See Install a Residential Telephone Jack for a comprehensive guide on replacing and rewiring a phone jack.
Outdoor NIDs are typically located near your power meter or at the location that cables from the street come into your house. It’s usually a gray box, but may be painted the same as the house. Indoor NIDs are more often found in apartments and condos, usually in the kitchen. They look like a larger, more complex phone jack.
Indoor NIDs do not need to be opened to access the test jack.
If you can hear a dial tone, then something is wrong with your house’s wiring. If you can’t hear a dial tone, you’ll need to contact your carrier and request a technician visit, since something is wrong with their equipment or wiring.
One malfunctioning jack can cause the others in the house to malfunction as well. See Install a Residential Telephone Jack for instructions on repairing and replacing the phone jacks in your home.
If you don’t have a way to contact your carrier because your phone line is down and you don’t have a cell phone, you’ll need to borrow a neighbor’s phone or use a public phone.
Try plugging the offending piece of equipment into a different jack if possible.
Try to keep cordless phones out of your kitchen, as microwave ovens will often disrupt the signal. Home wireless networks running on 802. 11b/g are operating on the same frequency as your cordless phone (2. 4GHz. You may need to upgrade your router to one that supports 5GHz wireless. See Choose a Wireless Router for more information. Baby monitors, bluetooth devices, and other cordless phones can all cause interference.
