# Did I do that?



## Wireless (Jan 22, 2007)

I recently installed a DSL jack in an office. The DSL came in on the same line which is used by the alarm to dial out. I split the feed so that the DSL jack was unfiltered and the alarm and line going to the PBX were filtered. The customer is telling me now that the lines keep dropping, they will be talking on the phone and it just cuts out. I initially thought the alarm is trying to dial out for some reason and is causing the line to drop but, they told me it happens on all the lines so it can't be from the alarm. Of course this only started after I was there! What could cause this?


----------



## walkerj (May 13, 2007)

I don't understand.

Did you cut the wire and then splice the added wire in?


----------



## TOOL_5150 (Aug 27, 2007)

Perhaps you accidently crossed the pairs? I would go back and make it right.

~Matt


----------



## cdnelectrician (Mar 14, 2008)

What kind of punch blocks if any are on site? Does the DSL modem drop the connection when the lines go down? Do they have a power-fail phone? If so, do they check it when the lines drop out? Need some more info here!


----------



## Wireless (Jan 22, 2007)

walkerj said:


> I don't understand.
> 
> Did you cut the wire and then splice the added wire in?


Yes I cut the line coming into (or right out of) the punch block installed a jack, then installed a splitter the wire going to the modem jack went on the unfiltered side the wire going through the alarm panel to the system on the filtered side.


----------



## Wireless (Jan 22, 2007)

TOOL_5150 said:


> Perhaps you accidently crossed the pairs? I would go back and make it right.
> 
> ~Matt


Of course I am going back! The question here is what could it possibly be? Why would crossing the pairs cause the line to drop?


----------



## Wireless (Jan 22, 2007)

cdnelectrician said:


> What kind of punch blocks if any are on site? Does the DSL modem drop the connection when the lines go down? Do they have a power-fail phone? If so, do they check it when the lines drop out? Need some more info here!


 
Standard 66 Block. The modem does not drop only the voice. What do you mean by power fail phone?


----------



## Wireless (Jan 22, 2007)

I had one of my guys go back yesterday, I thought I may have reversed tip and ring turns out I didn't. The problem is if someone is on line 3 and someone picks up line 1 or 2 the call on line 3 gets dropped. He is pretty certain it is the actual phone system. I thought the alarm panel is cutting off the line to try and dial out but from the fact that the other lines cause it to drop its not. It doesn't look like a wiring issue I don't think because the DSL should drop also. Any other ideas?


----------



## cdnelectrician (Mar 14, 2008)

A power fail phone is a standard telephone installed on one of the incoming POTS lines before the PBX. It's there just incase the power goes out and the PBX is down so they have a phone to use. Do you have a butt-set? This sounds like a PBX issue, but to make sure put your butt set on line 3 at the demarc and have someone call line 1 or 2 from a cell phone and then answer line 1 or 2 from the PBX. See if you still have dial tone on your butt-set. If you do, then you know it is a PBX problem...if you do any kind of telephone work a butt-set is a must! You can get a good one (Harris Dracon TS22) on e-bay for under 100 bucks.


----------



## KayJay (Jan 20, 2008)

Wireless said:


> I recently installed a DSL jack in an office. The DSL came in on the same line which is used by the alarm to dial out. I split the feed so that the DSL jack was unfiltered and the alarm and line going to the PBX were filtered. The customer is telling me now that the lines keep dropping, they will be talking on the phone and it just cuts out. I initially thought the alarm is trying to dial out for some reason and is causing the line to drop but, they told me it happens on all the lines so it can't be from the alarm. Of course this only started after I was there! What could cause this?


I'm trying to put this scenario together in my head... I'm not sure what you mean by filtered. Isn't the PBX a ground start system? 
How exactly did you split the outside POTS/DSL line while also connecting it to the PBX? 
Every time the PBX flashes ground to seize the line, won't that outside line be dropped? With most of the phone systems I worked on, the alarm system used an outside line independent of the PBX, but then again, where going back a few years.


----------

