Connection Advice Req

Any advice appreciated.

First bit describes the problems I had and is probably very boring, please
read down for the "interesting" bits at the bottom ;o)

A friend recently got broadband 2 months ago. However the line would sync
only infrequently and therefore no connection could be made(Router)
Sometimes it would work for a day or two, sometimes it wouldn't work at all.
This is in an old farm house and all ext points within the house had been
wired by BT back to the master socket (NTE5? the new split face type) This
made for a very messy installation in the master socket as there are 4 ext
points and an outside bell!

I discovered that if I disconnected all of the above except the ext point to
the bedroom the computer is in then the line would sync almost
instantaneously every time. This provided the main master socket with a
phone and the bedroom with adsl and a phone (Digital cordless 2 phone unit)
At this time I also wired a short lenght of cable from the master socket to
a junction box so I could put the ext's/bell back in one at a time to see
where my probs came from. It has been like this for over a month as a test
and everything seemed to be fine. In between time I was talking to a BT
engineer who advised sometimes pin 3 (Bell) can cause problems and it may be
an idea to disconnect it.

Now the "interesting" bit

As I'd had a month with no problems I started to put the installation back
together yesterday. Started with the outside bell (Pins 3 & 5) Lost sync
right away so disconnected. Connected another ext point (Pins 2,3 & 5) and
lost sync right away. Disconnected pin 3 and everything was fine. The bell
does not ring without the use of a micro filter however (Not really a
problem as you have to use one anyway!) And so it went on for the rest of
the ext's.

Summary:
Computer/Bedroom. Ext socket Pins 2,3,4 & 5 connected.

3 other ext sockets: Pins 2 & 5 connected as if I connect pin 3 on any of
them I loose sync.

Outside bell disconnected as I loose sync (Pins 3 & 5) This item is not
really required anyway and the cabling to it is in very poor condition, ie:
terminal blocks outside etc.

So if you got this far have you any advice then? Hopefully the installation
is ok like this and the adsl connection will continue to work but why does
pin 3 connections seem to knock everything off. Is there anything I can do
to sort it "properly"

TIA ... John

PS: As an aside, during the first couple of weeks 3 BT brand micro filters
plugged into the main BT socket (NTE5) died causing a loss of dial tone. At
this time there was only one ext point to the bed/computer room wired. Since
then there has been a Speedtouch microfilter installed and its been fine.
One dying is possible, 2 I thought was a hell of a long shot, but 3!!! What
gives, faulty batch? NTE5 killing them? As I say the Speedtouch one has been
fine for a least 4-5 weeks.

fx < finds somewhere quiet to lie down>

On 4 Dec 2005 12:09, "JC" <tullyhubbert@ (Spam Trap) yahoo.com> wrote:

>So if you got this far have you any advice then? Hopefully the installation
>is ok like this and the adsl connection will continue to work but why does
>pin 3 connections seem to knock everything off. Is there anything I can do
>to sort it "properly"

If they can live without the bell, then you've sorted it 'properly' anyway.

Use <http://groups.google.com/> and do a search for 'ringing' or 'bell wire'
in this group, and you'd probably find a dozen or more comments about taking
that connection off, because it seems to cause plenty of trouble (I've never
followed the full reasons, whether introducing interference, or making major
change to impedence, or whatever, but it isn't essential for newer phones so
it all boils down to the external bell, which is perhaps being paid for also
on their rental, so something to cancel and see if BT says about wanting the
bell back :-) Peter M.

JC wrote:
> Any advice appreciated.

>
> Outside bell disconnected as I loose sync (Pins 3 & 5) This item is
> not really required anyway and the cabling to it is in very poor
> condition, ie: terminal blocks outside etc.

There sn't any filtering on that link so is it suprising that it causes
a loss of synch..

> So if you got this far have you any advice then? Hopefully the
> installation is ok like this and the adsl connection will continue to
> work but why does pin 3 connections seem to knock everything off. Is
> there anything I can do to sort it "properly"

The only way you can sort it 'properly' will be to put a faceplate
filter on the NTE & then run a digi extension from that point to the
point where you want to use the PC's...

Pin 3 is an unbalaced wire which acts as an aeriel which can pick up
enough hash inside the building which effectively swamp your adsl signal
>
> TIA ... John
>
> PS: As an aside, during the first couple of weeks 3 BT brand micro
> filters plugged into the main BT socket (NTE5) died causing a loss of
> dial tone. At this time there was only one ext point to the
> bed/computer room wired. Since then there has been a Speedtouch
> microfilter installed and its been fine. One dying is possible, 2 I
> thought was a hell of a long shot, but 3!!! What gives, faulty batch?
> NTE5 killing them? As I say the Speedtouch one has been fine for a
> least 4-5 weeks.

Not been unknown I've had a batch of over 48 faceplate filters which all
went faulty, within minutes on occaisions, once I caught on I binned the
rest of them. I've known an ISP to send out 14 faulty modems to one end
user before. Shit happens it's what you do to deal with it which
counts...

"Peter M" wrote in message

> Use <http://groups.google.com/> and do a search for 'ringing' or 'bell
> wire'
> in this group, and you'd probably find a dozen or more comments about
> taking
> that connection off, because it seems to cause plenty of trouble (I've
> never
> followed the full reasons, whether introducing interference, or making
> major
> change to impedence, or whatever, but it isn't essential for newer phones
> so
> it all boils down to the external bell, which is perhaps being paid for
> also
> on their rental, so something to cancel and see if BT says about wanting
> the
> bell back :-) Peter M.

Heh, I'm 41 now and that bell has been on the wall since I was a little un
spending my summer's on the farm. It was used to indicate that one of the
customers was wanting to place an order for some vegetables ) If they have
been paying rental on it I wonder how much thay have paid over the years (I
can remember it being there for at least 30 years!)

John

"Kraftee" wrote in message

> Pin 3 is an unbalaced wire which acts as an aeriel which can pick up
> enough hash inside the building which effectively swamp your adsl signal

Which probably accounts for the fact that even when connected at the NTE5
end but not the ext socket end the sync is still lost. That had me baffled.

John