Safe to connect Obi100 to wall if no dial tone?
paladyr:
I live in a condo, and no one seems to be able to tell me where the network interface unit is that connects my phone jacks to the phone company. I have disconnected my service and none of my jacks currently receive a dial tone. Since I have no dial tone, no power is being sent over the line correct? It should be safe to connect the Obi100 to a wall jack right? Of course if the phone company should accidentally re-activate me it could fry it, but I may be willing to take that chance. Thanks!
CoalMinerRetired:
I say no, it's not safe for the reason you mention.
In a home where you can locate and verify the wiring from your premises to the telco interface are physically disconnected clearly yes you are safe to do this.
Condos and multi-unit apartments are not so black and white. Who knows where the disconnection is made (should be at a Network Interface, see here for more details), or even if it's made physically, or maybe it was done at the Telco central office or somewhere else along the wiring pathway.
Save yourself the trouble of having issues when some storm or technician shorts out the wiring somewhere along the line and out of your control, and use a cordless phone (or phones) to get dial tone in your living space. That same question comes up on here occasionally and the above is the collective best approach.
Lavarock7:
I agree that it is not a good idea to connect to the old phone lines if you do not know id they are disconnected. It can also be dangerous.
If you connect the PHONE port of an Obi to a phone line and the obi tries to ring the phone, 90 volts is sent down the line. If a phone company lineman is working on a pole on a line that is disconnected from the central office, he would not expect 90 volts to be coming from a subscriber premises.
There are toners that will trace the line to the demarc, but in a condo you will probably not have access to the telephone room, nor should you be disconnecting wires on a telephone company provided interface. In an old condo, that interface may be a punch-down block rather than the new network interface that the customer can access.
paladyr:
Okay thanks guys! I do have a cordless but I work from home and have an office phone with a headset that sounds slightly better. I work with people who are difficult to understand at times so I try to speak with them on a hard line. I guess I will put a request out to the phone company requesting they physically disconnect the line. Thanks!
P.S. - I know that they disconnected my service from the central office and not physically here at my condo. Also, I just got off the phone with them and they are sending a technician out to physically disconnect my line. Yay!
CoalMinerRetired:
Quote from: Lavarock7 on May 29, 2013, 11:33:58 am
There are toners that will trace the line to the demarc, but in a condo you will probably not have access to the telephone room, nor should you be disconnecting wires on a telephone company provided interface. In an old condo, that interface may be a punch-down block rather than the new network interface that the customer can access.
To clarify a point here. For the demarc, formally called a Network Interface, you have every right to deal with the wiring up to and including on your side of the inside of the 'demarc box' or punch down junction point (the metal bridging clips that connect the left side and right side of wires "punched down", search for "66 Block" for pictures). Not so on the other side, the telco side, that is where the telco people own and properly deal with things. When you subscribe to a landline service, the telco charges you for all work they do on your side of the box because it's yours, whereas they cover delivery of the wiring and dial tone to their side of the box.
This is the sort of catch-22 in a multi-unit residence, you are responsible for the wiring up to the demarc network interface point, but it's hard to find and to access. If you were in an rental apartment the property manager should do it for you. In a condo you should be able (i.e., freely allowed to) find, locate and access the demarc point. In reality it's not so black and white.
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