Who's Responsible For A Noisy Line?

Discussion in 'Tech Talk' started by Mosaix, Jul 28, 2017.

  1. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    Every year or so my line gets so noisy that my internet connection fails. In the past this has cleared up after a few days.

    This time it's been bad for about two weeks and in the end I got my ISP to take action by ringing them on the land line (I normally use my mobile) and they couldn't make out what I was saying because of the noise.

    They've arranged for a visit from OpenReach (stupid name) on Monday morning.

    There are three telephone sockets in the house (each marked with the old 'T' logo from years back) and, looking round the outside of the house, I can see that they are connected by wiring that hasn't been fixed very professionally so maybe it wasn't done by, what was then, the post office. So, I suppose, the noise maybe because of this poor wiring.

    BTW the noise is bad on all three sockets including the first where the line enters the house.

    Anyway, my question. Where does OpenReache's responsibility end and mine begin? Am I likely to be faced with a charge if this wiring turns out to be the cause of the trouble?
     
  2. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    At the BT master socket.

    You could be charged (a lot) if the fault is after the BT socket, have you tried disconnecting internal wiring, is fault still present, any problems with broadband, like dropped connections, low speed,etc, noisey line can affect your speed, etc.

    Is the phone line from outside underground, over head to your house , if a drop line it's been there a line time insulation can degrade, but your fault can be any where from your house back to your green street cabinet.
     
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  3. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    I've heard talk of a master socket before, but they all seem the same. Is it the first one connected?

    The line comes in over head to a small white box on the wall at about 12' above the ground. This has, in the past, popped open and I've closed it, but it shut right now.

    As I said, the internet is the problem, with the router scaling down to half a meg on occasions!
     
  4. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    do you plug your phone into small white box, if not then it's just a joint box, then the first phone socket after that, should be your master socket.

    See these links.

    As you can see,the BT master socket have changed over the years

    http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/line_jacks.htm

    You can check what your broadband speed should be for your line.

    https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/
     
    Mosaix likes this.
  5. As KIAB says.

    It sounds as tho' your internal units are old, and would almost certainly benefit from being updated in any case. Any chance of some photos?

    Anyhoo, hopefully the main issue is that external box - very likely if the noise coincides with rain, for instance. That shouldn't cost you anything.

    Look out for them testing the internal wiring and proclaiming it to have leakage across the wires, say due to internal dampness or similar. That could well be genuine, but get a quote before they offer to sort it for you - BT O-R ain't cheap.

    You may be better off getting a local guy - eg a sparky - to replace all the internal boxes, using up-to-date ones with built-in filters for example. The actual items are cheap, and the job quick and simple.
     
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  6. P J Thompson

    P J Thompson Active Member

    We had a similar issue a few years back and it was the line from the pole to our BT box. Moisture had corroded the copper.
    Which was up to BT to fix and they did.
    As has been said, any issues after that box are down to the homeowner to fix.
     
    Mosaix likes this.
  7. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    Had problems here with line, after a lot of complaining, BT relocated line to another pole at rear of property, which put me closer to the cabinet & it doubled the internet speed.:)
     
    Mosaix likes this.
  8. Astramax

    Astramax Super Member

    Had the same issue here..........corrosion from the fitting on the pole, fixed free of charge.
     
    Mosaix likes this.
  9. Pollowick

    Pollowick Screwfix Select

    Your big mistake is reporting a noisy phone line to your ISP. That should be reported to your voice service provider and as a voice fault. Getting an ISP involved for that can lead to it going round in circles.

    The problem could be water ingress at an underground junction, or possibly a joint that is failing or corroded. A visit to your house may not even be required as the technician can see from the cabinet where a fault may be.


    As said, the line to the house, possibly the eaves, where it will change from an over head drop wire to external cable, and then to the master/first socket is BTs responsibility. Outwardly the sockets may look the same, however it is the internals that matter - a master has a capacitor, resistor and surge arrestor fitted, secondary/slave sockets have nothing.

    You should, if he visits, try to get the Openreach technician to install a new NTE5 which will act as the master and have a DSL splitter filter installed. It also has teh appropriate outputs to extend the voice and non-filtered cicuits to elsewhere in te property.
     
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  10. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    Same people, Pollowick. :)

    Thanks for the replies, everyone.

    OpenReach guy attended this morning. Stayed about an hour, ran a new line into the house to a new master socket free of charge. Line's as clean as a whistle, internet fast as it's ever been.

    Thanks again.
     
    P J Thompson likes this.
  11. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    If you got fibre you will find the line may resync over the coming days, & things improve further.
     
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  12. Wayners

    Wayners Screwfix Select

    We had it all the time. I used to spray wd 40 in outside junction box, however sometimes it was up the road. 1960s old phone wire was the problem. They are replacing it a bit at a time. I'm cable now s no issues
     
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  13. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    Perhaps I spoke too soon. Every five minutes or so access to the router times out - either by wifi or ethernet access. All the status lights are ok it's just as if the router has gone very busy. After a couple of minutes everything goes back to normal.

    The new cable is black and thicker than what I would normally regard as 'telephone' wire. Perhaps you're right, KIAB and it's cable - he didn't say. He just said the router would probably reboot when he closed the call and OpenReach tested the line.

    Perhaps I'll wait for 24 hours to see if things settle down.
     
  14. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    Did you have to replace your router when you switched to cable?
     
  15. KIAB

    KIAB Super Member

    You can get it resyncing quite a few times in day & usually in first 10 days, while DLM, or “Dynamic Line Management” sorts out best performance and stability for your line without it continually dropping connection.

    This link explains DLM better than I can.

    https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowle...oadband-FTTC-What-is-DLM-and-how-does-it-work
     
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  16. Wayners

    Wayners Screwfix Select

    They supply everything but you can turn the supplied router into a modem only and use your own if you want.. Consider just getting cable Internet and using mobile phone like many are now. Do you need landline? It's an option if you don't want big tv Internet and phone packages.
     
    Mosaix likes this.
  17. Mosaix

    Mosaix Active Member

    Thanks for the replies, everyone.

    Took a day or two but it all settled down in the end.
     

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