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maylar
join:2000-06-01
Wallingford, CT

maylar

Member

[General] DSL disconnects when phone is answered

I have AT&T Elite DSL (6mb). I have three phones on the line, all with filters, and it has worked well for years. Over the last few months however if I'm online when the phone rings and I pick up, the modem will lose synch and I get an error page from the gateway. The modem will regain synch after a while but the gateway can only be resolved by rebooting the modem power. It's a 2Wire modem, hardwired to the PC (not wireless).

The phone company has checked the lines and DSL tech support has been unable to find anything wrong. Has anyone experienced this before, and know of a solution?

TIA

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by maylar:

The phone company has checked the lines and DSL tech support has been unable to find anything wrong. Has anyone experienced this before, and know of a solution?

The symptoms sound familiar, but I'd have to trawl older posts to refresh my memory; never personally experienced them.

Sounds opposite of a "high open". Maybe a filter is going bad.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

Hayward0 to maylar

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to maylar
Does it happen with one phone or all of them? If just one a filter may have gone bad.
maylar
join:2000-06-01
Wallingford, CT

maylar

Member

It hapens when any phone is answered. I've already changed filters, to no avail.

David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David to maylar

Premium Member

to maylar
one common problem I see is on which end to plug into the filter. Some people make the mistake of plugging into the DSL side of the filter instead of the phone side.

one test you could do to see if the problem is actually the phones and filters would be to disconnect all the phones and call your number while in sync and surfing. if the 2wire doesn't drop at all, one of the phones is the culprit.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by David:

one common problem I see is on which end to plug into the filter. Some people make the mistake of plugging into the DSL side of the filter instead of the phone side.

I encountered a case where a DirecTV installer hardwired the phone cord from the receiver direct to the NID; the only way to install the filter without serious rewiring was backwards. I knew I had to do more than just unplug the cord and insert the filter; but how many non-tech types would have been able to figure it out?

David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David

Premium Member

said by NormanS:

I encountered a case where a DirecTV installer hardwired the phone cord from the receiver direct to the NID; the only way to install the filter without serious rewiring was backwards. I knew I had to do more than just unplug the cord and insert the filter; but how many non-tech types would have been able to figure it out?

probably not many, stuff like that is why I am kind of glad I have a nid/sni splitter. Even if he did just blindly plug it into the wall it would have been filtered on contact.

I have heard of many directv, dish, and even cable tv installers just plug into the DSL side of those filters.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by David:

Even if he did just blindly plug it into the wall it would have been filtered on contact.

He didn't just plug it into the wall. I had some line problems with the voice circuit. The SBC (this was before 2006) tech determined that the trouble was in the plant; but pointed out that the DTV installer did not wire the receiver line properly. DTV ran a flat, satin telephone cord from the inside, through an exterior wall to the NID outside, then Scotchlocked a solid copper pigtail to the stranded conductors of the satin cord. Tech told me that, if the problem had been premises, not plant, I'd be responsible for the rewire job.

P.S. I eventually did a proper rewire myself; to include a whole-house splitter. The next SBC tech to take a look was impressed. Maybe being a Hewlett Packard board repair tech paid off; maybe being a qualified combat communications operator (MOS 31U40) did.

David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David to maylar

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to maylar
yea yours was a bit more extreme, I wouldn't think many dtv techs would do that.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by David:

yea yours was a bit more extreme, I wouldn't think many dtv techs would do that.

That house was built forty-nine years ago. Wasn't wired for telephone until occupied six months later. The (then Ma Bell) installer did not run a line to that corner of the room, nor did he install a wall jack.
maylar
join:2000-06-01
Wallingford, CT

maylar

Member

Well, the tech folks at AT&T suspected the modem as the culprit. But rather than have them send me a new one I upgraded to Uverse 12mb. Now the new gateway does the same thing, but more severely. With any of my 3 phones plugged in the modem loses sync and with all 3 plugged in the Motorola gateway gives an error message saying something is probably connected without a filter. They all have filters.

My house is 75 years old and the phone wiring may be suspect. I'm going to get the phone people to have a looksee.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

said by maylar:

My house is 75 years old and the phone wiring may be suspect. I'm going to get the phone people to have a looksee.

Hmmm. I forgot about "half-ringers". I wonder if there is an old station protector, with half-ringer, that was not properly by-passed/disconnected?

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

2 edits

Hayward0

Premium Member

said by NormanS:

Hmmm. I forgot about "half-ringers". I wonder if there is an old station protector, with half-ringer, that was not properly by-passed/disconnected?

Funny you should say that as I had to have my old screw terminal customer element of my NID replaced, and the new punch down block couldn't handle the old fat wire, so they had to do some splicing too to the modern micro wire not good in a salt environment even enclosed. That fat old wire has lasted 50+ years.... any bets when they are called back for the micro wire failing.

tigerpaw509
join:2011-01-19

tigerpaw509 to maylar

Member

to maylar
Classic case to trouble and almost always is bridge tap in your serving terminal.In laymen's terms the wire(pair) carrying your signal runs down the cable and past your house to the end of the cable.Your wire should be cut off/dedicated where your service wire meets up with your cable pair.The same is true on the inside of your house,you need a whole house filter at your Nid and a dedicated line to your modem for the best performance.

TheJanitor
join:2013-11-17
Pensacola, FL

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I agree with Tiger, being as most of the house wiring is 50 years old, a NID splitter/filter would be the best course of action. Also a seperate Cat 5 ( if not Cat 6 ) wire run JUST to the modem ( which should be standard procedure for an IPDSL or Uverse install).

The reason for the change of wire type, i.e. "fat" wire to "micro" wire is the twist of the wire pair. The old 2 or 3 conductor wire from yester year was never designed to carry anything more that dial tone. The wire used today is designed with a twist to reduce the amount of interference that might affect the level of data transmission speed.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

1 edit

Hayward0

Premium Member

For Unverse yes tech said I would have to rewire, but for DSL old standard 4 conductor Cat 4 wire should be just fine with inside splitters. At the same time any unused extension lines should be disconnected. My house used to be 5, With cordless phones now just two, One for the cordless phones and modem the other for the kitchen old hardwired phone for the actual bell instead or cricket noise, and service during storms/power outages.

PS I find it amusing the most popular standard ring tone on cell phones now seems to be the old fashion bell ring.

TheJanitor
join:2013-11-17
Pensacola, FL

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The reason I recommend the Cat 5 is that if you are going through the trouble of fixing the problem, ALL the possible reason should be fixed (within reason). If a splitter is going to be installed, its is only a little bit more work to replace the inside wire. It is better than the alternative, the splitter doesn't fix the entire problem and a 2nd tech has to be dispatched out.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS

MVM

I once added a splitter at the demarc, and replaced the 40-year-old quad station wire with category rated, twisted pair wiring for regular ADSL. Neither the splitter, nor the new wire (Cat 3, which is rated for "10BaseT"; 10 Mb/s) improved my signal levels noticeably.

Rewiring a 2200 ft. sq. premises was not "only a little bit more work to replace the inside wire"; though, admittedly, if I had just added a home run, the job would have been easier. But there were other, unrelated wiring issues which a line tech told me would be my responsibility to fix if there were issues with the premises wiring.
TechnoGeek
join:2013-01-07

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to maylar
Had that happen many years ago, I think there was a half-ringer/something similar installed. Once that was removed it worked fine.

Pesimist
join:2007-07-09
Valley, AL

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You wouldn't happen to have a monitored alarm system? If so, might want to look at it as well.
optoroute66
join:2013-11-26

optoroute66 to maylar

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As I spent a long time looking for specs on AT&T's DSL service and how to set up a gateway (modem) for it.

November 2013 - here's the link - »www.att.com/support_medi ··· _All.pdf.

You probably have ADSL2+ or ADSL2 - at least it's some ADSL - as far as I can see we don't have IDSL any more, though once had it and some may have had SDSL. »dsl.bus.att.com/pdf/expe ··· tion.pdf
Lois_Ant
join:2013-11-23
Hasty, AR

1 edit

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to maylar
had similar problem in our company few month ago...
We had four phones on the line, all hardwired to computer (we were using call-me link service from COMFI, so our customers could phone us right from the website).
It appeared eventually that problem was with the filters. And it only get back to work when we changed all of them... so I recommend you to do the same, if you haven't yet