*URGENT HELP PLEASE* Installing a phone jack?

Question

Well heres the scoop, along time ago I used to have a secondary phone line in a room, which was deactivated (maybe 10 years ago?). However, the actual jack is still there with all the wiring. my phone system is really old so I tried removing the black and yellow wires and insertting the green and red yet I get no dial tone. I checked downstairs, and theres jsut a box with all the phone wiring, nothing to be able to switch the current wires found in the room to the primary. Outside my house, I found the box where I guess it's either the NID or demarc box? I saw that the jack that used the be a secondary line, is ran from that room all the way outside to this box. No matter what I do, I can't get a dial tone. Any ideas?

Also, it seems as if my phone panels are all really old. There are no test jacks or anything. My basement has one large white panel with a loads of wires all connected to different slots (yet nothing that states primary or secondary) and my box outside just has the (I guess working?) Green Red Yellow Black wires, and also the green red yellow black wires from the phone jack in my room. (I know this as instead of an actual yellow wire there is a orange one, however they're all connected to the same thing) Any ideas? Thanks

Answer 1

try again

Answer 2

Hi Justin W:The first place to start is at the outside box. Check there for dialtone.You can use an RJ11 jack, connect a wire to Red & another wire to Green.Plug in a regular phone. The 2 wires you connected to the jack,strip a little insulation.then touch these to the connections in the box.If you get dialtone,connect the Red/Green, then GOTO your jack & connect Red to Red & green to Green.If this is the correct wire you should get dialtone.If no dialtone at jack,run a new cable from outside to jack. I hope this helps you.  exbelltel

Answer 3

I wish I knew exactly what each color wires mean, I have watched the phone man move wires from one pole to another in the phone box to make outlet for a second line active and another outlet for the other line inactive.

If I were you, I would get the "inline" subscription for like 5 bucks a month that would cover the repair of jacks that you already have and let the phone company do it.  That way it's going to work.