem again, plug a phone in the box and check for the static. Boy, if I'd been here there would have been some words exchanged. I stood outside in the blowing snow and did just that while the telco had me on hold for 10 minutes last Saturday and insisted that their lines checked "ok". Sorry dab and bell1, I know you work for the phone company and I wasn't pissed at the service guy. It was that dweeb at the computer who did two different line checks and kept telling me that it wasn't the phone company lines but my inside line or my phones. Anyway, case closed.