telephone line problems

[Billccm]

Hello All:

Our telephone line is giving us some trouble. It has a loud buzz, or hum, and
our internet dial up connection performance has degraded.

I took a phone out to our 'network box', and plugged it in. No hum, or buzz. I
reconnected the network box, and took a cordless phone back out with me. It
seems that I can reduce the hum by touching wires that are connected to other
phone numbers (at one time this house had FOUR phone numbers). I am not sure of
this is a clue, or not.

The phone company wants $85 to come out and troubleshoot, that's TROUBLESHOOT,
not repair. They have this long speal that they may not be able to make the
repair, and it will still be $85 hour. I'd gladly pay the $85 an hour IF they
would repair the problem.

So, any suggestions on what to look for, how to troubleshoot, or even a third
party repair person would be helpful.

Thanks for any advice. Have a nice day,

Bill

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Disconnect devices from your phone line one by one (fax machines, cordless
telephones, etc.) until the hum goes away. You'll probably find that one of
them is injecting the hum into your phone line. Look for anything that also
has a connection to AC power.

When you've found the culprit, you can look into repairing or replacing it.

 

[Jerry Greenberg]

Disconnect everything from the phone line. Connect one good known
phone to check if it is working properly. If it does not, disconnect
the house line, and then then try the phone at the telephone block
where the line comes in. If it is good there, then you know it is the
wiring in your home that has to be serviced. If it is bad at the block
where the line comes in, then the fault is the telephone company's
problem.

If your tele line in the house is bad, they you will have to have the
knowledge and means about how to troubleshoot the tele line. The
telephone tech will use a test signal injected in to the line, and
then follow it down with his analyser to see where the fault is
occuring. The tele company techs use instruments to quickly find
breaks and defects in their lines. They don't have a lot of time to
spend a lot of time to find these types of faults. For a residental
installation, they target to have the problem analysed within the
first 20 minutes.

It would be cheaper for you to simply run in a new line, and put in a
new set of jacks, than to spend a lot of time to find where the
problem is. This is if you can do the installation yourself. If you do
not have the base knowledge to do this, call the tele company to
re-run in a new set of lines for your home. This will work out to be
more reliable, and cheaper in the end.

Infact, in my own home I have 2 private residential lines. I had a
problem where when it rained outside, the phones would crackle and
buzz. After verifying that there is a fault with one of my internal
lines, I went out and bought all new wall jacks, and telephene wire. I
re-installed the complete wiring and jacks with all new parts. It
works just like new!

I have a feeling that some humidity was coming through one of the
outside wall vents, and getting in to some of the wire insulation. The
origional wiring is over 25 years old, and the insulation in some
places was starting to crack.

Before going through all of this, make sure you have nothing defective
connected to your tele line. This is most important.


Jerry G.
========

 

[Richard]

Disconnect devices from your phone line one by one (fax machines, cordless
telephones, etc.) until the hum goes away. You'll probably find that one of
them is injecting the hum into your phone line. Look for anything that also
has a connection to AC power.

When you've found the culprit, you can look into repairing or replacing it.

Where are you located?

Michael gives good advice. When you're troubleshooting it would also
help to know if anything was changed, added to, touched, opened up,
got wet anywhere on or near the telephone system prior to the problem
starting. Even if it's not directly hooked to the phone system. Like
an arc welder, well that's a little extreme, or dimmer .One going bad
can cause this problem as can anyelectrical device. So sometimes the
problem can be tracked down by turning off breakers one by one and
testing for the hum)

I've had this problem before and solved it for one client who had
this cheap 26ga stranded telephone wire running everywhere in her
house. This stuff can be very susceptible to hum.Replacing with
standard telco solid solved the problem. Probably because the original
was non twisted wire. I used to blame the gage but see the use of
22-26 ga wire with no problem but I'm still suspicious.

Also take apart all connections and clean up any corrosion you find.
Resistive connections could also be the cause of your problem.

Finally if you can find or borrow one of those "fox and hounds" which
you can use to trace the telephone wire starting from the head end
simplifying as you go. (you can also just trace it the old fashioned
way. ) Disconnect any unnecessary lines. I've found some weird things
hooked into the phone lines. In one building the landlord had lines
running everywhere and different apts were hooked into each other. The
clue came when the client picked up on of her non ringing "extensions"
and heard her neighbor talking on "her phone".

Let us know.

Richard

 

[jakdedert]

Good advice below and in the rest of the threade so far--BUT!--if this is
U.S. residential service, the simplest way to begin troubleshooting is to
follow the Telco's advice: Simply go outside with a known-good telephone
(self powered is best, but you can run an extension cord). Locate your
service interface, the gray box with the phone lines connected. Open it up
and you will find a modular plug just like the one on your phone cord. All
of your inside service goes through that one connection.

Unplug that cord from it's jack and plug in your test phone instead. Try to
make a call. If you've got a clean signal there, then you can proceed as
below. *If not*, the problem is on the Telco's end and they should not
charge you a dime for fixing it! In fact, you may be able to get them to
give you a credit for poor service.

First things first....


That said, for some reason (actually, ease of plugging/unplugging), I
installed a few jacks in my house with the hole for the plug pointed 'up.'
Bad Idea! Eventually all of those received some water from washing walls,
watering plants, mopping floors etc. Of course by the time that happened, I
had forgotten they even existed...having been subsequently obscured by said
plants, furniture etc. It doens't take much corrosion to completely short
out the little wires in a modular jack. It doesn't take even that much to
cause noise on the line.

Now, I only install jacks with the hole facing sideways (or even straight
down)...never up.

jak

 

[harrogate2]

Hello All:

Our telephone line is giving us some trouble. It has a loud buzz, or hum, and
our internet dial up connection performance has degraded.

I took a phone out to our 'network box', and plugged it in. No hum, or buzz. I
reconnected the network box, and took a cordless phone back out with me. It
seems that I can reduce the hum by touching wires that are connected to other
phone numbers (at one time this house had FOUR phone numbers). I am not sure of
this is a clue, or not.

The phone company wants $85 to come out and troubleshoot, that's TROUBLESHOOT,
not repair. They have this long speal that they may not be able to make the
repair, and it will still be $85 hour. I'd gladly pay the $85 an hour IF they
would repair the problem.

So, any suggestions on what to look for, how to troubleshoot, or even a third
party repair person would be helpful.

Thanks for any advice. Have a nice day,

Bill

One of the commonest causes of hum is an earth, or partial earth, on
one leg of the line. Otherwise, as others have said, unplug everything
except one basic phone, then plug each item back in until you find
which causes the hum.

 

[Billccm]

Well, to make a long story short, the telephone company (QWEST) repairman found
a bad ground on a transfromer three miles away. It took him four hours to find
the problem. No charge for the repair!

Thanks for the replies.

Bill

 

[Hugh Prescott]

While you are disconnecting phones check for telephone attached water / gas
/ electricial meters.

Had a bad problem at our house some years ago, lost our ability to do dial
up internet. Finally found a new line spliced in running to a new water
meter.

Found out that the water dept had appeared and told a daughter they were
replacing water meters in the subdivision. Nothing said about adding a
telephone connection. Workmanship was bad plumber quality.

Also found a cross connection to the phone line of a neighboring business in
a small strip mall. Was done by the alarm company, no asking for permission
they just found the main punchdown blocks, picked a line pair and wired it
up.

Hugh

 

[jakdedert]

Well, to make a long story short, the telephone company (QWEST)
repairman found a bad ground on a transfromer three miles away. It
took him four hours to find the problem. No charge for the repair!

Exactly why I stated that the absolute *first* thing to do is to go outside
and check the incoming line. I've had so many go bad...about twice as many
instances as 'in-house' issues--that it's saved me a lot of time. Even when
the line turns out to be okay, it's a useful first step in troubleshooting.

Thanks for the replies.

You're welcome...did you check it as outlined?

jak