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No conection until phone picked up.

I have only had this problem recently, my ISP is Orange and though I've had massive problems in the past I found that using OpenDNS made a big difference.

This time the problem seems to be the DSL line itself. I'm using a Linksys AG241 wired gateway/router which has been trouble free for months. I'm thinking the problem is the line because when I pick up the phone and put it down again the dsl light turns solid and then it connects normally. This router doesn't seem to generate logs in the way others I've encountered do so I can only provide the contents of the status window for the dsl line.

DSL Status

DSL Status: Up
DSL Modulation Mode: GDMT
DSL Path Mode: FAST
Downstream Rate: 1152 Kbps
Upstream Rate: 256 Kbps
Downstream Margin: 12 db
Upstream Margin: 6 db
Downstream Line Attenuation: 55
Upstream Line Attenuation: 31
Downstream Transmit Power: 0
Upstream Transmit Power: 0


PVC Connection

Encapsulation: RFC 2516 PPPoE
Multiplexing: LLC
QoS: UBR
PCR Rate: 0
SCR Rate: 0
Autodetect: Disable
VPI: 0
VCI: 38
Enable: Yes
PVC Status: Applied -- OK

I have tried PPPoA and PPPoE in virtual circuit mode, I've left it as it is now as it's actually connected (for once).

Any help/advice greatly appreciated.
 
Hmmm have you tried it without the phone itself being plugged into your microfilter? Likewise it might be worth removing the front faceplate from the BT box and plugging directly into the TEST Socket behind, just to eliminate another potential problem area.

It could also be a faulty Microfilter, but outside of those suggestions this is not something I've heard of before. Don't try any of this until you have problems again, naturally.
 
Mark is bang on, it could be a faulty microfilter, but that is easy to rule out. You don't need a microfilter to connect your modem to you BT socket, it does nothing but convert the shape of the plug for the adsl signal. Most phones have a detachable cable with a BT plug on one end and an RJ-11 plug on the other. This will go straight from your BT socket into the ADSL router and rule out your filter as being the problem. However I doubt this is the fault.

Option two, you could do with testing at your BT Master socket and disconnecting all your extensions. If you have any, and they are correctly wired, they either plug into the front of the master with a socket doubler kind of attachment and a tail cable to the rest of the house, or they terminate on the rear of the face plate. Assuming you have a modern BT socket (take a look here > http://www.adslnation.co.uk/support/extensions.php at Standard BT Master Socket (NTE 5) then the lower half of the socket comes off with the two screws visible on the face. The reverse of the lower half is shown on the same site next to the master, and the terminals on the back are where you extension wiring should be attached. If you unscrew and pull the lower half off (carefully, there may not be much slack in the wiring) there is another BT socket behind here. It is called the test socket. Use the same process above (by borrowing a phone cable from your phone / cordless / old dial up modem) and connect your router straight in there.

If you are still having problems, and I suspect you will, you have a high resistance joint in your incoming line, which is whetted when you lift the handset which passes a voltage down the line. Unless there is noise on your phone, or its crackly / quiet, you are going to have to get Orange to raise a data fault for you. If there is any noise / quietness on the line (dial 17070 and choose option 2 - this will silence the line so you can listen for noise) then YOU need to raise a line fault with BT for the noise / quietness.
 
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If you are still having problems, and I suspect you will, you have a high resistance joint in your incoming line, which is whetted when you lift the handset which passes a voltage down the line. Unless there is noise on your phone, or its crackly / quiet, you are going to have to get Orange to raise a data fault for you. If there is any noise / quietness on the line (dial 17070 and choose option 2 - this will silence the line so you can listen for noise) then YOU need to raise a line fault with BT for the noise / quietness.

If there is noise on the phone, it might be wise to repeat the quiet line test with the router unplugged in case the noise is caused by the router, although audible "modem noise" on the phoneline (especially when the router is connecting) can sometimes also be a symptom of a high resistance fault. It is also best to use a wired phone for the quiet line test if one is available because cordless phones often produce a fair bit of hiss.
 
Last edited:
Thank you all kindly for all of your input, I will test all of this immediately. I don't think it's the router as there are two lines in this house and I've tested with the router from downstairs and that router seems to fail to synchronise also (unless I lift the phone handset of course).

Thanks again.
 
I've tried everything apart from the line tests, quiet line test and using the test socket. I'll try those next. Connecting the cable from the phone to the router and then straight into the master socket didn't work at all. The light didn't flash, it didn't come on in the first place. The phone is working with that cable so I'm not sure why that is. Disconnecting the phone from the filter and trying to connect without it is a bit inconclusive. I tried it and it did connect after a while but not straight away, then I plugged the phone in again and restarted the router and it connected after a few attempts anyway. So it's hard to tell if the line was simply ok at that point or if having the phone disconnected helped. It's only at certain times, usually in the evenings that it's at it's worst.
 
Ok, apologies for that re phone cable direct to router. There are two methonds of wiring using either the centre two contacts on the rj-11 (small) plug or the outer two. It depends whos kit it is, Pretty much all approved kit uses the inner two, but not all.

So did you manage to isolate the rest of the house wiring when testing with your router > microfilter > Master socket as I suggested ?
 
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This could also be down to the spliter card in the exchange being faulty or a high resistance fault/high open fault on the line, I have seen several of these but there isn't just one thing that can cause it.

Get your voice provider to test the line and if it comes back clear then it would be time to get it reported to your ISP to get a Openreach engineer out to look at the fault.
 
I'm still with Orange and still having this problem. This is the story so far:

Finally on Friday night I'd had enough. The blinking DSL LED again for hours. Sometimes picking up the phone would get it to connect again and sometimes not, but then I was getting a red "internet" light on my router meaning that it wasn't connecting to the server "password authentication failed". The previous saturday was worse with no connection all day I had called orange tech support explained the fault and been told that they couldn't help me unless I installed their Speedtouch modem as my Linksys was a "third party device". I requested a disk as I'd lost mine and he said he'd send it out. It never arrived, so on last friday night after another day of blinking LED my wife had hunted down the disk installed the modem (same blinking LED) and later that day I called Orange's premium rate 0905 technical support number at 50p per minute.

I was greeted by someone with only a basic grasp of english that appeared to be reading from a script. "Do you have extensions plugged in, do you have a fax machine or a sky box? what os are you using?" etc etc. I had answered all of this already when I had first described the fault. I explained that the dsl led was flashing and that the usb light was solid, to which he replied "look at your modem, do you have two solid green lights?". Then after explaining at length that I had only a modem and a phone plugged into a filter plugged into the master socket, he finally agreed that the line needed to be tested (he'd succeeded in getting a few quid out of me by keeping me talking on that 0905 number) and told me to "bear with me one moment". And that was it - on hold for 10 minute then - CUT OFF. I had to phone back again and began to explain to the individual that I had been talking to one of his colleagues and had got as far as him doing a fault check on the line - OH NO NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Guess what?! I had to go through the whole process again: "Do you have extensions plugged in, do you have a fax machine or a sky box? what os are you using?, look at your modem, do you have two solid green lights?"...

I told him not to put me on hold as his colleague had done and instead I waited. He then got back to me after a minute or so and said a test would be done on the line and that they would get back to me. As yet, nothing but I suppose I'll have to give it a bit longer.

This company are quite simply atrocious in every respect.
 
Orange

Well since that time I'd had no problems until about a week ago. Now I'm back to square one again and back in the same situation. The whole calling up twice to their 0905 number, wasting time and money and the phantom line test was the same as last time: It clearly hasn't happened.

Their technical support people are absolutely clueless imbeciles. They simply read from a script and know nothing about what they are supposed to be supporting. I work in a support role myself and if I had dealt with my customers in the same way as they have dealt with myself, I wouldn't be in this job very long.

To cap it all the first time I called my connection suddenly started working again so the tech support guy would not go through with a line test on the basis that if it's working now, then it's working. Basically I had to call back again when it was not working (which happens to be most of the day). I did so about 20 minutes later and was greeted by another similar operator. I advised him, rather strongly, to check his call history for my account and NOT ask me all of those stupid questions again. He then "completed his steps" and arranged for the "test" on the line. I had to leave the PC on all night with the modem connected as he had requested. He took my mobile number and said they'd send me a text with the result today, guess what? Nothing so far. And is my connection working again? No, my wife informs me it's been down all day long as usual. The lifting the phone receiver trick is working less and less as well.

I was offered METERED dial up for the time being!!! I asked for unmetered as I was paying for an unmetered broadband connection anyway, at least they can give me an unmetered dial up account for the time being. No chance!

So after waiting in vain for the text message and hearing that the connection has still been down all day, I've called in earlier this afternoon and requested my MAC code. Once again I was dealing with a similar imbecile that asked me the question: "you are requesting your MAC code?" about ten times. They also wanted to know which provider I was going to, I told them I hadn't decided as yet (and I wouldn't have told them anyway). I was then put on hold for five minutes and then transferred to another bored sounding individual whom eventually conceded to sending me out a MAC code (after asking the same stupid questions). So in 5 days the code should be here, if not then I will ring and cancel on the spot. Enough is enough.

All I can say to anyone considering signing up to these idiots, please do not. Don't give them your money. The only reason they have held on to my customer is because I am a busy person and don't have the time to go through the hassle of changing provider. I am now going to make the time.
 
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