strange phone problem

[faggster]

Hi everyone,

I have the strangest problem. We moved into the house that jack built in may last year. Phones had been working fine no problem since then. We had an extension in the kitchen and one in the upstairs bedroom.
On sunday last week no one could dial into our house it kept coming up as the line was busy.
I phoned BT as the internet was also up and down like a yoyo. They eventually found a fault they said they had fixed by replacing a battery somewhere! But my house phone would still not ring and was showing engaged. That night i thought i would investigate just in case bt come and charge me £100. I pulled out the extension from the master and the test socket was fine. Phone fine and internet fine. Nothing had changed internally so couldn't see what had happened. I eventually after plugging one wire at a time into the bottom part of the master socket found that the blue and white cable was causing the problem but again had been fine for months. I checked the other wires out and it looks as though they have only connected three wires at whatever junction box they have connected them at. I can only get signal from the bell wire and the two blues however the blue and white is knackered. I have connected now just the main blue and the orange wire to get a signal to upstairs for my internet. Everything is fine except I can only get 3.5mb of internet download speed now whereas i could (and still can from the test socket) get 7.5mb.

What would make the blue and white wire cause so much hassle or have BT done something and it is their problem. What can i do to get the internet speed back up to 7.5mb upstairs.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
paul.

 

[Spark123]

Can you trace the cable along its length and see any damage? Any damage to the socket? Is it easy to replace the whole cable? Some cheap cable can cause your download speed problems, if you replace it buy decent stuff.

 

[faggster]

Can you trace the cable along its length and see any damage? Any damage to the socket? Is it easy to replace the whole cable? Some cheap cable can cause your download speed problems, if you replace it buy decent stuff.

Hi,

Cable runs up meter cupboard then into the ceiling. I presume under the floor boards so not easy to see. We have just had all new carpets down i don't have to pull them up do i??

 

[Spark123]

Could the phone cable be tucked under the skirting and have been damaged by the new carpet being fitted?
Is there another route you can run a new cable in?

 

[sus9]

Can you trace the cable along its length and see any damage? Any damage to the socket? Is it easy to replace the whole cable? Some cheap cable can cause your download speed problems, if you replace it buy decent stuff.

Hi,

Cable runs up meter cupboard then into the ceiling. I presume under the floor boards so not easy to see. We have just had all new carpets down i don't have to pull them up do i??

afraid so - somewhere there is a resistance fault be it high or low (ie a battery in BT speak) on that cable

 

[telelec]

The fault is in the cable going upstairs , this is NOT a battery fault it will be a partial loop fault , ( A battery fault is when the line(you phone) is in contact with another line(sombody elses phone line)).
It sounds to me that the cable is under your new carpet and has been trapped on a gripper rod.
Your solutions are either:
A: rewire that extension , either internally or externally by yourself or electrician / or your service provider who will arrange for Openreach to install
b: Fit a wireless router next to your main NTE (Socket) and connect wireless on your computer.
c. use a hub router combined with powerline adaptors to send the internet connection through your mains wiring.

A search on google will tell you more about powerline adaptors and routers.

 

[sus9]

The fault is in the cable going upstairs , this is NOT a battery fault it will be a partial loop fault , ( A battery fault is when the line(you phone) is in contact with another line(sombody elses phone line)).
routers.

can be a high resistance - or a low one too, the operators will use the term for any line fault thats not open

 

[telelec]

The fault is in the cable going upstairs , this is NOT a battery fault it will be a partial loop fault , ( A battery fault is when the line(you phone) is in contact with another line(sombody elses phone line)).
routers.

can be a high resistance - or a low one too, the operators will use the term for any line fault thats not open

see original post "But my house phone would still not ring and was showing engaged. "

You would not get this with HR ... only a loop / partial loop or retified loop.. so the fault is definatley a loop fault , that is why his line was PET (perm engaged tone)

 

[sus9]

The fault is in the cable going upstairs , this is NOT a battery fault it will be a partial loop fault , ( A battery fault is when the line(you phone) is in contact with another line(sombody elses phone line)).
routers.

can be a high resistance - or a low one too, the operators will use the term for any line fault thats not open

see original post "But my house phone would still not ring and was showing engaged. "

You would not get this with HR ... only a loop / partial loop or retified loop.. so the fault is definatley a loop fault , that is why his line was PET (perm engaged tone)

yes and he`s had the carpet fitters in too


whats a "retified loop...."?

 

[telelec]

Rectified loop.... i meant to type..

A loop fault that can sometimes be loop , then clear itself , then go loop again etc....

 

[sus9]

Rectified loop.... i meant to type..

A loop fault that can sometimes be loop , then clear itself , then go loop again etc....

got ya (i though it was a typo but you never know with bt types LOL)

 

[faggster]

The fault is in the cable going upstairs , this is NOT a battery fault it will be a partial loop fault , ( A battery fault is when the line(you phone) is in contact with another line(sombody elses phone line)).
routers.

can be a high resistance - or a low one too, the operators will use the term for any line fault thats not open

see original post "But my house phone would still not ring and was showing engaged. "

You would not get this with HR ... only a loop / partial loop or retified loop.. so the fault is definatley a loop fault , that is why his line was PET (perm engaged tone)

yes and he`s had the carpet fitters in too


whats a "retified loop...."?

Sorry everyone for such a delay coming back. I am going to ditch it in the end and go with homeplug 85mbps. I am in IT so no problems on that front. However I may have confused everyone by saying that the carpet was new, it is new but was put in about 3 months before the problem started!
Is a pain though. I see everyone things it is a problem with the internal wiring. Strange how it just dies.

 

[disinfo]

Had a very similar problem when we moved in to our house,

rather than messing around trying to find a nail through the cable i just ended up moving the master box as close as possible to where the drop cable came in and using a short length of CAT6 FTP to connect it.

Bought wireless phones which work fine, ran some external CAT6 from ground floor to upstairs and put some network sockets in.

All works well and took a couple of hours.

 

[SeanT]

OP - leave the blue pair off completely, and use the orange pair (this is important, you must use a pair and not a wire from each colour pair) to take the signal to 2 and 5 upstairs - the microfilter should make your phone ring upstairs so no need for the other wire (number 3, the bell wire) although if it won't ring reconnect the working blue wire to terminal 3.