Internet drops when phone calls are made?

mark66

mark66

mark66

Soldato
Joined
1 May 2003
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3,207
Location
Bucks
Hi,

My Dad is with Pipex and also rents his line phone through them. Each time he downloads a file or is using iChat with me, his connection is disrupted when he either picks up or puts down the phone. This gets very annoying, especially when you have called to arrange a screen sharing session, start it and then loose connection the moment he puts the phone down.

He has called BT, but as he rents the line through Pipex, they effectively put the phone down on him and don't want to know. Pipex aren't being much help either...

What are the possible causes of this problem? Ideally I think he needs an engineer to go around to his house, identify and fix the problem - something he is happy to pay for, but who will do this?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Cheers
 
are the filters first on the sockets?

sky faf around and move the posisitons seen this from experience, is the router / pc on an extention lead ?

can you tell me how its all lead out please ?
 
mark66 said:
Each time he downloads a file or is using iChat with me, his connection is disrupted when he either picks up or puts down the phone. This gets very annoying, especially when you have called to arrange a screen sharing session, start it and then loose connection the moment he puts the phone down.
Click to expand...

I had the exact same problem when I first got my connection BT Phone, Be ISP. There was some difference in that when the router was trying to resync while the phone was off the hook i could hear some hissing, when router was disconnected the phone line was quiet and clear (did quiet line test). Contacted Be who initially just told me to contact BT until I pointed out the phone line was fine without the router and as such BT had no responsibility as they were meeting the terms of their contract with me. Be then organised an engineer to visit the exchange and replace the 'tie pair' (no idea, this is what they called it). After the work was done no other issues and my attentuation was less too, all in only took about 4 days from first call to resolution. Be gets the thumbs up from me :)

Edit: Prior to contacting Be I also connected only the router and phone to the master socket through the microfilter eliminating any other telephone wiring and tried a few other microfilters, explained this to Be during initial call.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Thanks for the responses. My Dad lives about 200 miles away and so checking is not particularly easy, especially as he is the most frustrating computer user on the planet...believe me!!!

I will try to get him to check about the order with the filters, I take it the router should be on the plug and not the extension cable?

I have a feeling his phone wiring may have been 'modified' and extended over time by the previous owners, and I think this is probably the biggest culprit. This is why ideally we would like an engineer to walk in, investigate and fix the problem and as said he is more than happy to pay for this. Are there 3rd party network / internet engineers out there?

He is going to contact Pipex again tomorrow, but going on their last response where I think they fobbed him off as he struggles to understand what he is trying to report, I am not too hopeful :(
 
If you have microfilters in all the sockets and it's still happening, i'd say it's down to dodgy microfilters.
 
Thanks again for the pointers, we will wait to see if Pipex can be of any help, if not we will replace the filters.
 
I was having the same problem up until I bothered myself to look at the wiring this morning.

The master socket that was fitted in our house not so long ago had poor contact between one of the main wires (the blue + orange ones - not too sure on the correct terminology for them :p) and the small metal plate/screw combination within the master socket itself (not the faceplate)

/edit
I've managed to find a ropey picture on imageshack to show you!

pic

I'm sure the internals can vary greatly on master sockets but basically there was poor contact between one of the terminals where the blue wire connected. (left side of the diagram)

I simply removed the wires and bent the ends into a good shape, screwed back up tightly and hey presto, all working properly!
 
If your father has not got this issue resolved yet, ask him the following:

How many telephone sockets does he have in his house?
How many of these sockets have devices connected to them?
How many of the sockets in use have microfilters connected to them?

All sockets that have devices connected to them, must be Microfiltered. Make sure the Microfilter is always the first device connected to the phone socket.

If not resolved, disconnect all devices from all telephone sockets and plug the router directly into the master socket through a Microfilter.

The Master Socket, will normally have a BT logo on it and will have a horizontle line going across it. This socket is normally located in the Hallway or livingroom area, but can sometimes be found in more obscure places, including the loft.

Unscrew the two screws on the socket and pop off the piece of plastic. There might be whats known as a test socket hiding behind where the plastic normally is. Plug the router into that socket. This is a BT recommended test.

If not resolved, its probably a cross-wiring issue at his local telephone exchange. It is his ISP's responsibility to resolve that issue. Dont call BT, they wont help. Call Pipex and tell them your broadband is not working through the test socket and you want a fault logged.

They "should" escalate your father to an escalations team who are equipped with BT Wholesale, where a cross-wiring fault should be logged to BT. BT themselves should either respond with "Testing Complete, No Faults Found" or "Fault Found, assigned to Engineer".

If no fault is found, then the highest probability is that your dad's router is faulty. Pipex should replace it accordingly since they are in no position to do anything else at that point.

I dont work for Pipex but I do work for a different ADSL provider and I have troubleshooted broadband, configured broadband connections and also worked with BT wholesale. :)

Hope that helps.
 
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