Noise problems on broadband line

Hi,

I hope I have found the right place to ask this.

I have recently had broadband and I'm suffering badly from poor signal to
noise on my line. My neighbour (who seems to know a bit about BT, I think
he used to work for them) seems to think the problems may be from my old
line. Its been installed for more than 30 years and he says the new type of
cable used by BT nowadays would likely improve the noise figure.

Before I do anything else, I thought I wold ask in here.

The wire fed to my property is sort of light grey and looks like two cores.

Can anyone advise me please? And does anyone know if BT would change me
this feed for free? The telephone works ok (most of the time).

Ed

Edward Barrett wrote:

> Can anyone advise me please? And does anyone know if BT would change me
> this feed for free? The telephone works ok (most of the time).

When it doesn't work, some of the time, what kind of fault do you get?

Ed - I had a similar noise on my line, complained to BT who checked the
line and said it was ok.
I spoke to an engineer and he suggested that I fit adsl line
splitter/filters on every phone output.
I bought some and fitted them and the noise cleared. Dont know whether
its coincidence or not but it worked, btw I also fitted them to unused
outputs - ie: old sky sockets no longer in use but connected to the
line.

On 16-Jun-2006, "Edward Barrett" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> The wire fed to my property is sort of light grey and looks like two cores.

A lot of the immediate post war stuff was light grey PVC sheathed,
for the street cabling; and for the feed from local junction box to subscriber.
The street cabling was twisted pair, but with a long, about 7 - 12 inch,
pitch.

The feed to the customer was often light grey, with 4 cores, called
quad, although often only two wires were used, the other two cut
short at the sheath. It was not proper twisted pair, since it was not
two wires twisted individually to make two twisted pairs.

The world has moved on in 30 years, newer insulating materials, tighter
twists for the street cables, but you aren't going to get BT replacing
the old stuff, so long as the phones work.

Which is why this newsgroup is filled up with BB sync problems,
the further you are from the exchange, the more you suffer from
noise, crosstalk, cable inadeqacies, and often seasonal water
related problems.

Edward Barrett wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I hope I have found the right place to ask this.
>
> I have recently had broadband and I'm suffering badly from poor
> signal to noise on my line. My neighbour (who seems to know a bit
> about BT, I think he used to work for them) seems to think the
> problems may be from my old line. Its been installed for more than
> 30 years and he says the new type of cable used by BT nowadays would
> likely improve the noise figure.
>
> Before I do anything else, I thought I wold ask in here.
>
> The wire fed to my property is sort of light grey and looks like two
> cores.
>
> Can anyone advise me please? And does anyone know if BT would
> change
> me this feed for free? The telephone works ok (most of the time).
>

Well you've got 2 Hopes & one of them is Bob. Unless there is a
electrical/mechanical fault, corrsion & such like BT won't touch it.

What is the SNR actually reading, what speed have you got, how far
away from the exchange are you. These are the important questions to
be answered before any meaningful second guessing can take place.

You can't expect BT to dig up miles of road and lay a new cable just
for you.

"Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> You can't expect BT to dig up miles of road and lay a new cable just
> for you.

At what point did I ask or suggest anything like that?

I'm talking about a cable run from a pole to my property, that has been
installed 30 years ago and is in a terrible state.

A lot of the time the phone crackles badly on calls both outgoing and
incoming.

"Edward Barrett" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
|
| "Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
| news:(E-Mail Removed)...
| > You can't expect BT to dig up miles of road and lay a new cable just
| > for you.
|
| At what point did I ask or suggest anything like that?
|
| I'm talking about a cable run from a pole to my property, that has been
| installed 30 years ago and is in a terrible state.
|
| A lot of the time the phone crackles badly on calls both outgoing and
| incoming.
|

The fig 8 grey wire is called 'dropwire 8' and it's a mandatory change, but
thats only known in BT land.
What you can do is report the phone as noisy (crackling) and say it's
intermittent in the wind. They will threaten to charge you and come out.
Just tell the engineer you can see the wire moving in the wind when you get this
noise (which will not be there when he calls as it does not exist!!)
He should change it. If he does not, re report it a day or so later. Just acting
dumb and say 'Its typical, it's not doing it now you are here!' and say you are
sure it's the overhead dropwire.

It may or may not make a difference to the SNR, but at least you will know!

On 16-Jun-2006, "Edward Barrett" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I'm talking about a cable run from a pole to my property, that has been
> installed 30 years ago and is in a terrible state.
>
> A lot of the time the phone crackles badly on calls both outgoing and
> incoming.

If it's the wire from the pole to the property (called the drop wire) then
report it as a voice/phone fault, saying that the phone crackles whenever
there is a wind. It's a known, and common, fault.
Shouldn't cost anything to get it fixed, records should confirm it's been
up for 30 years and is well past its sell by date.

>
> A lot of the time the phone crackles badly on calls both outgoing and
> incoming.
>
I had exactly the same fault - with a crackles on the line and dropouts to
my BB.

I contacted BT who said the line was fine.

I eventually had 3 engineers out to replace parts of my line close to the
house.

The line was a bit better.

6 months later the line failed completely - no dial tone.

BT repaired something in the street box the next day, the line has been
100% ever since!