BT NTE5 Masterbox and Broadband related...

[Iamtheroflcopter]

G'day all, 1st post, be kind

For quite some time our broadband has had a terrible problem with randomly disconnecting for no reason whatsoever. So days it'll work fine other days if any of our phones are picked up to make or receive calls it will disconnect and some days you cant even use the internet because it will go down literally after loading 1 page. Naturally this has tried my patience to the limits and beyond. We've also noted that occasionally when on the phone, there is ALOT of background noise on the line, which can at times make it difficult to hear and be heard.

I got in touch with BT who took me through the 'take front plate off and test it yourself' routine, they also tested the line on their end and said it was ok, but sent us a new handset since ours was 'out of date'. we set it up but the problem persists...

I had a hunch earlier and decided to take the 'testing' a step further...i unscrewed the frontplate on our NTE5 linebox and also took off the backplate (i only realised that touching stuff on the other side of the backplate is a no-no afterwards), the inside of our backplate looks like this:

BT Backplate

• Iamtheroflcopter
• 15 Feb 2012
• 1

All 6 of the terminals have the 2 coloured wires going to them, and the A/B terminals at the top have a red and white wire going into them. However the E terminal (which i assume stands for Earth) doesn't have anything screwed into it, i also noted that with the collection of wires coming out of the wall there is a green and a black wire that aren't connected to anything...you see where i am going with this?

I know its something we could get in trouble for, but if that is a ground wire that is supposed to be connected to the E terminal and one that might stop all this horrible unwanted noise on the line, would it be a good idea to connect it? We dont want to have to fork out for an engineer to do a job i could do in 5 minutes with some wire strippers and a screwdriver.

Cheers all!

 

[Bodgeitandleggit]

G'day all, 1st post, be kind

For quite some time our broadband has had a terrible problem with randomly disconnecting for no reason whatsoever. So days it'll work fine other days if any of our phones are picked up to make or receive calls it will disconnect and some days you cant even use the internet because it will go down literally after loading 1 page. Naturally this has tried my patience to the limits and beyond. We've also noted that occasionally when on the phone, there is ALOT of background noise on the line, which can at times make it difficult to hear and be heard.

I got in touch with BT who took me through the 'take front plate off and test it yourself' routine, they also tested the line on their end and said it was ok, but sent us a new handset since ours was 'out of date'. we set it up but the problem persists...

I had a hunch earlier and decided to take the 'testing' a step further...i unscrewed the frontplate on our NTE5 linebox and also took off the backplate (i only realised that touching stuff on the other side of the backplate is a no-no afterwards), the inside of our backplate looks like this:

BT Backplate

• Iamtheroflcopter
• 15 Feb 2012
• 1

All 6 of the terminals have the 2 coloured wires going to them, and the A/B terminals at the top have a red and white wire going into them. However the E terminal (which i assume stands for Earth) doesn't have anything screwed into it, i also noted that with the collection of wires coming out of the wall there is a green and a black wire that aren't connected to anything...you see where i am going with this?

I know its something we could get in trouble for, but if that is a ground wire that is supposed to be connected to the E terminal and one that might stop all this horrible unwanted noise on the line, would it be a good idea to connect it? We dont want to have to fork out for an engineer to do a job i could do in 5 minutes with some wire strippers and a screwdriver.

Cheers all!

The a and b wires are orange/white and this is your feed the green/black is a spare pair and will not be connected unless you have a 2nd line...the earth connection will not have anything in so all the wiring on that soxket is correct......but as for the noise on your line..you have not mentioned a filter, have you got one in?

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

by filter i take it you mean the microfilter used for the broadband? yeah weve got one plugged into it and into the 2 other phone sockets we have in the house.

 

[Bodgeitandleggit]

by filter i take it you mean the microfilter used for the broadband? yeah weve got one plugged into it and into the 2 other phone sockets we have in the house.

Ok.....so to make sure its not your own extension wiring..take off the front plate and leave it off for now then try plugging a filter into the test socket and then try your phone to see if the noise is still there and slow internet connection is slow..if yes try another filter just to make sure...its a process of elimination but you must try these because if its your own wiring thats the problem you get a hefty bill from openreach if you call them out

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

righty ho, plugged it in and we'll wait and see...noticed though that only the phone that is plugged into the filter is working now, all the other phones in the house dont get a dial tone...is this expected?

 

[TonyW2]

All the extension sockets run from the NT5 front plate, so with this removed, of course none will work. (For this test, the microfilter is directly into the back half of the NT5 and therefore effectively is the only connection to the incoming A/B wires of BTs cable.).

If the phone into the microfilter is working and interference noise free, then it suggests problems on the wiring of your side of the NT5. If the interference noise is still there, it is a BT line fault.
Next is to check if your broadband is OK with the direct connection.

If the interference is no longer there, but the broadband is still faulty, further diagnosis will be needed, but lets check first and confirm the status with a microfilter direct into the back of the NT5.

Unfortunately, if this is an intermittent fault it may not be a quick diagnosis, but unless the incoming line is noise interference free, no further checks are possible..

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

righty well so far so good, broadband hasn't gone down, ill leave it overnight since it usually decides to go down at some point in the night and ill check it in the morning. the noise seems to come and go normally, but your average length conversation will normally involve some noise of a duration, so we'll have to wait and see tomorrow.

ill wait to see what happens and post the outcomes tomorrow afternoon or so

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

ok, update time!

after checking the internet this morning...it was down, and has gone down at least once since i turning the computer on and started working, also there is still noise on the phone line...

whats the next port of call chaps?

 

[cajar]

Phone BT and tell them

 

[Bodgeitandleggit]

Phone BT and tell them[/quote

Quite correct.........tell them you have removed the front plate and done all the checks from the test port on the nte5 and the noise is still there....also tellthe you have tried a new phone and filter but the problem persists.... when you ring up they have a checklist to follow before they log a fault but insist you have done all these because they will try to fob you off

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

ugh, i was afraid you'd say that!

righty ho ill go phone india. see what they say

 

[Iamtheroflcopter]

ok update time!

Mr. Bt Engineer Man came today and checked everything over. He put a new box on where the old one was and tested everything. He hear the noise and said that the problem seemed to be somewhere outside. After calling for a cherry picker he went up one of the poles and checked some wires. Apparently one of the wires that feeds to our house has become stretched and twisted and thus the whole wire needs to be replaced! Luckily we (shouldn't) have to pay for it, but since its quite a big job, god knows when its going to be done!

Also ive noticed since Mr.Man fiddled with everything, our internet speed has dropped dramatically! to the extent where in some cases its unusable. It seemed to do this for a short time last week so im hoping itll just sort itself out. But if not, does this mean another call to india?

 

[dhutch]

Sounds like a good outcome to me, engineer out, and a problem found. They are usally quite good at replacing the line fairly promptly and as said you wont be expected to foot the bill. We had a new line fitted to my parents (only back as far as the multi-core 5 posts down) and it made a huge diffrence.

Daniel