On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:33:24 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 7/17/2010 8:56 AM Jeffrey D Angus spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

I said that *some* of the phones (meaning the wiring inside the
house) work and some of them don't, so obviously the problem
is inside the house.

Bite the bullet. Buy a box of Cat-3 (or 5) wire and start over.
Every house I've ever worked on has a total cluster-f**k for the
telephone wiring.

Pick a location, (a closet or such) and call that "home".
Run a new cable from the telephone company POE, to there.
From there, run a new cable to each and every jack in the
house.

One Type-66 split block and a package of jumper clips will
make a nice "distribution" point in the closet.

Problem solved.

And if you decide to get campy and put in a cheap PBX, all
your work is already done for the most part.

Well, good suggestions all.

But thanks but no thanks; I'll answer several replies here by saying
that even though I posted this query, I have no intention of actually
trying to fix it. Here's why.

WTF!!!

Here's how life works. If a man (I'm referring to a real man, not
some elitest bull**** "I don't want to get my hands dirty" type who
happens to possess a Y chromosome) sees a problem, he tries to fix it.
If he can't he asks for help.

This doesn't reflect unfavorably on his masculinity. When the first
proto cave-man decided it would be nice to live in a cave rather than
get wet every time it rained, he asked his proto cave-man buddies for
advice on getting the wild animals out of the cave of choice. And
being real men, they probably offered to help. And sat around in the
cave afterward eating the former four legged occupant.

If you are going to ask for advice that you don't intend to use, the
honorable thing to do is to tell us up front that this is purely for
informational purposes. At a mimimum, afterwards say "Thanks, the
problem has been solved." That at least give your helpers the
satisfaction of having spent their time in a useful matter.

This "I'm not going to do anything about it" is BULL****!!!

PlainBill

Mainly 'cuz I'm not a telephone repair person. As I get older I try more
and more to recognize and respect my limitations. I'm not a master of
all trades. I *might* be able to fix this problem; after all, telephone
wiring is not exactly rocket science. But still, it has its on
specialized problems, and I have no test equipment to perform this kind
of diagnosis, apart from a VOM.

Plus it's a fairly large house, with lots of wiring inside walls and in
barely-accessible crawlspaces. Not my idea of fun at all, brushing aside
piles of old rat **** to trace a wire.

Plus, the existing wiring is a total ****ing mess. Unbelievable how
those phone co. monkeys wire stuff. There's a literal rat's nest of
wiring under the house, not in any box, splices every which way, no
consistency in the use of color pairs, no labels, just a ****ing
nightmare. So I'll leave it to someone else to sort out, thank you very
much.

Ackshooly, the homeowners are lucky, because the last time they called
the telco (AT&T), they got a guy who scurried about under the house,
found the problem (this was a DSL issue), fixed it, and DIDN'T CHARGE
THEM ANYTHING FOR IT! They think they can get this person to perform
another miracle for them.