[Electronics-Talk] Modern Landline Phone Service

[Gerald Levy]

If you live in an apartment building,it is illegal for anyone but 
authorized phone company personnel to access the main junction box.  Not 
even the super, custodian or building manager can touch it.  This means 
that if you want to switch to the cable company's VOIP phone service, 
they cannot disconnect your apartment's copper wire phone line from the 
juntion box to cut off the low voltage current, and thus there is no way 
to use the existing phone jacks with VOIP service. This may not be a 
problem if you live in a small studio or one bedroom apartment, where 
one phone jack may suffice, but if you live in a large, three bedroom 
apartment with four or five phone jacks scattered throughout the 
apartment, then you have a problem, and the only way to have a phone in 
every room would be to use a cordless phone system with multiple handsets.


Gerald



On 6/20/2022 7:27 AM, Raymond Foret Jr via Electronics-Talk wrote:
> It’s not the service, it’s whether the wires are networked in your place.   In mine, they are not so I can’t run wires from my Comcast modem to the other RJ11 jacks.  There is no current flowing threw those RJ11 wires which I tested myself.  If the jacks were networked in to each other, running a cable from the modem to just one of those jacks would network your phone service to all the jacks in the house.  However, if the jacks are not networked, forget it.  What you most likely want to have happen is the phone company will need to install an inside networking jack so that you can control this yourself.  It used to be against the law to even touch those outside junction boxes.  You could go to jail if you did so.  Nowadays, I guess AT&T has a different feeling about it.
>
> Don’t know for sure though.
>
>
> Sent from the first computer with built-in screen reader access for the blind:
>
> Sincerely,
>
> The constantly barefooted Ray
>
>> On Jun 19, 2022, at 10:09 PM, Aaron Spears via Electronics-Talk<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>  wrote:
>>
>> Just see if you can disconnect the phone box from power and connect the modem to the nearest phone jack using a standard phone cable, nothing unusual or fancy, just a plain phone cable.
>>
>>
>> Before you do that though, take a handset that is corded and only needs a telephone jack to work. Plug it in and press a button on the keypad. If it doesn't beep, then I don't think it has power and I believe it safe to run a standard telephone cable from modem to nearest jack and then expect all the other jacks to work once you plug a telephone into them.
>>
>>
>> Note I don't expect you to hear a dial tone, but if it still has power, a phone that pulls the power from the landline service will beep or do pulse dialing, indicating that it has power. If you have power, just disconnect the phone box before you connect the modem to the nearest phone jack. I can't see any logic in you paying $60 a month or more just because of that one small detail. Don't cave in that easy. Or give me that money instead, I have actual need of it.
>>
>>
>> Note also that a cordless phone cannot be used to test for power. The answering machine base even can't, it gets power from the 120 outlet. It must be a phone that only ever needs to be plugged into just the phone line, with no extra power supply. You also probably can't use a rotary phone to test. I'm pretty sure they make the clicking noise in the phone even if unpowered.
>>
>>
>> Last case scenario, buy a good 4 handset cordless phone system probably from Panasonic for the cost of maybe 3 AT&T phone bills, plug the base directly into the modem, plug the chargers for the other handsets into the 120v outlets where ever you want them to be and call it done.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers:
>> Aaron Spears, AKA Valiant8086 General Partner at Valiant Galaxy Associates "we make (VERY GOOD AUDIOGAMES) for the blind comunity"http://valiantGalaxy.com
>>
>> On 6/19/2022 4:06 PM, Leslie Fairall via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>>> Would I be better off switching to AT&T's voip service since they are the local phone company? Unfortunately, they are telling me the same thing as Comcast, but if my jacks would work with them, it would be worth it.
>>>
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