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Back of phone jack is missing a wire, is this normal?

Highhopes123

Casual Member
Hi, so for the last week my internet has been going on and off, (random) amber middle light on router. There has also been noise on the phone line for the last 7-10 days, have tried to re-set router, sometimes that helps, but only for a short time. Have un-plugged everything for 15 min, plugged back in, doesnt seem to help., So today I decide to take the cover off the phone jack and look inside, I see that one of the wires is not in its slot (or what ever you call it) there is a total of 4 wires, two of the blue wires are in their slots, but only one of the orange wires is in its slot. The slots are numbered, 1-6 , nothing in 1 and 6, blue wires in slots 2 and 5, orange wire in number 3 but no orange wire in number 4. Is this normal? Could this cause the issue I have been having for the last week? Tried to upload photo but says image is too large, ill work on that if need be, but hopefully what I explained is good enough and someone can advise, Thanks.
 
Okay, thanks for this. Internet was better yesterday, this am has been acting up again. This all started a couple of days after we had 3 days of heavy rain going back at the end of sep. Since then our internet has been eratic. My feeling is that it could be wet/damp lines. But 10 days still after the rain?
 
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The orange wire is usually the Bell Wire and, since most people now use DECT phones (no need for the bell wire), it's can sometimes be disconnected to help boost broadband speeds as it adds interference. But the official way is for Openreach to put in a more modern faceplate that filters out the bell wire. However, the wiring setup may differ between socket types.
 
Once water gets into a joint/connection it can take a while to dry and may also corrode the wires/connectors, so permanently damaged.

Noise, like crackling or screeching/whooshing on the line is commonly caused by water/bad joints.

I'd call your ISP about both faults - from the landline with the noise if it is still bad although they'll probably want to run a line test with you off the line!
 
The orange wire is usually the Bell Wire and, since most people now use DECT phones (no need for the bell wire), it's can sometimes be disconnected to help boost broadband speeds as it adds interference. But the official way is for Openreach to put in a more modern faceplate that filters out the bell wire. However, the wiring setup may differ between socket types.

The faceplate is
Once water gets into a joint/connection it can take a while to dry and may also corrode the wires/connectors, so permanently damaged.

Noise, like crackling or screeching/whooshing on the line is commonly caused by water/bad joints.

I'd call your ISP about both faults - from the landline with the noise if it is still bad although they'll probably want to run a line test with you off the line!
Would this be the fault of Openreach and or my ISP? I live in some flats, the main box outside is actually underground, I saw openreach work on something a few months ago and the whole thing comes out of the ground like an elevator. It is located about 20 feet from the main door to the building.
 
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Knock on wood, but the internet has been pretty good the last day 1/2, still slight noise on the phone line, but the internet has been pretty fast with no disconnects. We have some rain next week, see what happens then. Years ago we used to get internet problems after it rained heavy for 2 days, but the problem would last about 3 days and then just resolve, this time the problem lasted about 10 days. Like I said, knock on wood, all seems to be fine, at the moment..
 
I had a line that was badly affected by rain and reported it as affected by rain and asked for the OR visit to be during a wet period. It took 5 visits before they came during a wet period, fault was found on this 5th visit, dropped the line shortly afterwards and went 4G, the copper network is being left to disintegrate.
 
I had a line that was badly affected by rain and reported it as affected by rain and asked for the OR visit to be during a wet period. It took 5 visits before they came during a wet period, fault was found on this 5th visit, dropped the line shortly afterwards and went 4G, the copper network is being left to disintegrate.
I will see what happens on the next wet rain storm, usually it will have to be a couple of days in a row of rain before the issue shows up,if it happens again after it rains heavy then ill know exacly what it is and have to contact them. Though im about 80% sure it was from the 3 days of rain we had in a row. When you say you dropped the line and went 4G, what do you mean? you went full data?
 
I stopped the ADSL by porting the landline number to Sipgate, so no longer have a landline. Will only go back when FTTP is available. Use 2 4G routers and get 120mb down in a rural area with the redundancy provided by using 2 different masts.
 
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So just to make an update, internet has been great since last tue, however we have alot of rain coming again in the next couple of days from now, ill be waiting for the connection to go down again, or cutting on and off. I guess it all depends, last time it rained non stop for 2 days, this time we might get a days break before the next low pressure comes over to drop more rain. So will have to wait and see. But my question is what could openreach do to prevent just issues in the first place,due to wet weather? seems crazy that a problem like this could even exsist in the UK, knowing how damp and wet things get. You would think they would have thought of this by now.
 
Change the copper to fibre, all copper joints once exposed to damp conditions are a failure point waiting to happen.
So right on cue, after 2 days of med rain, the connection just today has started to slow up and cut out,. and the phone is cracking alot, So thats going to be a pain, everytime it rains the internet will be out or be cutting in and out for a few days after the rain, so as long it doesnt rain. Years ago it would take 4-5 days of med/heavy rain for this to happen, then clear up after a few days, so it was a rare event, now it seems that only after 1-2 days of rain its getting effected. When you say change the copper to fibre, do you mean full fibre? or just at the box? At the moment I have fibre, but only to the box, from the box to the house its copper.
 
You only get fibre when your area is converted to FTTP, on FTTC you have copper from the house to cabinet and it stays copper, so the fault has to be found and fixed but will still be copper.
 
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