ADSL Works. Voice Line Works. Just not at the same time!

[Solved]

Suddenly the voice line stopped working while ADSL is still fine. The Telephone Company people came over and tested (the line I assume?) bit by bit from outside the house in. They ended up plugging my telephone (that was plugged to the computer of course) to the small box where I plug my modem, and then the voice line worked in all four phones (otherwise, when I call I get a busy signal). This is the main difference I see between my case and all those DSL works, Voice line doesn't threads that I see around here.

So we can use ADSL or the voice line by changing the way they're plugged, but that's it. The Telephone Company people said they'll send the ADSL Company (owned by the TelCo) people over next week and that it might be a problem with the modem (Cisco Systems 677) and in that case it could end up costing $700 (to replace the modem that I was first lent for free with the ADSL service and then forced to buy for about $60 to be able to keep it indefinitely a few months ago).

The Telephone Company is well-known for trying to rip off their customers so I don't feel too keen on just nodding along whatever they say. Is there anything I can try / test until the ADSL people come? Could it be something about the computer or the Ethernet card? (I switched to a new computer with a new ethernet card shortly ago. However, this problem didn't occur until a week later). I appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks a lot.

Sol.

[chirkware]

So when your DSL modem is plugged in, all the phones are dead, and calling your phone # from a different phone (cell, neighbors phone, etc) gives a busy signal?

Unplugging the DSL modem makes all phones work?


If the answer to those two questions are "yes", then I would *guess* your DSL modem is bad.

Try this test: Take the DSL modem out to your NID (That little gray box on the side of the house where the phone line connects). Plug the modem directly into it, and, of course, to a power outlet. Do you get a busy signal when you dial your phone # from another phone?

[Solved]

Thanks a lot for replying!

It turned out that the telephone-modem-computer connection was a bit strange, and the voice line was plugged to the computer, and from the computer to the telephone (like it is when there's a dial-up connection, and there also was the ADSL connection). This new computer wasn't being so faithful at translating what it got from the voice line to the phone, so that's why there was no voice line (at least this is the euphemism the repair person used).

The repair guy just connected the phone directly to the voice line instead of through the computer and everything is back to normal.

Sol.

[chirkware]

Good! Glad it was a simple fix.