Strange Phone/Broadband Problem

Whenever either i pick up the phone to make a call, or someone calls me, the router drops
my ADSL connection.
Sometimes when this happens (especially when i phone out) the phone wont dial out for a
while after hanging up, leaving me pressing buttons, only to hear the dial tone
constantly. I called the automated fault line, thinking this could be a master socket
corrosion problem, but it reported the line as clear of any fault
I struggled on with this over the weekend ans called 151 again, only this time i didnt
close the call, and got put through to a human, who said its a broadband problem, and to
contact my ISP
This i did and when i got through to tech support they said it will be a microfilter
problem............which is strange as they sent me a brand new router less than a week
ago, with 2 brand new microfilters which i used straight away. Any other sockets i have in
the house are filtered also. So i am tempted to think its NOT these, but a fault at the
exchange.
Trouble is, though, i am now between 2 stools, as it were. Should i go back to BT and ask
for an engineers visit, with any subsequent cost to me should the line/sockets prove to be
ok, or should i insist my ISP send a DSL engineer round to the exchange
I suppose what i am saying is there is (obviously!!) something wrong here, but what it is,
and how to go about getting it fixed is the problem.
I have recently changed B/Band providers, but this problem was there before the migration
took place from an LLU - back to BT connection

Anyone got any ideas?

TIA

Tamale-Loco

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:02:19 UTC, "Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com>
wrote:

> Whenever either i pick up the phone to make a call, or someone calls me, the router drops
> my ADSL connection.

Tell us:

a) What you have connected to the phone line, and where. This includes,
fax, Sky box, etc.
b) Exactly where you are installing the filters
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.voipinside.net

"Bob Eager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:176uZD2KcidF-pn2-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:02:19 UTC, "Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Whenever either i pick up the phone to make a call, or someone calls me, the router
>> drops
>> my ADSL connection.
>
> Tell us:
>
> a) What you have connected to the phone line, and where. This includes,
> fax, Sky box, etc.
> b) Exactly where you are installing the filters
> --
> The information contained in this post is copyright the
> poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
> http://www.voipinside.net

Ok..........NO sky box, fax or other equipment is installed anywhere else
I just have one phone attached to the master socket, with the b/band
running on same socket via microfilter
I have 3 other extensions all with microfilters, but no phones or other equipment fitted
to them

"Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:45810c69$0$8746$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Ok..........NO sky box, fax or other equipment is installed anywhere else
> I just have one phone attached to the master socket, with the b/band
> running on same socket via microfilter
> I have 3 other extensions all with microfilters, but no phones or other
> equipment fitted to them

My feeling is you may have a wiring problem, or a dodgy filter. You may have
tried this, but worth repeating.

I would suggest pulling all the Micro Filters, except the one where you have
a phone plugged in. If there is nothing in the socket, you don't need a
filter.

Try plugging the phone direct into the socket and see what happens. If that
works normally, albeit it may be noisy, try all your micro filters 1 by 1 to
see if anything changes between them - this will prove a dodgy filter.

If the above does not change the behaviour of the kit it would tend to
indicate that the fault is not with the phone, filters.

Is it actually a Master Socket you have , or a Linebox? Worth checking as
many customers I have spoken to call the Linebox a Master socket.
If it is a Linebox, and you are still having problems, drop off the face
plate and test the phone and filters direct to the line, excluding any
extension wiring.

Try this out and report the results back here for more suggestions.

J

"Maneate" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:45810c69$0$8746$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> Ok..........NO sky box, fax or other equipment is installed anywhere else
>> I just have one phone attached to the master socket, with the b/band
>> running on same socket via microfilter
>> I have 3 other extensions all with microfilters, but no phones or other equipment
>> fitted to them
>
> My feeling is you may have a wiring problem, or a dodgy filter. You may have tried this,
> but worth repeating.
>
> I would suggest pulling all the Micro Filters, except the one where you have a phone
> plugged in. If there is nothing in the socket, you don't need a filter.
>
> Try plugging the phone direct into the socket and see what happens. If that works
> normally, albeit it may be noisy, try all your micro filters 1 by 1 to see if anything
> changes between them - this will prove a dodgy filter.
>
> If the above does not change the behaviour of the kit it would tend to indicate that the
> fault is not with the phone, filters.
>
> Is it actually a Master Socket you have , or a Linebox? Worth checking as many
> customers I have spoken to call the Linebox a Master socket.
> If it is a Linebox, and you are still having problems, drop off the face plate and test
> the phone and filters direct to the line, excluding any extension wiring.
>
> Try this out and report the results back here for more suggestions.
>
> J

OK, here is a pic of same type of socket i have, and its a linebox(?)

http://tinyurl.com/yxo6dc

Over the past few days i have tried all filters in the same socket/linebox
I never had any filters on any other (unused) sockets, but was advised by
BT fault checker person that i needed the filters attached to ALL sockets
whether in use or not, but the fault is still there whether the usused ones
are filtered or not
I took the faceplate off the linebox and attached the phone to the socket
underneath and it worked fine with no noticable noise.

"Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:45811aa8$0$8718$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Maneate" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> OK, here is a pic of same type of socket i have, and its a linebox(?)
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yxo6dc
>
> Over the past few days i have tried all filters in the same socket/linebox
> I never had any filters on any other (unused) sockets, but was advised by
> BT fault checker person that i needed the filters attached to ALL sockets
> whether in use or not, but the fault is still there whether the usused
> ones
> are filtered or not
> I took the faceplate off the linebox and attached the phone to the socket
> underneath and it worked fine with no noticable noise.
>

Yep, thats a Linebox.

Try plugging the filter into the linebox - ie after you have removed the
faceplate - and plugging the phone in but leave the modem/router out of the
equation for the moment. . See if the problem returns, this will start to
prove the filter. If its OK without the modem/router, reintroduce the
modem/router and check again. This will prove the modem. If all works
fine, the problem is somewhere in your internal wiring. If you wished, you
could remove the internal extension wiring from the Linebox faceplate and
try it all from that, this would prove the linebox faceplate as well.

Keep a note of all you have done to confuse the faults desks with (it will
be off script for a lot of them) but if you arrive at 2nd or 3rd line
support, they will listen and understand.

As for the all sockets needing filters, there is no need. I only have a
filter in the main socket as I no longer use the wired extensions - at least
under normal circumstances.

J

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:33:48 UTC, "Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com>
wrote:

> > a) What you have connected to the phone line, and where. This includes,
> > fax, Sky box, etc.
> > b) Exactly where you are installing the filters

> Ok..........NO sky box, fax or other equipment is installed anywhere else
> I just have one phone attached to the master socket, with the b/band
> running on same socket via microfilter

Is the phone plugged into the microfilter? It's the phone that needs
filtering...not the ADSL. Microfilters are generally used to attach the
ADSL anyway as they have an unfiltered RJ-11 socket that is used for
connecting the PC or router.

So...if you have the usual 'two socket' microfilter...plug it into the
master socket. Plug the router or PC into one socket (the little RJ-11
on the microfilter) and the phone into the other socket on the
microfilter.

> I have 3 other extensions all with microfilters, but no phones or other equipment fitted
> to them

No equipment, no need for filters..despite what you were told! Won't do
any harm though.
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.voipinside.net

"Maneate" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:KrudncU-(E-Mail Removed)...


>
> Yep, thats a Linebox.
>
> Try plugging the filter into the linebox - ie after you have removed the faceplate - and
> plugging the phone in but leave the modem/router out of the equation for the moment. .
> See if the problem returns, this will start to prove the filter. If its OK without the
> modem/router, reintroduce the modem/router and check again. This will prove the modem.
> If all works fine, the problem is somewhere in your internal wiring. If you wished, you
> could remove the internal extension wiring from the Linebox faceplate and try it all
> from that, this would prove the linebox faceplate as well.
>
> Keep a note of all you have done to confuse the faults desks with (it will be off script
> for a lot of them) but if you arrive at 2nd or 3rd line support, they will listen and
> understand.
>
> As for the all sockets needing filters, there is no need. I only have a filter in the
> main socket as I no longer use the wired extensions - at least under normal
> circumstances.
>
> J

Ok, i got as far as taking the faceplate off and plugging both the DSL and phone
into the test socket behind the faceplate, and............. havent had a problem since !!
The phone by itself into the test socket was OK when i checked that yessterday
but i never thought to hook up the DSL via the microfilter as well
So we (you) seem to have isolated the fault
I suppose my next step is to bang on to BT fault people to get someone out?

"Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:458168dd$0$8757$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> Ok, i got as far as taking the faceplate off and plugging both the DSL and
> phone
> into the test socket behind the faceplate, and............. havent had a
> problem since !!
> The phone by itself into the test socket was OK when i checked that
> yessterday
> but i never thought to hook up the DSL via the microfilter as well
> So we (you) seem to have isolated the fault
> I suppose my next step is to bang on to BT fault people to get someone
> out?

Um... no. What you've done is prove that the problem lies within the phone
wiring of your own house. You *can* ask BT to fix it, but it'll cost you.

Wiring extensions is easy. It can be harder finding out where the fault
lies but it's not rocket science.

You say you have three extensions? You may have up to three cables attached
to the back of the face plate, one for each extension if they're wired
radially. If they're "daisy-chained" there may be only one.

Assuming the former for the moment, I'd try disconnecting extensions one at
a time until you find everything works with the faceplate on. If they're
daisy-chained try disconnecting the last one in the chain first, then the
next one etc. until things work. Examine as much cable as you can for
errant staples peircing the cable and check connections within the phone
sockets.

HTH

Tim
>
>
>
>

"Tamale-Loco" <loco@NO_SPAM.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:458168dd$0$8757$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I suppose my next step is to bang on to BT fault people to get someone
> out?

I would agree with the other post. Unless you have money to burn, don't
waste it on getting BT to do the wiring (saying this comes hard from BT
person, buit its true so I will say it). If you did decide to, it would be
cheaper to cut and ditch the old wiring and get them to do new.

A better bet is DIY, very easy and kits available from all DIY shops, and
wlsewhere. Or find a good recommended sparkie who knows what he is doing.

Failing that, go wireless / cordless. Thats what I have done, hence why I
don't use the extensions anymore (except during power cuts).

J