Strange broadband problem

CF93 · 8 Jun 2006 at 09:44

Friend of mine at work is having a very strange problem with his broadband.

He's just upgraded from 56k, and can't get the bb to work properly. For some reason he can only get online when the phone is in use. Not just as in off the hook, but as in actually engaged in a voice call.

Last night for example his wife was on the phone to a friend so he took the opportunity to get online, but when that call finished and his wife hung up....bye bye connnection. He then had to dial his home number from his mobile to get online again! He has said it does occasionally work, but it tends to only be at the weekend!

All the cables are hooked up correctly, and there are microfilters in every phone point. A BT engineer has checked the line and said there's no problem, and another BT engineeer has visited the house to check things from that end.

:confused:

Has anyone come across this type of thing before? Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what's wrong and how to fix it? I'm stumped!

tolien · 8 Jun 2006 at 10:27

It's a fault either way, unless his filters are screwed, so just keep pushing the ISP...

ChuKKi Ninja · 8 Jun 2006 at 10:50

I work for orange BB tech and I remember back in the days of changing from Freeserve to Wanadoo (yeah I've worked there ages lol) I was dealing with a customer who had this problem, it took a very long time to fix and we had to constantly bug BT wholesale to fix the problem, who said the line was fine, when clearly it wasn't.

Anyway we finially managed to get an engineer to her house and he was baffled by it, even his collegue didn't know what was causing the problem...

However after some fiddling they replaced the customers face plate with one of those ones with a built in ADSL filter (an NTE5 I think they're called) and ran an extra long RJ11 cable to her modem and that sorted it. If I remember rightly it stems from a problem on the PSTN line, and not the BB side of things.

I can't guarentee this will solve your problem, but just thought I'd mention what happened as it was right pain in the backside to solve LOL.

CF93 · 8 Jun 2006 at 16:31

Will try swapping the filter at the master socket for a known good one, but we've not got an NTE5 faceplace with built in filter to try (though I'll be buying one for myself soon!) and unplug everything else, see what happens.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep em coming!

CF93 · 8 Jun 2006 at 17:03

Apparently, BT did a "lift and shift" at the exchange, meaning they replaced the line card. Then at the house they installed a new master socket with one with a built in filter, and in addition put a face place with built in filter on the only extension in the house.
There was nothing plugged into the master socket, so another BT engineer changed the filtered master back to a standard socket.

Now he has:
- Normal BT master socket, with nothing plugged in at all.
- Extension cable - which was hardwired into the back of the BT socket by the engineer - that runs upstairs to a single point.
- The single point upstairs has a faceplate with a built in microfilter.
- Router and the only phone in the house plugged into that upstairs filtered faceplate.

Does that help shed any light?

Tonight he's going to unplug everything upstairs and try plugging in a dongle-style filter and the router directly into the master socket to see if that helps.

tolien · 8 Jun 2006 at 17:41

Try it plugged into the test socket behind the faceplate (which'll eliminate the extension wiring, though if it's been properly done it shouldn't be an issue), and if it doesn't help, just keep pushing.

CF93 · 12 Jun 2006 at 10:59

Haven't had the chance to test it in the test socket (do I need a special logon/password for that?)

But...with everything else unplugged, he's tried plugging the router directly into the master socket using a dongle-style filter, and the router doesn't even attempt to connect :confused:

Phil99 · 12 Jun 2006 at 11:46

CF93 said:
Haven't had the chance to test it in the test socket (do I need a special logon/password for that?)

But...with everything else unplugged, he's tried plugging the router directly into the master socket using a dongle-style filter, and the router doesn't even attempt to connect

The test socket is just a connection before the extension cables are wired in so when you use the test socket it's as direct as you're going to get.

No special equipment/login/anything is needed.

OllyM · 12 Jun 2006 at 12:14

Sounds like a High Resistance fault, classic symptom is the line working when the phone is off the hook.

I'm amazed that they haven't picked this up if they've been doing their job properly...

tom_e · 12 Jun 2006 at 12:20

OllyM said:
Sounds like a High Resistance fault, classic symptom is the line working when the phone is off the hook.

I'm amazed that they haven't picked this up if they've been doing their job properly...

But it doesnt work when the phones off the hook only when its actually in use

OllyM · 12 Jun 2006 at 12:23

blitz2163 said:
But it doesnt work when the phones off the hook only when its actually in use

Oops, missed that...

That really is strange, as the PSTN equipment at the exchange is totally separate.

Tell him to get on to his ISP, again.

CF93 · 13 Jun 2006 at 09:04

Haven't tried the test socket yet. Will try that and see what happens, then make sure it is still intermittently working upstairs...

CF93 · 15 Sep 2006 at 22:46

Sorry to resurect an old thread, but thought the answer to the problem (yes, finally got it!) might worth knowing for the future.....

BT engineer came out again (same one as before I'm told) and checked over everything again. Was still stumped, but said engineer went up the telegraph pole and found the problem. Apparently, the connection where the line from the house joins at the telegraph pole was a mess - v dirty and not quite connected properly. Quick clean up and reconnect - et voila! one fully working broadband connection [edit - his line's not dropped for over two weeks now] and perfectly good phone line!

The simple things eh!