intermittent connection to Internet - again...

moneyistooshorttomention

Problems again today.

Can an "outside party" affect my Internet connection - deliberately or inadvertently?

1. My nfh is "blowing a gasket" = yet again and there is a shared "box" junction type thing between our places for our phoneline (dont know if their internet comes off the phoneline??) and they have been out there watering with a hosepipe near the "lid" to this at the time the problem started today (ie water leakage down to the phoneline).

2. I've been doing my bit re the MSE spammers the last couple of days to try and help stop them. Could they have anything to do with this?

onomatopoeia99

Can an "outside party" affect my Internet connection - deliberately or inadvertently?

Yes. They could cut your phone line, which would affect your connection. Obviously they would need to know your (postal) address to do this. They could launch a DDOS using a botnet under their control, but they would need to know your IP address to do this deliberately.

1. My nfh is "blowing a gasket" = yet again and there is a shared "box" junction type thing between our places for our phoneline (dont know if their internet comes off the phoneline??) and they have been out there watering with a hosepipe near the "lid" to this at the time the problem started today (ie water leakage down to the phoneline).

I have no idea what most of this means. Water getting into the cable joints could adversely affect your line and consequently your internet connection though.

2. I've been doing my bit re the MSE spammers the last couple of days to try and help stop them. Could they have anything to do with this
No. They would need to know your IP address which they won't know if you have just been reporting spam on the forum - they won't have any idea it was you.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm in process of contacting my internet provider right now.

The phoneline sound between us was very odd - though we could hear each other okay. It was a bit like we were speaking to each other under water and he said he could hear it too.

He said it s quite possible that my nfh could have (accidentally or deliberately) mucked up my phoneline with the water from their hosepipe.:mad:, They are a somewhat spiteful character - so it is entirely possible its deliberate.

- ie through water from their hosepipe going down under the "lid" to our shared phoneline.

?Surely this must also be affecting their phoneline too? I know they have internet too - but don't know whether its coming off our phoneline connection - so maybe they are still getting their internet okay??

JohnB47

I'm curious about this box, and lid, water and shared phone line. Where is this box thing? I thought shared lines went out years ago, although you may have a shared box - but surely they would be up high - on a pole usually.

Also what is nfh? Do you mean your neighbour?

Finally, if you've contacted your provider now, have they arranged a line test? That would seem the next step.

The sound you've described is very like how my DAB radio sounds when my wife is using the hair drier. Like someone talking while drinking a glass of water (or a gootle of gear).

moneyistooshorttomention

Its an underground phoneline that both our phonecalls/etc come up and then divides off to one side to me and the other side to her. Many of the phonelines here are underground - with this being a remote rural-ish area.

Nfh = neighbour from hell and she is currently on the warpath again.

I've been speaking to my provider this afternoon and they've done a line test and say the result says the problem lies somewhere between where line enters my house and the green "box" (ie cabinet) down the road (ie the one with loads of peoples phonelines in).

Phonecalls do sound similar to what you describe whilst hairdryer is working. The two houses are detached.

Nfh's internet may not be affected - as I think she gets hers from satellite connection??? - whereas mine comes down the phoneline.

When I refer to "box" - then what I can see is a sort of "lid" inset into the ground. I am presuming there is a box underneath it - with our mutual/then divided to our respective houses phoneline in it.

JohnB47

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Its an underground phoneline that both our phonecalls/etc come up and then divides off to one side to me and the other side to her. Many of the phonelines here are underground - with this being a remote rural-ish area.

Nfh = neighbour from hell and she is currently on the warpath again.

I've been speaking to my provider this afternoon and they've done a line test and say the result says the problem lies somewhere between where line enters my house and the green "box" (ie cabinet) down the road (ie the one with loads of peoples phonelines in).

Phonecalls do sound similar to what you describe whilst hairdryer is working. The two houses are detached.

Nfh's internet may not be affected - as I think she gets hers from satellite connection??? - whereas mine comes down the phoneline.

When I refer to "box" - then what I can see is a sort of "lid" inset into the ground. I am presuming there is a box underneath it - with our mutual/then divided to our respective houses phoneline in it.

OK, I understand.

I'm no expert but I think that ground level chambers like your 'box' will not contain exposed connectors - more like a sealed joint. The lids of those chambers are rarely if ever waterproof - witness the telephone engineers pumping water out of the bigger ones on the main roads.

I suppose it's possible that the seal has broken down on the joint in there but you can hardly blame the neighbour for that - rainwater will have much the same effect on a dodgy seal. Otherwise the fault could be at the distant cabinet. These are often worked at by the engineers and connectors can be jarred accidentally. I had a similar fault a while back (although not the same noises on the line) and it was a fault in the cabinet down the road.

So, someone is chasing that down for you are they?

Also, if neighbour is on the warpath and you're not sure if they're connection is affected, what's their problem with issue?

moneyistooshorttomention

AFAIK the nfh doesn't have a problem with this phone line??

They are on the warpath about a quite different issue that is unrelated to this.

So - it seems that maybe I'm on the right track that its the "sealing" at fault under this lid and its been affected by the equivalent of heavy rain (ie that hosepipe).

Alternatively, engineers could have been back (yet again) at that distant cabinet and have jarred my connection in the process.

Right - thanks. Sounds like its one of these two issues and the timing would seem to indicate its the "heavy rain" equivalent. So I don't know if these engineers can fix that to be waterproof enough not to suffer damage in case of heavy rain or "heavy rain" in the future - but I guess I'd better explain the situation and ask.

RumRat

The lines that are underground would be perfectly waterproof gel filled cabling. Why would your neighbours water hose be any different to rain.
It is not unknown for there to be a fault at the Cabinet. You don't say who your supplier is, but you need to wait for them to send an engineer.

S0litaire

I'm 100% sure it's the junction box that splits your line with the neighbours.

Had the same kind of problem in my flat. the line comes from the pole to a junction box on the wall of our flats. it was badly sealed and filled with water every time it rained. causing the connections to degrade. (and taking 90% of my fibre broadband speed with it!)

If you're is underground then it's possible it's been sitting in a pool of water for the past 10 odd years and it finally gave up the ghost.

enfield_freddy

are you on a BT type line or are you on virgin?

moneyistooshorttomention

enfield_freddy wrote: »

are you on a BT type line or are you on virgin?

bt.................