Hard wiring before number is transferred

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 5

I currently have the Vonage box and a phone plugged into it. This phone works fine and receives calls to my old number The regular land line from Verizon is no longer working (no dial tone) but Vonage says the number transfer has not been completed. Can I disconnect the phone lines outside and plug in the line to the house jack or do I have to wait until the transfer is complete?

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Oct 27, 2005 Posts: 34

If you have no dial tone from the CO, the go ahead and cut the wire unless you expect to receive calls on the turned off line.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks much for your reply.

I went outside to what I assume is the demarc box as instructed. I found 4 phone cord-looking plugs and unplugged them. Came back in and ran a phone line from the Vonage box to the wall rceptacle. When I pick up any of the phones in the house, I first hear a dial tone and then within a few seconds I get a message that "all lines are busy" or "please try your call later" and then the awful sound like you get if you leave the phone off the hook. Any ideas?

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

What happens if you unplug the Vonage adapter from the wall jack. Do you hear anything at all on the house phones? Does your Vonage phone service still work if you plug a phone directly into it?

If the answers to the above are "nothing" and "yes", and if you're _sure_ that the old phone company's land line is disconnected from the house wiring, then try plugging the Vonage adapter back into the house phone jack. Unplug all the phones in the house, then plug into a house jack just the one phone that you used to check out the Vonage adapter. Does that work?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 5

Thank you Steve48 for your reply.

I unplugged every phone, the Vonage phone, and caller ID box in the house. I plugged back in one phone to the regular jack and I don't hear anything. If I push the buttons though, I hear beeps. Also, the keys light up on the phone so I assume power is coming from somewhere. Does this mean I have not completely disconnected from the land service?

With all the phones disconnected, I hooked one phone into the Vonage box "line 1" slot. It works fine. I can send and receive calls on that phone.

Then I unhooked the phone from the Vonage box and connected a cord from line 1 on the Vonage box to a regular wall jack and nothing in the line 2 slot. I plugged the phone into a regular wall jack and I got a dial tone at first and then the "phone off the hook" sound (loud continuous sounds) after a few seconds.

Posts: 119 · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:43 pm Post subject: Lights up!

Yes, there is still a connection to your POTS provider from the outside. I would suggest going back to the demarc and undoing what you did. Then attempt to isolate which lines are coming in from the POTS service, and disconnect them. Once they are disconnected, go inside and test again. If there is any power to the device, time to go back to the box and repeat. Easiest way to find this is grab a multimeter and test the incoming lines (they will hopefully be a different color from the BLUE-WHITE and ORANGE-WHITE pairs in your home) for 50v. Once you isolate them you shouldnt have any voltage on any of the lines!
Feel free to PM me for any help. I can also give you my number for some phone support if you would like...
If you are having problems though, pictures really help!

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

And let me add, please _unplug_ your Vonage box from the wall jack and don't plug it back in until you're sure that the POTS line is completely disconnected. You're in danger of damaging the Vonage box.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

I have unplugged the Vonage box from the wall.

I will try to get a pic of the box and see if you can tell me where I'm going wrong. Lord only knows what all we have hooked up!

May take me a couple days... we're covered in snow (yeah!!!)!

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 5

Yea! We found the problem. There was some kind of thing hooked up in the Garage all the way on the other end of the house. It was labled "half-ring". No clue what it was but everything works now!

Thanks everyone for your help.