having BT Phone probs??? read in for info..

[sparkytele]

Crackling line ? noisy ? faint transmission ???

dial 17070 if you have ur phone number diasabled from others recieving(number witheld) dial 147017070 , press 3 , press 1 , press 2 (ringback line test) put phone back down and wait a few moments , your phone will ring you back with a test result.

Lines tests ok - this means that the test system does not see any earth , battery or full disconnections faults , but if your line is noisy this can be caused by an HR dis , a slight disconnection that the test system cannot see.

rectified loop - this is more than likeley a faulty extension or sky didgtal box.

battery fault - this means your line is in contact with another line somewhere in the network , if you only have 1 line then this would be in the Bt network.

earth fault - the line is in contact with ground somewhere . 6/10 times this is your extension that causes this, most earth faults are internal.

If you are having problems , then you need to check at BT`s test socket, this is where your 1st socket is from the line coming in from outside, there should be a little front plate (1/3 rd of the socket) undo the 2 screws and pull out this front plate , behind this you will see another phone connection point , put a telephone in here and check if everything is ok , if you are still having problems here or getting bad test results then report this to BT , if everything is ok then it is a problem with something on your side of the network and calling out Bt could leave you with a Callout charge + hourly charge if you require them to repair.

Please note if you have ADSL on your line then the 17070 test will not work on your line .

 

[supersparks]

are you related to MB??

 

[oilman]

You could of course just plug a phone into the bt master skt with the others disconnected. If it's noisy, try another phone, if it's still noisy it's likely to be bt.s problem. Much easier, and it'll work with ADSL.

 

[Sam Gangee]

Please note if you have ADSL on your line then the 17070 test will not work on your line

Nice one. I tried to use the test 3 times before I scrolled down and saw this. The test seems to run and accesses the line (I see my 56k modem "line" LED light up) but the phone doesn't ring.

Since I had ADSL *removed* from this line (and put on what was the fax line) the phone on this line in my office won't ring. The other 2 phones on this line do ring. The "fax" line works fine with phones and ADSL modem. I had to run an extension from the fax line for the ADSL modem but I don't see why this should have affected the office line.

As it's not officially a business line, I'm reluctant to get BT involved but can I get them to do a remote test in order to get some clue as to what's wrong?

Just to clarify, I have two lines:

Line 1 used to have ADSL but that was removed. It now has 3 phones connected, of which one won't ring. The audio is fine. I've tried swapping phones but the same extension socket won't ring, regardless of which phone is plugged into it. As far as I can see I haven't disturbed any of the 3 wires but my next move was going to be to fit a new socket and cable.

Line 2 used to be used for fax but now it has an ADSL router (modem) and three phones connected. It works fine.

 

[breezer]

i wouldn't trust bt's "remote testing" dont get me wrong, if there is a dead short it WILL find it EXACTLY, but so long as the line is leaving their end it always says everthing is ok.

I base this on the fact that that an alarm engineer friend of mine gets called out becasue the alarm says "line fail" cutomer calls bt, bt say line is ok, must be alarm problem, so my friend goes out, plugs a phone into the socket for the alarm telephone and its dead as a doe doe, eventhough bt say its working.

If your phone does not ring since adsl was removed, i would ask the following

Did any one touch the socket?

is it a master socket?

have you tried another phone in this socket and does it ring?

____________________________________________________________

A soket will not ring unless it is either a master socket (has a capacitor on the back) or is connected to a master socket , via terminal 3 as all terminal 3's should be linked together

 

[Sam Gangee]

>Did any one touch the socket?

No.

>is it a master socket?

No.

>have you tried another phone in this socket and does it ring?

As I explained, no phone will now ring in this extension socket.
It was fine while ADSL was on it.

I'll buy a new socket and wire it up temporarily to see if it works. If it does, I'll make it permanent. If it doesn't then I'm going to have to start tracing wires.

 

[breezer]

before you get a new socket i would check the connection for termial 3 (it may have "come off" ialso take it the line works? i.e you can all out on it?

another thought, what happens if you call the number of the socket from a mobile while standing next to it, pick up the phone and see if it answers, bt may have made it outgoing calls only

 

[sparkytele]

QUOTE
i wouldn't trust bt's "remote testing" dont get me wrong, if there is a dead short it WILL find it EXACTLY, but so long as the line is leaving their end it always says everthing is ok.

This is a load of rubbish ... the remote system works too good... spend hours fixing a fault, say a disconection fault in the underground network everything works ok at customer and customer is happy , we have to do a line test to close the job and line test will pick up even a 0.5v battery contact on the line, thus we cannot close the job even though 0.5v would not cause any problems.

the line test will only test ok if the remote system sees the nte with a capacitor..this socket could be anywhere so if if there has been a cross in the network then the line could test ok even if you have no dial tone at your socket... the line could be going elsewhere.
Also a hr dis could cause NDT but the test system will travel pass this and test ok (HR dis. High resistance Dis.. this could cause noisy line / NDT)

Sam Gangee

Check wiring from Master socket, the extensions should be wired across 2, 3 + 5 . 2+5 carry the line and 3 is the ringing circuit. 3 could have come disconnected in any of the sockets and check that the same coulour on each cable have been connected the same .
If this dos not solve the problem then its more than likely a wire fault but if you have dial tone ok at the socket then the easiest way out of it is to replace it with a master socket (one with a capacitor in) and just connect 2+5 , the capacitor will generate the ringing signal for your phone.

 

[breezer]

your line "this is a load of rubbish" we will have to agree to disagree on, as if you read the whole of my post it goes on to say that an alarm engineer mate of mine often gets called out when there is a line fault, (as said by the alarm) and BT say the line is ok, but infact it is dead as a doe doe, the only way bt can test it is remote testing, so again i stand by what i said.

you on the other hand working for bt have seen the line testing done in person, i pressume (I havent and, and my mate only knows the results) so you know what it can find as no doubt they put faults on the line to demonstrate what it will show and what it can do.

However as you have seen it you will believe that what you have seen is true and must always be right, this is where we disagree, as i mentioned my mate gets called out when the alarm says the line is not there, bt say it is working fine, but in actual fact the line is dead, no dial tone no nothing. but yet bt still insist the line is working fine.

I am not knocking the remote testing i am just saying it is not to be relied upon 100%, i personally had a bt engineer turn up at my house on a Saturday morning to fix a fault i didnt know i had, he told me the local tv cable company contactors had dug through a main exchange cable down the road, and my line was affected, he left an oscilator on at my end at half an hour later came back and said all is now ok, which it was (not that i knew i had a fault in the first place)

Bt have some great bits of kit, line tracers, oscilators etc, but remote testing is not yet 100% if it was how come my mate gets called out to a line fault when bt say it is ok (he also says his work mates get called out for similar reasons too, not on a regular basis but it does happen)

I am not going to mention the time when the bt engineer said the redcare line was ok, even though my mate and the bt engineer were standing next to it and it was dead

You the reader decide, mean while sparkytele and i will have to disagree on this one