Rogers Home Phone Suddenly Stops Working - Telephone 1 Flashing

[aboyaci]

Hi everyone,

We have had the Rogers Home Phone service connected to the Telephone modem via the old cable lines for over 16 years now - via the non-ignite, regular Home Phone service.

All of a sudden we notice that there is no dial tone. It was working fine for 16 years. We have a regular wireless hand set with 4 phone around the home, and we have 2 wired phone that connect direct to the phone jack in the wall. All were working, until it stopped working last month.

When we connect any one phone set, the wireless main phone set or any wired phone directly to the Home Phone modem via the "Telephone 1" jack, the phone works no problem, for that one phone. If we connect a phone splitter into the "Telephone 1" jack of the modem, and then connect two phone sets, again the phone works fine.

However, for 16 years our original configuration was to have a telephone wire connect from the "Telephone 1" jack of the modem, directly to a split, which is attached directly to the phone jack in the wall, and the other second jack of the splitter had our main phone connected for the wireless phones to have all the wireless handsets to work, and we had two wired phones all around the home directly connected to wall phone jacks, and also worked fine.

Now what happens is, anytime I connect a phone line directly or via a splitter from the phone modem "Telephone 1" jack to the wall jack, the "Telephone 1" lights on the modem flash, and there is no dial tone on any line. This was working for 16 years no problem, all of a sudden this stopped working.

We called in a technician and looked at it, but it was unable to be fixed. We swapped in a new telephone modem in case the old one was worn out, but same issue.

We also got our original Rogers phone jack connectors replaced with a new one, where the green and red phone line wires from within the wall are attached to the Rogers Phone Jack connector, but again - same issue. Once you connect any phone line from the wall connector to the telephone modem, the "Telephone 1" lights flash instantly and there is no dial tone.

Why is this now a problem? and how do we fix it, so that the other phones connected in other rooms of the house not connected to the telephone modem, can also have dial tone?  Please help.

It is just very weird that this was working for 16 years, and it just suddenly stopped. Please help.

***Edited Labels***

[Pauly]

Hello aboyaci,

Rogers technicians will only fix their equipment if it is faulty. In your case the Rogers equipment was fine. It looks like your issue might be the inside telephone wiring inside your walls.

Chances are a connection may have come loose on one of the jacks or a wire broke off or even has a short circuit. This can happen at any time randomly even if it worked fine for 16 years. Sometimes wires go bad or break. It just happens.

You may have to call a independent phone technician to check your inside phone wiring as I do not believe Rogers techs check this as it's not their responsibility. Lots of phone techs out there should be able to fix this. They can even try switching to the secondary pair.

Best of luck with this problem.

[-G-]

@aboyaci  Do you have an incoming Bell line connected to your in-home wiring?  If you do, it's possible that Bell could have connected it to a live port on their equipment.  When happens when you disconnect the Rogers Home Phone modem from your in-home wiring and pick up a telephone that is connected to a wall jack?  Do you hear a dial tone (that would be coming from Bell) or something other than a dead line?

[Datalink]

The other possibility, if the Bell wiring is still connected, is that a Bell tech has potentially connected both wires together, either at the Bell pedestal or in the back office.  Either one would probably cause a failure for the Home Phone modem.  

[Pauly]

Regardless, when you became a Rogers Home Phone customer, the initial technician who connected your Rogers phone service to the inside wiring of your house *should* have checked if the connection from Bell was disconnected when your Rogers was connected.

Now you may never have had Bell service, we don't know at this point, so this information is just speculation but it is good to know incase other people are in your situation.

but either way, a technician must still check the inside wiring, while they are there they can easily check if a second provider such as Bell's incoming lines are still connected to your inside wiring. Like others have said, even if your NOT with bell, if the outside lines are still present and connected to bell equipment, they may be Energized and / or short circuited and since they are connected to your house wiring, that problem will extend to your house.

People don't often check this because if it appears to work they simply leave it alone even if its connected improperly. but not me, I am OCD so I make sure everything is wired to spec.

[aboyaci]

Thank you Pauly, -G-, and Datalink,

I appreciate your responses. So yes we did have Bell in the past 16 years ago, prior to switching to Rogers Home Phone. I did trace where the Bell line was from the outside coming into the home, and I believe the line was cut at one point, because I do see a black wire line outside that is cut. I believe it would have gone into the basement where the inside telephone wires are.

I remember the Rogers Technician that switched us to Rogers Home Phone, he cut something inside in the basement, and then he said we are now disconnected from Bell.

Thats some more context. Unless there are other additional lines connected to Bell, I would not know. All this time they were not working.

So to answer the question on putting a phone to the wall jack directly, we hear no dial tone. Dead. There are 5 other wall jacks around the home. Not all were used, but tried all of them with putting a phone in it directly, and its dead.

Another point to raise, there was hydro construction in our area, where they are changing hydro poles in the entire neighborhood. The hydro I don't believe is in anyway connected to the phone lines, and I don't believe they were working near telephone lines, but there was construction in the area.

Also, the Rogers, and I believe the Bell pedestal boxes are right in front of my neighbor's lawn beside the sidewalk. Nobody has touched that in ages. The lines that come out from our home, connect to those boxes. No construction was done to them or near that area. If they had, it would have also knocked our Rogers services as well I would believe.

Thank you again for your help. This one is a mystery so far.

[-G-]

@aboyaci  Thanks.  In that case, I would unplug all telephones from wall outlets, and disconnect the Rogers telephone modem.  Also, unplug any line splitters, etc. that you may be using.  Next, plug only one telephone into a wall jack, one that works when directly connected to the Rogers modem.  Next, reconnect the Rogers telephone modem.

If that works, connect your other telephones, one by one.  If not, at least you have reduced the problem that you need to troubleshoot to some degree.

[Pauly]

I also forgot to mention this but yes you could also have a faulty telephony device such as a fax machine, a answering machine, a desk phone, or something that may have gone bad and since its plugged into your inside wiring, it may cause a short and will short out your inside wiring and kill the dialtone.

Its similar to how a fauly electrical appliance plugged into one electrical outlet can trip your beaker and all your other electrical outlets can be killed. The only thing is there is no circuit breakers on the phone lines since theyre low voltage. So like -G- mentioned I too would suggest to disconnect all the telephone appliances from all the phone jacks and test them one by one, you could have a faulty phone device and not realize it, heck even a faulty Home security alarm system that is monitored over the phone line can cause this, however you would have to disconnect the RJ31X jack

[aboyaci]

Hi Pauly, -G-, and Datalink,

All telephone jacks are fully disconnected. I then tried to add only one phone back and connect to the modem. Still the very second I attach the modem to the wall jack, the "Telephone 1" flashes and no dial tone.

I dont get it. 😞

[57]

From your first post:

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@aboyaci wrote:

When we connect any one phone set, the wireless main phone set or any wired phone directly to the Home Phone modem via the "Telephone 1" jack, the phone works no problem, for that one phone. If we connect a phone splitter into the "Telephone 1" jack of the modem, and then connect two phone sets, again the phone works fine.

---

This indicates that there is not an issue with Rogers line to your home, but rather the phone wiring in your home. You will need to do further diagnosis there, but it's either the wire from your Rogers phone modem to your "wiring block" or something downstream of that block, or something at the block itself, or as also mentioned a "Bell signal" or some other "problem" getting to the block...

[57]

1. Have you removed all of your devices (phones, fax, etc) from the various telephone jacks in your home?  If not, try that.

2. Is it possible there is something (like an alarm system) that is "hard wired" into the telephone block at/near the demarcation point?  For example, an alarm system will "grab" a line and you will not get a dialtone on a phone as long as the alarm system is communicating with the alarm company.  Once that communication is finished you get your dialtone back, but if something like that didn't "disconnect" properly then it could be the source of your issue.  Do you have anything hard wired like that?

[-G-]

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@aboyaci wrote:

Now what happens is, anytime I connect a phone line directly or via a splitter from the phone modem "Telephone 1" jack to the wall jack, the "Telephone 1" lights on the modem flash, and there is no dial tone on any line. This was working for 16 years no problem, all of a sudden this stopped working.

---

It's really hard to say for sure what the problem could be without confirming the electrical state of all phone jacks, with just the Rogers modem connected directly to your in-home telephone wiring.  A direct connection.  No splitters, and no telephones or any other hardware connected to the telephone jacks.

I also double-checked Rogers' support article for troubleshooting common home phone issues.  Can you confirm that this is the status that you are seeing?  Tel1: solid green/flashing if the primary line is in use

When all telephones are on-hook or when no telephones are connected, the voltage measured between tip and ring should be around -48 volts DC.  When a telephone goes off-hook and closes the circuit, the measured voltage should drop to around -10 volts DC.  (I say "around" because some variance is normal, although with the modem (which provides battery and dial tone) directly connected to the in-home wiring, you typically see voltages that are close to spec.)

With no telephones connected, I would expect to see 48v.  If I see 10, something somewhere is creating a short.  It could be a bad cable, bad connector, bad something somewhere.  If I see anything other than expected voltages, higher or lower, it indicates a problem/fault and an invalid line state.

If the incoming Bell line is not disconnected INSIDE the home, then even if it is not connected to anything outside, it could develop a fault... and if water seeps in, that will also introduce a short in your line.

If your Rogers Home Phone works with a directly-connected telephone, the modem itself is fine.  If it stops working when connected to your in-home wiring, you will need to isolate and eliminate the fault... and it could be anywhere... and that will likely require the skills of a trained telephone technician.

[aboyaci]

I have an UPDATE on the situation of our Home Phone lines.

Previously I had noted that our home phone service had stopped working suddenly, with the home phone jacks not working, as the second that I attached a phone line to the home phone jacks, the Telephone 1 on the Rogers phone modem would start to flash.

The slight update change is, now when I attach a phone line to the home phone jack, the Telephone 1 no longer flashes, and I can attach splitters to that line to attach other phones that will work, however - the other phone jacks still do not work in and around the house.

We did nothing on our own to have the Telephone 1 flashing, to not flashing. Like how the phone lines stopped working on its own, this attachment to the home jacks not flashing anymore happened on its own.

I want to note as well, there was hydro lines being replaced on our street when the phone lines stop working initially reported. The hydro replacements are not fully complete yet, but it is in better shape now after 2 months. Still dont know how to have the home jacks to work again, so I can attach other hard wire phones around the house, but it seems like a very slight improvement.

[Pauly]

Hi there.

so correct me if im wrong but the telephone line port on the rogers modem works and has a proper dial tone but when you connect it to the inside wiring of your house the remaining indoor phone jacks do not work or do not get a dial tone?

if your putting splitters on the tel1 port of the modem and it works, this means the phone line rogers is provisioned for your house is working up to the modem. The problem you are experiencing is very likely a problem with the inside wiring.

You mentioned a coincidence the inside wiring stopped working when there was work done on your hydro? this might be just coincidence, or somehow the hydro wires in your house may be shorting with the inside phone wires, this would be homeowner responsibility to fix not rogers, so maybe try hiring someone to fix it?