Phone company took away the outside box!

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 29, 2005 Posts: 10

I have my whole house wired. Suddenly I can't get a dial tone, just some static. I went outside to check the box, and it's gone! Eek

The cable that went from the box into the house is just hanging there.

So, the question becomes: is this why my house wiring doesn't work anymore? Do I need to wrap the end? Do I need to wrap each wire separately so they don't touch? Do I need to connect the ground wire to something?

I was able to plug a phone right into the device, so I at least have phone service. Just not the way I want it.[/b]

Posts: 482 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:58 pm Post subject:

I think you shouldn't need to do anything except make sure they aren't touching. Tape them off or cut the wire off clean. If you've got a junction box/66-block/whatever then you could disconnect the line there.

I wonder why the telco would come remove the box? That seems weird.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:59 pm Post subject:

Yes, you could probably just twist the like colored wires together and tape them up. You should connect the ground to reduce interference.

I would suggest however that you pop down to the local big box hardware store and find a suitable NID replacement. Since you don't care about connecting to the street anymore you may want to pull your wires inside and connect to a structured panel (Leviton sells these). This will allow you to easily add extra lines, or if your house is wired with CAT-5, add ethernet at the phone jacks.

On another note, I can not believe the phone company took your NID. It couldn't have been worth the cost of having someone come out and pull it. Did you say "Nyah, nyah, nyah" or something when you switched to Vonage?

Posts: 2135

WaylandDad wrote:

I have my whole house wired. Suddenly I can't get a dial tone, just some static. I went outside to check the box, and it's gone! Eek

The cable that went from the box into the house is just hanging there.

This is a Vonage Forum first.

Winner

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:13 pm Post subject:

My comments assume you were already disconnected from the PSTN and that the NID was connecting all of your internal wiring together so that you could have Vonage dial tone at every jack.

Obviously you would not want to reconnect to the phone company wire. However if they just left it hanging there you might want to connect it to 120 VAC so they can find it easily. This is a joke! Don't do this, someone could get hurt.

One of the purposes of the NID is to protect the phone company from something strange being connected to their network, to remove it seems stupid.

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 29, 2005 Posts: 10

Seemed unbelievably petty to me. I was pretty outraged at first, but then I figured that it belonged to them.

Coincidentally, my router was fried and I had to get a replacement. I wonder if they hooked me back up before taking out the box.

I think I'd sooner use two cans and a string before going back to them.

I'll try a couple of different things. Putting up a replacement NID might not be a bad idea. I hate to have it just hanging there.

Posts: 482 · Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:38 pm Post subject:

How was your router fried? I thought you said you could plug a phone right into the router and it worked just fine that way...?

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 29, 2005 Posts: 10

I had to replace the router, it had been giving me problems and wouldn't allow internet access, etc. Phone didn't work when plugged right into it. Vonage overnighted me another one. I installed it and had to plug the phone in directly when the house wiring didn't work.

Once I figured out it was the wiring and no longer the router at issue, I wondered about the cable hanging where the box used to be.

Posts: 68 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2005 Posts: 68

What phone company did this? I'll be sure not to bring my business to them.

To rip the NID off someone's house is petty, yes, I'd consider that dirty because even if it was "theirs", you overpaid them for years. If a short fried your box I'd ask them to compensate because they shorted out your lines

Posts: 244 · Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:44 am Post subject:

Yep, thats BS there. Id complain about it