Over the last day or so all of a suddern I seem to be getting random connection drops.

I have one phone line in the house and i've noticed the phone will just ring constantly until you pick it up and no one is there, this happens just before the broadband connection is lost. It comes back within a minute or two until it happens again....

I've logged a call with BT and they are currently investigating any problems with the line (although it appears fine, can dial out and recieve proper calls too)

I've upgraded my router firmware and it is runing the latest software revision now. I've checked all my machine logs and nothing relevant seems to be logged.

I've had a look at my firewall logs to check that there is no maximum connection limit being reached etc but I cannot see that this is the case.

I have run a few various adaware / spyware programs which found nothing (I keep my machine clean / up to date, I have all the latest ms patches installed.)

I'm thinking it's something phone line related with the random phone calls, I have Sky running off the same line too, I wonder if it is Sky perhaps attempting a box update on the line or something also ?

I'm a bit stuck for idea's at the moment, anyone had anything similar or got any idea's on what to look for next?

Cheers

 

Probably a call centre ringing, they don't normally speak for a good 4 - 7 seconds, in which case i've put the phone down

 

Is it a continious ring or as if it is ringing?

I had this and found a broken cable on an extension.

Removed the extension, job sorted.

 

LOL Dan. - No, the phone goes bezzerk and doesn't ring like 'normal' lol so I know it's no one there, and no it's not bt testing the line, this was happening before I contacted them

I'm starting to think that my Broadband connection drops are seperate from the phone line issue. Yesterday I decided to install the I.E 7 Beta 2 as I've found it to be reliable so far on the test box. I had the 'anti-phishing' setting enabled initially, as a test with this disabled my connection problem 'seemed' to clear up (was up for over an hour last night) but I'll need to do some more testing tonight.

Got my firewall logging too, nothing out of the ordinary from what I can see, a couple of drops but nothing much!

Will see how it goes.

 

Sorry Adrian, missed your earlier post! - Yes as described below, it rings constantly. I'll have another look at the extensions. Trouble is the house is so old and the phone lines are crap ! - So this is probably the reason.

 

Have you got a filter on all lines in the house, people usually forget about sky boxes

Alot of the clients I do work for think that the filter in the box they get from the ISP goes on the dsl line, rather than the voice lines.

On the other hand, if its a 'BT' problem you will need to go through your ISP and make a complaint.

BT - as in the residential phone line provider, will not guarntee data transmission over the standard phone line. Your ISP will have to log a fault with BT wholesale on your behalf who will test the line/equipment. You cannot talk to BT wholesale yourself. If it does get to this stage and BT say they cant find a fault then it will be down to you to prove where the fault is - big headache.

 

Jonzy,

My dsl has a microfilter connected to it, I have 3 sky boxes in the house, one of which is filtered with the dsl connection, the other two are not. I cannot use microfilters on the connection downstairs (it's a single extension with a dual output connector and has a normal phone and a fax / phone connected to it) when I try to filter these the phones go dead

I'll see how my internet connection goes tonight, as I mentioned earlier I *think* it may be seperate to the phone problem.

Cheers

 

Well, the phone problem has stopped Not sure if BT did anything, but they haven't got back to me so unlikely!

Also no more connection drops, but I still think that was a seperate issue. Will see how it goes.

 

The "double-socket" will likely be an SSFP (Service Specific Face Plate), which usually has a filter built into it, so you "shouldn't" need to put a filter on that......everything else WILL need a filter on it, though. If you have a Sky box that's plugged into a proprietary socket, you'll need to check if that has a filter built into it aswell, as it "could" be interfering with the broadband sync-signal.

 

Cheers Dan, will check the other two boxes also.

 

Adam sounds like you have a line fault there mate. Or your connected to a faulty port at exchange.
In any thing like that go to your master BT socket and disconnect anything extended on that. If you still have any issue then it has to be a BT/NTL/Telewest fault.

Had similar at mine. It turned out bt had used scotchlocks on the join from the cable from the outside to my internal cabling. when i pulled it, it fell off in my hands. They had a fault raised for 2 months

If your cable/line is shorting to earth or indeed a voltage this will knock out your ADSL.

 

Cheers for the info Lee

Touch wood not had any more problems for the last couple weeks