So having used DSL all my time in England, I find myself confronted with a cable modem in my rented house. How to plug in the phone and the wireless router at the same time?

Is your phone cable too?

Phone goes to a normal phone socket if you have one

Wireless router WAN port attaches to the cable modem (consider it the cable version of your DSL router/modem)


If you have all the model numbers you may get a more involved answer if you post it all in “the lab”

Looking at the house, there only seems to be cable coming in. I've been confused by my landlord.

What sockets are on the Cable modem?
how many and what type and what's the model number

If there is digital phone in the house then there will be a separate phone modem somewhere close to where the cable comes into the house. That modem most likely will be connected to the regular phone block.

You connect your phone to any of the phone jacks that are likely throughout the house.

It seems that nobody knows whether or not the phone line to the house is working.

The trouble is, it is a house normally rented out to students. So they've had Bell cable and Rogers cable, but as far as I can tell the original telephone line is defunct. Unless it is now run through the Bell box.

Perhaps I should ask: what should I have done?!!

Perhaps you should ring up the phone company and ask whether there is service to the address? After plugging in a phone to the nearest convenient phone socket and establishing whether you have a dial tone or not.

As to internet, have you contacted Rogers and arranged to take over the account? If not, then plugging the modem in (and it's unclear whether you actually have a modem or not) is likely not to work either.

In short. It's difficult to offer any advice unless we know you have phone and cable service to start with. Only you can establish those facts, not some faceless people on an internet forum. Which begs the question by the way, how are you accessing the internet right now?!

I'm confused by the whole set-up at the house. The landlord doesn't have a clue, and sent me in the wrong direction by suggesting the house was wired for telephone service. (Which is true, but I see no obvious phone wiring INTO the house, only inside.)

Anyway:

1) There is a box outside labelled 'Bell', which runs into both the basement flat and the main house.
2) There is a box outside labelled 'Rogers', which runs into the main house only. (Rogers, incidentally, deny all knowledge of the address when one tries to order cable tv.)
3) There is some kind of black box, with no visible accreditation, which appears to run into the main house, but I don't see where it goes.
4) I have a borrowed cable modem, and a dsl router.
5) I am accessing the Interent via a public network, not from the house.

Is phone/internet/cable included in your rent? Usually (but not always), the tenant is responsible for these - so you need to choose if you want Bell/Rogers/other and call them up to have it installed. You may need a letter of permission from the landlady (particularly if you need a sat dish installed, for example).

We just had all 3 services installed this week from Rogers. He gave us a modem, the cable plugs into the modem, and then the phone & router are plugged in as well. The existing Bell phone sockets are not used - he suggested that if we want additional phones, we need to buy one of the sets of cordless phones.

I'm responsible for telephone etc. I've worked out that I need to take the cover off the Bell box and check for a demarcation jack, but I haven't nerved myself up to do that. Then, if that works and all the wall jacks work, I can plug the phone into one wall jack using the filter, and the router into another.

I am getting the television from Rogers, so if there's no normal phone line I'll just add internet and use cell phones/Skype.

can't you just plug a phone into the wall and see if you have dial tone? Then call your cellphone from the landline and see what number comes up on the display?

I'd be very surprised if you have DSL provisioned on a Bell line wihtout asking for it specifically, so I think you're a little optimistic about plugging in a DSL router to a phone jack without ordering DSL first.

If I were you, I'd look into the options available from both Bell and Rogers, since you seem to be heading down the route of doing business with both of them (some would accuse you of masochism for that choice, by the way... if you're getting your TV from Rogers, why not look at their home phone and internet bundles too?)

There is no dial tone from any wall jack, but Bell seem to think I have telephone service.

I'm actually trying to get Teksavvy to supply my phone and internet, but Bell are not being helphful to them.