Home telephone troubleshooting?

Question

Have friends who are not getting consistent 24/7 service on their phone. When we call in, there is a constant busy signal, and they get no dial tone on their end. This will last about 12-24 hours, then will work a week or so, only to happen again.

We would like to try to eliminate any problem on the house end before getting the phone company guy out. We have a VOM, a handset with a plug and two gator clips, and time. What can we do?

Answer 1

chris c gave an excellent reply. Most electricians are not that skilled in low voltage work. Nice job.

The only thing not mentioned was to do this procedure when the problem is happening. I suspect a wire that is physically moving.

A busy signal indicates a short circuit in the wiring, not an open circuit. An open circuit would cause you to hear a never ending ring when you call them.

BTW, the proper voltage is in the 50 to 90 volt DC range. When the phone is ringing, there is a LOT more power on the line so watch your hands. Red/Green is usually for the first line to the house. Black/Yellow is usually the second one.

They like to run at least two pairs, sometimes three or four, partly because one is a spare. I always run all four wires to every receptical so it is easy to add a second line.

Since it is intermittant, could it be one of the phones in the house that is being moved around? Just a guess, there are other possibilities.

P.S. I attributed that great answer to someone who actually gave a bad answer. My appologies to chris c for temporarily not giving him/her credit for the proper answer.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

One more thing to think about. When you hear the busy signal - is it a standard once per second buzz or is it a much quicker one. The fast busy indicates the phone company has a problem with overloaded circuits in that area ("all-circuits-busy"). If that is the source of the problem then no amount of fooling around is going to make it go away. Call the phone company and tell them you are getting a fast-busy when you call that number. They may look for the problem or they may say "too bad there is nothing we care to do about it."

Answer 4

First go to the demarcation box, usually on the outside of the house, open the customer side and check for anything shorting the terminals. Next unplug the jack at that box, and plug in your phone. If you get a clean dial tone the problem is inside the house, if you get no tone/bad reception call telephone co. It's their problem. Assuming the problem lies inside the house, find where all the wires meet, and take them all apart, then put them back together 1by 1. Depending on the age of your house you will either have 4wires(red,green,black, yellow) or 8(blue, blue with white, orange, orange with white, green, green with white, and brown, brown with white) Maybe even a combination. The color pairs are: blue, bluewhite goes to green, red. Orange, orangewhite goes to black, yellow.

Answer 5

Call the phone company's repair line. They will test the line for problems and troubleshoot with them before sending someone out anyway.

Since it is an intermittent problem, they might try process of elimination. Unplug their sets one at a time until the problem is gone.

Answer 6

sounds like someone is tapping in!! or you have an intermittent open,, the box outside can be open with a screw driver,, and yes you are allowed to!! it has a plug for you to plug a phone in,, so when the problem is there plug a phone into this jack,, if you can use it the regular way then something is wrong in the house.. if you have an apartment you need to follow the line and see if someone hasn't tapped in,, are you getting extra phone calls and higher bills???

Answer 7

Its probably a problem with the box outside of the house if it comes on and off, get the phone company to come check it out if you don't want to get yelled at for climbing the pole and messing around with the stuff inside

Answer 8

I had inconsistent telephone service like above and dsl. When I disconnected my fax and answering machine, I got my phone back. Even dsl customer service was not sure why this happened but I have really liked not having to answer to everybody. It's very interesting w/o answering machine and the fax never worked right anyway.

Answer 9

telelphone installer: sets up the telephone in the required area through creating a port if necesary telephone sales person: a person who calls random members of the public using a public listing of their phone number to sell goods and services telephone technician: a person who is skilled with dealing with faulty telephones and other such technical difficulties associated with the telephone telephone operator: a person who operates the switchboard to whom you talk to in order to get in contact with someone, or to report a problem in certain cases telephone interviewer: person who interviews you on the telephone for a study. e.g. census studies or scientific studies or statistical companies

Answer 10

I had almost the same problem.Every time it rained called the phone company and he said bad connection on the pole outside.By the way outside problems are repaired free!!