Communications: Voice, Radio and Data - Adding a Phone Jack Question

So we just finished our basement a couple months ago and there are two phone jacks down there, however neither one is connected. A wire runs out of both of the jacks. This past week I tried connecting one of the phone jacks to the phone line and here's what I did:

I ran one of the phone wires upstairs and near the active phone jack. I stripped the wire, then I stripped the smaller blue and white wires, then I proceeded to attach the small wires to their respective screws on the active phone jack, I matched the colors, so blue phone wire went to the screw on the phone jack that already had the blue wire that went into the Network interface outside. However when I tested the phone jack with a phone it didn't work, I'm lost as to where I went wrong and any advice would be much appreciated.

I am having a hard time understanding how things are set up. What is this network interface that you are referring to? Could you post some pictures of the jacks close up so we can see how they are terminated?

the network interface is most likely the NID usually supplied by the phone company.

I know, a dumb question but;

is the wire connected to the jack in the basement? If so, what type of terminations are there? Screws, crimp on 8p8c connector (rj45), what?

did you terminate those or were they aleady term'd?

do you have a voltmeter and an ohm meter?

the phone you were trying to use; did it aslo require 120 volts? Is it a 2 line or 2nd line phone?