Wierd broadband problem

[Keith Chapman]

Can you help an old lady stop pulling her hair our? My mum was persuaded to switch to broadband when she replaced her PC. She can only get the modem to connect if her phone is in use, either her phoning out or someone calling in.

Filters have been checked, and known working ones have been tried, all in the master socket, known working modems have been tried, and known working PCs have been tried and known working cables have been tried. But none will get a connection without the phone.

The setup was followed exactly, not by me, but by someone who has got BB working OK elsewhere.

I am at a loss to suggest what to try, I suspect a wiring fault on her phone system.

She is using Broadband on BT telephony. Both suppliers have been trying to sort this and even talking to each other but have yet to fix it.

 

[Gonzo]

I've heard about this before, a mate had a similar problem when using a broadband modem as opposed to a router. Couldn't find the cause, threw in the towel, bought a wireless router and hey presto - it all worked perfectly.

If it is a modem, was it one supplied by - and if so - modem or router? I once had a faulty modem supplied by AO-fecking-L and for two years they swore blind it was my PC. Swapped equipment, swapped supplier and have had 100% reliability.

If the suppliers cannot find the cause any time quickly - and lets face it they SHOULD - might be worth quietly trying a router if you can borrow one to see if it works. And if it does, suggesting that they might like to buy you one to make the problem go away.

 

[Rushy]

Diferent symptoms but similar problem connecting to my new BB with the Talktalk modem supplied. Ended up buying a decent Netgear Wireless router and presto very few problems now.

 

[shugie]

Broadband will work with only one of the two phone wires back to the exchange connected, but not if there is an earth fault on the line.

What I think is happening is that there is an earth fault (ie connection to earth) on one of the two telephone wires between the house and the exchange. When the phone is "on-hook", ie not in use, there is a connection between the two wires (this is what tells the exchange equipment that the line is not in use). The fault is causing both wires to be earthed when the phone is not being used, but when the phone is being used, the connection between the wires is disconnected by the phone, and the earth fault is removed from one of the wires, so the broadband can work.

So it's a BT line fault, they will find it by remote testing when you report it.

 

[Keith Chapman]

Thanks for the input so far, two different modems two different makes have been tried, I will see if I can get a router to try. My main problem is I am 100 miles from where my mum lives and it is hard work talking her through stuff, I am relying on my sister who lives local to her to source different kit to try. My sis is pretty good with computing stuff and has a teenage son to do the trickier stuff

 

[Keith Chapman]

Shugie Thanks I will get my sister to chase BT, My mums old dialup system used to work OK so I assume that BB and dialup work differently at the exchange.

 

[shugie]

Shugie Thanks I will get my sister to chase BT, My mums old dialup system used to work OK so I assume that BB and dialup work differently at the exchange.

They do, dialup is normal phone use, Broadband uses the phone wires in a different way. The phone can be out of order yet the broadband still work provided one wire of the two back to the exchange is intact.

BT have an online fault reporting system which will do line tests for you, you don't need to be at fault location yourself:-

http://www2.bt.com/btPortal/applica...ntParams&oOJsp=&oPg=ftpd_hub&siteArea=con.mya

 

[Dickieboy]

Broadband will work with only one of the two phone wires back to the exchange connected, but not if there is an earth fault on the line.

What I think is happening is that there is an earth fault (ie connection to earth) on one of the two telephone wires between the house and the exchange. When the phone is "on-hook", ie not in use, there is a connection between the two wires (this is what tells the exchange equipment that the line is not in use). The fault is causing both wires to be earthed when the phone is not being used, but when the phone is being used, the connection between the wires is disconnected by the phone, and the earth fault is removed from one of the wires, so the broadband can work.

So it's a BT line fault, they will find it by remote testing when you report it.

+1
The same fault occurred when a mate first installed his BT broadband router, we couldn't get it to connect via the cable or wirelessly at first, and after 3 or 4 calls to the BT helpline we saw that it connected whilst the phone was connected to a call and disconnected as soon as the call was finished. BT had to sort the land line out.

 

[jailon]

Lucky for you, I was a bt engineer for 10 years (now upgraded to be a gaffer!!!!). The fault is caused by a high resistance disconnection (HR Dis) in bt speak. Basically your dial up conection (up to 56k) doesn't use all the bandwidth of the copper network to the exchange, when you switch to broadband the bandwidth pushed down the same pair of wires is more (up to 8meg - dependant on the package you have gone for)

You need to ring your broadband service provider, and get them to arrange for an openreach engineer to do a "health check" on your line, this is paid for by the service provider (whether the service provider passes on the bill to your mum - I can't say, each one is different)

Also, sometimes the internal bell circuit inside your house can cause faults (no3 inside your socket), this bell circuit is what makes the phones ring (as no2 & no5) are your line feeds. However, if you have broadband, 99% of the time, you don't need the bell circuit to be wired in as the filters have capacitors in, which does the same job as the bell circuit (as there is a capacitor in the main socket)

Finally, when you upgrade (and get your broadband working - that is) you will find your speed goes up and down for approx 30 days, this is the exchange stabilising itself to the line length. Once the speed has stabilised, this is what you will be given.

Hope this helps....................

 

[Keith Chapman]

Well thanks to the collected minds of UKGSer there is a happy old lady in Portsmouth. Who has now re joined the silver surfers.

BT sent an engineer who traced a fault to a junction box down the road. He fixed the fault and tidied up some internal wiring.

So a big thanks from my mum, and thanks from me for your help.