Noise on line - Broadband not working since 29 February

My brother moved into his new house in February and arranged for his phone line and broadband to be transferred from his old address. The line at the new house always had a dial tone, but he couldn't dial out, and he didn't know the number either to try dialling in.

His phone line is with BT, this was moved on the 28 February, and he could now make and receive calls.

His broadband, which is with Plus Net was scheduled to move on the 29 February, but it did not work, after waiting a day or so as advised I suggested he checked his line (he always uses his mobile) and it was dead, no dial tone.

He then realised he'd seen a BT engineer up his distribution pole the day before. He contacted BT and they came out to investigate the fault. The engineer confirmed his line had been physically disconnected on the pole, and said that he was now on a Dacs.

Ever since then we've been in a battle with Plus Net, and they in turn with BT to get the Dacs removed, apparently there were no spare lines.

The Dacs has now apparently been removed, but it still does not work, and today he was supposed to have an engineer visit, but needless to say said engineer never arrived.

Now I'm 100% certain there is no fault in the house unless it's the NTE5 - we've tested the router in the test point, and I've tested the router at my house, so I know the routers OK

When the router is plugged in there is a noise on the line, best described as tick, tick, tick, ssssh, then it repeats. Unplug the router and the lines crystal clear.

This noise has been there ever since the line was reconnected, I've uploaded a recording to http://www.manser.plus.com/Various/Noise_on_line.mp3

Would anybody recognise this as a sign that a Dacs is still fitted?

I'm going to fire off an email to Ian Livingston tomorrow, as this saga is getting ridiculous, especially as it was BT OR that caused the problem in the first place, I suspect the engineer unknowingly nicked his line, it had been dormant/unused for months until the day before it was disconnected.

Edited by R0NSKI (Tue 24-Apr-12 22:53:21)

DACs come in two parts, one at property end, and another closer to the exchange.
One part may still be on the line.

I thought DACs had been reduced to almost emergency only use. DACs are not meant to be placed on a telephone line that has an ADSL service on it, and unless Plusnet had not placed the order yet, the active order should have shown up when the engineer checked which line to use.

If Openreach insists no lines, and refuses to install a new one, time to find out who is close enough and does not mind a DACs on their line, e.g. someone who hates the internet or does not want it.

Thanks for the reply, there's nothing on his property that I'm aware of and never has been.

Apparently there are no free lines left on his DP, we counted 24 cables coming off it.

Seeing what BT's record keeping is like, it would't surpise me if it it didn't show up on their records. His line connection was intiated on the 22, and connected on the 29, then disconnected on the 1 March, the engineer's job may have been booked prior to my brothers reconnection.

I suppose he could knock on all the doors and ask if anyone doesn't have internet, may be a way forward.

This was posted to his PN support ticket, it was in table format so hopefully it's still legible, does anything look wrong?

Profile Info: WBC 160K - 288K Medium delay (INP 8) 6dB Downstream, 448 Medium delay (INP 2) 6dB Upstream (ADSL2+)
xDSL Status Test Summary
Sync Status: Circuit Not In Sync
General Information
NTE Status: NTE Power Status: Unknown Bypass Status:

Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 0.0 0.0
SNR Margin: 0 0
Errored Seconds: 0 0
HEC Errors: 0
Cell Count: 0 0
Speed: 0 0

Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 576 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 576
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 0 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 0
Indicative Line Quality: S Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds): 0



Circuit ID: CBUK86518718 Service ID: BBEU06653760
Telephone NO.: N.A. Test Executed On:
Status: Pass MFL: OK OR Test ID: rds00556app02:84579078
Test Outcome: Line Test OK - End User Equipment detected DTR: DS08
Copper Test Details
A to E B to E
Capacitance:
DP Line Length Estimate: 1854 Metres DN Line Length Estimate: 1888 Metres
Celerity: 43 dB Line Loss:
Line Stability: Stable
Fault Report Advised: N
Service Level: 2

* Circuit not in sync

* Copper line test passing

* TAM Test also passing

* Raising

* Pushing for SFI

Edited by R0NSKI (Wed 25-Apr-12 10:10:53)

The test results show there is no dacs on the line. If the router is killing dial tone, the router or filter is faulty imho.

I've tested the router and filter at my house, and it worked fine, I did not however check if there was any noise on the line.

Can't see it being the filter as we have a filtered face plate, which when removed and plug the modem in via a micro filter I'm sure we still get the noise.

However I will recheck both tonight, to be sure.

The report I posted above didn't show a phone number, just N/A, is that normal?

PS The phone still works when the router is plugged in, you just have that background noise.

Edit: He's just plugged the modem, a phone and the micro filter into the test point and he still has the noise, so that rules out the faceplate filter being faulty. I'll pick the lot up tonight and try it at my house.

Edited by R0NSKI (Wed 25-Apr-12 14:17:37)

@partial or any other BT engineers.

Just to double check things following partials post above, we have done the following today.

1. Plugged his router, micro filter and phone into the test socket on the NTE5 . Result - No broadband and we still had the noise on the phone.
2. I took his router, micro filter and phone, plugged all of this into my test socket on my NTE5. Result - No noise on the phone, and I can access the internet from my laptop connected to his router, no alteration done to his router as we are both with Plus Net, so his login details will work on my line.

I have done all the above previously with the same results, so the problem either lies in his NTE5 or somewhere prior to the NTE5 on BT's network, his router and micro filter are not causing the problem.

So the big question is, what else can cause the problem?

Edited by R0NSKI (Wed 25-Apr-12 18:27:55)

A DAC's line with no dial tone coming through it will just have 'blow' on it, this is not what you have recorded.

It sounds more like an HR, or one leg dis to me.

DACs come in two parts, one at property end, and another closer to the exchange.

One near the property, and the rest is just a card in the exchange.

If the remote unit (customer end) has been left on the line, and 'normal' PSTN pushed towards it, the result will be a loop fault. Plenty of other options with mucked up exchange jumpering.

Ta - corrects that brain cell to be a line card in the exchange

[pedant] DACS card, not a line card.[/pedant] Soz.