topic Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing in Home Phone

Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 17:12:34 GMT

I tried to ring my landline with my mobile. First time the mobile phone gave two rings(but not the landline phone) and then i got number unobtainable.

2nd time my cordless phone rang twice but the corded phone did nothing and i got unobtainable again.
Third time was the same as the first but fourth time the corded phone rang but not the cordless .
Fifth time corded phone rang , cordless didn't , so l left it running hoping voicemail would kick in. Unfortunately it did not get that far as once i got the unobtainable sound.
Then i got my wife to ring me, with mixed results .Once she got through but the second time she wants able to leave a message as let it ring.
The fault is intermittent but I do not know whether it is the landline or the corded/ cordless phones themselves.
Any ideas? thanks

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

198kHz — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 18:28:20 GMT

First thing that came to mind is "ring trip", whereby low insulation or a rectified loop line fault will prematurely "answer" the call.

But, that wouldn't account for the NU tone being received by the caller.

If you have a master socket with removable faceplate, plug a corded phone into the engineering test socket and repeat your tests. If it fails, then you can safely report the problem to whomsoever you pay line rental to, in the knowledge that the problem is outwith your premises.

My money would be on an exchange fault.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

HarryB — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 13:55:20 GMT

Hi @donmaico6, sorry to hear you're experiencing problems with your phone line.

I've tested the line and a potential external problem is flagging up and it currently suggests that an engineer may not need access to the premises to resolve the issue. As such, I've raised this with our suppliers to investigate further and we'll provide updates via your account regarding the progress of this.

I do apologise for any inconvenience in the meantime. Thanks for your patience.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 14:01:13 GMT

many thanks

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

HarryB — Sun, 07 Jul 2019 14:39:19 GMT

No problem @donmaico6, let us know if there's anything else we can help with.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:36:42 GMT

the problem seems to have been resolved so thank you once again

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

HarryB — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 10:58:16 GMT

Glad to hear that's been resolved pretty quickly. Thanks for letting us know.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

198kHz — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 12:48:34 GMT

@HarryB

What was the clear, please?

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

HarryB — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 14:29:32 GMT

I've just checked the fault report (Admittedly I forgot to do this earlier) and it's actually in a state of Past Point of No Return which indicates our suppliers may still be working on it currently. Hopefully they don't undo whatever they've done so far which resulted in a fix, or it may just be that they've finished and we've not received the update with the clear message on it.

Having said this, often the clear just comes through advising they believe they've cleared the issue.

The initial test fail was: Fault located between DP and customer apparatus (no appointment required)

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 16:45:45 GMT

I was out this afternoon and when i returned i saw an engineer working up a ladder outside my house .He was attaching what looked like some sort of box (I can't remember what he called it) to connect the cable running down from the pole outside and the cable running into my house. Then he ran some tests and all seemed ok at that point but then decided to check my master socket indoors well. He changed that for a more up to date one but suggested they might be flaws with the number of extensions i have several of which never get used.

The outside cable does not connect directly to the master socket instead it goes to a socket near my from door and from there i have 6 extensions from which only 3 are used .He opened that box and said it was right spaghetti junction tiny cables and suggested that if i have further problems to consider having the wiring redone so that main cable goes straight to the master box and from there run two cables to the extensions i do use. He also suggested I just have three cordless phones which seemed odd because it has been suggested to me in the past that every house house should have a corded phone in case of fires.

Anyway after he had gone i noticed the phone was dead so I poked around with the cable going into the master box and now it seems to be ok

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

HarryB — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 17:17:32 GMT

Glad to hear all seems OK again now.

It's always worth keeping a corded phone around for testing purposes, however I've used cordless phones (One upstairs and one downstairs) for quite some time.

If you do start experiencing problems in future and suspect it's due to the internal wiring/extensions, the advice from the engineer sounds good and would be worth exploring as the appointment could become chargeable if an engineer was sent out and found the problem to be the extensions/internal cabling. They may then just disconnect all extensions at this point to resolve the fault, which sounds like it would be less than ideal for you and would leave you in a position where you may need to arrange for the extensions to be re-done/re-wired anyway.

FYI, the clear message that has come back is: Block Terminals, Line jack Unit / Protector.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 07:52:37 GMT

He didn't mention anything about it being chargeable which is something I would have thought he would have done had he thought that would be the case.Anyway it will be whatever it will be, he was a very obliging fellow nonetheless .In hindsight one thing that did bother me slightly is that he was not wearing any clothing I would associate with Open Reach nor did he have card attached to him suggesting he was employed by them. I guess he could be a subcontractor but one cant to be too wary these days given all the stories one reads about security breaches and having changed the master socket without asking me first I lay at night wondering if he might have planted a bug in it. Fertile imagination and all that, my wife just laughed.

Anyway all seems ok at this moment but if I have further problems I will ask for en estimate re the rewiring he suggested

Thanks

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

Beyhive — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 09:23:34 GMT

Let us know how things go please

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 13:19:19 GMT

so far it is ok thanks

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

Townman — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 14:51:55 GMT

He didn't mention anything about it being chargeable

On this occasion it seems that he found enough faults outside to not have cause for believing that your internal wiring was a significant factor. Updating the NTE (having gained access) was a good to be sure act.

What does concern me is that from the description you have given, the multiple extensions are wired star fashion from the before-the-master-socket junction box. Star wiring of extensions (used or not) can be very detrimental to go broadband performance. Further in that configuration, removing the master socket face plate and using the test socket does not achieve its intended aim - isolating the BT line from your internal wiring.

Ideally your internal extensions should be wired as a daisy chain, connected to the back of the master socket face plate.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 15:36:17 GMT

I don't quite know what you mean by star fashion but if i can explain the lay out it is as follows.There are actually five points all of them downstairs .Upstairs there are no points and the cordless phone there would appear to connect wirelessly.

The before the master socket near the front door in the hallway has a cable attached that runs to the nearest front living room door , goes through the wall on to the first extension point which is not used. From there it would appear that one cable runs to the master socket in the same front room and another doubles back through the wall back into the hallway and then goes round the doorway onto another point which is again unused .From there the last run of cable goes though an adjacent wall into the kitchen where then main cordless phone is connected to the last point.

Neither of the two cordless handsets work particularly well anymore, the lcd is barely visible and voices tend to break up .The corded phone works better .

thanks

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

Townman — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 17:40:25 GMT

With daisy chain wiring (ideal) a cable goes into one socket and another single wire comes out to the next.

With star wiring (bad) one wire goes into a socket and two or more come out to go to other sockets.

LCD displays do deteriorate but usually only after decades.

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 17:49:27 GMT

i understand . The one thing i have noticed today is that there is a ringing background sound on my corded phone when someone rings me so things are not as good as they should be.

i suppose the next thing would be a quote to have one cable going into the house straight to the master box and then daisy chained to one other point in the kitchen, a rough estimate of about 20 -30 mtrs of cabling altogether

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 18:20:54 GMT

any idea what the cost of replacing the telephone cable would be?

Re: Phone rings twice and then nothing

donmaico6 — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 07:17:02 GMT

an update. I had in my mind that i needed an corded phone permanently connected in case of power cuts hence the extension point but as has been pointed out time, i don't .My corded phone is now kept in a drawer in case i needed it , a new cordless phone + base station is connected to the master box which has been rewired to the pole outside and i have two extra phones situated in other parts of the house. All internal extension boxes and cabling has been removed as they were were causing the problems i had

Thanks for the help