If you're smart enough to get a post on this newsgroup, you certainly
can fix your phone wiring. Loads of stuff if you google.

If you have a rotary phone, your wiring is pretty old - like all my
houses. You'll likely have a "black thing" about 2"-3" square, with
four brass posts. Might also have some fuses in between. I have never
seen phone company guys do anything with the fuses, except unscrew
them and toss them out. (These fuses don't seem to be necessary. ??)
Once you find the "black thing", you need to figure out which is the
incoming pair of wires. (I have a modular jack with two plain wires
coming out, so I can plug in a phone and use the plain wires to test
any phone line.) Once you identify the incoming pair, just move on to
the others.

Old phone wiring was fun from one jack to another. If you have two
working jacks, these two are probably either (1) the only jacks on one
particular pair of wires leaving the "black thing." or (2) the first
two jacks on the pair.

The trick is to figure out the sequence of jacks on the pair of wires
that is malfunctioning. You can open each jack and, by using your test
setup (above), tell which pair is incoming. You just work your way
along from one jack to the next.

HOWEVER: Since you have access in the basement, you might as well
replace the old wire. Hook up a modular jack directly in place of the
"black thing." Go to Radio Shack and get a -- I forget what it's
called, but it is plastic about 1"x4" with a modular plug coming out
one end. Inside the plastic box are color-coded screws to which you
can connect phone wire going out to each phone jack. Run a new wire to
each phone jack, using the old wire to pull the new wire up from the
basement. Use Category-5 wire while you're at it.

Bill


"The Sanity Inspector" wrote in message
...
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.


--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
-- The Jam