No Dial Tone Created 17 years ago2007-05-15 10:08:31 UTC by satchmo

In the off chance that one of you may be an expert on phone jacks, you might be able to help me out.

We just activated our phone service at the new condo, but only two of the four phone jacks have a dial tone.

How do I go about troubleshooting and fixing this?

I Googled already, but I didn't find any useful tips.

Anyone?

Tried calling (no pun intended) the phonecompany?

Tried calling (no pun intended) the phone company?

Yeah, but after I found out that they charge $90 per hour to send a service person out, I have second thoughts.

I want to see whether I can fix it myself, and possibly save a few hundred dollars.

your phone company should be able to do a line test... for free. They get you to hang up and then it rings weirdly, then they call you back telling you if there's anything wrong

It might just be a problem with the actual jacks! Anyhow, you wouldn't need four phonejacks if you use wireless phones.

Installing new jacks is a bitch, but you could try that. And you could have yourself a problem with rats.

yeah... rats, that was my first though!

It's pretty ironic that they CALL and tell you if there's something wrong!
If there is something wrong they can't do that! ^^

you might need a device called a 'filter' on each connection...

this happened at my pals place once. he just got some 'filters'..

i hope that helps
prably at a radio shack or similar store

Are you using DSL?

If so, you need to do as Hydeph, said. Filters are only for DSL users.

Yeah if you have DSL you need filters on ALL of your sockets, if you plan to use a non-DSL device on them.

do you need 4? i thought youre a family of 2?

There's the possibility that the wires could just be shot. There should be a screw you can remove to inspect the inside of the jacks; if there's wires that aren't attached to the jack you can try to re-attach them (you'll probably have to solder them on), but you can probably just replace the whole thing for cheap with a new jack from radio shack or home depot or something.

I can't use wireless, because I need that jack for DSL.

And no, I don't have filters yet, but I will. The priority is to get a dial tone first from that jack.

Here is the picture:Rabid, you could be right. I'll have to check all the wire connections in the upstream jacks in the series to make sure that the connection isn't broken in the previous links.

Satch. go to your distribution block. it is probably in a utility closet or it might be unfortunately located centrally in the condo complex... ask maintenance to check it out if you can't find it in your condo.
it will look like this

Is that really meant to help him?

The punch blocks are probably centrally located in a building such as a condo unit or apartment building (it's more convenient to have one huge punch block or two as opposed to one for each unit) and unless they're properly labelled (they rarely are) or you have a booklet labeling the block and it's locations you're out of luck. I'd think it would be a local problem (bad jacks) as opposed to a problem with the punch block (if they're left alone they'll last for quite some time) but it's always a possibility that two of the four jacks for your condo are disconnected from the block.

I can't really tell from the picture all too well, but it does look like it's seen a lot of use (paint on the cables, etc) so I'd guess the jack's just gone or wired improperly. If your efforts to fix the problem fail you should probably talk to management; generally in condos they should have their own maintenance people who'll repair problems with the unit or subsidize the costs of repair. (And maybe it is a problem with the punch block, in which case they'll take care of it for you.)

[/quote]Yeah, but after I found out that they charge $90 per hour to send a service person out, I have second thoughts.[/quote]

That sucks..

A little offtopic here..

@SariBous's avatar: Buckethead FTW

Yeah, I found that already.And the problem has been solved.

My wife bought a new jack plate, and after hooking up the same way, it works now.

The jack was just too old.

I wouldn't be too sure. When my aunt moved into her apartment, they didn't have any of her jacks hooked up to the block.

Kasperg the architect will probably tell me I'm wrong but in all the new houses I've ever been in, the phone company refuses to hook up the jacks unless they have phones attached. I asked, and they said something about preventing people from stealing the service. : That doesn't make much sense to me though

A jack costs less than $5.

If someone really wants to steal the phone service, it's pretty easy and cheap to do so.

Not installing jacks is just an inconvenience to new home owners.