BT

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
Sigh.

I've just been through a mega-rigmarole with BT (and it's not over). I tried to log on to my on-line account, username was OK but none of the passwords it might have been worked. So I hit the "forgotten password" button and filled in the security question, and waited for the email.

The email came swiftly enough, but all it said was "This is an example template for forgotten password."

Bollox. So I got onto live chat - and waited about 5 minutes for someone to pick up. Then the connection kept going down and it wouldn't let me type while the connection was down. Anyway, to cut a long story short the live chat guy sent me a link to get directly to the reset password page and I put in a password (twice). What I didn't realise was that that was only a temporary password - it then took me to another password change screen where it failed to recognise a current password!!!

What's more, my password formula won't work now because the password change screen insists on 8-10 characters, at least one of which must be a capital, a digit, and a special character! WTF :devilish:
 
WTF indeed.
WTF are you doing using BT as your ISP in the first place?
A phrase involving "bargepole", "wouldn't touch with" and "a disinfected" springs to mind.
 
Nah, BT provides the landline, Sky is my ISP, O2 having sold me out. The supply of the land line is not under my control, but the fact is that everybody's landline is supplied by BT and connected to BT equipment at the exchange whether they like it or not.

I don't seem to be able to get into my account at all - none of the old passwords work, and dumping me into another change password dialogue after going through a password recovery dialogue looks like a bug - probably introduced when they upgraded their password qualification requirements.

I'm a bit stuffed at the moment: my broadband dropped out a week ago (much like an episode last year) but came back, but then crackles on the line have increased to the point that I have lost voice service (can't ring out, can't ring in) while the broadband still worked (albeit at about 1/10 rate), but has now dropped out again. Results from running a line check claim the fault is located in or near the house, and if I ask an engineer to come it will be a £130 charge if they find the fault within the boundaries of this property. The difficulty is that this house was wired with phone sockets all over the place, but before there were BT master sockets with a disconnect plate. That means all the sockets are hard wired back to the junction box outside, and I have fiddled with it (inside the house) too.

What I need to do is strip the circuits down to just the one with the line termination components (if I can find it, they are not all easy to access) so that if an engineer does have to come he is not faced with a rat's nest to point and and claim must be the problem (it isn't - everything has worked perfectly well for years and nothing has changed unless a mouse has been nibbling). I don't even need all these phone points any more, now we have DECT cordless sets, and even if kept they would be better routed after a micro-filter than as currently.

On the other hand there could be nothing wrong with the line at all and the fault is the line card.

I am running on a fallback of mobile phone and MiFi - fortunately the MiFi picks up an adequate signal if placed upstairs, and its WiFi can still be connected to downstairs.
 
But surely if your 'outside BT line' is not terminated inside the house with a 'disconnect plate' they (BT) will fit one for free. They did for me and fitted one with the built in ADSL filter.
 
Maybe, but would they fit it where I want it? It's no good filtering out the ADSL signal just inside the front door!
 
Unless your modem is there then possibly not. My modem/router is the other side of the house to the master skt. but I have run a high quality twisted pair from the master skt to an extension skt near where my router is. The open reach man asked me if that's what I wanted,
 
Black Hole said:
It's no good filtering out the ADSL signal just inside the front door!
Click to expand...
Why not? It still has to traverse a twisted copper pair, just without the voice component, so I'd have thought the sooner you separate the better.

We used to have a couple of hardwired extensions too, but I stripped it back to the single line when we went DECT. (Gods, that must be near 20 years ago now - we are on our 3rd DECT set now and we've had this one many years I'm sure.)
 
Black Hole said:
... everything has worked perfectly well for years and nothing has changed unless a mouse has been nibbling...
Click to expand...
Given how often we (on this forum) tell people to check their aerial cable as it can degrade, I'm quite surprised to see you say that. Even if all the wiring is inside it can get damaged or possibly degrade (eg. cooked by a CH pipe?)
 
But aerial cables are working at 100s of MHz and ADSL2 is working at 2MHz at most. Hardly a fair comparison.
 
MikeSh said:
Why not? It still has to traverse a twisted copper pair, just without the voice component, so I'd have thought the sooner you separate the better.
Click to expand...
If the micro-filter is remote from the modem/router, you have to run an extended lead from the modem to the micro-filter. Apart from the inconvenience of the type of connector, there will be no advantage over keeping the combined circuit to wherever the modem is.

The point of the micro-filter is to prevent the impedance of the telephones themselves shorting out the ADSL signal.
 
Black Hole said:
Apart from the inconvenience of the type of connector, there will be no advantage over keeping the combined circuit to wherever the modem is.
Click to expand...
Other than to eliminate any possibility of the old, multiple phone socketed, redundant house wiring, absolutely none.
 
I agree with that - I have every intention of so doing - but I was just pointing out that it would be less than convenient to have the BT master socket / ADSL splitter not in the vicinity of the modem.

MikeSh said:
Given how often we (on this forum) tell people to check their aerial cable as it can degrade, I'm quite surprised to see you say that. Even if all the wiring is inside it can get damaged or possibly degrade (eg. cooked by a CH pipe?)
Click to expand...
Well, considering that all the house telephone wiring is in a weather-protected environment (and does not run anywhere near the central heating), and even the incoming line junction box (outside the front door) is under cover and never gets rained on, and the BT line is underground not overhead, what seems most likely: a sudden strange impedance change in the house which has resulted in no dial tone or incoming ringing signal, or a joint somewhere in the 1.25km from here to the exchange that has got wet and degraded? I also seem to recall that at some stage in its history BT switched to using aluminium rather than copper wires, which are more prone to corrosion failure (not that copper is immune to corrosion if the cable sheath is degraded and lets in moisture).

That's why it is so annoying that the line check (presumably some kind of time-domain reflectometry - and the iPad wanted to replace that with some kind of weird foreign phrase!) does not locate the fault nearer the exchange. I still think that if the line card went down, it would be entirely possible for the to be nothing wrong with the line at all. The self test functions can't catch everything.

Edit: autocorrect typo
 
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As it seems that the most likely is one of the underground joints and, in your opinion, it can't possibly be within the house, why are you concerned about the BT charge? The charge is only made if the fault is your side of the main entry point and the 'main entry point' belongs to BT as the OpenReach man changed mine FOC. The fault on mine was later traced to a noisy joint in a manhole somewhere near my house.
 
I'm not concerned about the charge - I am concerned what an "engineer" (cough) might do when he sets foot in here, in a vain attempt to find the problem that the line check claims is here! I'm about to simplify what he will find to ensure it is obvious the problem can't be in here (or in the process of simplification will find the problem myself!).
 
Great. I have now (illicitly) accessed the junction box and disconnected the entire house, and hooked up a master socket and phone directly to it with a short length of cable. Sweet FA. I don't even have 50V!

Ran a line test again and it says "no fault detected" - which proves what a fat lot of good that is!

Strangely, I do detect about 80V AC when I ring in - but the phones don't ring! What's all that about? I could 'scope it to see if it has the right waveform, but there's not a lot of point 'cos it's definitely broken.

There is a tiny problem in that (in theory) BT owns all the wiring in the house, because there is no disconnect plate and all the extensions are wired back to the junction box. Meanwhile I have (over the years) made one or two alterations... What I need to do before calling them in is make sure it all looks normal, and can be tested without looking more deeply.
 
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Have you been able to identify the pair that go to the 'master skt' and your modem/phone yet?
 
No, not yet. There are three circuits out of the junction box, which would at one time have just gone to a master socket and two extension sockets. Where I have my modem is not the master socket, which I think is inconveniently tucked away behind a fitted desk.

With a bit of luck the engineers (cough) will check the service at the exchange first when I log the fault report; they will have to make an appointment with me to access the premises so I can organise things suitably if that happens. What I will need to do is move the master socket to the point where the modem is.

Once I get a service back I can take my time to rewire everything the way I want and make it appear kosher. Nobody from BT listening in is there? :rolleyes:
 
Aha! I went into BT.com to register the fault, which starts with conducting yet another line test, and this time it decided there is a fault localised at the diagnostics centre and issued a fault number without any further interaction from me!
 
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