No dial-tone in house

[Yeillianora]

My phone worked perfectly this morning...and now not so much. I have have had service at this house with Qwest for about two years. The house is a 1946 so the lines might be old. As of about 2 hours ago I have no dialtone called Qwest and they told me to check the customer access box. I did so and I have dialtone there...
I have unplugged all the phones and then gone through and tested each jack. I get the same thing at each one which sounds like an open line with no dialtone. The only change is after checking the line in the customer access box I got a busy signal in the house but then when I hung up the phone and tried again it was back to the blank line....
Can anyone tell me where to start?
no I don't have line repair service :(

[suemarkp]

Did you do anything in the morning that may have upset a line -- removing a telephone wall jack cover, kicking one, plugging/unplugging in a phone or modem, or touching any wires near the phone box? It is possible that something finally broke or shorted or came loose on its own, but it usually needs some assistance by someone pushing on something. If you recall something like this, take apart that jack and look for shorted, broken, or loose wires.

If you have no idea where the problem originated, then it is a process of elimination. How many sets of wires leave your phone box and go inside -- just one pair or more than one? If more than one, remove all pairs but one and see if anything works. Keep putting the pairs back until things don't work and that will be the defective segment.

If you have only one pair going inside, you probably have a "diasy chained" phone wire which is one long wire that goes from jack to jack. One problem in this line kills all phones or all downstream phones. If this is what you have, do you have additional wires you can use that aren't currently connected? If so, try using a completely new pair of inside wires at the outside box and at one inside jack. For example, if the blue/light blue pair was being used inside, change to the brown/tan pair at both the phone box and at one (preferably the closest) phone jack and see if things work. If this works, than change all the phone jacks over to this new pair making sure things still work after you've changed each jack.

If you only have a single daisy chained pair, then try to see where it goes first and try to get that first jack working (look for shorts or broken/loose wires). If you're down to this level, it really helps to have a volt meter so you can see what you do or don't have. Write back with some feedback from the above and we'll see how to direct you next.

[Jacksnap]

If none of Mark's tips work, here's more advice. If you have internet access via dial-up, disconnect the telco jack from the modem and see if this clears the line. A bad modem can do this.
Also, a defective phone can do the same thing. So, disconnect all phones when testing and work with a standard non-powered/non-wireless phone when testing.

[Yeillianora]

Thank you for the suggestions I will get working on it first thing in the morning! :)

[Yeillianora]

Thank you so much for your help I feel so empowered and more importantly I still have money for groceries! :)
I took your advice and looked at all the phone jacks seperately and figured out where the wires went from the box. I discovered that there was one wire to many for the outlets I knew about. It turns out there was a line fed in through the wall into my sons room that had been covered over with plaster. The problem came where someone had tried to extend the wire by splicing on an extension; fine except they put the wires together with electrical tape...poorly. The wrap job was so loose that there was a spider nesting in one loop of it. So I took out the splice and capped the end of the wire and now everything works. And I am proud to report it also got rid of the horrible line noise that we believed was the fault of our new cordless phones.
Thank you for you help and encouragement!
Holly

[mdshunk]

Pleased that you got your phone problem ironed out yourself. Having phone trouble is a big-time interruption in most people's lifestyle. I know you say you capped the splice (likely with a wirenut), and the problem is solved. This is absolutely fine. Just for posterity and the help of others in the future, I have attached a picture of the connectors typically used. The red connectors are "UR" connectors, and hold three conductors. These are generally used for taps. The yellow connectors are "UY" connectors, and hold two conductors. These are generally used for splices. The wirenuts you used will in all likelyhood work forever, but the UR and UY connectors are preferred by phone men and electricians. [There is also a green "UG" connector designed for running taps, but they are seldom used and a little hard to find. The UR connector is often used in its place.]