After days of thinking yeah, we should do that, we finally disconnected the phone jack which gives us static and connected a different jack to the red/green wires that had been connected. I say that glibly; that was after about ten minutes of can you see if that damn wire is under the washer? Agh, we should get a better flashlight.... And after all of that?
Still had static. Gah.
7 comments:
Silly question - did you check the other end of the wire? It's probably loose. (Wires just don't usually go wrong.)
We're going to have to do that, just to run a test wire. Unfortunately, its not in an easily accessible place. Also, since there is another phone line on that logical line, and it doesn't crackle, I'm thinking its probably okay. We had had insulation blown into the attic, and when i looked a while ago, I noticed that the phone wire, which had been just laying there, was now stapled to the roof. You see where I'm going with that....
Ah. Yes. Indeed.
If you want a "quick fix" (that will probably last the rest of eternity), cut a section of the wire, and put a piece in the middle with some of those snap-connectors (what they're actually called escapes me at the moment, but the chap at Ace or the Home Depot/Lowes will know what they are). It will be:
existing wire ---- connector ----bit of wire---- connector ---- existing wire
That should do the trick; get a good quality connector and that should do it.
Let me put it this way: it's the first thing I'd try, after I'd (surreptitiously) wound the wires together. If winding the wires together worked, I'd tell the Mrs I knew what I was doing and hope she never actually looked at what I'd done... :-)
That should be "connectorS" Sorry. :-)
When George Lucas had Skywalker Ranch built, the contractors included cable raceways for running cabling. The intent was that they could put in things that, at the time of construction, hadn't yet been invented, but it also would be quite handy for people who needed to access the existing cabling.
Such foresight did not occur in our home.
Verizon is selling a 'home hotspot' that will connect a currently-hardwired landline to their cellular service. As we have two hardwired landlines, and the other is just fine, we're considering it. The alternative is to to up into the insulation-thudded attic crawlspace. Splicing in a new wire up there is theoretically not a problem. Finding where it is safe to stand on the rafter so as to reach more than about two feet of the existing wire .... quite another matter.
I know, First World Problems. I appreciate your insights, though. They help me clarify this in what I laughingly refer to as my mind.
At 55 Water St I ran miles (well, I specified it, someone else ran it) of cable run for "what might be". At our old Brooklyn house, I ran lots of cables and conduit for what might be.
What might be turned out to be... Wireless. :-)
===
A tip: get the wire that might have gone wrong, pull it up. The clips shouldn't be too well-fastened. Then use it as the draw-string for a new wire. I used to do that a lot! (Just be careful - if it breaks, you're in a slightly difficult situation. That's happened to me once in over 30 years of running cables.)
Our daughter is home for the week. I'm considering asking her to crawl around up there!
Post a Comment