I have a problem with my phone connection. I don't know exactly when it started but it is doing some very strange things. I have a SoftK 56K modem on the secondary phone line in my house. However now every once in a while when I connect or disconnect from the internet on this phone line, it goes dead (and here's the weird part) and my main house line goes dead. I am worried that perhaps my modem is running some kind of electrical shock through my phone system in my house... I'm not sure why its doing this... it has worked for several months prior to this. The modem still connects to the internet if it has been disconnected from the wall and not used for a while. any help??? anybody ever seen a modem knock out two phone lines before (one that its not even connected to)?

Nah, if the modem was even capable of doing that it would have hosed your computer. Besides, the phone system uses 35V for the carrier signal and about 110V to ring the phone. It is unlikely that the lines themselves are damaged. It's more likely that the modem was spiked through the phone lines. When you say dead do you mean that if you connect a telephone to it there is no sound at all? what about if you disconnect the modem? does the recording come on about hanging up followed by a minute of annoying alarm sound? The modem could hang your telephone line by not dropping the line. Since you generally don't hear the line sound (unless you're modem volume is way up).

When I said "dead" I meant that both the phone lines in my house just didn't make any sound. I mean I can see the modem not hanging up and leaving the secondary phone line on, but why does the other phone line in the house also mess up?

If they are indeed separate one won't affect the other. If they both get knocked down then they are not truely separate.