Connection drops when it rains

[#1]

I realise how completely ridiculous this sounds, but it is, unfortunately, true.

For the last three years my fibre broadband has dropped for a few minutes every time it's started to rain heavily.

I've called Plusnet about this so many times, and had engineers come out and wildly not listen to the issue and insist it must be to do with equipment in my house (it rarely rains in my house). Some have fiddled with the outside boxes, which are obviously the problem, and one even claimed to have replaced a faulty part. Nothing has made a difference, and of course I've never been lucky enough for an engineer to call right at the moment heavy rain has started falling. Short of asking one to move in with me, I can't see how I could ever manage to arrange this.

The problem is peculiar in that the connection re-establishes itself after a few minutes, even if the rain continues as heavily, suggesting that whatever is shorting/tripping/exploding is only upset for a short while, and then gets used to the fact the sun's gone away. But it's also a really damned annoying problem to have when I work from home and rely on a healthy internet connection to do my job.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, ever found a solution I could suggest to Plusnet?

[#2]

Actually, it's not ridiculous - it's quite a common problem (or could be if it's the same problem).

The old external BT housing units on the front of your house - the part that connects to the front of your house where the line from the telegraph pole meets your house, or the box where the line drops down the house to the entrance point through the brickwork of your property - are known to fail after time with the seals degrading and letting in water.These are typically the ones higher up on the building. This lets rainwater into the housing particularly in heavy downfalls, and so causes your line failure (typiclly a short between the A/B legs of the copper). Once the water disperses, the connection is no longer shorted, and could be set to working again as the local exchange does its audits on the line an finds there is no fault - depends on the type of exchange you have. 

If it is this, the BT engineer will need to replace the housing.

You could try a quick fix yourself to see if it is this problem - wrap the box in a waterproof cover, make sure it is sealed properly (electrical tape and a decent plastic or silicne cover is good !) and see if it improves the problem at least on a temporary basis ........

[#3]

it would be advisable to not touch the external box at all, as it could easily lead openreach to claim you have interfered with the equipment and thus cause the fault and you end up with an invoice.

[#4]

yep, fair point. maybe you could just find a way of shielding it from the rain without touching it.......

[#5]

A double layer of cling film?