In article , "Steph in PA" wrote:
Hi, I have two problems:

1) I bought one of those telephone line testers made by GB Instruments for
$5. I plugged it in, and it came out as "red", which means "reversed line".
What does this mean?

It means that the red and green wires are reversed somewhere between the
demarc box and the outlet.

I checked at the NID (the part inside the house), and only a red and green
line are connected there, with the yellow and black not connected and being
wrapped around the green and red; but my phone works fine.

That's because modern telephones need only the red and green.

BTW, I'm furious that the yellow and black wires are not connected, since I
am getting a second phone line in the next few months. Why would someone
install the phone line this way? Is this normally how the pros do it?

Yes, that is the way it's normally done, when installing a single phone line,
since only the red and green are needed. Calm down, take a deep breath, and
connect the yellow and black wires as well.

2) My other telephone jack in the house is testing as "dead", since no light
lights up on the tester. I checked at the NID in the house again, and the
red and green wires are connected there. I traced the line about half way,
in the basement, and it appeared to be ok.

Problem's in the other half, then. Probably. It's not unheard-of for there to
be a break inside the cable insulation, where it isn't visible.

The other half was inaccessible,
since the landlord has about 1-2 feet of books, newspapers, magazines, etc.
piled on the entire floor, which is blocking my access to the part of the
basement where the line runs.

I guess it must be pretty hard to move that stuff, huh?

Does anyone know why my phone jack is reading dead? I haven't check the
actual jack yet.

It's reading dead because isn't connected. There may be a break in the cable
somewhere, or one or both of the wires to that jack may not be connected to
the jack, or to whatever point they come from to supply that jack. Check the
connections at each end first. If both red and green are connected properly,
then check the entire length of the cable for damage, and repair or replace as
necessary.


--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?