When it acted up the first time, the hookswitch (yeef! that thing has a lot of contacts!) was the thing I spent the most time cleaning.
Anything else I should try doing to it, besides cleaning? Or any particular set of contacts I should examine more closely?
Incidentally, when it acted up last night, I have confirmation that I could not only not hear anything, but could not transmit anything, either.
The one thing I'm kicking myself for *not* doing: even though there's another phone, normally on my fax/modem line, that I could have plugged in (to see whether the problem was in the wall), I didn't. (But I vaguely recall trying that the first time, and I suppose I wasn't thinking all that clearly last night, given that I'd picked up some sort of bug that had me in bed with a 100-degree fever).
Thanks to both of you for responding so quickly.
