I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

...2 cents..
--
Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

On Aug 20, 3:02 pm, Oren wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

..2 cents..
--
Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The last time we had similar incident, my 9-year old son was playing
with the phone jack in his room and inserted a wire in one of those
phone jacks.

Ken


Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those you miss.


| Torrey Hills Technologies, LLC |
| www.threerollmill.com |
| www.torreyhillstech.com |

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can
suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite
the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:02:22 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

..2 cents..


I only mentioned that in addition to the buzzing, that my dialup was
inoperative too. That's most likely because the buzzing prevents the
dialup from have an intelligible signal(s). I don't think if I can
get rid of the buzzing, then the dialup will work.
Thanks
Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:52:04 -0700, Torrey Hills
wrote:

On Aug 20, 3:02 pm, Oren wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

..2 cents..
--
Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The last time we had similar incident, my 9-year old son was playing
with the phone jack in his room and inserted a wire in one of those
phone jacks.

Yikes!

Anyway, I have disconnected the phone jacks one at a time to see if
removal of any one jack will fix it, and it won't. I fear the problem
is not in the jacks.
Thanks
Jethro

Ken


Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those you miss.


| Torrey Hills Technologies, LLC |
| www.threerollmill.com |
| www.torreyhillstech.com |

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.
If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:05:32 GMT, "dadiOH"
wrote:

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can
suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite
the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

I really think as I was working on the problem, that there were
several 5-minute periods during which there were none connected.
There was one point when I had disconnected the actual wires from all
the plugs. And then I connected them back and re-plugged the phones
thereto. Which is where I am now. I would go out and buy a few
hundred feet of wiring and re-do same, but I would have to crawl under
my house, and since I am a handicapped senior citizen, that's really
not feasible. If I could only find my kids. But that's my problem.
Thanks anyway

Jethro

"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:07pyi.1016$Uf7.474@trnddc06...
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can
suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite
the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

And then plug them back in one at a time, checking for the buzz each time.
Unless rain water has gotten in your demarc or into a rotted cable, or you
have accidently damaged a cord or the wall wiring moving furniture or
working on the house, odds are a cheapo phone has either crapped out, or a
cordless is picking up a hum from somewhere. (One of many reasons I hate
cordless and modern throw-away corded phones, and keep a crate of old Ma
Bell real phones on hand.)

aem sends....

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:11:21 GMT, Jethro wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:02:22 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

..2 cents..


I only mentioned that in addition to the buzzing, that my dialup was
inoperative too. That's most likely because the buzzing prevents the
dialup from have an intelligible signal(s). I don't think if I can
get rid of the buzzing, then the dialup will work.
Thanks
Jethro

If the buzzing is caused by the modem; do you think it may affect
other devices?

Unplug the dial up... rule the modem out.






--
Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:19:28 GMT, "aemeijers"
wrote:


"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:07pyi.1016$Uf7.474@trnddc06...
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can
suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite
the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

And then plug them back in one at a time, checking for the buzz each time.
Unless rain water has gotten in your demarc or into a rotted cable, or you
have accidently damaged a cord or the wall wiring moving furniture or
working on the house, odds are a cheapo phone has either crapped out, or a
cordless is picking up a hum from somewhere. (One of many reasons I hate
cordless and modern throw-away corded phones, and keep a crate of old Ma
Bell real phones on hand.)

aem sends....


Hmmm

Of the several phones that I have in use, two are old corded type and
three others are the cordless ones. at one point, I had unplugged all
the cordless phones, and the dialup plug, leaving only the two corded
type. I still had the damned buzzing. At one point, I had
disconnected all my house phones and dialup, and connected up JUST a
corded extra phone I had in my closet. Still got a buzzing.

Thanks

Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:25:27 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:11:21 GMT, Jethro wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:02:22 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

For a start:

Pull the phone line from the dial up modem and blow the dust out of
the connection with canned air. Dust collects there and needs to be
checked.

..2 cents..


I only mentioned that in addition to the buzzing, that my dialup was
inoperative too. That's most likely because the buzzing prevents the
dialup from have an intelligible signal(s). I don't think if I can
get rid of the buzzing, then the dialup will work.
Thanks
Jethro

If the buzzing is caused by the modem; do you think it may affect
other devices?

Unplug the dial up... rule the modem out.

I think that I have already done that.

Jethro

On Aug 20, 2:57 pm, Jethro wrote:

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.


One thing people sometimes forget about when checking out their phone
lines is the burglar alarm. If you have an alarm system with a phone
connection, don't forget to disconnect that.

Jerry

On Aug 20, 6:24 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors. You can pick up a cheap polarity tester from radio shack to
test the proper polarity of your jacks. But your problem is probably
not polarity since the system worked before. You need to get every
phone device off of your inside wiring and disconnect the demarcation
box. Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts. Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.

Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:


Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.


If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.


If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.


I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro


NO, you should get a very high reading, ie an open circuit.

But BEFORE you do that put your meter on AC volts and see if there's any
voltage betwen the two wires or from either wire to a nearby ground,
there shouldn't be.

I have a feeling that something has gotten wet somewhere and a little
bit of 120 volt line voltage is leaking onto your phone lines.

About four years ago I dropped our wired Verizon phone service because
every time it was raining there was a sizable "common mode" 60 Hz
voltage on both the ring and tip leads relative to ground. It didn't
bother an olde non-electronic phone, but the phones which used line
voltage to make them work would get an awful buzz. I measured the common
mode voltage at around 30 vac with my scope when it was raining and
almost nothing during dry weather.

Verizon tried switching me to different "pairs" a couple of times but
the problem remained. They were expecting to change over to their FIOS
fibre optic system in the next year or two and admitted to me that they
weren't going to put any effort into fixing their ancient leaky copper
stuff.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:42:41 -0700, Jerry
wrote:

On Aug 20, 2:57 pm, Jethro wrote:

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.


One thing people sometimes forget about when checking out their phone
lines is the burglar alarm. If you have an alarm system with a phone
connection, don't forget to disconnect that.

Jerry

Good point. I have one, but it is not connected to phone box. I just
use it for its alarm. Too expensive for me.

Thanks

Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:44:13 -0700, RickH
wrote:

On Aug 20, 6:24 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors.

Hmmm
At the outside box, my house wires (blue-green-yellow-black) are
stripped and connected into the phone company's plug. I saw no
plug/jack arrangement. Blue & green are the colors common to all my
house 'jacks'.

You can pick up a cheap polarity tester from radio shack to
test the proper polarity of your jacks. But your problem is probably
not polarity since the system worked before.

I agree. I do have a good tester already.

You need to get every
phone device off of your inside wiring and disconnect the demarcation
box.

I guess by 'demarcation box' you mean the phone company's outside box?


Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts.


I will tomorrow.

Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.


I seem to get a hum no matter which one phone I try.

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

The buzz is almost certainly electrical.

Flip off all circuit breakers. No buzz?

Turn 'em on one at a time until the buzz returns. Find the device on that
circuit that's the culprit.

It could be a bad florescent ballast, a bad CFL bulb, a motor (like on the
fridge), an electric clock, almost anything.

If, however, turning off the whole house does not remove the buzz, I'm
stumped.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:08:57 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

The buzz is almost certainly electrical.

Flip off all circuit breakers. No buzz?

Turn 'em on one at a time until the buzz returns. Find the device on that
circuit that's the culprit.

It could be a bad florescent ballast, a bad CFL bulb, a motor (like on the
fridge), an electric clock, almost anything.

If, however, turning off the whole house does not remove the buzz, I'm
stumped.


Good God! I didn't think of that! I'll do that in the AM.
Thanks

Jethro

On Aug 20, 7:03 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:44:13 -0700, RickH





wrote:
On Aug 20, 6:24 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors.

Hmmm
At the outside box, my house wires (blue-green-yellow-black) are
stripped and connected into the phone company's plug. I saw no
plug/jack arrangement. Blue & green are the colors common to all my
house 'jacks'.

You can pick up a cheap polarity tester from radio shack to
test the proper polarity of your jacks. But your problem is probably
not polarity since the system worked before.

I agree. I do have a good tester already.

You need to get every
phone device off of your inside wiring and disconnect the demarcation
box.

I guess by 'demarcation box' you mean the phone company's outside box?



Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts.

I will tomorrow.

Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.

I seem to get a hum no matter which one phone I try.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If all the logic/continuity checks above check out ok, then its
probably induced hum from the AC line. Has it been raining there a
lot this week?

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:08:57 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

The buzz is almost certainly electrical.

Flip off all circuit breakers. No buzz?

Turn 'em on one at a time until the buzz returns. Find the device on that
circuit that's the culprit.

It could be a bad florescent ballast, a bad CFL bulb, a motor (like on the
fridge), an electric clock, almost anything.

If, however, turning off the whole house does not remove the buzz, I'm
stumped.


I should also add - we had a 7 hour outage last Friday. Makes one
wonder eh?

Jethro

On Aug 20, 7:03 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:44:13 -0700, RickH





wrote:
On Aug 20, 6:24 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors.

Hmmm
At the outside box, my house wires (blue-green-yellow-black) are
stripped and connected into the phone company's plug. I saw no
plug/jack arrangement. Blue & green are the colors common to all my
house 'jacks'.

You can pick up a cheap polarity tester from radio shack to
test the proper polarity of your jacks. But your problem is probably
not polarity since the system worked before.

I agree. I do have a good tester already.

You need to get every
phone device off of your inside wiring and disconnect the demarcation
box.

I guess by 'demarcation box' you mean the phone company's outside box?



Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts.

I will tomorrow.

Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.

I seem to get a hum no matter which one phone I try.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If your wires are hard wired to the phone service then it's done wrong
or it's just old. The demarcation box should have a plug/jack so you
can disconnect easily from the POT (plain old telephone) line.
Installing a demarcation box would not be a bad idea once this is all
figured out.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:25 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

Peeopl have a lot more things than just phones connected to their
phone line.

Try unplugging all of them, but one. The unplug that one and give the
line time to reset at the phone company office. Then plug in a
different one.

Consider your burglar alarm dialer, your modem, your caller-id box,
your cordless phone, your wired phone, your answering machine, and
maybe even specialty things most people don't have, like a central
redial box, an indicator light.

Go into each room to help yourself remember what is in there.


Did you drive any nails that could possibly have hit a wire. Just get
one phone working and then you can take your time getting the rest.
90 per half hour is a lot of money.

"Jerry" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 20, 2:57 pm, Jethro wrote:

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.


One thing people sometimes forget about when checking out their phone
lines is the burglar alarm. If you have an alarm system with a phone
connection, don't forget to disconnect that.

Note that if this applies to you, make sure you call the alarm company
FIRST, and tell them, so they don't call for a police response thinking the
place is being attacked. Yeah, a faulty 'line seizure' block could add
static. Note that if it is a real fancy system, it may have an embedded cell
phone link as well.

aem sends...

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:47 GMT, Jethro wrote:

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:05:32 GMT, "dadiOH"
wrote:

Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can
suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite
the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

I really think as I was working on the problem, that there were
several 5-minute periods during which there were none connected.
There was one point when I had disconnected the actual wires from all
the plugs. And then I connected them back and re-plugged the phones
thereto.

One at a time, checking after each one is plugged in? Or all at once?
All at once just puts you back werhere you were.

Which is where I am now. I would go out and buy a few
hundred feet of wiring and re-do same, but I would have to crawl under
my house, and since I am a handicapped senior citizen, that's really
not feasible. If I could only find my kids. But that's my problem.
Thanks anyway

Jethro

"Jethro" wrote in message
...
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks


If you don't have a modern plug in demarc box, you might
still have a porcelin arrester with carbons in them. You might have taken
a overvoltage strike, and one of them is shorted out. They are usally in the
basement.
The newer ones are small with the round carbons inside.




Jethro

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:28:34 -0700, RickH
wrote:

On Aug 20, 7:03 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:44:13 -0700, RickH





wrote:
On Aug 20, 6:24 pm, Jethro wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:18:12 GMT, Ken wrote:
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer is
'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here until
Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone can suggest
something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning at
10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a horrible
'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that renders
conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non working as a
result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine. Obviously,
then, the problem must be in my house somewhere, despite the fact that
I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the outlets
one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of you
can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Thanks

Jethro

As others have suggested, you should disconnect ALL other devices
connected to the phone wiring inside the house. Then try your phone.

If I read you right, I think I have done just that. And the buzzing
still existed.

If the buzzing still exists, disconnect the house wiring from the phone
company line at the box outside, and place an ohmmeter across the inside
tip and ring while all devices (phones etc.) are disconnected to see if
there is a short.

I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?

Thanks

Jethro- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors.

Hmmm
At the outside box, my house wires (blue-green-yellow-black) are
stripped and connected into the phone company's plug. I saw no
plug/jack arrangement. Blue & green are the colors common to all my
house 'jacks'.

You can pick up a cheap polarity tester from radio shack to
test the proper polarity of your jacks. But your problem is probably
not polarity since the system worked before.

I agree. I do have a good tester already.

You need to get every
phone device off of your inside wiring and disconnect the demarcation
box.

I guess by 'demarcation box' you mean the phone company's outside box?



Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts.

I will tomorrow.

Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.

I seem to get a hum no matter which one phone I try.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If all the logic/continuity checks above check out ok, then its
probably induced hum from the AC line. Has it been raining there a
lot this week?

Sure has - several inches.

Jethro

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:03:50 GMT, Jethro wrote:


- Show quoted text -

Tip and Ring comes from the old days when phones were connected using
a "phone plug" and "phone jack", the same 1/4 inch plug/jack that is
used today to connect audio like electric guitar and headphones. The
tip was the tip of the plug and the ring was the shank. If your house
uses standard color code then the tip is green and the ring is red, or
the tip is black and the ring is yellow, but dont depend on those
colors.

Hmmm
At the outside box, my house wires (blue-green-yellow-black) are
stripped and connected into the phone company's plug. I saw no
plug/jack arrangement. Blue & green are the colors common to all my
house 'jacks'.

Didn't you say early on that you unpllugged the house from the phone
company? That plug/jack will do just fine to get rid of the voltage
in the hosue wiring.

My house only 28 years old, was built without a plug/jack outside, but
the phone company put one in for free (in the long run to save
themselves money, because they couldn't otherwise expect a customer to
be able to tell his house's problems from theirs.)

To get infinite resistance between the tip and ring, or whaever are
your two wires, you have to have everything with a bell or ringer
unplugged from the phone wiring in your house. And probbaly
everything that doesnt' have a ringer also. It's the wires that are
supposed to be separated from each other, not the appliances that plug
into them.


Now that I see you have done, properly I hope, the first set of tests,
I should tell you that I have suffered from hum for several years. I
did the Disconnect Everything tests and didn't find the problem. Then
because I was short of time, and I hadn't been able to use the phone
for a day, I ran some phone line from my computer, out the window, and
plugged into what I think RickH has been calling the demarcation, the
box outside the house. A bit later I plugged a phone in next to the
computer, and I ran a wire to my bedroom.

I ran that way for a year, until I had some time and was determined to
find the problem. I connedted things back the original way, and every
thing worked fine. For a year or two, then the hum was back.

This time I spent more time trying to solve the problem. My house has
insdie in the basement a little connection block where several sets of
phone wires are pushed into pinch connections, one set was original
with the house, one set I used to run phone line to the basement and
the master bedroom (where the original owner had sheet-rocked over the
phone jack) and the attic and the bathroom.

Anotehr set, of only two, I put in and it went to a jack 6 inches away
for use by my burglar alarm, and I think there was a 4th set but I
don't remember what it was for.

The wire is cut short with this type of device, when connections are
made by pros, but when I make the connections I live a few inches of
wire beyond the pinch connector.

Anyhow, if you have a connection place anything like this and you have
more than one set of wires, you can disconnect one set, and find out
if the hum is in that one or the others. In my case the hum was in my
set. Maybe mice? I only need two wires and I've run four, so I
should disconnect the red or the green and replace it with the yellow
or black. If that doesn't fix it I should replace the other. You
would use your colors. But I've been busy.

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:24:00 GMT, Jethro wrote:


I can disconnect the wiring from the company line at the outside box
okay. But I don't understand what you mean by 'tip and ring'. Please
excuse my ignorance. If you are saying to take an ohmage reading of
the two wires I disconnect there (with all inside phones etc
disconnected) then I can do that. I should get zero?


No, zero would mean some sort of short.

A low value might mean a phone was connected and off the hook. It
would have to be an old phone with a magnetic bell to give a reading
close to zero.

BTW, my hum had nothing to do with wet weather. I'm thinking maybe I
pinched the wire when it ran through the attic. I may have put
plywood over it and then stepped on the plywood. (I don't think I did
that because I took precautions against that, but I'm running out of
ideas.)

Thanks

Jethro

Jethro wrote:

The buzz is almost certainly electrical.

Flip off all circuit breakers. No buzz?

Turn 'em on one at a time until the buzz returns. Find the device on
that circuit that's the culprit.

It could be a bad florescent ballast, a bad CFL bulb, a motor (like
on the fridge), an electric clock, almost anything.

If, however, turning off the whole house does not remove the buzz,
I'm stumped.


I should also add - we had a 7 hour outage last Friday. Makes one
wonder eh?


Maybe the power company has a leaky transformer, a defective reclosure,
something.

If you get the power company involved, they will, I promise, respond much
faster than the telephone company. They've got vehicles chock-a-block full
of radio receivers that can pick up their "static."

Another trick you can try. Take a sledge hammer to the light poles, the ones
that have transformers hanging from them (looks like a garbage can). Give
the pole a mighty whack and see if the static goes away. You may need a
helper to tell you if the static goes away.

Still, the power outage you experienced, and the resulting surge when it
came back on, may have wounded something electrical at your house.

Jethro wrote:
The buzz is almost certainly electrical.

Flip off all circuit breakers. No buzz?

Turn 'em on one at a time until the buzz returns. Find the device on
that circuit that's the culprit.

It could be a bad florescent ballast, a bad CFL bulb, a motor (like
on the fridge), an electric clock, almost anything.

If, however, turning off the whole house does not remove the buzz,
I'm stumped.


Good God! I didn't think of that! I'll do that in the AM.
Thanks

I often think unthinkable thoughts. Glad I was able to give you an idea.

Back to my writing: I'm writing a book whose working title is "Toilet Tissue
Origami - The Ultimate Book for the John."

RickH wrote:

....





Using a multimeter test one of your inside jacks for voltage to
ensure that there is no current on your inside line, test both DC and
AC there should be zero volts.

I will tomorrow.


Then test the ohms of the internal
wiring it should be at infinity. Then short out one of the inside
jacks (tip/ring) (make sure you are disconnected from phone company),
measure ohms again, the line should go to zero ohms. If all this
checks out then plug in your "best phone" and see if you get hum.

I seem to get a hum no matter which one phone I try.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


If all the logic/continuity checks above check out ok, then its
probably induced hum from the AC line. Has it been raining there a
lot this week?



Also test for voltage and then continuity between each of the lines (tip/ring)
and ground. Again, it should be zero volts and infinity ohms.
But this hum/buzz sounds like one of the lines has a short to ground somewhere.

In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:


Another trick you can try. Take a sledge hammer to the light poles, the ones
that have transformers hanging from them (looks like a garbage can). Give
the pole a mighty whack and see if the static goes away.

But, the OP is a senior citizen. He'll either give himself a stroke, or
the neighbors will think he escaped from the local dementia farm.

aemeijers wrote:
"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:07pyi.1016$Uf7.474@trnddc06...
Jethro wrote:
I hate to ask this question - as I expect the most logical answer
is 'it could be anything'. But since the repairman can't get here
until Thursday, I thought I would throw it out to see if anyone
can suggest something.

It seems my 4 house phones were all working just fine this morning
at 10AM. The this afternoon, I discovered that there is a
horrible 'buzzing' or 'humming' kind of sound on the line that
renders conversation impossible, and in fact my dial-up is non
working as a result as well.

I have tried connecting a spare phone outside to the phone company
box, and there is no noise there, and the phone works fine.
Obviously, then, the problem must be in my house somewhere,
despite the fact that I did nothing to cause a problem.

I have tried disconnecting red/green wires from each of the
outlets one outlet at a time, but have ended up with no
improvement.

Since the repairman wants $90/half hour, I am hoping someone of
you can suggest something I can try. I have until Thursday!

Try unplugging all phones (and modem) for 5-10 minutes.

And then plug them back in one at a time, checking for the buzz
each time.

Thank you, forgot to add that important instruction.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

This AM it is raining cats and dogs. Despite that, I tripped the main
breaker in the outside circuit breaker box to disable all electricity
into my house. My hope was that the buzzing would be gone. Alas,
such is not the case - still have the buzzing. Next I completely
disabled my burglar alarm - disconnected the 110V source power to it
plus I removed its backup battery. It is now dead. I wish I could
say the same for the buzzing. Still there.

I am thinking that since the buzzing is gone in a phone connected JUST
to the outside phone box (?called a demarcation box?) using an extra
corded phone I have, that the problem has to be in my house. I would
think that if a surge had damaged the outside phone box, that this
test would have shown buzzing there also.

I am thinking of running one length of phone wire from the outside box
to one phone inside the house (I have one near a close window). I'll
betcha the buzzing will be gone, in which case, I would have to
replace all the wiring one phone outlet at a time. This will be
difficult for this senior citizen.

BTW, I can see me sledge hammering the telephone pole - but no worry,
I don't have one. My phone wiring is underground (at least within
this development).

Thanks all

Jethro

Jethro wrote:
This AM it is raining cats and dogs. Despite that, I tripped the main
breaker in the outside circuit breaker box to disable all electricity
into my house. My hope was that the buzzing would be gone. Alas,
such is not the case - still have the buzzing. Next I completely
disabled my burglar alarm - disconnected the 110V source power to it
plus I removed its backup battery. It is now dead. I wish I could
say the same for the buzzing. Still there.

I am thinking that since the buzzing is gone in a phone connected JUST
to the outside phone box (?called a demarcation box?) using an extra
corded phone I have, that the problem has to be in my house. I would
think that if a surge had damaged the outside phone box, that this
test would have shown buzzing there also.

I am thinking of running one length of phone wire from the outside box
to one phone inside the house (I have one near a close window). I'll
betcha the buzzing will be gone, in which case, I would have to
replace all the wiring one phone outlet at a time. This will be
difficult for this senior citizen.

BTW, I can see me sledge hammering the telephone pole - but no worry,
I don't have one. My phone wiring is underground (at least within
this development).

The whacking on the LIGHT pole (not the TELEPHONE pole) is to irritate an
intermittant electrical connection. After the whack, if the buzz changes,
the problem is probably with the transformer on the pole you bothered.

On Aug 21, 5:43 am, Jethro wrote:
This AM it is raining cats and dogs. Despite that, I tripped the main
breaker in the outside circuit breaker box to disable all electricity
into my house. My hope was that the buzzing would be gone. Alas,
such is not the case - still have the buzzing. Next I completely
disabled my burglar alarm - disconnected the 110V source power to it
plus I removed its backup battery. It is now dead. I wish I could
say the same for the buzzing. Still there.

I am thinking that since the buzzing is gone in a phone connected JUST
to the outside phone box (?called a demarcation box?) using an extra
corded phone I have, that the problem has to be in my house. I would
think that if a surge had damaged the outside phone box, that this
test would have shown buzzing there also.

I am thinking of running one length of phone wire from the outside box
to one phone inside the house (I have one near a close window). I'll
betcha the buzzing will be gone, in which case, I would have to
replace all the wiring one phone outlet at a time. This will be
difficult for this senior citizen.

BTW, I can see me sledge hammering the telephone pole - but no worry,
I don't have one. My phone wiring is underground (at least within
this development).

Thanks all

Jethro

If you have 2 pairs (4 wire cable) running through your entire house
already then you can also switch to a different pair, or just switch
one of the wires for a different one. You only need 2 wires, the
other 2 just sit there (unless you have 2 lines). When you run the
new feed in, maybe connect it to the unused pair of your existing
wiring, then see if that gives you no hum at your most distant jack
(you'll have to switch to the new wire at that jack too). If ok, then
all you'll have to do is swicth to the new wire at each jack and know
that the previous wire is undependable.

I know this doesn't help but for new construction this is why it's
always better to "home run" each room to a terminal strip instead of
daisy chaining the jacks. So a problem with any single room can be
made to not affect the whole house, by just switching pairs or
disconnecting the offending room. More wire but it's worth it
someday.

If worse comes to worse you can rewire one good jack nearby the
security panel, then replace all your phones with a wireless base
station.

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:48:02 -0700, RickH
wrote:

On Aug 21, 5:43 am, Jethro wrote:
This AM it is raining cats and dogs. Despite that, I tripped the main
breaker in the outside circuit breaker box to disable all electricity
into my house. My hope was that the buzzing would be gone. Alas,
such is not the case - still have the buzzing. Next I completely
disabled my burglar alarm - disconnected the 110V source power to it
plus I removed its backup battery. It is now dead. I wish I could
say the same for the buzzing. Still there.

I am thinking that since the buzzing is gone in a phone connected JUST
to the outside phone box (?called a demarcation box?) using an extra
corded phone I have, that the problem has to be in my house. I would
think that if a surge had damaged the outside phone box, that this
test would have shown buzzing there also.

I am thinking of running one length of phone wire from the outside box
to one phone inside the house (I have one near a close window). I'll
betcha the buzzing will be gone, in which case, I would have to
replace all the wiring one phone outlet at a time. This will be
difficult for this senior citizen.

BTW, I can see me sledge hammering the telephone pole - but no worry,
I don't have one. My phone wiring is underground (at least within
this development).

Thanks all

Jethro

If you have 2 pairs (4 wire cable) running through your entire house
already then you can also switch to a different pair, or just switch
one of the wires for a different one. You only need 2 wires, the
other 2 just sit there (unless you have 2 lines). When you run the
new feed in, maybe connect it to the unused pair of your existing
wiring, then see if that gives you no hum at your most distant jack
(you'll have to switch to the new wire at that jack too). If ok, then
all you'll have to do is swicth to the new wire at each jack and know
that the previous wire is undependable.

I just got back from the doctor who keeps me alive.
As it happens, I do have a second line, but just to my computer room
that I used back when I only had dialup and not cable ISP. I had a
separate line for the dialup, long since cancelled. The wires are
still in the outside box, so I did what you suggest. The computer
room phone is terrible! The interference is twice as bad, if that is
possible, Anyway, I guess that won't work. Good idea though.

I know this doesn't help but for new construction this is why it's
always better to "home run" each room to a terminal strip instead of
daisy chaining the jacks. So a problem with any single room can be
made to not affect the whole house, by just switching pairs or
disconnecting the offending room. More wire but it's worth it
someday.

If worse comes to worse you can rewire one good jack nearby the
security panel, then replace all your phones with a wireless base
station.

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:44:55 GMT, Jethro wrote:

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:48:02 -0700, RickH
wrote:

On Aug 21, 5:43 am, Jethro wrote:
This AM it is raining cats and dogs. Despite that, I tripped the main
breaker in the outside circuit breaker box to disable all electricity
into my house. My hope was that the buzzing would be gone. Alas,
such is not the case - still have the buzzing. Next I completely
disabled my burglar alarm - disconnected the 110V source power to it
plus I removed its backup battery. It is now dead. I wish I could
say the same for the buzzing. Still there.

I am thinking that since the buzzing is gone in a phone connected JUST
to the outside phone box (?called a demarcation box?) using an extra
corded phone I have, that the problem has to be in my house. I would
think that if a surge had damaged the outside phone box, that this
test would have shown buzzing there also.

I am thinking of running one length of phone wire from the outside box
to one phone inside the house (I have one near a close window). I'll
betcha the buzzing will be gone, in which case, I would have to
replace all the wiring one phone outlet at a time. This will be
difficult for this senior citizen.

BTW, I can see me sledge hammering the telephone pole - but no worry,
I don't have one. My phone wiring is underground (at least within
this development).

Thanks all

Jethro

If you have 2 pairs (4 wire cable) running through your entire house
already then you can also switch to a different pair, or just switch
one of the wires for a different one. You only need 2 wires, the
other 2 just sit there (unless you have 2 lines). When you run the
new feed in, maybe connect it to the unused pair of your existing
wiring, then see if that gives you no hum at your most distant jack
(you'll have to switch to the new wire at that jack too). If ok, then
all you'll have to do is swicth to the new wire at each jack and know
that the previous wire is undependable.

I just got back from the doctor who keeps me alive.
As it happens, I do have a second line, but just to my computer room
that I used back when I only had dialup and not cable ISP. I had a
separate line for the dialup, long since cancelled. The wires are
still in the outside box, so I did what you suggest. The computer
room phone is terrible! The interference is twice as bad, if that is
possible, Anyway, I guess that won't work. Good idea though.

I know this doesn't help but for new construction this is why it's
always better to "home run" each room to a terminal strip instead of
daisy chaining the jacks. So a problem with any single room can be
made to not affect the whole house, by just switching pairs or
disconnecting the offending room. More wire but it's worth it
someday.

If worse comes to worse you can rewire one good jack nearby the
security panel, then replace all your phones with a wireless base
station.



I decided to run a new set of wires from the outside box through a
nearby window to the phone jack near there. The phone connected there
now works just fine, clear and distinct. Since it is a portable
phone, mama can carry said phone to whatever room she is in. Thus
marriage is saved.

Now what I need to do is instead connect the new wire to the wires
under the house going to that phone jack. If the phone still works,
then that wire is okay at least. If not - I have found the problem.
Only thing is - I am senior and somewhat disabled, so I'll have to
figure a way to do that.

Of course then I will have to attack the other rooms' phone jacks one
at a time (under the house) to find the trouble-maker(s).

So I guess I'll rest a while now.

Thanks all

Jethro