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My phone says "Line Forbidden"

Overview

"Line Forbidden" usually means the phone, or the cordless base it connects through, has temporarily lost its connection to the PMX phone system. Most of the time it clears up after a restart.

What you may notice

  • "Line Forbidden" on the phone's screen
  • No dial tone, or calls won't go through
  • Incoming calls don't ring

What you can try

  1. Check your internet. Open a website on a computer in the same office.
  2. Restart the phone. See Restart your desk phone.
  3. Is it a cordless phone, and are several handsets showing the message? Restart the cordless base instead. See None of our cordless phones are working.
  4. Wait a few minutes for the phone to reconnect.
  5. Make a test call out, then have someone call you.

Please don't change the phone's settings

The phone's settings are managed by PMX. Changing them, or resetting the phone, can make the problem worse.

When to contact PMX

If the steps above didn't fix it, PMX takes it from here. We handle the technical side, like phone system and call routing settings, phone setup and resets, number and texting setup, 911 details, and office network or firewall changes. Please don't try to change those yourself.

Contact PMX and tell us which phone is affected, whether other phones are affected too, and roughly when the message appeared.

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