On Monday, May 9, 2016 at 9:29:55 PM UTC-4, Cosmic Dot wrote:
On Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 8:47:21 AM UTC-4, Cosmic Dot wrote:
My phones have no dial tone. My DSL internet works fine. When I call my home number from my cell I hear ringing, but the phones in the house don't ring.

I disconnected all phones and tested one by one. All dead. Still have to replace all the DSL filters one by one. But could they all 5 go dead at once? Could a surge go through the lightning arrestors, knock out 3 phones, leave the DSL router and answering machine untouched? I don't think so.

I don't have an NID. It's 1970s wiring, Bell System. The incoming phone line is in the basement and terminates on a lighting block arrestor. Two maroon solenoids on the sides with incoming wire connected above, and phone lines below.

I hooked up a two wire, red and green jack with RJ11 connector to the incoming wire posts and connected a phone. No dial tone.

So I'm thinking this is not a problem in the wiring or equipment in my home.

I'm asking if anyone sees flaws in my analysis.

Will Verizon install an NID in or outside at no charge?

Will I get marginally faster internet if I have RJ45 cable wired from the incoming directly to my router? It's not a long run maybe 6 feet.

Thanks for any expertise you can offer.

May 9 Verizon is on the way! Later this week. The phone line, and I have isolated it to the outside line, gets static when it rains, and goes dead, internet and all, when it rains hard for about 8 hours. Then when it dries up, the static reduces to almost nothing. I'm not sure Verizon believed me. I was told basically that copper wire does that. Perhaps they hope not to replace it before FIOS arrives.

Verizon never showed up. I rescheduled, and all they did was call to ask if the phone is working. Yes it is, and last night's rain didn't cause static or loss of service. And we had an electric power outage on a night with light rain. So I am thinking there never was anything wrong with my phone, it was replacement or wire maintenance. They powered down, and off, and did phone repairs, then last night the electric company did the same thing. Two consecutive Fridays with overnight outages. Not a coincidence. If they would simply inform us of outages beforehand !!!! Instead of everyone calling, and scheduling, and worrying, and spending hours testing their lines and phones ... they like the drama, and the stealth. But I guess it's fixed at this point, the real test will be the next soaking rain of 2 days duration.