Phone line problems - but modem still working

dogfish12

No, an electrician would not be allowed to unless he worked for bt openreach. Bt openreach own and are responsible for the infrastructure. I have never heard of anyone being fined for diy work. As I write my master socket faceplate is hanging onto the floor because I do not have the modern bt one and I'm running an extension.

I take it that you are writing these mesages on the offending phone line. If somebody rang your number now would your internet fail until the call was ended and you reconnected ?

GunJack

most electricians aren't up to sorting out phone wiring. If you can find a local independant telecom engineer who will come out and test your internal phone wiring for a few quid, it will at least confirm if the fault is internal or external, but your PHONE PROVIDER should be doing this (via openreach). From what you've described it sounds like it is external to your premesis. And yes, it is illegal to mess with your master socket and the wiring coming into your house to it - that is BTOR's domain.

ukcarper

If you unplug everthing and ring the phone if you get ring tone it would suggest your phone is faulty.

dogfish12

uk carper - with all respect having a dial tone does not mean that the line is not faulty. The phone can ring, then straightaway cut off. You can receive a call, pick up and you can hear the caller but they cannot hear you. Voltage drop when your phone rings. Almost simultaneosly internet will drop off.

ukcarper

If the phone is busy or going to voicemail straight away it would suggest there is a loop on the line. It could be the line or it could be the phone by unpluging the phone you are proving it is not the phone.

kmmr

Thanks UKCarper. I get your logic, so I have tried it - but still getting the voicemail. So I suppose that tends to indicate it isn't the phone. But I will do what I can to check with a phone first anyway. Then call out BT.

If it is a line fault, it is likely that everyone in the building would be having problems? Or do I have my own line in?

kmmr

spike7451 wrote: »

Did you try the QLT?

Sounds like it's the old GPO wiring coming in to the flats,do you have any extensions running off the socket?

Sorry - missed this question. I have tried the QLT, but I just get nothing. I don't have a dial tone.

There are extensions running off the socket. There are about... hmm... 6 sockets in the house. So I presume they all start at the master socket originally. I tested them all in September when the work was done, and phone worked on every line.

kmmr

dogfish12 wrote: »

No, an electrician would not be allowed to unless he worked for bt openreach. Bt openreach own and are responsible for the infrastructure. I have never heard of anyone being fined for diy work. As I write my master socket faceplate is hanging onto the floor because I do not have the modern bt one and I'm running an extension.

I take it that you are writing these mesages on the offending phone line. If somebody rang your number now would your internet fail until the call was ended and you reconnected ?

No, on secondary test calling seems to have no impact on the internet. The internet tends to be a bit flaky at the best of times (although we do have adsl filters on all used phone sockets. All = 1!)

When the phone is working it doesn't seem to make much difference since we put in the filters.

ukcarper

Yes it does sound like it's the line or your internal wiring.
You have your own line so it wouldn’t effect neighbours phones. The trouble with calling out open reach is that if the fault turns out to be on your wiring they will charge you. That’s the advantage of the nte5 as you can isolate the line from the internal wiring.

The fault could be in the line card in the exchang

kmmr

I really don't mind paying if it is an internal fault, I am just more worried about them taking the service away. But I hope I am really worrying about nothing - I'll act innocent and dumb!

Thanks everyone so much for the help! I will update how it goes over the next few days (depending on how motivated I get to fix it all!)