can't get home phone jacks hot

[mayhem69]

Hi, i disconnected my data plug and phone plug in my network box outside.  When i plug a jack into the phone port of the obi110, i am getting no dial tone with my other jacks in the house.  What am i doing wrong?

[RonR]

Have you plugged a phone directly into the PHONE Port of the OBi to make sure it's operating properly and producing dialtone?

[mayhem69]

yes i did and it does work, i have been using a 5 phone cordless system for about a month now.  Don't know if it matters but i did have DSL internet, recently switched to Comcast cable just before using the OBI.  In my network box there was a Data plug and Phone plug, i unplugged both of them.  I also tried 2 different jacks to plug into the OBI phone jack , but still no dial tone.  Not sure what i am doing wrong.

[RonR]

Be careful you don't connect a 'hot' line to the OBi as you could damage the PHONE Port.

Sounds like you've got the right idea, but only a multimeter and a little investigative work is going to reveal the answer.

[mayhem69]

I don't have a hot line being i don't have landline service any longer.  Could someone please guide me to fixing this, it would be nice to have all the jacks in my house working.

[OBiSupport]

Hi,

We like to provide some assistance, could you please send a email to our support team at support@obihai.com? we also need to know the 9-digit OBi number ...

Thanks,

[mayhem69]

Hi, email was sent, hope you can help me out?

I went outside to my network box again and there are 2 jacks.
A voice jack with 2 white/blue stripe wires on 1 connector.  The other connector has 2 solid blue stripes on it.
The data jack has 1 orange stripe and solid orange connected.
Support send me a reallllly long information packet about wiring.
I read but still do not know how to fix this problem.
Can anyone here help me out please?

[ProfTech]

From your description and the fact that you had DSL at one time, it would appear that your DSL splitter is built into your phone company interface box. With that in mind, there are usually two rj-11 jacks with two short cables plugged into them. For a simple test, you should be able to unplug the short cable from the "voice" plug and plug it into the "Phone" port on the Obi. The jack will be left empty. Since the phone company "box" is usually on the outside of the house you won't likely want to leave the Obi outside but this should work as a test and provide your phones in the house with dial tone from the Obi. The only problem you might have is if there are too many phones [5] plugged into the line in the house it could load the Obi too much. As the other person noted, just make 100% sure that your line coming from the phone company is dead if you aren't familiar with the wiring and / or use of a voltmeter.

*Side note* - If you had telephone service from Comcast, the DSL "box" may have already been disconnected from the house telephone wiring by Comcast and you will not be able to connect the Obi there.

[mayhem69]

I did take my obi outside to my network box and did what you stated.  I came back in and checked if i had a dial tone.  Funny thing is, i had dial tones on 2 of the 3 jacks i tested.  I know before the 3rd jack that didn't have a tone did work before.
Now what?

[ProfTech]

You didn't say whether or not you had phone service from Comcast previously but it really doesn't matter. If you were getting dial tone on 2 jacks in the house but not on others the only thing left is the wiring inside the house itself. You will probably need to get a professional to look into it once you decide which jacks you would like to be "live".

[M105]

On my telephone setup I have DSL coming into the house on line 2.  I have disconnected line 1 completely from the outside box.  I feed the output of my Obi back into line 1 so that it feeds all the phones in my home.

Now, what I suspect you are doing is trying to feed your Obi output into a jack that previously supported your DSL modem.  I suspect this jack is wired for line 2.  Sooooo, if I am right you are feeding your Obi output to line 2 in your home instead of line 1.  All the other phone jacks that your phones are plugged into are wired for line 1.

If I am correct, and you can confirm it by looking at the jack wiring, you can either swap the wires around in that jack so you are feeding line 1  or you can simply feed your obi into a jack wired for line 1.  Or you can get a splitter and feed the obi into line 2 on it.
---
Stated differently:  There are at least 4 wires feeding all your phone jacks.  One pair constitutes line 1 and the other pair constitutes line 2.   Compare the colors of the wiring on your jacks and see if the jack you are feeding the Obi into matches the colors of the jack your phone is connected to.  The middle two wires on the modular plug are line 1.  The outer two wires are line 2.

[mayhem69]

So are you saying i should plug my data line back in outside in my network box.  Right now i have my voice and data unplugged in my network box.
Also my house has some new additions with newer wire in that part (blue and blue/white stripe and orange and orange/white stripe.  The older part has i think 3 wires green, red, yellow?

I did connect another line, an older line to the phone port of the OBI and 1 jack upstairs did work.  I tried switching the wires around on the newer jacks with the blue, blue/stripe and orange, orange/stripe and that did not work.

[M105]

So are you saying i should plug my data line back in outside in my network box.  Right now i have my voice and data unplugged in my network box.

NO!  LEAVE EVERYTHING IN THE OUTSIDE BOX DISCONNECTED!  It is likely there is still voltage on the feed from the phone company.

What I am saying is that some of your phone jacks are possibly wired for line 1 and some are wired for line 2.  If you want the Obi to feed your jacks make sure it is feeding the same pair of wires on all jacks.  Swap the wires in the jack if necessary.  In other words the same color wires should be on the inner two contacts of all jacks.
Look at how pair 1 is wired on this site.   Either red/green or blue/blue-white are the normal colors for line 1.

http://www.ablecomm.info/wiring.htm

If that does not solve your problem, call someone who understands phone wiring to troubleshoot it.

[mayhem69]

ok, so i only need to use 2 wires then correct?  probably the blue and blue/white connected to the other terminals on the jack.
I did do this last night, i sat about 20 minutes at 2 different phone jacks and switched the wires around and could not get a dial tone.
Now i do know that when i got DSL service a few yrs. ago, they installed some kind of connector in my basement ceiling.  Maybe that has something to do with it?
Thanks for your help M105, i will keep trying.

[M105]

What colors are on the line 1 terminals of the jack connected to your Obi?
What colors are on the line 1 terminals of the jack to which your phone is connected?

They should match.

If they match and you still have no dial tone, then you have a problem other than a line 1 or 2 issue and you need a technician to put eyes on it.

[RonR]

If you look at the phone jacks on all your wall plates, you'll likely see they four terminals, wires, or connections of some sort.  Line 1 (which is what you want to use) is the two centermost pins on the jack.  These usually have a red and green wire connecting them to terminals.  Line 2 (which will remain unused) usually have a yellow and black wire connecting them.

It appears you have different colored cabling in separate areas of your house.  One cable has blue/blue-stripe and orange/orange-stripe colored pairs and the other cable has red/green and yellow/black colored pairs.

All the jacks need to have their Line 1 (red/green) wired terminals connected to the blue/blue-stripe pair or the red/green pair, as applicable in each area.

At the outside box (or anywhere else appropriate), you need to connect the blue/blue-stripe pair of that cable to the red/green pair of that cable to get all the jacks working.  Just don't allow any of the pairs to be connected to the outside world.

[mayhem69]

OK, i have a dial tone at my jacks and thought everything was good but when i call out and the other party picks up i hear nothing.

[RonR]

Is everything OK when using the echo test at **9 222 222 222?

Also, temporarily bypass your router by connecting the OBi directly to your broadband modem.  Power-cycle both units after doing so.  If the problem goes away without your router in the loop, you'll have located the source of the problem.

[mayhem69]

Finally got it working.  All i did was switch all the wires around on the connection plate where they meet in my basement.  Now all the jacks are hot and i can hear the other end when i call.
Thanks to all who have helped me with this issue.  I will never go back to paying landline bills, so now my house will always be ready for voip.