Examine your phone equipment for damage

Verify your phone cords are in good condition, and remember damage isn't always super obvious. You may need to move things to find the problem. Check behind furniture and in hard-to-reach places. 

You're looking for:

• Cuts, cracks and/or chew marks
• Loose wiring or connectors

Phone cords can be damaged in a variety of ways:

• Furniture rearranging
• Construction, repair and/or remodeling 
• Pets - cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, hamsters
• Rodents - mice, squirrels, bats

Even small nicks and cuts can cause intermittent dial tone and calls to falter. Running your fingers along the phone cord will help you feel damage that might be hard to see. Replace any damaged phone cords/wiring that you can get to.

Depending on the location of the problem, trouble with your inside wiring can affect 1 or all your phones.  If you stumble upon bigger wiring issues, read How to get phone wiring and jacks repaired.

Visually inspect each jack, looking for obvious, physical damage. Next, try to isolate which jacks, if any, are malfunctioning by figuring out if they're in service. 

Next, check that each jack is operating properly — starting with any jacks that look suspect.

If all your jacks have clear, strong dial tone, the problem is probably with your phone. Try replacing it.  

If your dial tone is faint or intermittent, make a note of which outlets don't seem to be working and what you heard when you tested them with your corded phone. Next, read How to get phone wiring and jacks repaired.

Sometimes your phone equipment isn't the source of your phone problems. Occasionally, other seemingly random home equipment interferes with your service. 

Other equipment:

• Satellite TV receivers
• Computer modems
• Caller id boxes
• Fax machines
• Alarm/security systems

Basically, any piece of equipment plugged into your phone jacks can act as an antenna and pick up CB or AM/FM broadcasting station frequencies. 

Typical symptoms:

• Noise on the line
• Cross talk/other conversations
• Busy tone while talking
• Intermittent dial tone

To test your equipment:

1. Unplug your phones from both their jacks and electrical outlets. 
2. Unplug any other equipment that uses a jack. 
3. After you've unplugged all your equipment, wait 1 minute and then plug a corded phone into each outlet — testing one jack at a time. 

You should hear a clear, strong dial tone when you test each outlet. If you don't, make a note of which piece of equipment is plugged in and what you heard when you tested the outlet. 

If you're finding interference but don't want to unplug the offending piece of equipment, try installing a radio suppresser or radio/noise filter on your line. This equipment is easy to install and can be purchased at most electronic stores.