I have two phone lines. Line 1 is not working, line 2 is. When I left the house around 7pm both were working just fine. Got home around 10pm and line 1 had only static when I picked it up. It is also busy if anyone tries to call it so no incoming or outgoing calls. I tried disconnecting BOTH lines outside for 5 minutes, then disconnecting both lines outside and EVERYTHING inside that was connected to a jack, including the power to the cordless phone for 5 minutes. Still the same problem. I can connect a phone to the lines in the box outside and get both dial tones and place calls. The only thing that I can think of is that the line coming in somehow just messed up? Please help. My husband does this kind of work for a living but he is out of town until Thursday night. We have an extra set of tools and I know a little bit that he has taught be like terminating a jack but I believe his line tester is with him. :( Is there another way to figure out the problem without one?

Looks like tou have a loose connection between the NID (the box outside and inside). Could be a screw. Check the wires under the red and green screws outside.

Could be a punch down block on the inside or various other methods.

Unplug the jumper outside, to avoid getting shocked and look for something loose or even damp spider webs.

I checked all the red and green screws outside and removed any and all spider webs I could find and the problem has not gone away. :(

Ok so on someone else's advice, I used an extender and hooked line 1 outside into the line 2 port outside and I then had a dial tone inside. Hope that might help.

How is the telephone distributed inside?

What does that mean exactly? If you mean what is hooked up to it, it has one cordless phone and a fax machine hooked up to it normally. I have had the fax machine disconnected since this problem started yesterday. I also have a corded regular phone that I have tried switching the cordless out with just in case. We only had the corded phone laying around in case the power went out though, it wasn't hooked up.

If it were me, who looks at wires as if they were a pot of spaghetti... I'd call the phone company and set up "inside wire maintenence" which is small monthly amount. Then, I'd call them back and say I was having a problem.

Dishonest it seems. Effective it is.

Hehe well as dishonest as that may seem, I would consider it except that my husband would kill me cause he will probably be able to fix this when he gets home on Thursday night. He does this stuff for a living. The reason I don't want to wait is that I'm 7.5 months pregnant and Line 2 does not have long distance on it so if something goes wrong, I can't call my husband or any of our family since they don't live close to us. Also we live in a rural area so according to the phone company, a lot of stuff is outside our local area. So I'd really like to be able to fix it before that if possible. :)

By distributed inside, I mean is does all the phones go to a central location which has screws or a punch down block? Somehing like this: LIN 1x9 Bridged Telephone Expansion Module - 47603-110 - SmartHomeUSA.com

Are we talkinh one phone or a bunch of them? A screw could be loose at the phone location.

There are so many different ways of distributing telephone that it becomes difficult to suggest what to do.

A loose connection is the most obvious choice.

The modules with the jumper go bad too, so even the jumper could be bad.

Is it possible to flip the lines and use call forwarding the other line to the line that can call out?

Do you have a cat? Maybe your cat has chewed through a wire. Thought I might mention it cause this has happened to me. Good Luck finding your problem

Once I got a dial tone only by connecting the phone to the box outside. If you can do that, you could make emergency phone calls from outside on the line that has long distance.

Ok well, I don't think we have one of those bridge modules or anything similar because I've never seen one inside the house.

Also, it's only one phone. I could take the jack apart and check it if you think that might help. The problem with that is that if I switch line 1 and line 2 outside, the phone works so I don't think it is a wiring problem with the inside jacks right? Cause if it was, I would have the same problem when the lines were switched. If I'm wrong just let me know cause obviously I'm not an expert here. :)

I do have a cat, 3 in fact but I checked all the wires they can get to and none of them look like they have been chewed at all.

Simone is right about one thing though, if I can't fix it, I guess I can always just take the regular phone outside to call out long distance if I needed to.

Ok well. I have no idea how but the phone works. I hadn't taken the jack apart or done anything recently. I've been checking the phone randomly all day and the last time I did, it had a dial tone. I can only assume Keepit was right and something was loose but I just don't know where it was loose at. Hopefully this won't happen again before my husband gets home. When he does, I'm going to have him check the whole system. :) Thanks everyone.

Again it's a how are things wired problem.

1) One jack with line 1 and line 2.
2. Two separate jacks with Line 1 and Line 2.

If we assume the latter (2) and assume that the wires originate in the NID and you switched the jumpers and the problem moved then the 1/2 ringer is bad in the NID. This also assumes that the same cable is used when you went outsiide, so the cable is eliminated. The 1/2 ringer is the thing with the jumper. The jumper is bad.

That is a known problem with those modules and there are test jacks without the jumpers. And there are modules without the 1/2 ringer which is better for DSL.

It could very well be a telco problem. Now the suggested troubleshooting gets messy.

You can always make a long distance call outside. Usually on lines that you cannot make long distance calls on 800 numbers are OK. You can check that and pick up a calling card.

Switching lines, forwarding lines or even running a cable through window would work for a few days.

You didn't mention whether you had DSL. Which adds yet another complication.

You should see the mess that exists in my house. DSL directly connected using a filter in the NID with a no electronics module and no jumper. Modem about 5' from the nid. Router in the middle of the house with one wireless repeater.

Then there is a mix of quad wire, bells, 500 series phones, star configurations and home runs. A real mess. About 12 jacks. 2 bells, 5 regular phones, some with the bels diconnected, a cordless with 4 handsets with a UPS system on the base, An answering machine and Personal emergency response system on a UPS. UPS also does a small radio and I-intensity lamp. One TV has a speakerphone built in. SOme jacks are 4 prong with a modular next to it.

Some rooms have two to three phones next to each other. A standard phone on the table (Member has mobility issues). One with a volume control on the headset (One member had trouble hearing), One cordless (so you can walk around in the kitchen). So, 3 phones within 3' of each other.

Yep, the wiring is a mess for today's standards.

Ok well phone is not working again so here we go, the jack the phone is hooked up to is both lines (1) according to my husband as are all the other jacks except ONE jack in the living room that has the lines on two separate jacks(2).

Also, we do not have DSL. We have dial up. Hence the reason we have 2 lines and no long distance on the second. :)