topic Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds in Home Phone

No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds...

simoncross — Mon, 31 May 2021 20:01:45 GMT

I am having really poor internet speeds lately, so when I went to check the phones dial tone, there was none. Also tried plugging the cabled phone directly into the master socket, nothing! If I try to ring the landline from my mobile, it rings through on my mobile but there is no ringing coming from the house telephone. Also my internet is really slow with the line attenuation sky-rocketing from a previous 11.7 to a now high 40.8?...

PS: already tried the online phoneline troubleshooter - result comes back 'unclear' and sends me into an endless loop of being told to wait and retry

Please Help!

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

jab1 — Mon, 31 May 2021 20:17:41 GMT

@simoncross Welcome to the forums - you have a major problem there, and the only sensible suggestion I can make is to ring PN as soon after they open in the morning as possible and report your PHONE LINE as defective.

Just in case the phone troubleshooter has already raised the issue - it does have the habit of reporting an error when it has actually worked - check your Members Centre for an open 'Question' on the subject.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

simoncross — Mon, 31 May 2021 20:27:47 GMT

Good evening, and thanks for your response. There is no ticket in the members section, as the online fault finder tool does not work and gets stuck in a loop telling you that it was 'inconclusive' and to please try again, or call support (which are shut).

I guess I will have to ring them tomorrow while im at work, but i'm guessing there gonna want me to be in before they can assist? Got a lot on over next few days so going to be difficult to be at home and sat on phone to support for hours during open hours

Been problem after problem while being with plusnet it seems to go down and fail every other month.

Kind Regards: Simon Cross

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

jab1 — Mon, 31 May 2021 20:41:14 GMT

Simon, reading your post, so long as you verbally make them aware of the problem, they can carry out automated tests from their end - you will not necessarily have to be in at this point, but no doubt you will have to be if they arrange an engineer visit, which from the above and your original post seems almost inevitable.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

Baldrick1 — Mon, 31 May 2021 22:13:09 GMT

@simoncross

Your symptoms are typical of either one of the two telephone wires to your property being disconnected or the two shorted together.

To make sure the fault is not your responsibility have you taken the front off the BT master socket, you may need to remove two screws, and checked that you have no dial tone with a telephone plugged into the test socket, which you will find in the back box?

Plusnet resell services provided by Openreach, faults like this are not of Plusnet’s making and will occur regardless of which ISP you choose.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

RobPN — Mon, 31 May 2021 22:15:32 GMT

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like it might be a case of one leg of the circuit is disconnected.

i.e. the phone will stop working, but the DSL can continue to work albeit at reduced speed.

Edit: @Baldrick1 beat me by a couple of seconds

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

simoncross — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 03:24:22 GMT

Hi, and thanks for the reply... yes, I am connected directly to the master socket -
Like I say, no dial tone but slow internet speeds amd your online line check tool fails to work.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet speeds

Baldrick1 — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 07:10:38 GMT

@simoncross

To be sure you need to be connected to the Test socket, that's the one in the rear section of the Master socket, accessed by taking the front off.

To avoid confusion, all we who have responded to you are fellow customers trying to help, so it's not our on line check tool.

If you get no response from a Plusnet Staffer, who clearly identify themselves when they occassionally visit this forum, report a fault at https://faults.plus.net or ring in.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Gandalf — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 07:52:35 GMT

Thanks for your post and welcome to our community forums @simoncross

I'm sorry for the issues with your line. I can see you've spoken with an adviser not long ago and we've raised the fault with Openreach, having been given an estimated response time of by 03/06/21 23:59:59 for an engineer to go out.

@RobPN Our tests aren't actually showing a 'dis one leg' but a full 'dis in network' so it's a little odd. We'll see what the engineer reports back with once they've investigated and hopefully been able to fix the problem quickly.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Townman — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 08:50:43 GMT

@simoncross

Are you on FTTC or ADSL?

If ADSL then given @Gandalf 's observation, it is astounding that you have any internet at all. ADSL can limp along with one leg disconnected but not both.

If FTTC then the full disconnection advised above must be on the e-side circuit (cabinet to exchange) which is not used for FTTC broadband. If you are on FTTC and have some internet connectivity, then you might have more than one fault to be investigated. Such could well be the cause of the confused automatic line test result.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

simoncross — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:42:22 GMT

Townman - Yes it is ADSL I do believe (did have fibre, but given it was only a couple of mb/s difference decided to downgrade to ADSL).
Yes I was totally confused myself, how can there be internet (albeit much slower than usual) without any dial tone whatsoever? I mean, when you lift the handset up it's just completely dead - and its a really old one too which is not even touch tone so pretty basic really with nothing to go wrong with it...

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

simoncross — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:44:51 GMT

Thank you Gandalf for the clarification on the fault - this is weird because if the line was total disconnected then there be no adsl right? I'm currently getting barely 3mb/s whereas it would normally be 13-18 mb/s, with a line attenuation of around 12, but is currently just over 40 I have attached 2 screenshots of the customer service screen from the plusnet router - one from yesterday and another from 2 month ago shortly after the last fault got resolved

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Gandalf — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:51:18 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @simoncross

Line tests we run remotely aren't an exact science I'm afraid so it's possible that the line's not completely disconnected because your broadband's still working albeit slowly. Let's see what the engineer finds when they've been out

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Townman — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 11:03:36 GMT

@simoncross wrote:
... how can there be internet (albeit much slower than usual) without any dial tone whatsoever? I mean, when you lift the handset up it's just completely dead

To get dial tone on picking up the handset or ring tone on the number being called requires continuity on both the A and B legs of the circuit pair.

If just one side of the circuit is disconnected, you will get neither dial tone nor ring tones, but ADSL can limp along on the side which remains connected.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

simoncross — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:50:01 GMT

Oh wow, firstly I would just like to point out that I only contacted plusnet this morning around 8AM, got phone call on mobile while at work around 14.30 from open reach engineer asking to clarify the problems and if I was in (but was at work), he said no problem we'll deal with it - got home from work little after 3 this afternoon and drove past the 2 engineers, got told it was all sorted and were just finishing off and will come round check on me shortly...

Checked phone line plus internet - all working perfect! And true to their word they came to the door not long after - youngish pair very well mannered and checked everything was in good order - explained that they found 3 individual faults along the line and that water had got into the junction boxes on the telegraph pole and was in a right old state and that they repaired everything that needed doing

Just like to make a side-point though (and this is for greno view road in high green - sheffield s35 area)... my internet service over past 18 months to 2 years or so has been really on and off, sometimes ok but other times poor - and I think this has reflected badly on plusnet over the time I have been with them - I do feel that a lot of the open reach infrastructure (particularly around our area) is creaking with age and is high time we had a major investment to upgrade everything.

Fibre (when I previously had it) was a joke and barely got over 20 mb/s, which is precisely why I downgraded back to ADSL as there isn't much difference with the 14-16 mb/s I was getting before (and thankfully, am now getting again). In this day and age we should be able to get much faster fibre (at least 50mb/s please?) but on our street it's just not happening

But once again I cannot fault the service I have had today and can now confirm it's all sorted

Thank you

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Townman — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 14:57:15 GMT

Hi Simon,

Three faults - no wonder the phone line tests were confused / inconclusive!

Sight of your router stats would be useful / interesting please.

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Gandalf — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 15:04:45 GMT

Thanks for the update @simoncross

Awesome, I'm glad to see the engineers picked this up fast and their efforts got your line fixed speedily.

If you'd like to pass on your thanks to them, I'd recommend filling out the form Here on Openreach's website.

With regards to fibre, unfortunately it looks like the relatively slow speed you had on it was due to how long your line is to the cabinet (the green box in the road), I'm in a similar situation living at S11 although my line can a wee bit faster.

Fingers crossed things change in the not too distant future and FTTP's brought to more areas of Sheffield!

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

simoncross — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 15:12:29 GMT

As you can see from the 2 screen shots, one from last night (when it was playing up) and one from just now, working normal. See if you can work out which is which

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Gandalf — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 15:26:21 GMT

Big improvement there!

Re: No dial tone (even when plugged into master socket) + phone does not ring + poor internet spe...

Townman — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 15:31:01 GMT

Massive improvement all round. Not just better speed and correct SNRM but also much better line attenuation.

One wonders if long-standing d-side issues had impacted FTTC performance?