No Dial Tone

July 14, 2005 6:43 AM

What's wrong with my phone line?

Last week, my landlady and I got SBC phone in our spiffy new house. DSL was ordered too. It's always had a Hum on the line, but yesterday afternoon we discovered that we have No Dial Tone, but still a hum. The DSL self install kit came yesterday too, so we installed filters on everything and that didn't solve the problem either. There is also a security system, and it has its own "DSL Alarm filter" that was provided by the securityco tech. My landlady has already called SBC which will be checking the line today, but supplementary advice is welcome.

P.S. When we call into the number from our cell phones, the line is Busy.

P.P.S. (posted for by the grace of god, who used up her question and needs answers, dammit!)

posted by 31d1 to Technology (8 answers total)

questions:

- does your DSL work?
- were your DSL install and the SBC install simultaneous [i.e. was the line made live with SBC and the DSL, or were they staggered?]
- is SBC your DSL company?
- did the phone line belong to another telephone company before you went with SBC, or do you really mean "new" house where there has never been a phone before?
- does the security system work? Can you get the security system guys to test the line? Can you take the security system off the line or is it hardwired in?

Obvious troubleshooting steps are to go to every phone jack and unplug every phone or phone device and then wait 5-10 minutes and plug in one phone to see if you had a phone off the hook in some weird way. The hum is likely just random interference and not linked to the dead line issue, though it could IIRC, indicate voltage troubles on the line. If SBC is not your DSL company you should be able to call the DSL company and they will be able to tell you some things about your line from the phone call, if you want to go that route [assuming your DSL is down].

Basically the filters are supposed to be filtering out the higher-end wooshing type noise that the DSL makes coming down the second pair of copper wires into your house [each phone line has two pairs, one pair is used in this case for phone service and one pair for DSL] so a dead line is not a failure mode of the filters. A dead line is a failure mode of the telco turning off your line by accident, or a phone device left off the hook for too long. However, I don't know how your alarm system figures in to any of this. If the SBC folks are coming to check the line and you've ruled out "off the hook" as an option, I would either call the security people [just to have someone to chat to, really, there's likely not much they can do], call the DSL people if they're not SBC, and otherwise just sit tight.
posted by jessamyn at 7:16 AM on July 14, 2005

- does your DSL work?
No. Doesn't find server during config process.
- were your DSL install and the SBC install simultaneous [i.e. was the line made live with SBC and the DSL, or were they staggered?]
Both were ordered at the same time, so yes.
- is SBC your DSL company?
Yes.
- did the phone line belong to another telephone company before you went with SBC, or do you really mean "new" house where there has never been a phone before?
Old house - there was an SBC phone before.
- does the security system work? Can you get the security system guys to test the line? Can you take the security system off the line or is it hardwired in?
Yes, the system works. We will get the security system guys to test the line if SBC can't fix the problem. The system seems to be hardwired in. Previous owners evidently had DSL, because they left a wallmount dsl filter on the kitchen wall when they left.

The noise is a screechy hum, more than a whoosh, makes everything unintelligible on the phone when it does work. Will check the off the hook thing when I get home.
posted by By The Grace of God at 7:30 AM on July 14, 2005

Few possiblities:

1) Bad phone. Check with a known good unit. Replace if defective.
2) Bad splice or other line defect. Call Telco.
3) Line disconnected. Check your external phone connection box. Verify someone isn't now or in the past beige boxing you. Telco mistake. Call Telco.

We had a very similiar problem this spring but only when calling my BIL. After finally convincing Telus to check our line they determined we were getting cross talk and switched us to a new pair which resolved the problem until our garage roof wore a hole in our incoming wire.
posted by Mitheral at 8:14 AM on July 14, 2005

I would unplug all the phones, or leave only one that you know works then see if DSL works (assume that SBC activated your DSL and you ran the disc they gave you to configure it).

Also, maybe it's a bad filter?
posted by freudianslipper at 9:23 AM on July 14, 2005

You should be able to open the grey box that is your demarc (interface between the phone company and your property) and unplug the RJ11s for your house wiring. Then plug in a basic phone right into the phone-company side of the demarc and that will tell you if the problem is with the phone company or your house wiring.

If it's the house wiring then follow instructions posted by other Mefites here.

More on demarcs and testing here.
posted by ldenneau at 1:25 PM on July 14, 2005

Unplug all your phones for five minutes.

I had a similar problem when living with an inconsiderate roommate who left her computer connected to the internet all day to download music off of napster. Since it was dial-up, I couldn't use the phone. After she password protected her screensaver and left for a week, I just yanked the cord out of the wall. Seems that this confused the phone system quite a bit. Disconnecting all the lines in the house reset it.
posted by idiotfactory at 3:06 PM on July 14, 2005

The alarm modem may be stuck on, try disconnecting it and see if you get dialtone back.
posted by mbell at 6:22 PM on July 14, 2005

great answars everybody! It was the telco's prob. It's fixed now. Unfortunately my wireless won't work, although my DSL does.
posted by By The Grace of God at 11:28 AM on July 15, 2005