I have multiple landline phones in my house and all were working til a few days ago.At first I thought one jack was bad, but found out only one jack was good. We have optimum and had our modem checked out and it was fine and there is a 2 wire connector there which is good. I am kind of a jerk of all trades but never had to do anything with phone lines so any help would great thanks

 

Lets clarify a few things. You say you have several landline phones. But not really. You have a bundled cable system with phone included that you are using the former landline phone wiring in the house. Now only one phone jack works? Am I correct?

Does a phone work if connected directly to the model phone connection?

Which phone jack one is in working order? The one that connects from the modem to the first jack? From that 1st phone jack all the others should also work. If not then there is a break in one of the lines and most likely they are daisy chained. Am I on the right track?

BTW...Did you dis-connect the old "ma bell" system landline coming from the outside into your home from the main connection?

 

Yes it is a bundled system, yes the phone that works is connected to the modem,no I am not sure what that means

 

Before the advent of cell phones and Internet VoIP service, we had hard wired phone service from the telephone pole at the street level. The wiring within the house is your property but the wire from the pole is/was the "Ma Bell" property. You need to disconnect that wire from the junction point where it hooks up inside your house to your wiring. Tape the ends of those outside wire and fold out of the way.

Then, from the modem attach the phone wire connection to that same junction. It should have one of those phone jacks with 4 wires. See pic attached. Or something similar.

Now connect the phone to that box and see if you get a dial tone. If so, go to the next junction box and connect the phone and see if you get a dial tone. Keep doing that until you don't get a dial tone and that is the junction box that has a broken wire or connection.

 

Just a side note, am I really showing my age when I speak of Ma Bell? Who here remembers Ma Bell?

 

I do I remember going down to pay my bill. youngster

 

Since you have at least one phone working.... the problem is not at the modem.

You'll need to identify how your house is wired.
You could find several cables at a demarc location where it once connected to the outside line.
You could have one cable that starts at the demarc block and daisy chains throughout the house.

Typically the cable company uses a patch cord from their modem to any close jack in your house and then all the other ones are powered from that one.

 

while I was down stairs checking where the wires come in at I cleaned the green wire to hook a clip to it as well as the red wire and got 2.5 volts. Then I unwrapped the other wires and checked them and got the same voltage. Is this normal for a phone line? As for the wiring in the house my line for thinking is all the jacks except the working one are daisy chained and the first one in that chain is bad so all of them will not work. We had a pipe burst here a few months ago and the contractors painted over one jack and paint seeped in could that short the wiring?

 

It could be normal for the voltage coming out of a modem.
If the line was connected to the street and Ma Bell..... it would have 25-40v on it.

 

the lines are coming from the box outside the house not the modem inside so the voltage should be 25-40 volts correct?

 

If your phone service is with Optimum..... there are two outputs...... L1 and L2 on the back of the modem for the phone service. You should have a cord going from L1 to your house wiring.

 

Sorry about taking so long to get back here but,i have figured out the problem. First, i had to replace 3 jacks that went bad and they were the ones the other were daisy chained from. Next, there is a short in the pair of wires between floors which caused a short in 2 sets phones.The way I found that was I had power where they came in from outside but not to the jacks.When I placed a jumper between where I got power and one jack and found out I also had power on the other set.Now comes the fun part, replace or repair.

 

I'm not quite following.

Jacks rarely short. If the jacks were shorted.... you shouldn't have had any phones working.
You should have more than one pair of wires in the cable. If one pair is shorted.... use another.

Standard phone cable is red, green, yellow and black. Four wires..... two pairs.

Newer phone wiring is UTP style. Blue-blue/white, orange-orange/white, green-green/white and brown-brown/white. Eight total wires or four pairs.

 

when I put a jumper on the line to my bedroom the jack had power to it but did not power the other 2 on that line. After changing the jack it had power to it, the same thing happened to the kitchen jack. As for using the other 2 wires I never thought of that I will try that and let you know what happens. thanks

 

when I hook up the yellow and black wires to either of the 2 phones up stairs I have power coming in but it does not get to the jacks. the power will stop at the point that I connect the wires where they enter the house. Even though they are separate lines the same thing happens. The only thing I can think of is somewhere down the line the 2 lines are crossed and shorting both lines.

 

• Agree. Start at the beginning. Disconnect all wires from every jack. Pick one pair of wire colors. Begine to reconnect each jack one at a time and test before going to the next one. Start closest to the modem.

 

Before I read your post Norm201 I ran a new wire in from the NID and bypassed the 2 shorted wires trying to see if I could get 1 set of phones working and not the other, nope both sets still still worked off the same line. When I first started I used a cable tracer to see what lines went where 2 phones were downstairs spliced of of the cable to the modem. The 2 other wires to the two sets of phones upstairs with 3 phones being in each set.When we got optimum I ran the cable and the phone wires upstairs because my wife wanted them inside and hidden so I know that the only splice is to the downstairs phones. Either they ran six phones off of one jack and I screwed up on the cable tracer or some how the short is upstairs in one of the wires to the jacks. There is one other possibility that some ghost has taken possession of my phone lines and trying to drive me crazy.

 

Phones working, thanks for the help. on to the ice maker.

 

So now when you use the phone the ice maker has to be working!

 

the ice maker has to be working so I can get the cars running. the phones needed to be working to get the so I can call for ghostbusters to get rid of the evil spirit of not working appliances.