DSL problems on some house jacks

Signed up for DSL at beginning of March. Two days before my activation date the phone jacks in my basement started working intermittently. Most of the time I get solid static - no dial tone at all. One in a while I get a clean dial tone and can dial out and/or access DSL. I have no problems with the phone or DSL on any of the other jacks in my house.

I have a 15 year old house, the basement was finished around 8 years ago. I never had a problem in the 3 years I've lived here with any of the phone jacks. Seems too coincidental that the first problem I have is two days before my DSL activation. I've moved my computer upstairs to access DSL but that is only a temporary solution. Filters have always been installed on all jacks with phones/modems. I even tried switching filters thinking that a filter might be bad.

Any one have any insight as to what might cause connection problems on certain phone jacks upon DSL activation? TIA.

Reply to
jtd1973
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Nope, just a coincidence. If you pay for inside wiring maintenance, then call your local telco for a repair request. It might be something simple (I don't know your expertise level) like you didn't reseat the RJ-12 right or it has a dust bunny in the jack. In any case, since you're having problems with your voice line, then you should be working out the problem with the company that provides you with your dial tone, and the company that maintains your inside wiring. Don't bother calling the DSL company. They'll just refer you to the dial tone provider.

Regards, Scott

Reply to
Scott Packard

Do you have the ring and tip the same throughout the house (i.e., did you follow the color codes on all the wiring).

Do you have all 4 wires connected at every jack?

Reply to
Kay Archer

No, I don't pay for wiring maintenance and I didn't own the house when the basement was finished. Ring and tip to both basement jacks are the same but unsure if it matches the rest of the house. Wouldn't it have to if I only have one line and had no previous problems with the basement phone jacks?

Some more info: I have two jacks in the basement run in parallel. Both have the same problem at the same time now. Neither gave me any trouble before. Therefore I traced the lines from each of those two basement jacks back to where they are spliced. The method used there is the hack job of stripping the insulation back, twisting the 3 wires together and then covering it all with a wad of electrical tape. Don't know if this is okay or not but it looks like junk. Also, there is only one pair of wires inside the main supply line spliced to the feed lines to each basement jack. Someone else I spoke to suggested that I might need two pair of wires to each jack.

I guess the question I'm meaning to ask is if the DSL signal is always there or if an additional signal is sent through the phone line on DSL activation? If so, would the phone line then be more susceptible to noise/improper wiring?

Reply to
Jeff D
[some snipping occurred here]

Part of the DSL installation process is moving your copper pair in the central office to a DSLAM* which splits the voice from the data at their end. At your end are the filters which keeps the voice from interfering with the data (and vice versa).

To answer your question, yes line quality can affect your dsl signal quality.

Splicers for this size wiring is recommended. There is even a special pair of pliers for squeezing them onto the wiring.. No need for stripping and the splicers are gel filled to keep moisture away from the connection. A source that has worked well for me in the past:

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*What's a DSLAM:
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Reply to
Kay Archer

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