Home wiring woes

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: May 17, 2007 Posts: 4

We have had Vonage working just fine in our house or over a year. Last week we had a power outage for a few hours. When the power came back up we had no issues with our cable modem connectivity, but noticed a pronounced buzz on the Vonage line and could not receive incoming calls. We worked with tech support to conclude that we had a bad Vonage modem and were shipped a new device. This new device did not fix the issue and we were subsequently able to determine that the issue was with our home wiring. We use the phone jack to connect Vonage throughout the house. Now we are not sure what to do? In a situation where we had a local phone provider we could arrange for a service call to rememdy the wiring issue. This seems like the big gap with Vonage service. What type of contractor would work on home wiring? Any suggestions welcomed and appreciated. Thanks.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 21, 2007 Posts: 10

When we moved to our new offices, we had our networking people install the patch panel to connect our router to our ethernet connections, to our wireless connections and to our Vonage equipment.

Wiring is wiring.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: May 17, 2007 Posts: 4

Yeah I guess wiring IS wiring, however we're residential, without "network people" Very Happy

. I've called an elelctrican we've used in the past and he said he was not qulaified to do this type of repair/trouble shooting wiring. I have also called a large electical service provider here in MN who said they did not do this type of work. Thirdly I called our internet provider Comcast to ask for advice on who to call. They did not know. I'm just looking for advice on how to get this worked on and fixed.

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

I guess we can assume that before you connected your Vonage adapter to the phone jack that you disconnected the proper wires first.

Now if you had done that already I can't see how a power outage would have an effect on your phone line.

Have you tried your phone at a friends house?

One suggestion is to buy a multi handset phone that doesn't require using your phone jacks.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: May 17, 2007 Posts: 4

Hmmm no we did not disconnect any wires prior to installing Vonage device. When we installed Vonage they never indicated that we needed to do anything BUT run a splitter out of one of the exisiting jacks in our house.

I should mention that when we run a phone line directly out of the Vonage modem it works fine (no buzz and incoming call are received), so it's not the phone itself. The unfortunate thing is that we had previously had the Vonage line working on ALL the phone jacks in our house.

Posts: 1320 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1320

There is a topic on here for home wiring.
vonage-forum.com/home-wiring-installation-guide.html" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/home-wiring-installation-guide.html

Myself I opened my phone box on the outside of the home disconnected the wire and pulled the jack like plug in the box, then I plugged in the telephone wire in the wall jack to the vonage adapter.

Before doing this I was using a cordless phone that had 3 handsets. The main phone and base plugged in the vonage adapter and the power outlet and the other 2 phones only needed power outlet.

Posts: 4750 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4750

haasfilm wrote:

Hmmm no we did not disconnect any wires prior to installing Vonage device. When we installed Vonage they never indicated that we needed to do anything BUT run a splitter out of one of the exisiting jacks in our house.

It would be very odd if this turned out to be the problem, given that things were working before. Nevertheless, odder things have happened and disconnecting existing landlines is extremely important. Check and make sure that none are connected.

By the way, does the phone light on your Vonage box go out or start flashing when you plug it into the wall jack?