Non magic jack issue- no dial tone

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 4:29 pm

Sorry, I don't know where else to go. I have mj and love it but I also have a landline. For the last 5 nights between 6pm and 8am I have no dial tone on my land line, can't receive or make calls.

I have called bell canada and they are useless, they won't even give me a current usage report. They want to send a tech during business hours but I don't have the problem during that time.

Any ideas on what it could be?
no, I don't have security system.
no, I don't have any other timed device hooked to my phone line
yes, I have tried different jacks with different phones
yes I have left all but one phone disconnected over night, rotating the phones every night.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 4:46 pm

Did you reseat your modular phone cable on the outside box? You know where the main feed comes to your home before it goes in your house. Also maybe your inside terminal block is on an outside wall and the temp change it causing it to contract and expand, breaking connection. Sometimes the weather can cause a bad connection BUT I never heard of it failing at a set time, UNLESS it gets cold and the connection breaks..
Hard to believe that the Telco where you live won't come out to look.

Joe Sica

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:00 pm

The box outside has a plastic cover, under the cover there are two posts were the wires are connected. The wires seem fine and the nuts holding the wires are tight.
Bell is coming to test the line on Wednesday but they will be here during business hours, not the hours when I have no dial tone. I hope they can find something then.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:14 pm

r_pimpn wrote:The box outside has a plastic cover, under the cover there are two posts were the wires are connected. The wires seem fine and the nuts holding the wires are tight.
Bell is coming to test the line on Wednesday but they will be here during business hours, not the hours when I have no dial tone. I hope they can find something then.

For the heck of it I would take the nuts off ( one at a time) and clean the bare wires ( or at least look to see if there is any corrosion on the wires or nuts) Maybe just the fact of loosening and then tightening them will fix the problem. Since it is almost time for it to fail you will know if that fixed it.

Joe Sica

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:19 pm

Thanks I will try that tonight

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:29 pm

Let me know how you make out.
If that doesnt help I would then go to the next weak link, the juncition box where the outside feed comes in before it is sent all around your home. Could be corrosion there as well, though why it would only fail at selected times is beyond me.
Dumb question, MAYBE there is a flakey phone plugged in somewhere. If you have more than 1 phone plugged in through out out the house I would dissconnect them one by one and see if the problem goes away.

Joe Sica

maine-iac · Post by **maine-iac** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:46 pm

This is a business line, you say? Is your number being diverted to an answering service from 6pm to 8am?

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 5:53 pm

maine-iac wrote:This is a business line, you say? Is your number being diverted to an answering service from 6pm to 8am?

Good point BUT I think he only mentioned business in that they would only come out to look at it during business hours ( 9am-5pm I assume). He is having the problem later in the day after business hours ( theirs).
I could be wrong but I think that is the only mention of business.

Joe Sica

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:00 pm

no, it's a house line. We can retrieve voice mail during the dead hours from a cell phone or any other line.

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri Apr 23, 2010 9:40 pm

here's an update

I checked the line connections they are fine.

Tonight my wife was talking on the phone and she heard a click as if someone picked up another phone. There was no one else in the house and there was no one else at the other end. 15 minutes later she heard the click again and got disconnected. We are back to having no dial tone for the rest of the night.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:53 am

r_pimpn wrote:here's an update

I checked the line connections they are fine.

Tonight my wife was talking on the phone and she heard a click as if someone picked up another phone. There was no one else in the house and there was no one else at the other end. 15 minutes later she heard the click again and got disconnected. We are back to having no dial tone for the rest of the night.

Sounds like something is going on in the central office of the phone company.
Keep a log of exactly when this stuff happens as it may help them troubleshoot the problem.

REALLY WEIRD!!!

Joe Sica

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:13 pm

update.
last night was the first night we had a dial tone. I am curious to see if we will have one over night tonight since it is the weekend.

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 10:16 am

Hello all,

We had a phone all weekend and Monday. Tuesday the phone was out from 7pm till 8am. Wednesday the bell techs came and replaced the line from the pole to the house. The line looked like it was old as the house. The dsl was faster after but the phone still went out at 7.

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri May 07, 2010 11:18 am

Problem fixed, The phone techs changed my twisted pair from the pole to the office. It's been a week and the phone has worked every night so far. I still don't know how the phone would cut out at the same time every night.

Thanks for the help everyone.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Fri May 07, 2010 1:21 pm

r_pimpn wrote:Problem fixed, The phone techs changed my twisted pair from the pole to the office. It's been a week and the phone has worked every night so far. I still don't know how the phone would cut out at the same time every night.

Thanks for the help everyone.

MIGHT have been temp related. When it got cooler at night the wire(s) would contract and an open would expose itself and then when it warmed up it would expand and make the connection again. Only thing I can thing of. The important thing is all is well again!!

Joe Sica

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Fri May 07, 2010 8:22 pm

Hello everyone,
I spoke too soon earlier, tonight the phone went out at 7:30 pm. First time since the repair we've had a problem. I'm hoping it is just the rain we're getting tonight that causing the outage.

r_pimpn · Post by **r_pimpn** » Mon May 31, 2010 3:34 pm

Hello once again. The phone issue has been resolved. Bell came out on a Sunday and replaced the line from the pole outside my house to the office. It was nearly a 4 km line that was replaced. I have had a phone for over three weeks now, but didn't want to jinx it by posting early, lol.
Thanks for all the help getting me through this.
Take care.

bitstopjoe · Post by **bitstopjoe** » Mon May 31, 2010 3:42 pm

r_pimpn wrote:Hello once again. The phone issue has been resolved. Bell came out on a Sunday and replaced the line from the pole outside my house to the office. It was nearly a 4 km line that was replaced. I have had a phone for over three weeks now, but didn't want to jinx it by posting early, lol.
Thanks for all the help getting me through this.
Take care.

Whew heck of an ordeal......... Glad to hear all is FINALLY working.

Joe Sica