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Greetings,I have received an email from Cox (quoted at end) a couple of times stating that my phone is hooked up to Tel2 which causes a number of problems including inbound called ID problems. It also states that starting on 3/22 I may no longer have a dial tone. The problem is that I don't have anything connected to Tel2, only Tel1. A while back my phone was connected to Tel2 because that was the only port that was active. On 11/1/21 my phone modem was re-provisioned and the active port was set to Tel1 and all equipment is connected to Tel1 now. This was describe in the following thread:forums.cox.com/.../tel2-provides-a-dial-tone-but-tel1-does-notIncidentally, my caller ID service has gotten worse over the past few months and now I would say that less than half of calls show any caller ID info. I am not sure if this is related to the "mystery Tel2 issue" being mentioned in the Cox email of if it is something else. Is there something I need to do so I can be sure to have phone service after 3/22/22 and also restore my caller ID service to reasonably functional state?Thanks,DeanBody of email from Cox..."TELEPHONE MODEM UPDATE NEEDEDYour Cox technical team has identified your account as having telephone equipment plugged into the wrong input of your Cox telephone modem. We can fix that, but here's what's happened: Your account has 1 line of service, and it's designed to operate on port 1 of the modem. Your phone equipment shows you're also connected to port 2, causing problems such as a “false dial tone”, dropped calls after 30 min, and possibly inbound caller ID issues. Starting March 22nd, 2022, a device update will disable the false dial tone; any lines connected to port 2 of the modem must be moved prior to that date."
You seem like you want your ducks in a row; however, with all the Cox mistakes...provisioning Tel2 in the first place, not verifying if you're currently connected to Tel2 & sending this erroneous email...you'll have difficulty getting Cox inline. I hate to tell you to "wait & see" but you may need to wait & see what happens on 22 March. Holy Tel2, Mr Magoo!
I have a TM3402A modem. Yes, I am trying to preempt possible disconnection, if that is a possibility. Will try to do the soft reset (via website). I have tried the simple reboot of the modem by unplugging and it did not do anything. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks for all the ideas!
Bruce said:What are you troubleshooting?
Sorry, I wasn't replying to you, but to Deanchat, specifically about the caller ID problems.
Sorry...as you can see, I deleted to not confuse.
Just an input. As for Caller ID technology, I had a 20-year-old V-Tech landline and its Caller ID did work AFTER Cox implemented VoIP. The Caller ID info from the eMTA to the phone is analog so older phones do work. The problem with older phones, however, is the Caller ID displays are LCD and those LCD elements eventually fade or burnout. As long as OP's Caller ID doesn't look like ghostly gibberish, it should be operational.
Bruce said:As long as OP's Caller ID doesn't look like ghostly gibberish, it should be operational.
That's the kind of input I was looking for from OP. So far, all that was said is " less than half of calls show any caller ID info". I was looking for external caller ID units or some other unusual caller ID interface. If it effects multiple phones, disregard my query.
Yeah...you asked good stuff. I just assumed OP has zero Caller ID on any device half of the time. Which is weird. If it's inconsistency for all devices, it's whatever all devices have in common: eMTA, patch panel, Cox, etc.
Since VoIP, Caller ID can be finicky...especially after switching ports, rebooting, resetting, re-provisioning, power outages etc. Sometimes you troubleshoot for 1 thing then another thing gets weird. It's the same with the cable-box: just pick your poison. Sometimes it's just a fragile thing to fix.
Since there is no history of calls in Contour, Cox Caller ID on TV isn't much help unless you actually see the notification. OP could check the Call History in the Cox account. If there is no Caller ID info, it's probably something with Cox.
If I were OP and resetting from account didn't produce consistent Caller ID, just freely exchange the eMTA. Don't cost nothing.
Did a web-based reset of the phone modem (I have separate modems for phone and internet). So far (three calls), the caller id is working. So this may have fixed things!
So far so good. After a week I think only one call had no caller id info. Thanks to everyone for the help!