My telephone line runs through a tree...

Sawell

Sawell

Sawell

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Southampton
Needless to say living in Britian this has caused my internet to disconnect every other second with the recent winds, however the BT [Language!] can't find a fault with the line because when ever they do their packet send to try and see if theres anything wrong with my line at that point in time it's stable.

This has been going on for some weeks, but it's really annoying me now as I can't do anything unless I'm at my girlfriends... the only thing I've found that enables me to stay connected for a longer period of time is keeping my phone off the hook, then hanging up every min or two (because the line auto-cuts off) if anyone can explain how that helps me I'd love to know!

To the point: I might just take a saw to the tree, how many volts run through a telephone cable?
 
Sounds like a definite line fault. When you take the phone off the hook the voltage coming down the line increases, temporarily improving a bad joint, more current is flowing and jumping across a dodgy joint. When you hang up it eventually reduces the current until there is not enough left to bridge the dodgy joint. Around 50-52 volts DC on a phone line.
 
That sounds like an extremely similar problem to the one that i have with my BT phone line. Surfing the net and the like is fine, but as soon as i try to play games etc for long periods (hour or so) it disconnects and then reconnects.
On some occasions it doesnt connect at all, with the DSL light continually flashing like it is is trying to connect but cant.

Whenever i try and contact them (with one of the many numbers they give) they say there is no problem, tho i can hear crackling down the phone line, and whenever i am on the net and someone rings the house, more often than not, the net disconnects. Very annoying.
 
schumi84 said:
Whenever i try and contact them (with one of the many numbers they give) they say there is no problem, tho i can hear crackling down the phone line, and whenever i am on the net and someone rings the house, more often than not, the net disconnects. Very annoying.
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This can be caused by not having ADSL filters on every phone socket or a faulty fllter. Have you got filters installed on every phone socket?
 
With BT voice faults, you need to have patience. They rarely fix it on the first visit, but the more they are called back out, the more it escalates. You then start moving away from the monkeys with spanners, and move on the the guys with the brains who can solve puzzles.

The main thing to nag about is the voice side as they don't guarantee Internet access, but there are certain guarantees for the voice side.

A few years back I had a crossed line. Not always, just some random times I'd hear someone else on my line. First three BT visits found nothing. Then finally, on the fourth or fifth time a short bearded bloke in a suit appeared. Looked like Bob Hoskins. He then proceeded to walk the length of my phone line right back to the exchange. And sure enough - this bloke found and fixed the problem.

Even more amazing... this happened on a Sunday!!
 
There is only one phone plugged in and that is downstairs, with a filter on.

My net is upstairs via an extension lead, which is within the recommended 10m length (is only about 4 metres).

Will have to get on to them about it, also when i run the speed test to see if i can upgrade to faster internet (currently running 2Mb), it says the max i can have is 1.5Mb. For my postal code the max it says is 4Mb, so i am thinking that possibly the house wiring is a bit dodgy.

Cheers for the reply :D
 
There is a filter at the end of the extension where the DSL router is plugged in and not the end plugged into the socket.

Tbh my contract runs out end march i think, so am very tempted to go straight over to cable instead, at least then i know the cables will be new.

Was with Telewest 4Mb up in Bradford in my student house, but will have a look around.
 
schumi84 said:
There is a filter at the end of the extension where the DSL router is plugged in and not the end plugged into the socket.
Click to expand...

You want the filter to be plugged into the socket and everything else plugged into the filter.
 
Havent got much to add but.

3 weeks ago the tree out side out house snapped our phone line after a week BT came out to put a new line up but he wouldnt do any thing about the tree and now the new line is making more contact with the tree meaning i have lost 1000kbps off my sync :( normal download rate 490kbps now it's down to 305kbps
 
Have you moved that filter downstairs yet? It MUST be the first thing plugged into the socket. And then any phones and/or broadband can then be attached.

I guess you have a standard phone extension lead, and this is probally why you have the ADSL filter incorrectly setup. So the way to solve this is either buy the correct broadband extension lead (i.e. small connectors on the end) OR add some extra filters.

Describe, exactly, how your phones are plugged in. (Ideally a quick sketch in paint) Then we can help sort out any phone confusion. :)

For a quick test - go an unplug all the house phones. Then try your broadband speeds again. See if you get any improvment. :)
 
I think the main problem is the fact there is an internal extension upstairs, and that is where the extension goes into the wall (see sketch):

 
You should try a more direct connection to your main socket. Thats usually the advise an isp will give.

Also the newer ones have a detachable faceplate and you can find a connector behind that, once it is removed
 
schumi84 said:
I think the main problem is the fact there is an internal extension upstairs, and that is where the extension goes into the wall (see sketch):
Click to expand...
As normal with Imageshack, your image is not appearing.... but it sounds like this is the heart of your problem.

If you carefully study the wires, you can often think out a plan that allows things to work. Or just rip it out and start again. :)

(Email in trust. send me that jpeg and I'll sketch you a real working solution)
 
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Cheers for the reply, ideally i would like to run an extension from the main socket on the ground floor. Unfortunately i am up in the loft, which would be more than 10m away from the main socket, so can't run the extension i have from that socket.

Touch wood though the net has been good this weekend so don't know what on earth is goin on, even when someone has been using the phone it hasnt been disconnecting.

Will have to see how it goes over the next week or so and see what happens.

Thanks for all the advice ppl, much appreciated.

PS i bet the saw is looking very tempting atm browney :D
 
As per usual i spoke too soon, have not been able to get on the net most of the weekend and it has only just started working again today, at about half 2.

For some strange reason the net decided to connect once the cordless phone was taken off the hook and then put back on again, to check if we had any messages left.

All very strange, bit of a pain as well as was hoping to ring BT while it wasn't working to see if they can help. I shall send u that jpeg now if thats ok MAllen, cheers very much.
 
See the 2nd post in this thread

You can get 10m cable extensions easy. I just used one I had left over from my 56k days, its like 30m long (edit: actually Im thinking in feet, it probably is more like 10m tbh) and worked fine for testing purposes.
That or make the effort and move your computer right next to the socket to test, if its that bad.


I can get the exact link that helped me if you want, but it was along the lines of this page -

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm


I had a problem with the ring wire, mentioned in the last chapter on this page

http://yarwell.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_yarwell_archive.html

Nowadays ADSL is supplied "wires only" ie BT put the signal on the line and the user gets to make it work. When the twisted pair phone wire arrives in the user's house it is converted by a "master socket" to a 3-wire system where the 3rd wire provides a ring circuit, originally designed to power clunky bells in old steam phones, see this explanation. This 3rd wire is a "bit of an issue" as it makes the nicely symmetrical balanced twisted pair into the equivalent of a 3-legged ballerina.
Click to expand...
 
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