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.

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.


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