ADSL microfilter problem fixed

Yep, sure enough it had nothing whatsoever to do with my microfilter, my
router, my master socket, my extension socket or the colour of the walls.
Thankfully this time, third time lucky, the ever so bloody irritating
intermittent fault was actually there when the BT broadband engineer called.
Checks my master socket - finds the fault. Checks my D.P. socket
downstairs - finds the fault. Checks the junction box in the street and it's
perfectly clear. Turns out the cable carrying my wires from the junction box
to my flat's D.P. must have been damaged during installation or have a
manufacturing fault of some sort.
So the BT broadband engineer has changed the wires my connection is using on
that cable, thankfully it has spare capacity, and changed the location of
the connections at both ends (junction box/distribution point).

Result, problem completely solved. Job well done and i'm getting the full
8mb service with no errors whatsoever for the first time. This has gone on
for almost 2 years so 3 routers and 5 microfilters later I'm hopeful this is
the end of it.

JohnR wrote:

> Yep, sure enough it had nothing whatsoever to do with my microfilter, my
> router, my master socket, my extension socket or the colour of the walls.
> Thankfully this time, third time lucky, the ever so bloody irritating
> intermittent fault was actually there when the BT broadband engineer called.
> Checks my master socket - finds the fault. Checks my D.P. socket
> downstairs - finds the fault. Checks the junction box in the street and it's
> perfectly clear. Turns out the cable carrying my wires from the junction box
> to my flat's D.P. must have been damaged during installation or have a
> manufacturing fault of some sort.
> So the BT broadband engineer has changed the wires my connection is using on
> that cable, thankfully it has spare capacity, and changed the location of
> the connections at both ends (junction box/distribution point).
>
> Result, problem completely solved. Job well done and i'm getting the full
> 8mb service with no errors whatsoever for the first time. This has gone on
> for almost 2 years so 3 routers and 5 microfilters later I'm hopeful this is
> the end of it.

Good to hear.

Graham

JohnR <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Yep, sure enough it had nothing whatsoever to do with my microfilter, my
> router, my master socket, my extension socket or the colour of the walls.
> Thankfully this time, third time lucky, the ever so bloody irritating
> intermittent fault was actually there when the BT broadband engineer called.
> Checks my master socket - finds the fault. Checks my D.P. socket
> downstairs - finds the fault. Checks the junction box in the street and it's
> perfectly clear. Turns out the cable carrying my wires from the junction box
> to my flat's D.P. must have been damaged during installation or have a
> manufacturing fault of some sort.
(snip rest)

Good to hear that some problems can be traced back to external sources.
Did the BT engineer indicate why a defective/damaged cable can end up
giving intermittent faults? I would assume such hardware damage would
give a permanent malfunction.

--
T Sandvik // to send e-mail, remove vehicle

"ts" <exbn-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1hzhkdq.1315qm81gyfev8N%exbn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> JohnR <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Yep, sure enough it had nothing whatsoever to do with my microfilter, my
>> router, my master socket, my extension socket or the colour of the walls.
>> Thankfully this time, third time lucky, the ever so bloody irritating
>> intermittent fault was actually there when the BT broadband engineer
>> called.
>> Checks my master socket - finds the fault. Checks my D.P. socket
>> downstairs - finds the fault. Checks the junction box in the street and
>> it's
>> perfectly clear. Turns out the cable carrying my wires from the junction
>> box
>> to my flat's D.P. must have been damaged during installation or have a
>> manufacturing fault of some sort.
> (snip rest)
>
> Good to hear that some problems can be traced back to external sources.
> Did the BT engineer indicate why a defective/damaged cable can end up
> giving intermittent faults? I would assume such hardware damage would
> give a permanent malfunction.
>
There was no indication or comment from the BT engineer about what the exact
cause is/was. Most likely it's a damaged wire or wires within the cable, as
to what the cause or nature of that damage is, it's anyone's guess. It's an
underground cable so inspection is not an option but by changing the pair
and the location of their connection in the junction box and distribution
point it has definitely made the world of difference (so far).
It's day 5 now and everything is still working perfectly. The nature of the
fault was such that it took me probably a year to actually get Bulldog
engineers taking me seriously, that there was a physical line fault and that
it wasn't something I was causing, that it was something requiring them to
do a bit more than just piss about changing my profile, which at best was
only masking the problem.
Then maybe another year to get to a stage where they were prepared to start
investigating it properly, methodically and in a logical manner. I would
estimate over 50 phone calls until eventually in conjunction with BT they
started checking everything, from their equipment, through the exchange and
towards my property.
Bulldog were well aware of it as I could ring them instantly and as well as
being able to hear the hissing, pops and crackles, within minutes they could
run tests that clearly showed a short on the line close to my property.
The difficulty was always the bloody irritating intermittent nature of the
fault and the fact it would be fine for sometimes a few weeks then reoccur,
also the several days delay before a BT engineer was available to come and
run tests was most unhelpful.
Eventually all the planets aligned and it got fixed, both myself and the BT
engineer said pretty much the same thing you have, very bizarre that a hard
wire fault wasn't a permanent one. Maybe it was a faulty connection at
either end and BT aren't prepared to admit it but these have all been
checked and cleared several times in the past.

> Eventually all the planets aligned and it got fixed, both myself and the
> BT engineer said pretty much the same thing you have, very bizarre that a
> hard wire fault wasn't a permanent one. Maybe it was a faulty connection
> at either end and BT aren't prepared to admit it but these have all been
> checked and cleared several times in the past.

We had a similar intermittent fault. The engineer said it was caused by
damp.

But when it was wet it was ok - when it was dry it was ok - it was as it was
drying out that there was a problem.

Weird I know.

Kevin