You may need to reset the system.
Go out to your demarc box and unplug the cables inside. They look like what you plug into the wall inside.
Leave them unplugged for a couple of minutes and plug them back in.
Also check and make sure that one of the splices did not break. Telephone wire can be temperamental.

What is a DeMarc box and where can I find it?

Also, when I had the wires unconnected the phone that was plugged into the jack on the second floor DID get a dial tone. When I connected the blues together and then the oranges together I could not get a dial tone on any phone. OMG I have created a monster.

Try calling your home number and see what happens. If you get a busy signal, that means you've caused a short circuit, and it's the same as taking your phone off the hook.

In my experience, telephone wires are red, green, yellow, and black. I've seen blue and orange only used in newer computer/phone networking cable. Is one a solid blue while the other is blue with a white stripe perhaps?

I can tell you this much -- each phone number requires only two wires. The cable carries four smaller wires inside it to allow two phone numbers. #1 gets red and green, #2 gets yellow and black. This knowledge may help you troubleshoot.

It sounds like what happened is that this jack was in the middle of the circuit, meaning one cable let to the main box ("hot" line) and the other cable led to other phone jacks ("dead" line). The phone that worked must have been connected to the "good" cable.

Try disconnecting all the wires again, make sure none are touching, wait a few minutes and see if that phone works once more. If it does, then all you did was create a short, and you will at least will have one working phone until we sort this mess out!

Ok, I disconnected all wires and now I have a dial tone on the phone connected to the jack on the second floor. I still do not have service on the phone located on the main floor. Each wire, covered with gray rubberized housing material, has two blue (yes one has a white thread) and two orange. I believe you are correct that the jack that I removed served as a connecting station some how. I brought the phone on the main floor over to the wires, pressed the talk button and speaker phone so I could hear if a connection occurred. When I put the two blue wires together I did get a radio station LOL... but no phone. I tried various combinations of to no avail.

blue to blue, blue/white to blue/white, orange to orange, then orange/white to orange/white. UNLESS someone jake legged a junction. pull the jack on teh non workign phone and see what color wire are under the red/green wires. you may have had the blue/blue-white pair go bad and someone rewired it to use the orange/orange-white.

as to teh NID, it is usually outside on teh wall and say preperty of telephoen company. inside will either be a coupel lugs with wires under(if REALLY old) or a telco jack or two.

davidandkasie ... I did match the wires as you indicated in the first paragraph however I had no phone service. When I unhooked the connection I had service on the second floor but not the first.

To figure out which side is the "good" or "hot" side:

1) Have a helper pick up the phone that works
2) Pick either set of wires, and connect all four wires together (be careful not to touch the bare wires yourself or you'll get shocked)
3) If the helper hears clicking on the line when you do that, that side is the "good" side, and the other set of wires is the line leading to the first floor. If not, try it with the other set.
4) Once you know which side is the "hot" side, begin touching any two wires together. Keep trying different combinations until once again your helper hears clicking. Those are your "primary" two wires.
5) If you still have that jack that you removed, and if the jack has "R G Y B" next to the four screws on the jack, those match the colors I told you about. You're only interested in the R and G terminals. Plug a phone into this jack, and connect the two primary wires to the R and G terminals. If you don't hear a dial tone, reverse them.
6) Whether you have the jack connected or not, have your helper move to one of the "dead" phones, and begin connecting the "dead" wires to the "primary" pair (24 possible combinations but only one solution). When your partner hears a dial tone, you've got a match!

Thanks criticalmass. I've done basically what you suggested. The blue wires, when connected, pick up a radio signal, otherwise no other combination provides a dial tone on the phone downstairs. When I unscrewed the jack from the wall where the phone is currently not working one blue wire went to the green terminal and one blue wire went to the red terminal. Neither of the orange wires were connected. This is obsurd.

Do you still have the old "panel" that you removed when you cut the wires?

Maybe this will help. The wires are white-blue, blue-white, white-orange, and orange-white - where white-blue is a white wire with a blue stripe. Don't get white-blue and blue-white confused - you never connect those together.

It sounds like you may have a short in the white-blue/blue-white pair. Check the insulation at each end.

You could also try substituting the white-orange/orange-white pair going to the non-working jack. Splice the white-blue to the white-orange - and the blue-white to the orange-white. Of course, with the hidden splice this will cause confusion to anyone working on the wire in the future!

did you open the non-workign jack to see what wires are hooke dto it? if not, do it. your blue pair is likely bad and they were using the orange. if the blue pair is shorted together, then it will kill dialtone.

IT'S WORKING>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It had something to do with the blue/white white/blue wires. The orange wires did not come into play. I felt that I had tried every combination known to mankind but apparently I didn't. Every time I did get a HOT wire I was getting a radio station and not a dial tone. Anyway, thanks to everyone. I learned something, saved money, and gain a sense of satisfaction in not giving into to this mess.

criticalmass, fyi (telling you this so you know, for future reference, y'know)

R/G/Y/B is, in fact, a common residential color scheme.

In commercial wiring, as well as an increasing number of residential installations, the lines are wired in "pairs" with each pair having a solid and a striped wire, of the same base color.

The base colors are (in order) blue, orange, green, brown, slate. Stripe colors are white, red, black, yellow, violet. There are 5 base and 5 stripe colors, allowing for 25 seperate pairs - so you could have a cable containing 25 phone lines.

Of course, 4-pair cable uses the first four base colors and only one stripe color, giving you blue, orange, green, brown, being lines 1 through 4.

It's very common, and only becoming moreso.

so you could have a cable containing 25 phone lines.

but they do go higher! the 1st 25 pair in a 50/100/etc pair cable are wrapped with a blue ribbon, the 2nd with orange, and so on and so forth. i have plenty of experience with 100 pair cables, i have 3 run to my office at work and i punched every wire on them.

co-worker who had no clue decided to help me with one of them. he cut the cable almost exactly to length, stripped the jacket off, then seperated out all the wires and put all teh blues together, all teh blue/white together, etc. i felt sorry for him, but i just had to laugh as i made him repull 150' of cabel thru the attic!