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Best old style phone service?

Thanks Folks

If they stay with the Comcast modem system can anyone tell me the easiest way to wire it properly?

They have one old corded phone in the room the modem is in. Two cordless but hardwired phones in two other rooms.

Is the easiest way to:

Remove their original inside wire from the outside connection box, hook onto it and run a new wire from there to the back of the modem? Will this provide service to all three phones if they are left hooked up to their old lines which now start at the modem instead of the old outside distribution box?

Am I missing something here? Easier way?

Comcast will of course do this for $100.00, but if that's all that's needed I will do it.

Thanks again for any help.
 
HankHandy said:
Is the easiest way to:

Remove their original inside wire from the outside connection box, hook onto it and run a new wire from there to the back of the modem? Will this provide service to all three phones if they are left hooked up to their old lines which now start at the modem instead of the old outside distribution box?

Am I missing something here? Easier way?
Click to expand...

As long as all the phones are wired together, they should work. Mine is wired from the phone modem to the inside connection box and all phone lines run from it. If you run a line from the phone modem to the original box, everything should work like it did when you had phone company service.

Absolute easiest way would be to swap that one phone for a base unit that serves multiple wireless phones. I have 7 wireless phones from 2 base units and 2 hard wired phones connected to mine. I do not like to walk very far to get the phone.
 
I'm in backwards Hawai'i and for $29.99 a month, I can get unlimited calls within the U.S. and Canada on my landline. I can even add unlimited or incremental international plans too.

They are struggling to get customers, so it is always worth it to attempt to negotiate the costs of service.

Take care,

Rob
 
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OK, reading some more...

Sounds like I can unhook the inside lines from the distribution box and put a simple splitter on the jack in the "modem room", one side to the modem and one to the phone in that room. That is supposed to "flood" the existing lines backwards and provide service to the two other phones without having to run a new line?

Can anyone confirm this? If this is correct, I just leave the lines unhooked in the distribution box? I will tape them.
 
Interesting where we are at (small town 10K pop) we have Verizon land lines (they offer DSL internet) and WAVE Cable along with Internet and Phone service. That's it no other choices period.

Verizon has the land lines and WAVE has the franchise for cable. No FIOS no Comcast no ATT no nothing. And its that way in most places I know of.
 
HankHandy said:
OK, reading some more...

Sounds like I can unhook the inside lines from the distribution box and put a simple splitter on the jack in the "modem room", one side to the modem and one to the phone in that room. That is supposed to "flood" the existing lines backwards and provide service to the two other phones without having to run a new line?

Can anyone confirm this? If this is correct, I just leave the lines unhooked in the distribution box? I will tape them.
Click to expand...

If you Google "telephone junction box" you should be able to find any hardware you need for the job. This might help with the project.
http://www.wwt.net/pdf/telephone-wiring.pdf
 
I had an interesting conversation with an "AT&T" land line repairman recently. He said that in my area (central Texas), he actually works for the old company Southwestern Bell and as such has decent wages with some healthcare and retirement benefits. The employees that work for the cable, cell phone and other parts of AT&T (U-verse) work for considerably less compensation.

He confirmed what Davidb1 mentioned, that is that if a customer drops his/her land line in favor of another AT&T phone service, AT&T will not let the customer go back to the land line.

My personal opinion is that a lot of thought, work and expense went into developing a land line system here in the US that provides affordable access to quality and dependable communication. I think it would be a real shame and a loss if it is shelved and dismantled before technology is developed to give same/better quality and dependability.
 
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ranch 22b said:
My personal opinion is that a lot of thought, work and expense went into developing a land line system here in the US that provides affordable access to quality and dependable communication. I think it would be a real shame and a loss if it is shelved and dismantled before technology is developed to give same/better quality and dependability.
Click to expand...

I am sure it is just economics. Why maintain two networks when you can get the job done with just one. When they want the people off the wired network, they will either raise prices or offer incentives so that most people switch. When the time comes, they will just pull the plug on the rest.

I expect that in the not too distant future, there will be no communication wires running to your house. Everything will eventually be wireless.
 
HankHandy said:
OK, reading some more...

Sounds like I can unhook the inside lines from the distribution box and put a simple splitter on the jack in the "modem room", one side to the modem and one to the phone in that room. That is supposed to "flood" the existing lines backwards and provide service to the two other phones without having to run a new line?

Can anyone confirm this? If this is correct, I just leave the lines unhooked in the distribution box? I will tape them.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's that simple, as long as you do not have an alarm system. Just be sure to open the connection in you demarc (the telephone box from the former telephone company where the wire from the street enters your house) that connects your house wiring to the former telephone company wiring.
 
I had CRAPcast for nearly ten years with landline thru modem and it worked fine. Then they blew the goat on my service and I dropped 'em like a lead turd....

Now it's back to RinkyDink, I'm paying basically the same price for the same service more or less.......
 
Well, I unhooked the old line and hooked up the modem in the simplest configuration with no new wire and just a simple splitter. All phones work. Was overthinking this, obviously.

Thanks again for the input.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
At one time, "Ma Bell" was the nationwide phone company, but it was broken up into a bunch of 'Baby Bells' a long time ago. So your local Baby Bell is the one company that can provide 'POTS' (Plain Old Telephone Service).
Click to expand...

Not exactly. There were some backwoods locations, such as where I live in Southern Appalachia, where AT&T never provided local service. United Telephone had the local POTS monopoly here. Their United Intermountain unit was known to local customers as "United Intermittant;" at my parents house, we would lose service during and after a hard rain. United later merged with Sprint, who spun their local POTS operations off as Embarq (following the Nextel merger), which was purchased by CenturyTel which rebranded as CenturyLink.

Since the original poster mentioned CenturyLink, he likely is also in an area that never had AT&T nor Baby Bell telephone service.
 
If its just the desire to use a traditional phone that is at issue, StraightTalk has a $79 device to plug into a regular phone. $15 a month for unlimited nationwide after that.

I know home office workers and RV travelers use it because then they can take their 'land line' with them when they travel.

It uses the Verizon network and no contract
 
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