In-active Phone jacks

I have a total of 5 phone jacks in my house. I only have one activated right now, for use of a standard phone line. I would like to "turn on" the other phone jacks and have them be active with my existing phone line. AT &T charges $130 to come out and do this for me. Is there an easy way to do this myself?

 

Sure you can not hard at all. But what and where is all the wires or how are they put in. Like look out side at the box do all the wires go out there? Can you tie them all in out there. or take a meter and readout the lines inside lots of times they just go from one outlet inside to another. its like you have to find out why they are not on. Its all in who or where did they turn them off.

ED

 

Ed -
Not quite sure I understand your reply. Looks like you need additional info from me. Tell me what you need and I will inspect the lines and get back to you. thanks

 

If you have 5 jacks in your house, it is reasonable to assume they were wired and working at one time. You need to figure out where they were disconnected from the working line. They may have been intentionally or unintentionally disconnected. Phones can be wired two ways, in one case the wire from the jack goes to a central point or junction, in another case the the wire from the jack goes to the next jack. In your case you need to determine how yours is wired and where they are disconnected before you can reconnect it.

 

take one of the working jacks off the wall and look at what color the wires are that connect to the red and green wires on the jack

now take one of the non working jacks off and see if the saem colors are hooked up

if they are diffrent then hook the non working jack up the same as the working one and see if that is the issue

 

If you want some more information on phone wiring, and a few pictures of how phones are wired, take a look at http://phonewiring.safewatchservice.com

As you can tell from the above replies, it can be very difficult for us to troubleshoot phone lines without seeing them. One of the best ways to troubleshoot phones is with a test set (buttset/lineman's set - whatever you want to call it.) The professional type are expensive, but you can actually make a cheapie set with just a set of alligator clips (Home Depot/Radio Shack), and an old wired phone. This helps you trace down which lines are working and which are not working easier.

You may also want to take a look at the NID to see if the house was ever wired for 2 or more lines. If so, some of the jacks may have been moved to another line.

If you have too much trouble, get out the digital camera and send me some pics of what you have (or, post them here, if you know how to link to pics - if not, I'll get them up for you.) If you need my e-mail, send me a PM.

Good luck!