Oktokie:
O I am having a telephone problem - phone line has shorted out somewhere
O and my phone is always busy. I've looked everywhere to find the problem
O but it's out of my hand now. I am going to call in repair service and
O since it's due to my house's wiring problem...that they will charge me
O for it.
O
O Who should I call? Is there's another option other than calling my phone
O company? I think it will be expensive job looking for shorted wiring in
O my house :(
You would call the phone company's repair service, though you may wish
to consult an independent telephone contractor.
Before doing so do a couple of quick checks. Borrow a working phone
from a friend/neighbour (at this point all of your's are suspect). Go
to where the phoneline comes into your home, on the inside. It may be
near the electrical service panel. If somewhat new (built or updated
in the past three decades) you'll have a phone jack. This is called a
"demarc[ation] point" and everything outside that point is the phone
company's problem but everything inside is your's (assuming you don't
have a repair contract with the phone company).
Unplug the line cord to the demarc. It should be similar to telephone
line cords on your telephones: push up on the little tab and slip out.
You have now disconnected your phones from the telephone company.
Wait about a minute, then plug in the borrowed phone. If you hear a
dial tone the problem is in your home, if not, the problem is the
telephone company's. (If you don't hear a dial tone wait another 10
minutes -- I've heard of some systems taking several minutes to
re-activate a line that has been off-hook for some time.)
If no dial tone after the 10 minutes then (use someone else's!) phone
to call repair. You should not get charged as the fault is one their
side of the demarc.
OK, so if you get a dial tone, now what? Well, the fun begins! You
can either begin by disconnecting ALL telephone devices: telephones,
answering machine, Caller IDs, TiVo's, medical equipment that gets
monitored by telephone.... then using the borrowed phone to plug in
and test. Oh -- reconnect that line at the demarc!! Test by adding
one device at a time. When the phone line goes dead you've found your
culprit. (Uhh, you have checked to make sure all phones are on-hook
properly, right? We had one phone here which was picky about being
hung up correctly. It looked like it was on the base properly....)
Another option would be to disconnect a phone/device at a time and
check for a dialtone -- I've done both.
Let's see.. other quirkies. Any pets? They could have chewed on a
line cord, shorting out. I've heard of cordless phone batteries
dialing 911 when they get weak....
-
¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®
* Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to other and says "Dam!"
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