Can anyone help with my home phoneline please?

74jax

At first I thought my home phone had a fault as it just crackled when I went to make a call. You could call my home and it would 'ring' to the caller, but nothing my end.

I tried another phone and this didn't work either.

From my telephone socket I have a cable which leads to a box with two sockets on. From this box I have my internet connection and also a telephone connection. I tried to by-pass this box (incase it was the box that was faulty) and so plugged both telephones into the socket on the wall and both phones didn't have any noise (no crackling either).

I'm trying to find a link on BT website to report a fault, but does anyone have any ideas to try first?

macman

If the fault is on your equipment, extension boxes or wiring, then it's nothing to do with BT, and calling them out to fix it will result in a call out charge of about £130 minimum.
BT's network (and responsibility) ends at the NTE5 master socket. If you have plugged into the NTE5 master socket and the fault goes away, then it's obvious that the fault is on your side of the network.
Replace/rewire your own extensions, or get an independent local telecoms engineer in to do it for you-that will cost about a quarter of what BT will charge.
It's always better to run your modem/router direct from the NTE5, not from an extension socket. And a trailing extension lead is even worse.
I presume that if you plug your handset into the NTE5 and call it, it will work?

74jax

Is the NTE5 the socket at the wall? If so when I plug a phone in the line is dead (tried two phones). If not, i'm not sure where to locate the NTE5 socket?

macman

NTE5 is the master socket, the first box on the incoming line from the street. It has a horizontally split faceplate. It looks like this:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.relay-rutlandtelecom.co.uk/images/NTE5/bt_master_socket_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.relay-rutlandtelecom.co.uk/master-socket/index.html&usg=__pZVo5MeVWeov8dNmUhPj1cm-8PE=&h=316&w=315&sz=30&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=fQApPmxtHpInwM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=139&ei=V7HHTafBKomb8QOD-eH1Bw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dnte5%2Bsocket%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1568%26bih%3D887%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=254&vpy=61&dur=1&hovh=225&hovw=224&tx=107&ty=142&page=1&ndsp=40&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
You said that when you plugged both your phones into this, the the crackling went away (implying that the problem was resolved, not that the line was dead)?
Find your NTE5, remove the split faceplate (undo the 2 screws), plug into the BT test socket behind and retest the line.
If no dial tone is present with a known working handset, then report it as a line fault to your line rental provider.

74jax

Many thanks for this. When I pluf the two phones into the socket (as per your photo) then I have no dial tone, no crackling etc it's just a dead line.

I will unscrew the two screws this evening and try plugging into what is behind it and see what happens.

Many thanks for your help.