do a continuity check....

on one end strip two wires and and tie them together (wire nut, twist them together, tape them, whatever), on the other end use your tester between those same two wires. Depending on your tester if it beeps, or the light comes on, or what have you, you're good.

Thanks for the information, hexus. I have a tester (sending and receiving units) but I'm not sure how to connect the sending unit

(BTW, I hope I'm using these terms correctly- by "sending unit" I'm referring to the unit that will be connected to the wires or jack inside, not the telco box.)

Inside, I have a phone line with 8 wires coming in. These wires are separated and connected to two "bars" inside the phone jack housing. Two other sets of wires connect the "bars" to the actual jacks.

I don't think I can strip wire from two of the 8 wires as that would mean removing them from the "bars." Even if I could, which wires would I strip?

The sending unit has both alligator clips and an RJ45 jack.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Correction: the sending unit has an RJ11 jack, not an RJ45.

I don't do much low voltage work but from what you described it sounds like your "sending unit" is what I call "a toner".
So you have a little box with the alligator clips and RJ11 connection on it, and then you have a separate unit that goes with it that looks like a wand type deal correct?

Yes, the toner is a Tempo 77 and the wand is a Tempo 200E.

Thanks hexus.

OK good.
So the line you want to check is terminated on both ends how exactly?
There's a jack on one end and the other goes into a punch down block?
If so, plug the RJ11 of the toner into it, turn it on and go back to the punch down block. Use the wand and go over the connections, you should be able to pick up exactly which connection is it by the tone getting louder the closer you get to it, if there is a break you won't get any tone at all.

Yes, there's a jack inside and a punch down block in the Telco box. At least I think. There are 4 posts in the Telco box, and two of the 8 wires are connected to the posts.

However, I don't think I'm getting the right tone when I follow your instructions. Whether the toner is plugged into the inside jack or not, I get a sligthly louder buzz when I move the wand over the two posts which have wires wrapped around them. The two unwired posts give a static-y sound.

So I'm not sure I can draw any conclusions here. I'm leaning towards just waiting until service is started to see if it works.

Thanks so much, hexus. I appreciate your help.

mine has a 3 position switch onthe toner, tone to one side, off in the middle, and continuity in the other. set it to cont, plug it in a jack. the light should stay off. then short the pins at each jack, to do this get a short piece of phone cord, stirp it an dtie the red and green wires together. any jack that does not cause it to light up, has a wiring problem or is wired for another line.

if you turn your toner on and do not hook it to anything, put the wand next to it. you will hear either a steady tone or a warble, depending on your model. the hum and static you hear are normal for dead lines, so it sounds like something is up there.

plug the toner into your inside jacks, the NID outside has a RJ11 jack on the telco side, the wire pluggin into it is the inside wiring part of the block. if you plug into the telco side, you will never hear the tone inside.

also, touch the tip of the wand to each wire inthe jack. it picks up the tone from several inches away and gets louder the closer you get. you want to make sure that BOTH wires pass tone, as it can hear it only on 1 wire and fool you!