Polarity of the NID "test jack"

[fyinfo]

Hi - When I use my "line tester" to check the "test jack" in the main box, it shows reversed polarity. However I do have an active phone line. I am running a long phone cord from this jack right now as I can't get an active line using the screw posts (red and green connected to blue and white/blue). Would a reversed polarity at the "test jack" cause me to have difficulty getting an active line?

I need to fool around more with the colors as they may be mixed up. I also will try cat5 cable instead of the cat3 I have. I wanted to rule out that reversed polarity would be causing my problem. I have tried 2 testers and get the same result. I'm curious as to what reading I would get on my neigbors test jack and wil try that too.

Any thoughts anyone???
Thanks, Linda

[Mr T]

If you have reverse polarity at your jack, and your house wires are also reversed, things will be ok.

However, from the test jack back, it is the phone company's issue, not yours. You cant get into the phone company side (unless you have a security torx set, or a easy-out :rolleyes: )

If you plug a phone into your test jack (with the house side unplugged of course), does it work properly? (including ring) If it does not, and it is a known good phone, call your phone company repair line and tell them what your phone is not working at the test jack.

[fyinfo]

I'm using the test jack right now for my phone service (everything works fine). But I need to get my connections figured out. Running a new cable (cat3) with the colors correctly wired and matched at both ends I do not have an active line.

Before I spend time switching wires around, I wanted to make sure that the reversed polarity at the test jack is not the problem. I do have a call to the phone co. also. I'd rather "fix it myself" instead of giving them a $100. to come and just tell me I need to move my wires to different posts or something simple.

Thanks for your response

[mdshunk]

Since your running cat3, do you have it connected at both ends like this?:

Red to blue
Green to blue/white stripe
Yellow to orange
black to orange/white stripe

The reverse polarity has absolutely nothing to do with your dead line that you ran. Did you remember to plug the little modular pigtail back into the test jack when your were trying out your new inside line? You have to do that before your inside lines will work.

[fyinfo]

Yeah - the red to blue and the green to blue/white. I'm only using one line so I'm disregarding the yellow and black - right? Now that I know that the polarity isn't the problem, I'll start fresh tomorrow retracing my steps and double check the "pigtail". Thanks much for the info.

[fyinfo]

Update - once I knew the polarity was not the problem, I retraced everything and found I had a bad jack even though I had put in a new leviton. No more running my service from the test jack! Thanks Mr. T and MD!