Intermittent disconnects

[#1]

Hi Eric,

You'll need to click the link after you've logged into your account.

It'll then take you to the broadband troubleshooter.

Hope that helps.

[#2]

Well I tried but the questions I answered took me down a route that is not relevant. I don't have a BT Openreach socket, I don't have a BT Modem to check. All I have is the PlusNet router and a microfilter attached to the socket, which although is double socket is actually two lines, one of which is dead/not used. I think I may have to redo the fault process.

[#3]

I'd recommend just answering the questions as best as you can.

If there some questions which aren't relevant then I'd just move on to the next. 

[edit]
Are you able to send us a photo showing your master socket so we can advise further on the test part?

[#4]

There you go, hope it helps!

[#5]

Cheers for that, it looks rather ancient and I don't think there is a test socket behind that.

I've completed the troubleshooter on your behalf on this occasion which has reported a fault to us.

Having a look at your connection logs again, it's odd and I'm not convinced the drops are a line problem.

It appears that your router was still losing connection with our hardware management system up until this morning.

The drops from today, do they coincide with you troubleshooting?

[#6]

I may have missed something here as I've only skimmed through this.

But that image looks like an extension socket to me. It looks to be from around the 80's to 90's.

Are you 100% sure this is your only phone socket @eric1917? 

If it is the only one, then maybe one part was for a phone and the other was for a fax machine...?

[#7]

Thanks for that @Gandalf  a new router is being sent, hopefully (fingers crossed) that will solve the problem.

[#8]

It isn't that old, well it was new in the property which was built in 2001. This is the master socket taking the line direct from outside - it may well have been a line for a fax - I can't remember.

There are "other" extension sockets in the house that were wired when the house was built (only two have phones - both have filters).

[#9]

Guess it must be the master socket then

The picture doesn't do it justice, looks older than it is.

But, being a new build, I'd expect it to be a split faceplate type. Something isn't adding up here.

The other sockets* could well have the bell wire attached too.

*roughly how many and do they all look like the image, even if there's only one phone socket?

Also, do you switch the router off when you're not using the internet? It's just there's a long gap in the above graph

(again sorry if this has already been asked)

[#10]

The ponly thing connected to the master socket is the router. There is a phone line/socket in each room of the house (practically speaking) and they aren't the same as the BT double socket (they are singles and have the brand mark VK on them) but only two have  phone attached. The router is never switched off.

[#11]

@Gandalf  you mentioned "when" the router disconnects. What I have just noticed, for the second time this evening, that when the phone in the living room was answered (ie NOT the master socket - which only has the router attached) the router disconnected. Not sure why though - as I said earlier when BT and/or Sky were the providers that never, ever happened. However, when I was with those two it was only broadband - not fibre broadband. Could that be the problem.

[#12]

you mentioned "when" the router disconnects. What I have just noticed, for the second time this evening, that when the phone in the living room was answered (ie NOT the master socket - which only has the router attached) the router disconnected. Not sure why though - as I said earlier when BT and/or Sky were the providers that never, ever happened. However, when I was with those two it was only broadband - not fibre broadband. Could that be the problem.

By the sounds of it if you had standard broadband with your previous provider and that worked fine, and now you're having issues with fibre and based on your telephone sockets I'd say the issue could very well be your sockets/wiring.

The fibre signal is different to regular broadband and basically it's more susceptible to internal wiring.

If you still have issues with the replacement router then I'd say an engineer is the next way to go to investigate this.

Let us know how things go.

[#13]

Right, getting to see things now

There's a chance the wiring behind each socket has 3 wires connected to it. You could google 'bell wire removal'. But in a sense, of the 3 wires only 2 are needed (unless you have an older type bell 'clanger' ringing phone). The third wire, although unused in modern day living, can cause interference.

If you unplug the other phone, does the broadband perform better?

The phone ringing and cutting the router can indicate bell wire interference, or other issues too - Anoush (Gandalf) has covered that

[#14]

@Gandalf in the interim I may just unplug the two telephones used at the moment and plug one of them directly into the filter with the router. At least that would cut out the internal wiring connection. Thanks for your help on this.

[#15]

Thanks for the info. I'll probably, initially, just unplug the two phones in the extension sockets and use only one on the master socket with the filter. Hopefully that may sort out that side of things - although the disconnecting occurred at other times as well - not just when I phone rang!