Any BT engineers, can you clarify something

[trillian]

In case anyone here knows about such things;

I have had intermittant faults with my broadband and every time I have phoned them they have ended up telling me the fault is with the wiring.

Soooo, if I have a BT engineer come out and the fault is found to be the inside wiring I'll get charged.

This is where my question comes in;

In the room next to mine is where the phone wire snakes along the wall to a jack where it connects to the outside wire via two binding posts. My question is, is it illegal for me to connect a new phone line to those binding posts? (the box is inside the house but I read somewhere that it is illegal to connect anything to some types of jacks to the network - it does not have a phone jack on this box it is only for the wire to 'permanently' connect to the outside).

Obviously I just want to eliminate the inside wire as a potential fault point before having a BT engineer come out. I suppose if I had the right equipment I could test the existing wire. My many years of working with audio wiring in studios tells me that cables can and will work intermittantly for reasons unknown to mere mortals so one of the first things I think of is replacing a cable.

[SmileyMan]

Hi.

BT DSL Engineer.

What do you mean by binding posts. Do you mean a box where the external cable comes in then goes of to the first socket?

Do you have a newer type main socket (known has an NTE5). Its the one where the bottom part is separate?

What type of intermittent fault are you getting and are you getting any noise on the phoneline?

Steve.

[SmileyMan]

You should not interfere before the NTE (Network Terminating Equipment) or NTTP (Network Test and Termination Point) depending on what's fitted.

Should be a NTE for residential.

[Malc1]

Also work for the old company including DSL and fibre.:friendly_wink:

How much internal extension wiring have you got?
This is the most common issue for broadband problems especially if you are quite a way from the exchange.

As Steve said, up to the first point is looked after by Openreach,after that the rest is yours.

Anything on your stuff causing a problem is chargable.

[trillian]

The NTE5 box is in my room. From it a cable runs through the room next to mine towards the front of the house and it goes into a little box (herein I will refer to this as the junction as I don't know another proper name for it) by the window. In this little box (which has no phone jack of any kind on it) the cable from my room is attached to two screws (I use the term binding post to differentiate from any type of jack or solder connection it's just two screws and the two wires wrap partly around the screw and it's tightened down).

So my phone and router is connected directly to what (I think) is usually referred to as the 'master' socket (NTE5). The cable in question runs from the NTE5 box to a junction to the outside.

I am unclear on exactly where the split is between what is my liability and what is BTs. I had heard it was based on inside or outside the house but then read that it's anything before the master socket (NTE5) and that any change of BT's side is illegal. My thought was simply to eliminate the variable of the bit of cable between my room and the junction box by simply using a new bit of cable and binding it to the two screws in the junction box temporarily and see if it makes a difference. Then if I still get problems I could be fairly sure it's not the inside wiring.

The problem is intermittant (it's working OK now :-) and sometimes the router will try over and over to connect but just can't keep a solid braodband connection. This happens at random and it's not due to anything like appliances or wifi or the filter or any of the other wild goose chase malarkey the broadband engineers will suggest.

Most of the time there is no noise on the phoneline.

I did once tighten the two binding screws a couple months ago when I was having more problems and this did imediately improve the continuity of the broadband but it still has moments of connectivity loss.

There is about 15 meters at the most of cable between the NTE5 box and the junction and no extensions from the NTE5 box, it goes straight to a filter and then straight to the router, no more than 3 meters of cable to the router or phone.

[Delarado]

can you get any statistics out of your router?

specifically noise margin and attenuation we are interested in.

These will tell you about the quality of the wiring.

The easiest thing to do is find the "master" socket - disconnect any other phone lines run through any kind of splitter and only have one phone line jack. Run your router off here and see what happens.

[pgkevet]

[QUOTE=trillian;856517]....
I have had intermittant faults with my broadband and every time I have phoned them they have ended up telling me the fault is with the wiring.
...[/QUOTE]

I had all this nonsense via some third world call centre several times despite having demanded and having line engineers coming out confirming no line faults and that it was faulty exchange equipment they had had to re-set.. then it'd happen again and they'd try to get me to go through all the same cr@p again..
And worse that despote me pointing it out to three visiting engineers they still haven't done anything about the tree branch on the line as it go through woodland by the front drive...it's bowed to within 8 feet of the ground by the tree. Next dry day that i remember and I'll just tresspass with a chainsaw myself....

[trillian]

[QUOTE=Delarado;856525]can you get any statistics out of your router?

specifically noise margin and attenuation we are interested in.

These will tell you about the quality of the wiring.

The easiest thing to do is find the "master" socket - disconnect any other phone lines run through any kind of splitter and only have one phone line jack. Run your router off here and see what happens.[/QUOTE]


Not sure about getting stats from the router as I have never had to fiddle with it. It's a D-link 2680.

The master socket is the only socket on this phone line. Nothing else is connected to it, the router and phone plug into a filter which plugs into the socket. (I have another filter and have tried that in the past as well and it made no difference).

[vinny155]

cancel your bt contract and they will be on the phone monday offering you everything they possibly can to get your custom back,i had a year of no broadband which i was paying for,spent endless hours to call centers if not days,no joke,and no joy to fixing my problem,the minute i cancelled they were on the phone offering everything and they would sort the problem that day if i signed back up.....shower of pillocks
rant over

hope you get your problem sorted

[SmileyMan]

Remove the front from the NTE (there will be another jack on the back part) and use a known good router and filters. If problem persists report.

Openreach maintain from the exchange MDF to the NTE. Any faults in this part are not chargeable unless u or a third party acting on your behalf damaged it (that includes a dog peeing on the NTE).

Any noise on the line will cause major problems with DSL. This is mostly a HR fault which the remote system can not detect.

[SmileyMan]

You should not get intermittent noise. Sounds like you have an HR fault. ALL internal wiring up to the NTE is maintained by Openreach so just check for damage.

[SmileyMan]

pgkevet

A stretched DropWire will cause issues with DSL. Should have been replaced

[trillian]

[QUOTE=SmileyMan;856533]You should not get intermittent noise. Sounds like you have an HR fault. ALL internal wiring up to the NTE is maintained by Openreach so just check for damage.[/QUOTE]

Just to add, I don't use the phone much at all either initiating or receiving calls, so the line is not getting constant levels of current one might have if they were on the phone a lot. It's not unusual to have several days go by where I do not use the phone.

Anyway, thanks very much for all your help, it is greatly appreciated :-)

[pgkevet]

[QUOTE=SmileyMan;856538]pgkevet

A stretched DropWire will cause issues with DSL. Should have been replaced[/QUOTE]

...it'll be a snapped wire soon if someone doesn't cut the tree :-(. As said I've pointed it out to three guys.
I suppose i could throw a rope over it and give it tug with the tractor and turn it 'genuine' <lol> (i just have vsions of posts toppling like dominoes 3 miles to the exchange)

[SmileyMan]

Carefully if snapped buy a tree on your land charges could be rasied.