I did it myself!

Getting online tonight at this hour was a pain and a half. Let me
explain...

Ever since we moved in, we've had problems with the phone line staying
clear. At least for the putrid picky modem in my mom's Dell desktop.
WebTV doesn't seem to mind the bits of static very much but it can knock
the Dell offline more than it needs to. I guess the modem should be
replaced by a better one - my younger sister has a Dell that also does
dialup access and they rarely have a problem with it.

Anywho, mom emails Verizon support to have a tech come out and look at
things - essentially to put a new box on the line. He comes out, finds
out there's a box on the line, one that should be there. But then I show
him the little one that's much like the ones they used to use all the
time until some time ago. So he opens that up, starts checking the
wires. He notes there's red and green wires, and then there's one
connection with blue white. He says the blue white pairing is the new
standard for wiring phone lines, but as long as you keep things
straight, using them interchangeably isn't a problem.

So he goes, cuts off the blue-white pair from one wire, splices things,
and goes on his way. The phone line seems to be clear again. Yay. So I
get to doing things on the Dell tonight. Still had at least 3 dropped
carriers, and the usual ISP doesn't respond and "server cannot be found"
thingies which requires hanging up and redialing.

I get done with that, go upstairs to do some email on WebTV, and
suddenly... No dialing sound. I check the wired plug in phone. It's
dead. The blue white pair for upstairs he cut out and there ya go.

So I figure out the blue and green are one connection, the red and white
are the other. Ignore the orange and the white wire with a yellow streak
on it.

Get my wire cutters / strippers, do the necessary cutting, stripping,
and twisting, and with the use of the cordless, I am able to determine
I've reconnected the upstairs plug correctly. I find one of my ceramic
wire twist splice thingies and use it. I will get another soon, but the
line is clear again. seems that the little box was being used, but that
was creating static.

That was about an hour and a half ago. The things I go through to get on
WebTV...