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Eeyore
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[Phone] Phone says "Line In Use" a lot lately

I am a Frontier customer in Ohio. I have phone and DSL service. I have one corded phone and I notice it has been saying "Line In Use" a lot recently. But there is no one talking on the phone, and it is the only one I have in the house. I have been a customer for about 3 years and have not changed anything but this is now occurring more and more. When I pick up the phone I hear static, and a dialing noise kind of like a dial-up modem from a long time ago. When I hang up, the phone's display is normal but later I will notice Line In Use again.

My phone jacks are as follows:

Corded phone in kitchen phone jack (has a filter on it).
DirecTV box in living room phone jack (has a filter as well)
DSL box in bedroom phone jack (no filter)

I would appreciate any information the could be given, because I am not sure what this means or what I should do about it.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

Premium Member

You should call Frontier Telephone Repair Service.
gozer9
Premium Member
join:2010-08-09
Rochester, NY

gozer9 to Eeyore

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I agree with Darc if the sound level is lower than normal it may be cross talk. and yes this needs to be repaired by Frontier. do you hear any static when you use your phones, you can check for static by killing the dial tone and if you have a phone that can amp the sound that can help to hear static or noise on the line.
Strange Data
join:2012-08-25

Strange Data to Eeyore

Member

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Before calling support, unplug the DirecTV box and see if the problem still exists.

Also, when you can dial out, Hit just #1, the line should be silent. If there is any static/noise, call support
SteveJobs
join:2012-07-18

SteveJobs to Eeyore

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Is the no filter jack have a phone on it? If it does, it needs a filter.

Has it rained recently? I remember one time it was raining and I was downloading 14GB of stuff and it knocked us out. Knocked out our sync and frontier said they had never seen an error that the like test showed before. Our line also got static, but that was fixed.

And a phone could be off the hook. :P JK
wasvznowftr
join:2010-07-13
00000

wasvznowftr to Strange Data

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said by Strange Data:

Before calling support, unplug the DirecTV box and see if the problem still exists.

Also, when you can dial out, Hit just #1, the line should be silent. If there is any static/noise, call support

That DTV box is culprit #1 without a doubt. Seen it dozens of times as a former repair technician.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband to Eeyore

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I would say its DTV dialing out. You may want to call DTV and opt for the STB that uses the Internet and NOT the phone line. Normally you don't get a dial-up box hooked up if you have Internet.
gozer9
Premium Member
join:2010-08-09
Rochester, NY

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I know the DTV box calls home but based on what the OP said and that he hears static also I still think its a line thing and cross talk. And because he said it happens alot and the DTV box should not keep trying and generaly it trys to dial out late night right?
whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

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said by Eeyore :

I am a Frontier customer in Ohio. I have phone and DSL service. I have one corded phone and I notice it has been saying "Line In Use" a lot recently. But there is no one talking on the phone, and it is the only one I have in the house.

I've had this happen to me several times before.

The first time it ever happened on my phone, which is a 2012 Panasonic cordless, I called Tech Support.

I was told that I had a "short" on my line, which was described as "burst" of electricity that had tricked down from the telephone pole to my line and disrupted it.

To be perfectly honest, I thought that was complete BS (and it sounded like a lame excuse).

At any rate, I was told to unplug the phone from the wall and remove the telephone line from the back of the unit and let it sit, undisturbed, for 60 seconds, then plug it back in.

That solved the problem THAT time (I had a dial tone once everything was plugged back in), but the countless other times I've encountered the problem, unplugging the phone and plugging everything back in is pointless.

So, if you call Tech Support from a cell phone, that's what they'll tell you to do (and probably secretly hope that you do have a dial tone by the time you get it hooked back up).

I've come to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with my phone and everything to do with the fact that it's just crappy phone service. If you don't have a dial tone, it's not the phone, it's just a glitch in service that they're probably scrambling to fix.

The one thing that seems to work for me when it happens is to turn my handset's speaker phone on and wait until I hear a dial tone. Then, I shut the handset off, then hit talk and I usually have a dial tone from which I then dial out with to try and resolve the problem.

It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does (and then, other times, I won't have a dial tone 10 minutes later).

Bottom line, it's the phone service, not the phone.
Strange Data
join:2012-08-25
·US Internet

Strange Data

Member

said by whenthepawn:

I've come to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with my phone and everything to do with the fact that it's just crappy phone service. If you don't have a dial tone, it's not the phone, it's just a glitch in service that they're probably scrambling to fix.

The one thing that seems to work for me when it happens is to turn my handset's speaker phone on and wait until I hear a dial tone. Then, I shut the handset off, then hit talk and I usually have a dial tone from which I then dial out with to try and resolve the problem.

It doesn't always work, but most of the time it does (and then, other times, I won't have a dial tone 10 minutes later).

Bottom line, it's the phone service, not the phone.

I beg to differ, I've worked on phones and phone systems for a few years and I've seen plenty of CPE causing phone issues. Whether it be high REN causing no ring, or a faulty standalone callerID box dropping calls after 1 ring. Rats making a wall nest, birds in a NID, answering machines (yes the things before voicemail) not releasing the call after completion. You name it, I bet if you asked a pole jockey, he or she could tell you some amazing things that they've seen. Discounting the CPE in troubleshooting is shortsighted, lazy and ultimately will not help the OP with his issue.
whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

whenthepawn

Member

said by Strange Data:

Discounting the CPE in troubleshooting is shortsighted, lazy and ultimately will not help the OP with his issue.

Look, I'm not a former technician. I'm just a customer who has encountered the same problem.

I was just telling them what I was told to do by Tech Support (and that they'd probably be instructed to do the same thing).

That's it.

My only other suggestion is that they call their local Communications Technician on the ground directly and just skip Tech Support.