In reply to a post by Nolly:

When the BT engineer was here he replaced the Master Socket and connected a faceplate which has an ADSL filter embedded.

I don't know if you have done this but if you still have a working corded phone and connect it into the TEST socket which is within the master socket dial 17070 and take option 2 for the quiet line test, you shouldn't hear any noise if the voice part of the connection is OK.

Careful with that advice Alastair .

It sounds as though the latest interstitial filter plate has been installed, and very few non-techies realise that test socket access requires removal of that as well as the faceplate.

Hi Alastair. No, I do not have a corded phone.

Thanks, Norman

Is that what the plate is called. I know where the test socket is and getting to it is not something I want to fiddle with. Have not got a corded phone anyway. I am certain that in the distant past, I have rang that number from a handset and that would have been on the advice of a BT person.

Not sure if it is relevant or just coincidence but when I booted the PC this morning and established an Internet connection, I then tried the online BT Line Test. That resulted in my Broadband connection going down. The same happened late last night but then that was horrendous. I lost the connection so many times I thought I had two pieces of wet string as opposed to two copper wires.

Contacted PlusNet three times this morning and they have scheduled another engineer visit for the 10th February. I am not a happy bunny. That will be more three weeks after I logged the problem (ticket raised). What is the engineer going to do! If there is no line noise when he visits, what will he achieve. I believe that checking the connections in the cabinet and providing me with another pair of lines might be more in order. What about checking the exchange! Could there be a problem there which is only affecting my line?

I have raised a complaint with PlusNet this afternoon as this is a degradation in the service I had and it is taking far too long to get close to the problem. I realise that intermittent faults are not the easiest to find as I am an ex computer field service and later support engineer.

Part of the tackling intermittent problems is to isolate it by taking the appropriate action(s).

If the engineer arrives and tests using the test socket with their corded test gear and finds no noise or faults then you may very well get charged for the visit.

http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/faceplate/ shows the sequence to get to the test socket, and a corded phone is a good handy thing to have as they don't generate any noise from the compression of the voice over the wireless part.

You probably do have something external, e.g. water ingress into a joint outside, but these are not simple to find and other go away if there is a few days of dry weather.

You won't be fiddling with wiring. Just 2 sets of 2 screws and 2 faceplates to pull away from the BT socket to enable access to the test socket.

Can you borrow a corded phone or buy one from Argos or similar for < £5?

I mentioned to BT CS that I had an INTERMITTANT noise issue with my line. She did say "that there would be a charge if no issue found" and I said that if the engineer came and found no issue one day and found one another day, would I be allowed a large compensation claim for another day off?

Issue was found and turned out to be my cabinet connections were at the base and were getting damp after heavy rain. Reconnected near the top and been ok for 3 years.

I do not know anyone with a corded phone. I insisted that I would not be charged for the previous engineer's visit and I was not. I will insist that I do not pay for the next visit either.

My suspicion is that the problem is in the cabinet. Why do they want to visit here rather than look at the cabinet connections!

The faceplate that was fitted is a BT OpenReach Mk2. It has two connection sockets, one vertically above the other. The phone is connected to the socket in the bottom half. The bottom half of the faceplate has two screws.

In reply to a post by Nolly:

I know where the test socket is and getting to it is not something I want to fiddle with.

When you have BB it is always worthwhile being prepared to get to test socket, it's only a few screws after all, and to have a cheap corded phone handy. Then when you report a fault and they tell you that you will be charged if a fault is found in your own wiring, you can be confident that any fault lies on the BT side.

Hi broadband66. I have covered my response in my reply to MrSaffron. I will contact my next door neighbours to see if they have a corded phone I can borrow. Thanks for your input.

Hi XRaySpeX. Thanks for your input. I going to see if I can borrow a corded phone. I am probably overly concerned about getting to the test socket.

Does it help that one of the CSC Analysts that I spoke to this morning said he could hear noise when I was talking to him. His hearing is undoubtedly better than mine.

Edited by deleted (Sun 02-Feb-14 18:49:35)