ok man. thanks alot i'll explain what the situation is, i have land in the country. the main water supply runs at the front of our land, and supplies us, and the rest of the street with water. at the front of our land, we have a water meter. it has a brass strainer on it [facing up], and a gate valve. the water supply company told us that we need to "turn the ferrule on at the mains" i understand what your saying, and it speaks for itself. i have tried turning the gate valve on, but nothing appears to happen. we are still left with no running water we are the first or second block off the water supply, and the rest of the street after us seem to have running water do you have any ideas what exactly the water company means when they say "turn the ferrule on at the mains" ?? because according to what you said above, this is impossible. one more question, is the ferrule located on the meter? near the meter? or elsewhere? thanks again