Computer Help Please?

Can't reach my brother. I think this may sit until Monday unless I find a way to get my arm behind the bookcase.Thanks for everybody's input.

Yes, that's where the end that is now in the wall jack is supposed to go. I might have as a matter of fact but finding it is probably out of the question. Somebody else suggested this too. Maybe I can find the cord. What a nice simple solution after spending days moving heavy things. Oh well, it needed to be done some time. He may not be able to come down for days. I'm thinking of calling emailing a friend who has long thin arms. I hate to bother her but she may have time this afternoon.Oh, and for all those who asked: Yes, the other end of the cord goes to the cordless phone charger.But still nobody knows why I no longer need a wall jack? The modem plugs into a regular electrical outlet, there are no phone jacks anywhere that I know of once this one behind the bookcase is disabled.

No I'm not absolutely sure it's DSL. It's something called U Verse that AT&T does. Someday maybe I'll read the envelope of information about it that they left with me. I just figured that someone here would recognize what it is and how it works from the description.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

FINALLY, mystery solved. Thank you. Now that it's clear that's all it would have taken, I agree. You'd think he'd have phone cords available. But then maybe my situation of not being able to reach my jack is unique.I spent days moving heavy things to get at the jack which I still can't really get to without more moving but now I have no space to move anything TO. I'm hoping my friend will be able to come by because I'm pretty sure she can reach it whereas I can't, at least not without turning myself into a pretzel.If she can't, and I don't think my brother can either, maybe I'll take NoNukes up on his offer to call AT&T for me.

To get this back into perspective: THEY contacted ME about making this switch from the ATT DSL I already had, because my neighborhood is getting high internet traffic. They gave me a one-year discount of $30 as incentive. I didn't ask exactly what was involved, being Low Tech To The Max, I just let them come and install it. So until I read this thick packet of the expected tiny print about nothing, I won't know what options I have if any.He really couldn't have been expected to move all the stuff that had to be moved to get to the phone jack, but now that I know another phone cord would have solved the problem I think he should have offered that, even gone to get one if necessary. All he said was "I have faith in you" when I said I wasn't sure I could even get to the jack myself. Terrific. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

P.S. I just looked at the top sheet in the fat packet: I DO have TV on this. I haven't seen TV in years because I never could figure out how to hook up the high definition adaptor thingy. Haven't missed it, though, since the internet offers enough for me. But it might be interesting to find out what I get TV wise through this U Verse deal. However, if it has anything to do with hooking up wires, forget it.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Oh I MUST have phone on this deal since I had both phone and internet on the previous deal THEY wanted to replace. And the guy said clearly that to get the phone all I have to do is disconnect the wire to the phone jack and insert it in the back of the modem. That's what this whole thing is about.So I think I also have TV as well, since that's what the packet says.But yes the guy needs to come finish the job since neither my brother nor my friend is offering to come. NoNukes is going to call ATT for me.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Friend emailed that she can come over. I hope there isn't a collision in the making here.

Not yet, but probably in the next half hour.Meanwhile my friend did come over. She's not braindead to technology the way I am but still encountered problems way beyond the simple idea of removing the wire to the jack that I thought was all that was involved. I won't write the ten thousand word description of what we've been through in the last hour or so, but I still need the technician to come as the phone isn't working despite all sorts of cord manipulations.Thank you for contacting them. He's still on his way.

Yahoo, I have a phone. Tech guy took about ten-fifteen minutes.Turns out there were two cords to the jack, one of them did need to stay there to power the modem, the other one, to the phone, was to be removed and plugged into the back of the modem. My friend accomplished that much despite herculean problems with cord entanglements, but the phone still wasn't working. Well, to be accurate, it worked for a few minutes and then died. That's why I still needed the tech to come. And that turned out to be a damaged cord. Which the tech replaced.I need a nap.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

The two cords didn't go directly into the wall, they went into a gizmo with two ports on the receiving end and one cord on the other end that plugged into the jack. I suppose whatever filter you are talking about might have been in the gizmo. [ABE: Just got it out and read the print on it: Z Blocker DSL Filter Model]/abe. My friend figured out that the thicker cord had to stay in the wall so she removed it from the gizmo and plugged it in directly, then plugged the phone cord into the modem. I have the gizmo as a trophy.On the note the first tech left me he identifies my phone number with the letters VOIP, which you said you doubted it would be. Well it is though I don't know what that means. He also wrote down a Wi-fi password, and of course I don't have a clue about Wi-Fi either, but I probably don't need to.As for an Ethernet cord it means getting up and going around the computer again so I'll check later.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Thank you for that heads up, and as a matter of fact I was just sitting here pondering that very possibility before you posted on it. Why on earth would I want my phone to go through the internet? Computers are always crashing, internet itself can stop working. This makes no sense. How did I get myself into this anyway? I've never had a cell phone but maybe it's time to consider getting one.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Sounds like even your multiple redundancy didn't give you any phone service during the outage.At least when we've had a power outage I always had my land line, that's never gone out.I do not like this U Verse thingy at all now that I know what it does and have actually thought about it. For me I don't see any advantage to such an arrangement. I'm not sure I see any advantage for anybody really.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Hello Percy,
I think PaulK is doing a good job of describing the situation but I'll add whatever I can.From your post with the pictures I have the second modem, that says AT&T U-verse at the top.Do you still want to know what wires are in the back of the modem and where they go? I have to get up to find that out which I'll do in a few minutes. Right now I can say there are four wires and one is the phone wire that goes to the phone, that used to be in the wall jack.Apparently you didn't see the posts where I say my friend was able to get to the wall jack behind the bookcase, although I hadn't been able to reach it. She had to move the bookcase another few inches to reach it. She discovered there were two cords there after all, which I had originally expected to see but couldn't make them out, that went into that filter ("gizmo"), exiting in the one cord into the wall jack. Now there is only the power cord to the modem in the wall jack.Now that I understand all this I don't want it and am sorry I have it, but I appreciate all the attention people here have put into it. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

The four wires on the back of the modem: Yes, to electrical outlet, through a small box on the cord. No, the phone cord now goes only from phone to modem. Yes. Didn't notice "Ethernet" anywhere but yes there is a cord from the modem into the back of the computer.The fourth cord goes from the modem into the wall jack behind the bookcase (where before there had been both a DSL cord and a phone cord going into the jack through the "gizmo" filter).ABE: MODEM MODEL NO. 5031NV
Then I can't make out all the small print but the number is repeated with .030 fxn after it. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.