Broadband Wiring Problem

I need some help. My broadband connection has dropped out after working
fine for months.

The phone setup in the house is quite straight forward, with a BT
master socket, and a spur leading to another part of the house where a
secondary socket is mounted. The voice line continues to work at both
points, with no discernable static or hiss on the line. However, I can
get no broadband connection at either point, irrespecetive of whether
there are any other devices connected.

I have found that if I connect my modem directly into the BT master
socket, behind the face plate, all works fine. This leads me to
conclude that my ISP and BT are fine.

If I disconnect the wiring at the master socket leading to the
secondary socket, I can get broadband to work from the faceplate
connection of the master socket. This leads me to believe the master
socket is working fine. However, I don't really understand how a
problem further down the line is affecting the master socket.

Any suggestions as to the likely problem or what to try next would be
very gratefully received.

Thanks.

On 14 Mar 2006, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Any suggestions as to the likely problem or what to try next

It might be something to do with your extension wiring. Use Google
( http://groups.google.com/ )for "extension" in this newsgroup and
you might find other comments on the subject, particularly if you
had more than 2 wires connected. I've used external microfilters
(someone will be along to recommend using a faceplate with ADSL
filtering built in, I expect :-) and extension cables without
problems. Some might consider them less pleasing to the eye,
but I could care less what anyone else thinks so long as it
works, and it has done so for over 4 years now.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
(E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I need some help. My broadband connection has dropped out after
> working fine for months.
>
> The phone setup in the house is quite straight forward, with a BT
> master socket, and a spur leading to another part of the house where a
> secondary socket is mounted. The voice line continues to work at both
> points, with no discernable static or hiss on the line. However, I can
> get no broadband connection at either point, irrespecetive of whether
> there are any other devices connected.
>
> I have found that if I connect my modem directly into the BT master
> socket, behind the face plate, all works fine. This leads me to
> conclude that my ISP and BT are fine.
>
> If I disconnect the wiring at the master socket leading to the
> secondary socket, I can get broadband to work from the faceplate
> connection of the master socket. This leads me to believe the master
> socket is working fine. However, I don't really understand how a
> problem further down the line is affecting the master socket.
>
> Any suggestions as to the likely problem or what to try next would be
> very gratefully received.
>
> Thanks.

Well, the problem is clearly associated with your extension wiring. This is
a common problem - that dodgy extension wiring can prevent the ADSL signal
from synching - even though voice is fine. One can only speculate as to why
it has worked in the past, but now stopped working. Has the speed of your
ADSL signal been upgraded? Have you installed any other electronic equipment
anywhere near the extension cable which could induce high frequency noise on
the line?

Anyway, the best solution is to install a filtered faceplace in your master
socket. The extension wiring will then be isolated from the ADSL signal by
the filter. If you wish to connect your ADSL modem/router somewhere remote
from the master socket, you'll need to run a digital extension. In this
case, a modified filtered faceplate - such as the ones supplied by Clarity
http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/adsl_faceplate_mod.htm is preferable - since
you can wire your digital extension into the *back* of this, and make a much
neater job.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Roger, thank you for your ideas.

As far as I know, the ADSL signal hasn't changed - BT couldn't tell me
whether they had upgraded the exchange, and my ISP confirmed to me that
I was still on the 1 meg broadband. Further, no new equipment had been
brought into the house around the time of the broadband dropping out -
so I am still at a loss as to what has caused this. It worked fine for
months, and now has dropped out and won't come back.

I really need to have broadband access at both telephone points.
Currently the extension to the secondary socket is taken around the
outside of the house, over quite a long distance (>30m). I take it from
what you are saying, that this needs to be replaced with a 'digital'
cable, rather than the BT cable currently used? Sorry to appear thick,
but what is the difference?

Can I use the existing BT secondary socket with this digital cable, and
use micro filters for each device, as before? The existing wiring for
the secondary already comes into the back of the socket, and I assume
it would be relatively straight forward to replace it with the
'digital' cable, assuming it works on the same basis?

Thanks once again for your help.

On 14 Mar 2006 06:31:29 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I need some help. My broadband connection has dropped out after working
>fine for months.
>
>The phone setup in the house is quite straight forward, with a BT
>master socket, and a spur leading to another part of the house where a
>secondary socket is mounted. The voice line continues to work at both
>points, with no discernable static or hiss on the line. However, I can
>get no broadband connection at either point, irrespecetive of whether
>there are any other devices connected.
>
>I have found that if I connect my modem directly into the BT master
>socket, behind the face plate, all works fine. This leads me to
>conclude that my ISP and BT are fine.
>
>If I disconnect the wiring at the master socket leading to the
>secondary socket, I can get broadband to work from the faceplate
>connection of the master socket. This leads me to believe the master
>socket is working fine. However, I don't really understand how a
>problem further down the line is affecting the master socket.
>
>Any suggestions as to the likely problem or what to try next would be
>very gratefully received.
>
>Thanks.

I had a similar problem when I first got broadband. It turned out that
the house wiring was the problem. It was wired in alarm wire rather than
phone wire. It needs to be the hard drawn copper type of wire. The
problem seems to be that any losses experienced on the line from
exchange to house are made much worse by poor house wiring. It is
usually a case of "The straw that broke the camel's back". You may have
experienced a drop in levels from the exchange thus making any
attenuation via the house wiring unacceptable. HTH.

Ian

So which is the best (and most sensibly priced!) cable to use for
carrying both ADSL and voice signals. Is the CAT5E cable available from
screwfix the right stuff?

Michael

MB wrote:
> Roger, thank you for your ideas.
>
> As far as I know, the ADSL signal hasn't changed - BT couldn't tell
> me whether they had upgraded the exchange, and my ISP confirmed to
> me that I was still on the 1 meg broadband. Further, no new
> equipment had been brought into the house around the time of the
> broadband dropping out - so I am still at a loss as to what has
> caused this. It worked fine for months, and now has dropped out and
> won't come back.
>
> I really need to have broadband access at both telephone points.
> Currently the extension to the secondary socket is taken around the
> outside of the house, over quite a long distance (>30m). I take it
> from what you are saying, that this needs to be replaced with a
> 'digital' cable, rather than the BT cable currently used? Sorry to
> appear thick, but what is the difference?
>
> Can I use the existing BT secondary socket with this digital cable,
> and use micro filters for each device, as before? The existing
> wiring for the secondary already comes into the back of the socket,
> and I assume it would be relatively straight forward to replace it
> with the 'digital' cable, assuming it works on the same basis?
>
> Thanks once again for your help.

How old is the extension wiring around the house? Up until recently
the standard of cable was lower than the standards nowadays & can (&
often do) break down under exposure to UV rays, making the outer
sheathing go brittle & allowing the ingress of water, causing
corrosion etc which does affect the DSL signal very quickly but
doesn't affect the speech/analogue side as quickly..

The cables used for a data extension are not suitable for running on
the outside of the house, you'd have to think of another route or even
the posibility of changing to wifi links so you have the router in the
hallway & then you could use where ever you want..

MB wrote:
> So which is the best (and most sensibly priced!) cable to use for
> carrying both ADSL and voice signals. Is the CAT5E cable available
> from screwfix the right stuff?
>
> Michael

Not for external usage, normally

Thanks everyone for their useful advice.

On another tack, it has also been suggested to me that this could have
been caused by an engineer "reversing the polarity of our connection at
the exchange".

Before I attempt switching lines 3 & 5 at the secondary socket, is this
really likely? If so, why does it not affect the broadband connection
at the Master Socket?

Any thoughts would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
MB <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Roger, thank you for your ideas.
>
> As far as I know, the ADSL signal hasn't changed - BT couldn't tell me
> whether they had upgraded the exchange, and my ISP confirmed to me
> that I was still on the 1 meg broadband. Further, no new equipment
> had been brought into the house around the time of the broadband
> dropping out - so I am still at a loss as to what has caused this. It
> worked fine for months, and now has dropped out and won't come back.
>
> I really need to have broadband access at both telephone points.
> Currently the extension to the secondary socket is taken around the
> outside of the house, over quite a long distance (>30m). I take it
> from what you are saying, that this needs to be replaced with a
> 'digital' cable, rather than the BT cable currently used? Sorry to
> appear thick, but what is the difference?

I think I said digital *extension* rather than cable. The cable is no
different - providing you are using good quality twisted pair phone cable.
[Note that it's not intended for external use, though!] What is different is
where it's connected. A digital extension is connected directly to the
incoming line, on the exchange side of the filter. The ordinary analog
extensions (when using a filtered faceplate) are connected *after* the
filter - which is why the Clarity faceplate is good, because it provides
connection points *both* sides of the filter.

>
> Can I use the existing BT secondary socket with this digital cable,
> and use micro filters for each device, as before? The existing wiring
> for the secondary already comes into the back of the socket, and I
> assume it would be relatively straight forward to replace it with the
> 'digital' cable, assuming it works on the same basis?
>
You won't need a filter in the remote socket if you use a filtered
faceplate. The remote socket can be digital (unfiltered) or analog
(filtered) depending on which side of the filter the wires are connected in
the master - but not both at the same time. But since your extension wiring
is suspect, I'd start again with new wiring - and put an RJ11 socket on the
end, so that your modem/router will plug straight in. If you need a phone at
the remote location, keep the existing socket and wiring for that. It should
be ok once it's filtered at source.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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