[Gllug] [OT] Testing internal line quality

[Peter Ball]

On 14 Oct 2005 at 16:41, James Goldwater wrote:

> I have a colleague/client who is having persistent trouble connecting
> to the internet via ADSL: it often requires numerous attempts to log
> on, and the connection is sometimes dropped.
> 
> AFAIK, BT insist that the line is good enough, therefore the problem
> may be in the house wiring.  Routers have been swapped out to no
> effect. Alledgedly the line goes straight into the home office, so
> there are no extra sockets and microfilter issues.
 
The key word is allegedly - this means you don't actually know. Don't take anything for 
granted. You have to be ruthlessly methodical and check everything.

Physically track the BT wiring from the property boundary to the BT master socket.  Make 
that the wiring is good, open any connection boxes between the property boundary and the 
master socket and make sure all connections are good.

Make sure you have a modern NTE5 BT faceplate.  Make sure the incoming wires are 
properly attached to the back of the faceplate. Make sure that ALL secondary wiring is 
removed.  Attach a faceplate ADSL splitter to the NTE5.

If  2 (or more) phone lines are supplied in one cable make sure that the other lines are also 
correctly wired and that there are no shorts or bare wire nearly touching etc. Remove all 
secondary wiring and equipment leaving only the master socket(s) from the other lines.

Then plug a known good router and pc into the faceplate splitter and test. If its ok the fault 
almost certainly lies in the equipment or wiring you disconnected otherwise the problem will 
be outside.

Without doing the above correctly everything else is guess-work and a waste of time.

However, I do both telephone and network setup and wiring and I have long ceased to be 
surprised with what I find when the customer says that everything is set up correctly in a 
standard fashion.

Hope that helps :-)





-----------------------------------
Peter Ball
Computers For Linguists
peter.ball at marguet-ball.net
Tel:    +44(0)20 7732 1741
Fax:    +44(0)20 7358 9214
Mobile: +44(0)77 1968 2913
45 Endwell Road, London, SE4 2PQ, United Kingdom

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