Phone/ADSL Problems (are extension leads different)?

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes.

Until this week all my phone equipment was working fine. Now the only thing that works is the phone with its own proprietary lead. If I plug the phone into the master socket with its own lead it works. If I replace the phone's own black lead with a brand new white one that appears to have exactly the same connections (phone plug on one end, little square plug on the other), it doesn't work (no dial tone).

If I plug the phone with its own lead into any extension, it doesn't work (no dial tone). Broadband is down and will not work even with the phone's lead plugged into the router directly into the master socket.

It looks like the phone is working with the phone's black lead, but not with any white lead - is there such a thing as different phone leads even if they look exactly the same? If so why would my phone work with the phone's black type but not the white ones?

I can't believe that all my extension leads are all faulty all at once AND that I've then bought another faulty new one....

How bewildering.

Do you have a test socket within your master socket? What happens if you (separately) plug phone/modem into that socket?

See http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php?type=html

Yes, the phone works in it with it's own lead but not a white lead but ADSL doesn't (with the phone lead or the white lead).

Phone line cords are not all wired the same unfortunately so you can't swap them about. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

As for why the extension wiring has failed, you need to break it down into sections. It could be that a section runs under a carpet and has been damaged by being crushed, pulled or a favourite is the gripper strips puncture the cable and short out the cable.

In reply to a post by Rockh:

Phone line cords are not all wired the same unfortunately so you can't swap them about. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

As for why the extension wiring has failed, you need to break it down into sections. It could be that a section runs under a carpet and has been damaged by being crushed, pulled or a favourite is the gripper strips puncture the cable and short out the cable.

Ah ok cheers that would explain the conundrum. I'll get back to checking the ADSL extension lead.

is there such a thing as different phone leads even if they look exactly the same? If so why would my phone work with the phone's black type but not the white ones?

yes. The RJ11 standard (the smaller squarer one) has the connections on the centre pins (3 & 4) but the BT plug uses 2 and 5 (next pair out). To use a flat cable with insulation displacement connections means having the phone expecting to see the signal on 2&5 of the RJ11.

A "conversion" lead like an RJ11-BT lead will usually stick to the standard and cross over the pairs, but a proprietary lead shipped with as modem or phone is likely not to.

The simplest approach is to always use RJ11-RJ11 leads and use an RJ11-BT convertor plug where necessary.