Noise on line when I connect to home phone wiring

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 3

Hi, I recently signed up for Vonage service and I have no problem when I connect a phone directly to the Vonage router. However, when I plug my router into a phone jack in the wall I get a lot of noise on the line. Here is what I have done so far:

1. Uplugged incoming PSTN lines at my phone box outside (see attached photo of two unplugged RJ11 jacks) and checked to make sure my phone line was "dead" with no dial tone.
2. Plugged Vonage router line 1 jack into a RJ11 phone jack in my wall.
3. When I realized there was static noise on the line I replaced the phone extension cord between my Vonage router and the wall jack with a brand new one. Still hear noise even though I only have one phone connected to home wiring.
4. I went back to plugging a phone directly into the Vonage router to confirm that it wasn't a problem with the router. When I do this the sound quality is excellent.

Please help if you have any ideas. Thanks!

Ryan

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Don't be too surprised if you don't get a lot a response, because this sounds like a tough nut to crack. Which Vonage adapter do you have, and how many phone jacks in the house?

Are the jacks "daisy chained" or are they wired using "home runs" to a central point? If it's the latter, I'd try breaking things apart so the jacks are disconnected from one another. Put a splitter on the output of the Vonage adapter and run one cord to the wall jack and another to a telephone. Do you still get noise in this configuration? If not, then start hooking in other jacks until the noise comes back.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 3

Thanks for your reply. There are 5 phone jacks in the house and it appears that some of the them come directly from the phone box and others are daisy chained. I'm running the Lynksys RTP300 router. I tried your suggestion and I still get static. What I've done for the time being is to plug a cordless phone base unit directly into the router which allows me to have two phones in the house.

Do you know of any cheap tools that I could use to test each phone jack for noise? I'd hate to have a phone electrician come out and rewire everything. The idea behind switching to Vonage was to save money, right? Smile

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

I don't know of any special tools to address the problem. Once you have noise on the line, you're going to hear it on every jack. The only real way I know of to run it down is to disconnect jacks and see if it goes away.

When you said you followed my suggestion, what exactly did you do? Were you able to disconnect any of the jacks- the ones not daisy chained to the jack you're using for your input, for example?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 3

I tried your suggestion to "Put a splitter on the output of the Vonage adapter and run one cord to the wall jack and another to a telephone." but I still get noise. The strange thing is that I never had noise when I used regular phone service, but maybe that is because the jack that I am using for Vonage is different than the jack I used before for regular phone service. I'll have to find a way to plug my Vonage router into one of the jacks upstairs (hm, I guess I'll need a really long extension cord). I think you've got me looking in the right direction. I'll let you know if I find a solution. Thanks.

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

You indicated that some of the jacks have lines running right to the junction box. Start by disconnecting all of those from the line that runs to your Vonage feed point. Anything you can eliminate narrows the problem down.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 7

With my regular PSTN line everything worked fine. My VOIP works fine also. However, when I tried to plug it into the phone jack and plug another phone into the jack it worked except I got a ton of static and noise to much to be able to really use it. I tried using a splitter to see if one jack was better then another by putting the voip adapter and the phone on the same jack. All the jacks had the same amount of static. I have a feeling hiring a phone tech will be a waste of money and I just need to go back to good old expensive Verizon. Too bad I was looking forward to saving some money.

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

Are you sure that your house wiring is completely disconnected from any external land lines?

Keep in mind that even if your house wiring won't work for you, a multi-handset cordless may meet your needs.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 29, 2006 Posts: 7

Tried the multi handset thing. It covers about 3/4 of my house but not my husbands office. So that won't work. I have a tech coming right now to take a look at it. He said it would cost $60.00 so if I save $70 a month that will be worth it.