Phone problems

[cristinetacs]

My phone company wants to charge me $95.00 every 30 minutes to repair this so I want to try to fix it myself.

The Problem:
I have no dial tone on any of my phone jacks and I have tried different phones. When someone calls the caller gets a busy signal. We only have one phone hooked up so, the phone is not off the hook. This happened all of a sudden.
I hooked my phone up to the box outside of my house and it worked. So, the problem must be inside my house but, what would cause ALL of my phone jacks to stop working! Someone please help me to save some money here. 95 buck every 30 minutes would kill me! Thanks so much, Cristi

[kactuskid]

At the network interface box on the side of your house, look at the socket you plugged into, the one that you got a dial tone at. Then look at the wiring going out from these sockets, these are the wires that feed into your home. Are they connected to the socket that gave you a dial tone? If they are then you know you have a signal feeding into the house.

Notice where the phone lines enter your home and go inside to find where they penetrate. They should be connected to a patch panel or a terminal strip. Make sure all connections are tight on the green and red wires, or whatever pair is being used. A loose or broken wire would stop the signal going to your jacks.

Here's a link that'll give you lots more details, the sight also includes pages to help in troubleshooting. Hope this helps, it's a bummer when stuff is broke.

http://www.homephonewiring.com/nid.html

[leone184]

What seems odd to me is that people who call your number get a busy signal. Is it possible there is more than one phone line into your house? Perhaps the dial tone you got at the outside box wasn't really your line. You also mentioned there was one phone that is still hooked up, could this phone have been damaged during a thunderstorm?
Take a phone to a friends house and make sure it works for both outgoing and incoming calls. After disconnecting all other phones in your house, including answering machines and modems, try each extention box. Re-try the outside connection by dialing a friend, hanging up , and having them call you back.
If you still can't get a dial tone, you will have to physically inspect the wires for any breaks, or short circuits. Most phone wires have 4 leads (wires) inside the plastic jacket. Usually they are Blue, yellow, red and green. Most of the time, unless you have multiple lines into your house, only the red and green wires are used. Make sure they are in good shape, if you see any breaks in the wire, pull it down and make sure the wires are not touching. Pay close attention to any staples holding the wires to rafters, etc. They are notorious for pinching and short-cicuiting the wires.

leone184