Home Wiring Problem - Line Picking itself up?

Posts: 10

I have been using my Vonage setup for 3 months now, but for the past week I have had a problem with my line being picked up on and left sitting resulting in a fast signal (the same one would get after leaving a phone off the hook) and eventually the line would be dead. If I catch it early enough and pick it up I can hear static in the background along with the dial tone before the beeping begins. The problem will usually go away and the line will hang itself up after a while. But sometimes when I need to call out the only way to reset the problem is to unplug the Vonage box from the home phone jack and plug it back up.

Let me give you some background on my setup.

I am in a 3 month old house, yes brand new and NEVER connected to the local phone company, BellSouth. There is about 6 feet of phone wire hanging on the side of my house. I suppose this is the wire that BellSouth would normally hook into. Inside all of my wires are cat-5 going into a 'smart-box' in my closet. I have a Linksys RT31P2 connected to a splitter which is hooked into my phone jack. A phone is hooked into the other jack on the splitter. When I have the splitter unplugged from the wall jack I never have this problem.

Any suggestions as to what is picking up on my line? I have disconnected all phones and devices plugged into home phone wall jacks other than the vonage box with splitter and one phone. The problem will still occur. I checked the outside phone wire and it is still NOT connected to the local phone company.

Thank You for your feedback.

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 29, 2004 Posts: 22

dixonbm wrote:

...But sometimes when I need to call out the only way to reset the problem is to unplug the Vonage box from the home phone jack and plug it back up.
...I have a Linksys RT31P2 connected to a splitter which is hooked into my phone jack. A phone is hooked into the other jack on the splitter. When I have the splitter unplugged from the wall jack I never have this problem.
...I have disconnected all phones and devices plugged into home phone wall jacks other than the vonage box with splitter and one phone. The problem will still occur.

1 Question and 1 suggestion.

I'll give my suggestion first. The technique to disconnect everything from wall jacks is good, but you could learn more by disconnecting the Linksys from your house phone system. Then plug in a phone directly into the Linksys and see if the problem still occurs. That way you are removing your house wiring from the equation/problem.

I don't understand what you mean by "splitter." Usually a splitter refers to a 4 wire phone plug that is "split" out into a Line 1, Line 2, and Line 1+2 phone plug. If you don't even use the telco, then you should have no reason for the splitter.

My guess is either your splitter or your wiring in your house may have an intermittent short or faulty wiring causing the off-hook. Try the suggestion to rule the guesses out.

Hope this helps

Posts: 10

Blademan wrote:

I'll give my suggestion first. The technique to disconnect everything from wall jacks is good, but you could learn more by disconnecting the Linksys from your house phone system. Then plug in a phone directly into the Linksys and see if the problem still occurs. That way you are removing your house wiring from the equation/problem.

Thank You for your reply. I am sorry that I wasn't very clear before. But I did try hooking only a single phone to the vonage box and it did work fine. So I know for a fact it is the wiring. I just can't figure out what/where in the wiring is causing the problem.

Blademan wrote:

I don't understand what you mean by "splitter." Usually a splitter refers to a 4 wire phone plug that is "split" out into a Line 1, Line 2, and Line 1+2 phone plug. If you don't even use the telco, then you should have no reason for the splitter.

When I say splitter I mean one of those adapters that lets you plug to phones into one jack or say a Tivo and a phone into the same jack. In my case I use it to plug the vonage box and one of my phones into the same jack.

Blademan wrote:

My guess is either your splitter or your wiring in your house may have an intermittent short or faulty wiring causing the off-hook. Try the suggestion to rule the guesses out.

I think you are right about the faulty wiring or something causing a problem I just wish I could locate the problem.

I actually haven't experienced the problem for the past few days. I hope it does not return.

Again, Thank You for your input and I look forward to any more suggestions/advice.