Which tree to bark up

[Lemon law]

I have a small home network. Only 56-k dial up is avilable in my rural area.

An cheap agere win modem on the host computer is the connection means. I would replave the agere modem in a heart beat with a better modem if it was not the fastest modem I have ever owned. On good days it connects at 52-k and maintains a throughput of 48-k. ( throughput measured by a mdem speed test page the times how long it takes to download a file )

My phone system is a single incoming red green pair of wires at the network interface box with a total of nine phone jacks in teh house and seperate pole barn. Any of these nine phone jacks can be populated or not populated by a phone device be it a corded phone, a wireless phone, a computer modem, or a fax machine.

Here comes the odd part.

I can have up to five wireless phones plugged into jacks but on hook without affecting my modem connection speed.

I can unplug all cordless phones, plug in one corded phone on hook, and my modem speed takes a big hit. Never connects faster than 46k and throughput averages about 32k.
With swings as low as 20k and a very rare 42k throughput.

I do have a high range VOM that can measure well into the mega-ohm range.

Each cordless phone I have usually tests about 80 megaohms on hook--but one tests at 25 megaohms.

I have 2 corded phones ( one as a spare ) that each test at 60 megaohms on hook. Both phones are typical of what could be purchased at Walmart for $10.00 or so. Neither has lighted dials or fancy devices like caller id.

Now on a bad day----typically a very wet day coupled with falling temperatures, I can hardly connect at all no matter how many other phone devices I remove. I get a windows 678 error saying remote device does not answer.

Now I am a believer in saying if you can put a number on something you might know something about it. But I am totally baffled on what to do now in terms of getting an answer of why i get this strange behavoir.------and since a power failure could occur while I am sleeping and I need to be an emergency responder, I would like to have one corded phone plugged in without having to unplug it every time I use my modem.

Somebody, anybody, with phone expertise help.

 

[Fardringle]

I'm hardly a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) expert, but I think I can give you a place to start looking on this since almost the exact same thing happened in my house a few years ago.

If only the modem was plugged in it worked decent most of the time. As soon as a phone was plugged into any jack the modem started working poorly if at all, and whenever it rained there was no connection at all (phones didn't work either). After a half dozen visits from the phone company and at least that many phone calls to various stages of tech support we found out that the problem was a short circuit in the wiring in or near the wiring box at my house. I can't remember for sure if the problem was actually in the box or not but it really doesn't matter. What is important is that as soon as the bad wiring was replace, the modem and all phones started working normally again.

Your comment about it not working during a rainstorm is particularly significant. In my case, my phones failed during rain because the plasting coating around the wiring had broken or worn through so rain water was getting into the exposed wires and shorting everything out completely.

With nine different phone jacks in your house (I assume they are wired individually to the phone company's wiring box outside the house) it could be difficult to track down the exact location of the problem, but if you have access to the wiring box (some phone companies will let you, some won't) you can disconnect each connection one at a time and test things until they work normally again. Once things are working properly, you'll known which wire(s) is bad (the last one you disconnected before it started working) and needs to be repaired or replaced.

 

[Lemon law]

Thanks for the reply Fardringle,

You are correct that all the nine jacks are wired directly to the interface box but there is zero chance any of the nine jacks could be getting wet as they are inside and I can trace all wiring. Nor are all nine jacks ever all populated with a phone device. So I assume the problem my phone companies wiring outboard of my interface box.

But the real mystery is why just one corded phone has such a hit on modem speed?--even if I unplug all phone devices except that corded phone and the one modem.

And when I have connection problems it always clears up before the phone Co. can get a tech out.
I need a way to put a number on it at the time so I can tell the phone company to fix it.