In this video I show an example service call where we had a VOIP phone that wasn’t powering up at all and had no data connection at the jack. I show how I used a tone and trace set to locate the correct house cabling and patch it into the switch.
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🎥 Video Summary:
We have a VoIP phone that isn’t powering up, so I’m walking you through some basic troubleshooting steps.
First, ensure the wall jack is connected to the Internet port on the phone, not the PC port. If the phone still doesn’t power up, test the cable. When I tested mine, it showed “open,” meaning it wasn’t connected to anything. If it said “short,” it would indicate a connection to a switch. Since it’s open, I need to trace the cabling.
Using a tone tracer, I either connect the clips to the wall jack or use an RJ45 coupler for cables. I turn on the tone and use a sniffer to locate the cable. The wall plate was labeled 6V1, but at the patch panel, I found ports labeled 6D and 9. I didn’t get any tone at first, so I checked the 110 blocks. Some cables were already routed to the switch, confirming they had upgraded from an old Avaya digital system to VoIP using existing wiring.
After locating the cable labeled 6V1, I verified it with a cable tester to ensure it’s the correct cable and functional. The test passed, so I cross-connected the port to the switch. After routing the cable through and plugging it into the switch, the phone powered up successfully.
While using 110 blocks to connect a VoIP system isn’t ideal, my goal was to get the system operational without overhauling existing infrastructure. Since several phones are already running this way, I followed suit.
If you found this video helpful, please like and subscribe to stay updated. Visit my website, fieldtechacademy.com, for downloads to strengthen your Field Nation or Work Market profiles. I also offer one-on-one coaching to help you advance as an independent field tech. On my site, you’ll find a client list featuring companies that work directly with techs—an excellent way to secure service calls before they hit public platforms.
As always, let’s get you out in the field making money. See you in the next video!
Video Transcript:
We have a VOIP phone that is not powering up at all. So we’re doing some troubleshooting. I
thought I’d show you some of the basic steps that I use to go through troubleshooting on this.
First thing I want to make sure of is that you are plugging the wall Jack into the internet port on these phones. PC port is for a pass through.
If the phone doesn’t power up at all, then you need to test your cable.
I tested my cable. It showed open.
Means it is not plugged into anything.
If this said short, that would tell me it was plugged into a switch somewhere, but it says open. So now I have to trace out the cabling.
See if I can find it.
Got my tone trace set.
You either need to plug in your tone trace
clip directly to the wall, or if you need to plug into a cable, then you need an RJ45 coupler.
Got tone going.
Got to turn on our sniffer and let’s listen
for tone
and see if we get anything.
Now the wall plate was marked 6V1.
If I look at the patch panel I’ve got 6 D’s.
Then they changed to 9’s.
I did tone, just to make sure that I’m not getting any sound on any of these ports.
On these 110 blocks over on the wall,
and I noticed that some of these are actually going over to the switch already.
It looks like they have upgraded off of their old Avaya digital phone system and converted to VoIP, and they’re just using the existing wiring.
My jack was labeled 6V1, so I’ve got 6V1 here.
Once that tone changes to that faster tone.
You know you’re really on the right one.
Once I’ve identified my cable, the final step is to do a cable test on it. This will tell you 100% that you are on the right cable, and it will tell you if the cable is good.
Pass, so I know my cable is the right cable and it’s good.
All I should have to do now is cross connect from this port over to the switch. Then we should be good.
So I brought the cable through just like the other cables. Plugged it into the switch.
Now we’re ready to test to see if it works on the phone.
Now we’ve got a phone powering up.
Using these 110 blocks to carry signal to a VoIP system is not really recommended.
But my job is not to reinvent the wheel here. It is to just get these up and running. And since there’s already several existing phones running this way, then it’s the way I’m going to run it.
If you got value out of this, please like the video and subscribe to the channel so that you’re informed every time I upload something new. Check out my website at fieldtechacademy.com. I have a lot of downloads available for those of you who are on Field Nation and Work Market to help you flesh out your profile and make them stronger.
I also offer one on one coaching if you need a little bit of help to kind of get to the next level in your independent field tech journey, then I’m here to help. I also have a client list on my website that is available. Most everybody knows about Field Nation and Work Market, but there are a lot of clients out there with whom you can go direct.
They will call you and email you before anybody else to give you an opportunity to do service calls. As always, let’s get you out in the field making money. I’ll see you in the next video.