I have Comcast Digital Voice with two phone jacks in my house (not including my telephony modem). Last night, I noticed that the phone in my living room had no dial tone, but the phone/fax in my bedroom did. I unplugged my living room phone, put it in my bedroom and it worked just fine. Then, I took the phone back to the living room and plugged it up, then called my landline from my cell phone. The phone on the dial-tone-less jack rang. I had a friend pick it up and we were able to hear each other, but there was static on the line and it eventually gave out. Does this sound like something that can be easily fixed by buying a $3 phone jack from Home Depot? I'd rather not get Comcast out here and charge me $50 for something I can do for less than $5 and 30 minutes of my time. My telephony modem has all the lights lit up that indicate normal operation, so that's why I think the problem may be with the living room jack and not with any inside wiring.

Also, my phone jacks are all baseboard-mounted and when I looked inside the connector, I saw a goo-like substance with the consistency of melted plastic or rubber cement. My other jack doesn't have this. Is this goo supposed to be there?

I bet if you look at the contacts, you will see they are black/green in color. If so replace jack AND line cord. Take note of color connections before dissembly. Good Luck.
That goo is not necessary for operation, It helps protect the contacts.

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Originally Posted by Stratmando

I bet if you look at the contacts, you will see they are black/green in color. If so replace jack AND line cord. Take note of color connections before dissembly. Good Luck.
That goo is not necessary for operation, It helps protect the contacts.

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Well, looking at the wires, I'm seeing two whites, a blue and a red. I took a picture of it...


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a65.../phonejack.jpg

I should also note that I have a security system hooked up, but I don't think that's part of the problem because I believe it's on a separate line.

On second though, I just disconnected the security system line on the box downstairs and I got a dial tone on that line. It may not be the jack at all.

You have twisted pairs, the white twisted with the blue is usually line 1(white to green, and blue to red).
white twisted with a blue wire is usually line 2.
If you only have 1 line, then blue pair may go from telco to 31x, and orange pair out of 31 x goes to premise(house) phones.
If you unplug the cord from the 31x and line now works, panel MAY have a problem. It should have knocked out all phones if you only have 1 line, or line seizure may not happen in an alarm condition.(can't dial out if one of those others are off hook).
If orange and white are line 2, then orange to yellow, and the white to black, if for a 2 line device, if 2nd line is for a fax, then orange pair to red and green on jack.