any telephone savy eggers here?

RRP

My "land line" telephones will call out but when I call in on my cell it just rings and rings, but of course the inside phones are not ringing.

Grillin & Chillin

Have they done phone work in your area recently? Sounds like a crossed wire like I had once. Call your cell from home phone and make sure you are seeing your home number and not another.

hornhonk

First of all,how long has this been happening and how many inside phones do you have?

Grillin & Chillin

Have they done phone work in your area recently? Sounds like a crossed wire like I had once. Call your cell from home phone and make sure you are seeing your home number and not another.

Matt

Do you have phone through your cable company or similar VoIP service? If so, just reboot the phone modem -- this happened to me once and the reboot fixed it.

CBBQ

I worked for 25 yrs as a repairman for AT&T, Southwestern Bell, SBC or whatever it was called on any given week. Grillin & Chillin told you right. Call your cell and see what # pops up. If it's someone else's number make sure you give that info when you call them. It'll make for a much quicker repair.

hornhonk

I agree with CBBQ. I did the same thing with Verizon, GTE, General Telephone, et al. 31 yrs. If that's not it,we will need more info. Another thing that's kinda common is if there are too many extentions on one phone line , there's not enough elec. to power all the ringers. Just turn a couple ringers off. This usually happens with 5 or more ringers on one line.

Celtic Wolf

As CBBQ said if it's actually ringing than you are looking at a crossed wire. The switch thinks you are connected, but you aren't. It is actually rather easy to cross pairs at the switch.

If there was an issue with the handset you'd get a fast busy.

Carolina Q

CBBQ wrote:

AT&T, Southwestern Bell, SBC or whatever it was called on any given week.

Ain't that the truth?! Sorta like AT&T/American Bell/Lucent/Avaya on the equipment side. Not sure, but Northern Telecom may have been worse! Gotta love Harold Green. LOL

CBBQ

I once had a woman screaming at me for the same problem and it turned out that her teenage son turned all of the ringers off because he was tired of her calling him from work and telling him to do things.LOL.

hornhonk

CW, if his pair is transposed, the odds are much higher that it happened in the field than at the switch...not that it matters.

Celtic Wolf

I am talking about in that little 6'x6' bldg that most folks haven't got a clue whats in it.. Not the main switch

Carolina Q

Hmm, if HIS pair is transposed, wouldn't that mean he could receive calls, but not be able to break dial tone to MAKE calls? Mixed up with another customer is a whole nother story of course.

hornhonk

That's called the cross connect box and that IS where something like a crossed pair would likely happen. Hopefully it happened on the lateral side of the box. If it's crossed on the office side it could be anywhere between the box and the C.O.

CBBQ

Just the opposite. Your phones don't care who's dial tone it is so they should always be able to call out. Not being able to break dial tone is usually related to a defective key pad unless you have a really old phone where the polarity made a difference. On the other hand, when the charge is put on your line to make your bells ring it'll only work if it's attached to your house. LOL.

hornhonk

I disagree, CW. THere are other things to consider other than a crossed pair. But I agree, it's the most likely. As I implied earlier, 28 volts will only ring 3-4 phones, any more and they won't.

Carolina Q

CBBQ wrote:

Just the opposite. Your phones don't care who's dial tone it is so they should always be able to call out. Not being able to break dial tone is usually related to a defective key pad unless you have a really old phone where the polarity made a difference. On the other hand, when the charge is put on your line to make your bells ring it'll only work if it's attached to your house. LOL.

Yeah I was talking about old phones where tip and ring made a difference. Aren't we all old here? LOL

CBBQ

I knew when the word "transposed" popped up. Lol.

hornhonk

Yup, we must be old. Any of you guys work in lead cable?

hornhonk

BOGBS...WRBYV.....oh, yea, I know a "little" about tip and ring! :woohoo:

Carolina Q

but what if you're color blind?

hornhonk

Not good, but it can still be done with a tone generator and a probe. That's what we did with paper cable. Not fast, but it works.

Carolina Q

These days, we don't even have to give 'em dial tone! The only reason we do is because no one would know that to do if they didn't hear it! It's all fake, comes from a server. Cuts down on the trouble calls, ya know? Voice quality sucks, but DT is perfect.

hornhonk

The last 5 yrs or so, I spliced fiber optic cable. A whole 'nother world! It was so easy I had a hard time staying awake.

RRP

Right after I posted that I had to leave to attend a visitation and just got home a little bit ago. To answer several questions:
No change in equipment here of late.
Not cable but good ol' AT&T underground wire.
Not aware of any repairs in neighborhood.
A total of 5 phones here (3 mains and 2 with satellite).
Cell said I was calling the correct number.

Next I took one of the main phones and started moving it to all the phone jack outlets. (when we built 30 years ago wireless phones weren't invented I think and since the jacks were cheap we had 12 installed and wired through out the house.)

As dumb luck would have it as I was testing the jacks I heard a recorded message from Walgreen's that my prescription was ready! even though the phone never rang! Soooo, I got on the cell and called our number and of course no ring, but when I picked up the phone just to see what there it was connected to my cell!

So I went outside to the box and plugged in the phone I was using to test with. Then I called my cell and it connected!!! Then I hung up and called my home phone from my cell and PRESTO IT RANG and I had a connection!

So I figured the problem was inside thus MY problem and not the phone company! For kicks I called my home with my cell and RING RING - IT WORKS NOW!!! I guess maybe breaking the connection at the outside box did the trick.

Thanks everybody!!! You people are a GREAT bunch of brothers I never had!!!

hornhonk

Did you plug your phone back in and then try calling with your cell? Did it ring?

CBBQ

I spent the last 6 years being a VP for the CWA. Sometimes, hanging in a 33 degree rain paper taping a wet cable was more enjoyable.

hornhonk

I was a member of CWA from the day I hired on until the day I retired, Unit 6171. Never an officer. Ugh, paper taping shorts and running grounds in the rain! Been there, done that. Once or twice I'd forget and grab the strand! ZZZT! Ouch! Where are you located?

CBBQ

St Louis

hornhonk

I might have to meet you there for a Bud and a White Castle someday! I was there 6-7 years ago for the American Legion national convention and had a great time. It's the ONLY time in my life that I've won..$230.00 :ermm: ..at a casino.

tach18k

Well is sounds more like your ringer was turned off, pluging in outside and then inside would not change a two wire set up, the system just isnt that way. Unpluging your powered phone, then plugging it in may have solved the problem. One things with cordless phones, if you disconnect the power to it, make sure the phone is in the saddle when appling power back on, sometime a power outage when the hand set is off the base, will reset the wireless channel to default and the hand set will not work, or in your case ring.