BT Broadband

[Rob Farmer]

I'm glad i'm not the only one having problems with BT. My Internets been down for a month now and I'm getting nowhere with BT. They originally booked a broadband engineer to come and have a look at my line. I took a days holiday from work and nobody turned up, the idiots in India told me three times that day that somebody would definatly be with me before 6:30pm. The annoying thing was that they signed the job off as being "repaired to my satisfaction". when I kicked off over this they promised a guy on the following Saturday - He did turn up and did a few checks telling me the fault was at the exchange. He did say the exchange guy would claim there wasn't a problem, he subsequently did and signed the job of again as "repaired to my satisfaction"....I won't go on I'm sure you are getting the picture Now at one month and counting

 

[oblertone]

Square one !

Having initially being told there was a line fault, now apparently there isn't They want to send an engineer, but only available during the week, when I'm not. Plus, "there will be a call out charge of £65 plus £70 per hour if it's your equipment thats at fault"

 

[redcastle]

I hope this is practical for you to do Oblertone and you have the right incoming BT socket.
To make sure its not your gear thats faulty you need to connect directly to the phone line without extensions. To do this locate the first line in to the house, If its the standard BT socket in it will be split across the middle. Undo the two screws towards the bottom, remove the plate, it unplugs. You will see that under the plate is another BT phone connector. Thats the main line in. connect your filter to that and then your modem/router and computer. Switch on.
If you still get a flashing light then theres no doubt its BT's problem. If, however you get a solid signal then the problem lies in the extensions that come off that socket. Its unlikely to be the modem . You can always try your old modem to double check.

What I can tell you is that it wont be the computer, the computer is simply providing the modem with power, if its got power and theres broadband the green lights should be solid. The only time the computer can be at fault is with firewalls, user names, passwords etc it doesnt control the flashing adsl light so dont let them try and pull that one.

I hope that helps you even if its a hassle to move the machine but it may well save you any BT charges and you'll have a definitive answer to throw at them .

best of luck

 

[oblertone]

Thank you Red

If its the standard BT socket in it will be split across the middle. Undo the two screws towards the bottom, remove the plate, it unplugs. You will see that under the plate is another BT phone connector. Thats the main line in.

Thanks for that, unfortunately the 'main' socket is a full-size blank plate with 'push-to-fit' wiring connectors underneath. However I think I'll still try and cobble together a test kit and try it out as my modem is still erratic

 

[oblertone]

Further ...

One strange effect of this ongoing problem is that when the 'link' light on the modem refuses to light up one way to get it to come on is to leave the phone off the hook. After about 10secs of this the 'link' light comes on and may stay on for 30mins to 2 days

 

[cookie]

One strange effect of this ongoing problem is that when the 'link' light on the modem refuses to light up one way to get it to come on is to leave the phone off the hook. After about 10secs of this the 'link' light comes on and may stay on for 30mins to 2 days

duff filter somewhere? what happens if you disconnect all extension wiring, or at least unplug all phone/other devices?

 

[cookie]

My (very cynical) brother suggests that there are too many computers on my particular bit of wire

you say you have got a new modem & have several PCs. you can only link 1 pc to t'internet with a modem

after that you have to link the PCs together with a hub or daisy chain somehow using first pc as a gateway. how are you linking up the computers?

if you have more than one PC, a modem/router would be more suitable, and likely a sight more reliable than a modem (especially if it's USB).

 

[Greg Masters]

Paul

I've been using Telewest's Blueyonder service for several years. It's not perfect and has had a few outages, but as an alternative to BT you might want to check it out here.

Greg

 

[redcastle]

duff filter somewhere? what happens if you disconnect all extension wiring, or at least unplug all phone/other devices

Cookies spot on Oblertone,
thats the beauty of the box thats split across the middle, it eliminates all extensions etc. make sure you havent got one, you may not be doing the primary connection to the first line it.........its worth a look

try and do things in a really logical sequence.
If your stuck for filters PM me and I'll send you a couple of tested ones FOC