On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:53:19 -0400, Joey inscribed to the world:
....
First, they make a cheap led tester that you can plug in an outlet to
let you know if the polarity is reversed. What happens if you leave it
that way--well some phones just won't dial--no tone.

Yup, I bought one of those too yesterday, put it in the modular jack of
the NID box and no light at all.


Second, it's best to run a line from the terminal block to each phone in
your house. Reason for this is if one gets shorted you can keep
disconnecting the lines until you find the bad one and over time you
will get a bad one or shorted line for various reasons.
...

That seems to be the setup, I think it is called star topology from what I
read. Whoever wired the phones before did it that way. Right now, I have
disconnected ALL the phone lines from the terminal on the basement rafter
(supplied by NID/Demarc box from outside phone line box), and just
connected a simple 5 foot long phone line I made yesterday with new phone
copper wire and a simple modular plug and a simple cheap corded phone,
used red and green copper wires attached each to one of the terminal poles
on the basement rafter (supplied by NID line from the box outside).