Light switch problem

[wayneout]

Hello,
A brief outlay. I have two set of steps
going down to the downstairs part of my
house. After the first set of steps,
I have the front door and the foyer.
At the top, I have a switch to turn on
the lights above the steps. Also, at
the foyer between the steps, I have a
switch. And at the bottom of the second
set of steps, I have a light switch.
My stepson installed us some push
switches at the top and the bottom
(instead of the flip kind) but did
nothing to the one in the middle.
Now, sometimes when I push the switch
at the top, the lights will not come
on. To get the lights to come on from
the top, you have to go downstairs and
push the switch at the bottom. In other
words, (I guess) the switch at the
bottom has to be in a certain position
for the lights to turn on at the top.
Is there a way to correct this? I don’t
remember us having this problem before
we changed swiches.
Thanks,
Bill
Hopefully, I have explained the
situation so that the problem can
be understood.

[LarryG]

http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/courses/p230/switches/SwitchesTut.html

[Billhart]

You have 2 3-way switches and a 4 way switch.

The problem is that there many different combinations of which places could have the 3 way and 4 way switches and many combinations of where power connects and the light connects.

One of the problems is that he might have replaced a 3 way or 4 way switch with a basic single pole switch and taped of the other connection(s).

But more likely he used the right type of switch, but swaped on of the traverl wires with the common wire.

http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/switchoutlet/4way/

[Author]

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