Phone has no dial tone DSL WORKS OK?

  • Thread starter ray b
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In summary: Have you tried at least two different telephone sets and two different phone cords? If you take a dead phone and plug it in outside, the outside line is going to appear "dead". I would guess it's the phone or phone cord.
  • #36
I have a problem similar to this. I have DSL and have checked the line outside at the box and it does work. I have no line inside the house. I have unplugged everything except the phone. I actually bought a new phone just in case, also to check the box outside. I have checked the jack and made sure that green was with the blue and red was with the other blue. Like I said the DSL works. The only thing I did see was a mess of cables at the outside box. I also saw a cat5 plug unplugged.
 
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  • #37
I solved the problem. It was the telephone wire plug going into the telco jack. It looked bad, so I unscrewed the wires and touched the new telephone plug with them and got no dial tone. I decided to cut a new telephone wire with a plug attached to it. I plugged it in and touched the green and red wires to the new telephone plug and got a dial tone. So it was wire plug that was defective. I installed the new plug and attached it to the wires going into the house. It must have been lightning or a surge because the plug was pretty beat up. It works fine now and save a lot of money on car insurance. Oh wrong commercial. :rofl: . Just happy that saved $95 dollars.:biggrin:
 
  • #38
much thanks!

my DSL is working but i got no dial tone, the test jack ouside of the house is working so the network is fine, but inside there is no dial tone so supposed the wiring is bad, but since the dsl is working, i assumed the house wiring should be fine.

I tried to get some asnwers from SBC 24x7 repair line, after being on hold for 20 minutes, it turned out the "repair department" person on the other side of the phone can't tell a phone jack from jack, she's obviously paid just minimum wage there to take repair appointments

so I googled my problem here, and guess what? thanks to you guys, I fixed the problem myself!

I realized from you guys that DSL is more tolerate and even if it's working, the house wiring still maybe the problem. I crosse-switched the outside box to use a different but no empty phone line wiring in my house, and it worked!

so now i knew it's wiring for the original line is back. With that i back traced to problem to the phone jack itself inside the house. Last night there were power outage, lightning and hailstorm, but the phone jack interface is clearly messed up, but rusty blues between the teeth.

I simply replaced it and everything fixed.

so i canceled the repair appointment and saved 95 bucks too!

thank you guys!
 
  • #39
Same Experience As Original Poster

I recently had the same thing happen, and got the same answer from the phone company technician.

A couple of weeks after having DSL installed by a technician, my voice service went out (no dial tone). The DSL installation technician had installed a box next to the main box in my garage, and enabled DSL at one of my existing jacks. That is, a dedicated DSL line inside the house, without filters on the non-DSL devices.

So suddenly one day I picked up a phone and got no dial tone. But DSL worked fine. Tried disconnecting all devices, including DSL, and reconnecting one-by-one. No joy. I scheduled a service appointment and girded for an argument if they wanted to charge for internal wiring problem, since it seemed too coincidental that a failure would happen so soon after changing my wiring.

The next thing that happened was that during the service appointment window I got a call from the service technician that he had repaired a "broken wire" at the local box a few blocks away. That fixed the problem.

Having been convinced that working DSL meant that the problem had to be inside the house, I asked how that could be. He answered that getting a dial tone takes two wires, but DSL needs only one.

I'm sure the answer is meant to avoid a ten-minute tutorial on how the phone system works, but I wish I knew more details.
 
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  • #40
I recently had a sililar problem. DSL was working, and I verified I had service to my home, but my phone would get no dial tone. Unplugging the phone at the jack where the DSL was connected would temporarily fix the problem, but after a short while the phone would have no dial tone again. Turns out it was a faulty DSL adapter ... this adapter was a splitter and had a DSL jack and a PHONE jack on it. We did not have a phone connected to the filter, but apparently the filter was opening a telephone connection through te adapter and essentially leaving our phone off the hook. Removal of the filter fixed the problem, since the line in that room is dedicated to the DSL anyway. WooHoo! Just wanted to throw this in, in case it may help someone else.
 
  • #41
Hello Ray

I take it you have resolved this problem well and truly by now the last email being 12-16-2005
Could you please advise what the resolution was?
I have exactly the same problem but the telco here in Australia says it's not possible. I suspect the local exchange has 'hung' as when they test from the telcos office the line rings, there appears to be no open leg or short and when I do put a short on the line, they cannot see it!
Else a leg is broken (as we experienced a noisy line before the line died completely) and we are receiving DSL somehow by receiving the Earth leg via the mains of the PC - or something!
N.B I have tested two different analogue POTS phones on all three outlets two different cordless and used an IBM tester also which indicates no line voltage or reverse polarity
The Telco still says I have a faulty phone?
Regards Greg
 
  • #42
I had similar problem but still no solution yet. I wonder if anyone in this forum can help me.

Telephone had no dial tone and check all phones + standard wired phone. DSL works ok. Went outside and opened the box and plug in standard phone and had a dial tone.I guess that means the telephone signal from outside is okay.

Tried re-wiring the blue and green wire and got the signal for a few hours then lost dial tone again. Repeat it twice and now the dial tone is totally lost.

It seems that the adaptor in the box works okay and I tested it with a standard phone connecting to red and green plug.

In the meantime, I realized that my DSL went red (restart) a few times
and not sure why. I am really interested in knowing how DSL and phone line physically work.

If I can figure it out with your help , that will be wonderful. Don't want to spend $100 + on the repair since I assume my house is okay and it is a fairly new home.
 
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  • #43
gregch said:
Hello Ray

I take it you have resolved this problem well and truly by now the last email being 12-16-2005
Could you please advise what the resolution was?
I have exactly the same problem but the telco here in Australia says it's not possible. I suspect the local exchange has 'hung' as when they test from the telcos office the line rings, there appears to be no open leg or short and when I do put a short on the line, they cannot see it!
Else a leg is broken (as we experienced a noisy line before the line died completely) and we are receiving DSL somehow by receiving the Earth leg viathe mains of the PC - or something!
N.B I have tested two different analogue POTS phones on all three outlets two different cordless and used an IBM tester also which indicates no line voltage or reverse polarity
The Telco still says I have a faulty phone?
Regards Greg

sorry I don't check this older thread to often
FIX was a broken wire in the juction box 2 blocks away from my house
test should be done at the OUTSIDE BOX at you house
my set up had a standerd phone plug inside the box,
where the pole line comes to the house
if you have no dialtone there it is the phone Co fault
and repair is free to you [under usa rules]
if that box give a dial tone then the fault is in your wireing and you pay for the fix or rewire it yourself

funny that today, I recreated the 1 wire DSL hook up by axident
I have had DSL problems for sometime [drops]
and was rewireing my inside connections to be sure the problem with DSL droping randomly was not my wires and or spliters
and wrongly corrected the wires giving a working DSL and no phone or dial tone on the first test
confermed that by disconnecting the wrong wire [black sb green ]
and sure enuff the DSL stayed working with just red wire only connected

anyway 3rd house call by bellsouth now ATT [merger] resulted in a compitant teck this time
who went outside and wiggled the house to pole wire and saw it was the cause of the DSL disco's on his meter
so in addition to my new inside wires [that were unneeded]
I now have a new pole to house line and steady DSL service as a result
 
  • #44
fenglpku said:
I had similar problem but still no solution yet. I wonder if anyone in this forum can help me.

Telephone had no dial tone and check all phones + standard wired phone. DSL works ok. Went outside and opened the box and plug in standard phone and had a dial tone.I guess that means the telephone signal from outside is okay.

Tried re-wiring the blue and green wire and got the signal for a few hours then lost dial tone again. Repeat it twice and now the dial tone is totally lost.

It seems that the adaptor in the box works okay and I tested it with a standard phone connecting to red and green plug.

In the meantime, I realized that my DSL went red (restart) a few times
and not sure why. I am really interested in knowing how DSL and phone line physically work.

If I can figure it out with your help , that will be wonderful. Don't want to spend $100 + on the repair since I assume my house is okay and it is a fairly new home.

likely tooo late also sorry
your on the right track with the out side check
and your inside wires are bad
I supect a mouse or chafe if it goes down after a few hours like that
I would rewire as a cheap fix
other test is what my teck did today
wiggle the house to pole line and listen for stadic
good luck
 
  • #45
Does unfiltered DSL sync interfere with the voice line?

If its a dodgy filter and your DSL is synced, try disconnecting DSL and test for dial tone then.

You guys are aware that you can have two pots lines and two adsl connections over a single pair now?

I dint know this :) id like 2 DSL lines so I am not competing with my brother for bandwidth, but i suspect the contention wouldn't change if i had 2 on the same pair anyway.
 
  • #46
3trQN said:
Does unfiltered DSL sync interfere with the voice line?

If its a dodgy filter and your DSL is synced, try disconnecting DSL and test for dial tone then.
I dint know this :) id like 2 DSL lines so I am not competing with my brother for bandwidth, but i suspect the contention wouldn't change if i had 2 on the same pair anyway.

afaIk the voice unfiltered can disco the DSL
and DSL unfiltered give a little stadic on the voice side
but should not kill a dial tone
but a bad filter can kill dial tone and or voice or DSL too
 
  • #47


This thread was helpful in tracking down my issue so I wanted to contribute to help others.

FACTS: DSL was good but no inside dial tone at the same jack. The NID outside dial tone was good, I could dial out and in using my phone number at the NID. However once inside I was unable to get a dial tone on any of 3 phone jacks.

The issue was that one of the 3 lines on my side of the NID was shorted out. I disconnected each line one at a time at the NID and checked for a dial tone inside to isolate the problem line and reran the problem line.
 
  • #48


I have this problem, DSL working fine but no dial tone, except that when anyone tries to call my telephone they get a busy signal. I live in an apartment building in NYC so finding the "box" outside isn't an option - everything's underground. Verizon insists the problem is with my wiring in the apartment.
I have disconnected everything, and tried to different telephones, even tried two different filters, but all I get is static at best.
Before I rewire the entire apartment (ok, the telephone wiring is at least 50 years old - literally) and discover the problem still exists, I was hoping there may be an easier solution. Reading through this thread has left me rather more perplexed than when I started.
 
  • #49


Diogenesis said:
I have this problem, DSL working fine but no dial tone, except that when anyone tries to call my telephone they get a busy signal. I live in an apartment building in NYC so finding the "box" outside isn't an option - everything's underground. Verizon insists the problem is with my wiring in the apartment.
I have disconnected everything, and tried to different telephones, even tried two different filters, but all I get is static at best.
Before I rewire the entire apartment (ok, the telephone wiring is at least 50 years old - literally) and discover the problem still exists, I was hoping there may be an easier solution. Reading through this thread has left me rather more perplexed than when I started.
If your phone company has an "inside wiring plan" sign up for one month. Let them fix it and discontinue the plan when the issue is corrected.
 
  • #50


Diogenesis said:
I have this problem, DSL working fine but no dial tone, except that when anyone tries to call my telephone they get a busy signal. I live in an apartment building in NYC so finding the "box" outside isn't an option - everything's underground. Verizon insists the problem is with my wiring in the apartment.
I have disconnected everything, and tried to different telephones, even tried two different filters, but all I get is static at best.
Before I rewire the entire apartment (ok, the telephone wiring is at least 50 years old - literally) and discover the problem still exists, I was hoping there may be an easier solution. Reading through this thread has left me rather more perplexed than when I started.

you should have a junction box somewhere in your building
where the under ground wires enter the building
maybe in the eltric meter room or basement
your building super should know where it is
or ask your tel corp to check their area junction box
as I have had that fix my problem before
 
  • #51


I rewired and discovered the prob. The phone line was completely shorted (both wires firmly in contact with each other), so I have no idea why the DSL was still working.
Anyway, prob. solved.
 
  • #52


the DSL is a aproz 2Mhz RF signal, that rides along your copper pair from the mux in the exchange, when you install the DSL you install a small filter before the phone lines to filter out the RF,

They are basically on 2 separate system, until your copper pair, that copper pair carries your 2 way audio, your ring volts, and now your DSL RF signal.

I expect your DSL filter may have been faulty, and shorting to internal phone pair, AFTER pulling off the RF that goes to your modem.

that would have been the first thing I would have replaced.
 
  • #53


I have a similar problem. I have two connections, one on the first floor and the other on the second floor. On the first floor the connection works great, phone works. On the second there is no phone service but the DSL works. I traced the problem to a broken wire in my wall. I know this because the wire shows 50 V potential difference at one end and 0 V potential difference at the other end (the only possibility is a break in one of the wires).

I'm somewhat surprised to hear that people don't think DLS could work over one line. There are two reasons for this: (1) mine is currently working over one line, (2) it is obviously physically possible. If you disagree with (2), let me ask you this, where is the neutral wire the radio broadcaster connects to your car radio? Also, the power company need only run one wire to your house for single phase power--same deal--for alternating currents there is no need for a reference or second wire.
 
  • #54


This same thing happens to me twice or thrice a times. Initially I though there is some super natural power which is helping my internet connection to work on :d
But then I realize that my phone wire wasn’t properly connected to the phone set and thus the tone was off. The DSL wire was properly connected so it was working fine!
 
  • #55


Me too :)

We live in a condo. We have a buzzer system that supposedly works even if you don't have phone service. We tried it without phone service and it didn't work - the phones didn't ring. Once we did get phone service it worked 90% of the time, then it gradually decreased until now when we press 6 nothing happens at the front door.

Today at 8:52am my internet started disconnecting, anywhere from every 3 minutes to 30, but about 24 times by noon.

When I got up (to my father pounding on my front door as he couldn't reach us by phone) I tried the phone and heard a buzz. I figured it was a filter so I unplugged every phone (we have 3 plugged in, but 5 jacks) and then tried 2 cordless and one corded in 4 different jacks, including our "main" one in the kitchen. All produced the same results - buzz and internet disconnect.

I tried a "dumb" phone (which isn't really "dumb" I guess, it DOES plug into power but worked when the power was out) and it doesn't do anything - no buzz, no sound. When I plugged in it's power it says "Extension in use". I tried it in 3 jacks.

Then I tried the cordless and got the buzz - 3 jacks.

Now I unplugged the modem and on all jacks I get nothing - no static, no dial tone, no buzz.

Obviously my DSL is working because I'm posting this. I have unplugged the splitter at the DSL and the DSL is direct to the wall - phones don't work. I tried a brand new filter and brand new phone wire, nada. The internet has been connected since I was playing around 30 minutes ago while no phones are plugged in.

I have the phone tech coming in tomorrow sometime between 8 and 5 (ugh) and I PRAY the solution is a botched wire in a box somewhere outside because if the problem IS in the building I'm totally screwed - getting them to do anything is like pulling teeth. I tried to get them to do repairs when the buzzer didn't work and instead I got the runaround - it's not OUR problem, it's the phone company. I had the phone company come and they said it's not a problem here (although now with this they may check more in depth).

Now that I've vented, my question is: could a faulty wire have been going faulty for 6 months and finally bit it, therefore causing both my buzzer problems and now lack of dial tone?

The thought of rewiring in here makes me want to throw up - it would involve busting a hole in a wall where the wiring enters the condo as the connections are all internal there, done by the morons who lived here before us. People who put up lights in the ceiling without using grommets! *sigh* So I'm praying it's just that external wire.
 
  • #56


I have a satellite TV service, along with the phone and internet services - along with the normal satellite connection, the PVR (digital recording/tuner box) was connected to the phone line by a separate cable in order to get updates and to order movies via the TV remote - turns out that by trying to connect through the phone lines , the PVR was in effect creating a connection that was not completed (sort of like leaving a phone off the hook) - disconnecting the phone connection fixed the problem!
 

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