Is this a problem with cable, or house wiring?

Hi. I hope this is the right forum. I have been having major problems with my phone connection for two miserable months, and this effects my internet connection as I have dial-up. I can barely use the internet.

My phone connection is thru a cable company. The cable co. put in a telephone modem box and ran a cable from it. I am hoping that one of you technically astute folks can give me input as to whether my problems are more likely coming from the cable connection, or the wiring in my house. I have checked my phone, which is a new telephone, and that is not the problem. I am in a rental, and neither the landlord or the cable company want to fix the problem. I need desperately to know which is the more likely culprit.

The dial tone sounds ok, but once I dial I hear always a windy sound in the phone which lasts throughout the conversation, and intermittant loud static. One day the phone didn't work at all, and the landlord sent a man out to fix that, but the windy sound and static was not fixed. I would really appreciate any input.
Thanks,Sheena

 

I think you need to complain to your landlord and demand he get with the cable company and have them sort it out.

The only way to determine if the problem is in the house wiring is to by-pass the house - that is, check right where the cable "drop" comes into the house (or where it "drops" off the pole outside - if not underground). Normally the homeowner is responsible from where it enters the house and the cable company from the outside and back to the central office or PoP - "point of presence".

Did the Internet work fine before the phone service was added? Do you have good cable TV service?

 

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Hi Digerati.
Oh, I have complained to both landlord and cable co. multiple times. The landlord doesn't want to do anything, I guess hoping I will go to wireless, which I cannot afford, and cable won't do anything about checking their main lines. Both economic giants are trying to bully me into taking monetary responsibility for their problems.
I have had cable phone service for a year, and it has been bad for a couple of months. The cable tv is ok. How exactly do I check the cable where it drops into the house, as you say?What exactly do I do to accomplish this?
Sheena

 

That depends on where it is and how it comes in to your house. Hopefully, the cable is a straight run (one cable, no splitters, no splices, no connections) between the pole and where it enters your house. From there, there should be a splitter that looks similar to this. The one input comes from outside, the two (or more) outputs go to the TV and cable modem. If you take the cable coming in, by-pass the splitter and go right into your modem and it still sounds bad, then you have a bad modem, or the signal coming in is bad.

If it sounds good there, then the splitter, or internal cables are bad. If an old house with old cables running through the walls, there may be more than one splitter. Each time you split the signal, its strength split too.

 

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Digerati,
There is only one cable that connects to a small black telephone modem in the house. A thin line from this modem plugs into a jack in the house. My phone line can plug into this jack and so there is the line from the modem and the line from my phone connecting into this jack. The cable connecting to this phone modem goes thru a hole in the wall outside to a big grey box that is attached to the adjoining apt. unit wall.This is in the front yard and there is nothing in the back yards of any units. I have tried to trace these lines to a pole, can't find one.[there is nothing visible that looks like a splitter]. I am in a small old, one story complex of connected one story units. There are four phone jacks in my place. When the cable co. came out they said everything was ok around my immediate place, but refused to check their main line. When the phone stopped working altogether,[ no calls in or out], the landlord sent a man out who plugged the phone into the modem [not sure how]and it gave a normal dial tone as opposed to the noisy sound it was making when plugged in to a regular jack. There are places in the back of the phone modem that look as though a phone line would fit in them. Wonder if I could run my phone line directly into one of those? Unfortunately, they said the only place they could put the modem was in my bedroom, which is not the room my computer is in, but at least I could talk on the phone without all the noise in the line. If I can plug my phone line into the modem, and don;t have the noise problem, does that mean that the problem is with the lines in the house, then?
Sheena

 

It would appear so.

Note when you plug the RJ-11 (phone) cable from the modem into the phone jack in the wall, this allows all phones in the house to work through the modem. If you connect your phone directly into the back of the modem and it sounds fine, then yes, it points to the "house wiring" as the problem - most likely with one or more of the connectors. The wires themselves don't normally go bad (unless pinched, hit with a nail, or rodent damage). The connectors (wall or cable) though can easily be damaged, or the wires yanked loose by one too many tripovers.

 

Digerati,
The telephone cable modem box has 3 openings in the back, labeled:tbl1, which has their line in it; tbl2, which is vacant; and an ethernet opening. I would think the one for me to plug my phone line into is tbl2. If I can dial a number from that and not hear the windy sound and static, then we are thinking it is the house line?
So you are saying the wires are ok but wires connecting the outside stuff to the inner wires may be a problem. That would seem to be less of a problem for the landlord than if he'd have to go all the way in a wall. I wonder why the man he sent didn't just fix this. What is a tripover?
I am going to plug into the phone cable modem box when I get off the net and check the connection. I really appreciate your walking me thru all of this, Digerati.
Sheena

 

Sounds right.

I am just saying wires don't normally go bad on their own, unless abused or damaged.

Tripover? When you "trip" over something, like a wire and you yank it out of its connection.

 

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:-D Sometimes things just mean what they are in simple english. I thought it was some complex technical term.
Digerati, I just plugged my phone line directly into the tbl2 opening in the modem box, and dialed a friend and we both heard the windy sound and the static I told you about. That surprised me as the cable co. had said the box was ok according to signals they sent it. They also came out and checked the immediate outside, so I thought it was the landlord's problem.
Sheena

 

I had fights with my telephone company for years over worsening data rates (dialup). They would only come out if I heard static/wind sound on the line--they said they did not guarantee data transmission so tough luck that I was getting connection rates of 14kb/s.

I'd call about every 4 months and hope I got someone nice on the phone. My only advice is to complain about the static and wind sound rather than dialup rates (or add the dialup problems as an extra verification of the voice problem. Tell them you would like to listen in at the outside connection to verify that it sounds ok outside because it is getting very frustrating having everyone ignore the problem. Tell them you need a working phone because you have to keep in touch with an elderly family member. Play it up and see if you get lucky.

I know my problem was in the outside line because each time I finally got a good technician out there the solution was to replace something at a distant switching station (squirrel related) and the problem would be resolved for a year or so.

It is frustrating and their strategy worked as I finally switched to DSL. I was ready to make the switch at the time and it is great to be able to download at will, but I still resent having to switch out of self-defense rather than choice.

Good Luck!

 

Just to make sure, try another phone.

 

I remember when I had dial up. I had choices of around 3-4 numbers to chose from. " Local call" to get on-line. As not to get "bit" by a large phone bill on outta my free local calling zone.

I did call the phone company back then to make shure it wasn't out of my free calling zone on each number. A toll call if outta the local number by you.

If you have this choice on diffrent numbers, can you try a diffrent number? See if it's the number your calling to is the prob. And a difrent number works better?