problem with existing phone wiring system

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2004 Posts: 6

Hi,

I disconnected my home wirining system at the demark. But out of 7 phone jacks in my home, only 4 are working. Other 3 jacks no signal. Does anyone know what might be the problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Chary

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2004 Posts: 6

Yes, all the jacks worked before (with Bellsouth phone service). I physically disconnected two wiring bridges that were inside the grey box.
All the wiring to the wiring bridges are still intact. I've not changed any of that. So, are you saying, it might have been wired for two lines but used only for one. I had only one phone line from Bellsouth and all jacks were working.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2004 Posts: 6

Hi,

I did some more testing and have more information. may be you can help me now. I have two wiring bridges in the NID. I disconnected bottom one and checked the phone jacks. Only 3 jacks work. These 3 jacks are the ones I wasn't getting the signal with Vonage phone. Now, I went back and put the bottom one back and disconnected the top one and checked jacks again. All other jacks but the first 3 work. Originally, both wiring bridges were plugged in and with one phone line from Bellsouth, all jacks were working. Does it ring a bell?

Thanks

Posts: 38 · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:56 am Post subject:

Chary:

Sounds like you need to disconnect the RGBY from one of the bridges and attach them, along with the wires already attached, to the other bridge. If you tie all of your internal (RGBY) wiring to the same posts (on the bridge), you should get signal across your entire phone network.

I'd bet, if you were to open the other side of the NID (not recommended), you'd find the telco's incoming wire jumpered to both RJ-11s. Thus, your house is wired for two lines (one line for the 3 jacks, the other line for the remaining jacks), but somehow they've worked around and tied one phone line to both circuits. I had to move the RGBY in my house, which was originally wired for three lines, to get all the jacks to work on my single SBC line.

BTW - we've all seen (and most have posted) advice to lock the customer side of the NID using the hasp provided. Did you know that, when the telco opens the box using the screw on the far right-hand side, the ENTIRE box front opens, exposing the customer side and the telco side? Thus, by locking the box, you're not really locking out anyone with the correct size socket...

There's even a set of instructions inside the box on how to remove your padlock from inside the telco side of the box, using a different socket.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2004 Posts: 6

Thanks for your help. That's exactly what I thought I needed to do to bridge the two circuits.

Posts: 110 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 06, 2004 Posts: 110

Sorry... but I think I sort of understood this conversation, and I just want to be sure, because my Vonage is getting delivered today and I anticipate a similar problem when I try to use my in-house wiring.

My house currently has two lines, with maybe three jacks for the secondary line and 4 jacks for the primary.

If I understand properly what Chary did is this: He made definitely sure that the outside wires (those running to the street) were fully disconnected and isolated from the wires running into his house.

But he bridged the wires internal to the house by simply slipcing together the like colors from each of the two lines?

I know I'm oversimplifying but that's basically it, no?

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 04, 2004 Posts: 6

plyons,

Yes, you are right. That's exactly what you and I need to do. As I understand, inside wiring runs from every jack to the outside as an independent line (a pair of wires) and bellsouth created two circuits at the NID. We need to make sure that all the jacks are on the same circuit.

I was hoping to find a coupler to couple the two circuits leaving the bell south setup intact for easy reversal. But, bellsouth uses a different type of male connector from each circuit and has a different type of female connector. Does any one know what type of connector is that? Is it available at Radio Shack?