How can I tell if phone lines are live and to what # they are connected?

Question

I have a building with three apartments. There are phone wires all over the place coming in and out of walls and stapled to the baseboards. Not all wires lead to phone jacks. Is there a tool that I can use to find out if i) the phone line is still in use and ii) to what phone number the line is connected?

Answer 1

The local phone company assigns the phone number when they bring a line live. They can tell you which lines are live at the point where the lines enter the building. From that point you'll have to use a toner or some other kind of line tester to trace where each wire originates from.

Answer 2

Be careful with telephone lines. Years ago we found a line in our house and connected a phone to it. It would ring, so we would answer it. It was NOT our number. We don't know whose number it was, so we disconnected it and shoved the wires into the hole so we could not connect to it again.

Answer 3

you can get the tool to test phone lines from radio shack. The color wires which are most important to you are the voice which are the red and green wires

Answer 4

you're fortunate certainly to stay in an NTL cabled ares, my buddies are green with envy of me. at the beginning NTL don"t interrupt any programmes yet their very own. they provide a provider like another different than that that's thru state-of =the-paintings fibre optic cable no longer previous formed copper cord.. As they have taken over the different cable organization and have stakes in Virgin, they are interior the unique place of offering each and every little thing. and as each and every little thing belongs to them if some thing is going wring, a telephone call is all it relatively is needed. If I had remained with BT they won't have given me television

Answer 5

you can git a shock and learn the hard way then go out to your box outside were it says public access then take one phone off the hook