Solution to not able to dial out on phone (and not ringing?)

grw · Post by **grw** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:55 am

Telephony sages help me out here and chime in with your wisdom.

I just tried to change the phone cord on my Magic Jack phone and re-learned a lesson that I first learned years ago.

Touch tone phone keypads are polarized, but many phone cords switch polarization. For some reason when dial up modems were first installed on computers you had to use a special phone cord that switched polarity. Red went to green and green went to red. If you have one of those cords you can examine each connector and see what I mean. It got confusing, since all the phone cords looked alike.

If you used the incorrect phone cord, either the modem or the phone would not work. In particular, the phone with a Touch tone keypad would not work.

Most newer phones (the past 25+ years) have a bridge incorporated into their electronics so polarization does not matter. However, some do not, as I just learned.

I just pulled a shorter phone cord out of my phone supplies drawer and hooked it up. I could get a Magic Jack dial tone just fine, but I could not dial using the phone keypad. I reinstalled the old longer cord and I could dial once again. (Yup, the replacement cord switched red and green.)

Surprisingly, I am using a $10 generic phone that has worked very well on Magic Jack (draws very little current). But I also tried connecting the reverse polarity cord to my fax machine. I could not dial out. When I used the regular phone cord, it worked.

So, if you are having a problem dialing out (and maybe ringing) it could be the phone cord.

Does this help anybody (or just me)???

hwilli15 · Post by **hwilli15** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:08 am

Just helped me. Thanks for sharing.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:26 pm

1. Radio Shack
2. Home Depot
3. Lowe's

Sell phone line polarity checkers. They are over priced like everything else these days but you don't have to spend to much time going around in circles to justify the purchase.

I have the Radio Shack unit. I don't remember what the price was but spend a night in a night chasing some bizarre phone problem and you will be very glad you have it. It only has to solve one problem and you will forget all about the $12 dollars you spent for it.

PS - just for the hell of it I broke out my tester and my mothers house is wired backwards - Thanks guys not I know what I will be doing this afternoon.

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:54 pm

Only 1/4th of the whole MJ price LOL. But, it would come handy for other uses also. I think I am gonna pick one up. I did a little search online and surprisingly didn't find much on ebay or on online sites... Well of course they have them online (what DONT they sell online? LOL) but it was like 20 bucks... the one on ebay shipped from china for 10 bucks or something. So if the radioshack one was 12 bucks.... I think RS for once is not 10 times more expensive then other places....

Thanks
Kumar

P.S Is there any other name for it? I am really shocked how such a simple thing isn't less.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:23 pm

kumar wrote:Only 1/4th of the whole MJ price LOL. But, it would come handy for other uses also. I think I am gonna pick one up. I did a little search online and surprisingly didn't find much on ebay or on online sites... Well of course they have them online (what DONT they sell online? LOL) but it was like 20 bucks... the one on ebay shipped from china for 10 bucks or something. So if the radioshack one was 12 bucks.... I think RS for once is not 10 times more expensive then other places....

Thanks
Kumar

P.S Is there any other name for it? I am really shocked how such a simple thing isn't less.

Lots of names:

This will give you all kinds of results on eBay "Line Tester". The two I listed are priced very good with good shipping. By the way the model I have is Radio Shack but I couldn't fine it on their site. Model number: 43-2225. The second link I posted is one that look very similar to mine but mine does not have the surge protector.

Here are a couple of units that are dual or single line testers:

http://cgi.ebay.com/AJ-SPERRY-NEW-DUAL- ... 7C294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.com/400-028-Dual-Line-T ... 7C294%3A50

kumar · Post by **kumar** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:49 pm

OK... thanks!

Kumar

Kokkos · Post by **Kokkos** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:10 pm

grw wrote:...Touch tone phone keypads are polarized, but many phone cords switch polarization. For some reason when dial up modems were first installed on computers you had to use a special phone cord that switched polarity. Red went to green and green went to red...

Question, prioir to flipping the red and green did your phone dial pad dial the tones but no dialing just the dial tone?

I think this is my problem and I have a straight through 2 pair phone line (4 wires) I tried this with my older 4-line Panasonic that woked fine with MJ prior to the 12/21 update, but same problem, cannot dial out.

Thank you,

Kokkos

grw · Post by **grw** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:15 pm

Kokkos wrote:Question, prioir to flipping the red and green did your phone dial pad dial the tones but no dialing just the dial tone?

Here is my best thinking, subject to learning from people more expert than I.

If the polarity is reversed, you should not be able to generate any tones when attempting to dial. However, you can hear a dial tone, more than likely.

If you hear the key tones when you dial, the problem is likely something other than reverse polarity.

Kokkos · Post by **Kokkos** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:38 pm

Thanks, after reading some other posts looks like USB power reduced to bring better voice quality at sacrificing functionality.

Go figure,

Kokkos

isleblue65 · Post by **isleblue65** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 10:52 am

I did not check the polarity of my phone lines, but it sounds like the no-dialing out, but dial tone OK problem is unrelated to that. I ordered a 2000mA USB power supply and plugged my MagicJack directly into that.

http://www.windmilltrading.com/USBProds ... -224BK.htm

My Panaonic cordless phone still will not break dial tone, so whether or not the recent upgrade affected the signal power of the MagicJack, using a powered hub makes no difference in this respect, at least with Panasonic phone.

If anybody has a fix for the Panasonic issue, that would be HUGE. I'm unlikely to buy a new cordless phone just to get MagicJack to work. I'll either have to get used to using my old analog corded phone (which dials out fine with MJ) or just decide to stick with a cell phone.

Craig

Kokkos · Post by **Kokkos** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:14 pm

I confer usb hub powered does not fix short tone dial problem after magicjacked upgrade.

Tried Thin Cleint, Notebook, desktop etc...

pay anyone $50.00 to fix downgrading the upgrade.

Kokkos

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Solution to not able to dial out on phone (and not ringing?)

Solution to not able to dial out on phone (and not ringing?)

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Re: Solution to not able to dial out on phone (and not ringi