The Sanity Inspector wrote:
Something's the matter with my telephone wiring in my old
house. The original hard-wired rotary phone works, and two of my six
modern phone jacks work. But the others periodically lose their dial
tone. I have a full basement, and can trace the wires, but don't see
any loose wires. When I examine the jack, they look fine, too. The
problem is probably simple, but unfortunately so am I!
My question is, who do I call for inside telephone wiring
problems? The phone company, or a general electrician, or who? TIA,
email welcome, watch the spam trap.

First I agree that "periodically" would tend to point to a poor
connection somewhere and just checking the connections may handle it.
Disconnect and reconnect each line. Do one at a time to make sure you get
them all back the way they started.

The other possibility is the number and types of phones you have. Phone
lines can only supply so many phones. New phones generally draw little
current, but the old phones are a different matter. Next time you have a
problem, try disconnecting that hard-wired rotary phone and see if the
others don't come back on line.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math