Not quite DIY, I know, but I think there are some folks here who know a bit about telecomms but won't baffle me with excess technical jargon (please!).
Being out in the country at the end of the line from the exchange, my broadband connection is not one of the best. It is not at all unusual for it to drop out, although it has improved a lot lately - I sometimes get whole days when it hasn't failed! What I have discovered is that if I call the status line, before the recorded message is complete the broadband connection comes live again. Since I found that this works, it has worked every time. Is this a peculiarity of my line, or is it something in BT's system?
A common cause of this is a HR ( High Resistance ) fault on your line.
The extra current on the line whilst the phone is in use is enough to 'punch through' the HR fault, and the ADSL signal comes back on.
You'd need to determine if the fault is within your house wiring, or on BT's side. To do this, you'd need to plug the modem or router directly into the test jack in behind the removable faceplate of the NTE5 master socket. Then see if the line is still dropping.
If the flakey connection is still present, then the fault is in BT's wiring. The only fix in this case is to call your ISP and have then raise a fault with BT. Some ISPs are better at this than others...
( uk.telecom.broadband is a good group for these queries. )
Thank you for the explanation. The router is plugged into the master socket, I shall try the test jack when I can raise the round tuit to grovel under the table!
I have been convinced for some time that BT's wiring is not very good, but every time I complain of noise on the line they have told me they can't find a fault.
Ah that one. Next time you get a noise fault, report it and get a fault report number. If it goes away and comes back report it again, if they haven't been out to fix the first one yet you probably won't get another fault report number but you should be able to get a note added to it. Keep reporting...
Also try and report it when the noise is present and make sure that the person recording the fault notes that they have heard line noise and maybe even what it sounded like, crackles, hiss, whistles, hum etc.
With the noise present they ought to be able to run a line test and get a rough indication of the distance from the exchange the fault is. These intermittent faults can be a beggar to find so you'll need a bit of perserverance but a gert long list of fault reports (resolved or NFF) can get things moved up a gear.
Treat the engineer with kindness when he comes, tell him (if you keep getting different ones) that it's an recuring and intermittent fault and that your BB is bad as well. Note he's really there to fix the voice side but if he knows there is BB as well he migt pay a bit more attention to all the joints. Offer chocolate biscuits tea/coffee. If you get the engineer on your side they'll normally pull out the stops to fix things. I suspect when you get the noise problems on voice calls sorted out your broadband will come good and may well be better than it was (if on Max).
Hmm - when I worked for the GPO (long before BT existed) there was "RWT" (Right When Tested), or "FNF" (Fault Not Found) which meant that the GPO had diagnosed a fault but it cleared by magic (!) whilst working on it - sometimes known as "DWL" (Disappeared Whilst Localising).
"NFF" must be a new one - presumably similar to RWT.
Could the problem be a consequence of all that hot dry weather we've had in the south followed recently by rain and humidiy? In my case it does seem that the few occasions when broadband fails follows a short heavy downpour. As it hasn't caused me any real problem I haven't thought about it. Next time I'll try the phone idea and see it that has an effect.
I fully agree with your last paragraph Dave. It's never a mistake to treat people kindly.
I cannot relate problems with my line to the weather - it has not been reliably available full-time at any time since I got it in early June this year. In the last few weeks, it has been better than it was before.
Earlier today when it dropped out, I just lifted the phone (did not dial) and it came on when the 'please hang up' message started. Is that what you mean by 'looping the line'?
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