Telephones not reliable since ADSL install.

We've just noticed that our telephones aren't working reliably since we had ADSL activated a month ago.

I've installed ADSL Nation filters on the master socket and the 2 extensions (we have 3 phones) - 2 are corded with a REN of 1.0 each and one Panasonic DECT phone which doesn't show a REN number, so assuming that's under 2.0 we are under the 4.0 limit).

We've noticed that occasionally the phone doesn't ring out (none of the extensions ring) yet the phones with CID show a missed call, so the phone did actually "receive" the call, just didn't ring. But tonight, a caller rang and got engaged when we hadn't used the phone all night (they immediately rang our mobile hence the post!) Our ADSL router is usually on all day.

I've removed the orange "ring" wire from all the connections when adding the filter face plates. Would connecting the ring wire make any difference? I assumed this was a hang-up from the loop disconnect era.

Is this a common problem after adsl is activated? Are there any better solutions?

could be a faulty filter causing a "ring trip" where the exchange shuts off the ringing due to excess current draw.

In reply to:

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I've removed the orange "ring" wire from all the connections when adding the filter face plates

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Can you clarify what type of filter you're using and how you wired it.

I have a main XTE-2005 face plate on the master socket, the standard two wires into the ADSL side (blue/white=B, white/blue=A) so that the unfiltered signal goes through to the extensions. Then two XTF-85s (one on each extension), wired the same (blue/white=2, white/blue=5) so that the unfiltered signal goes to the next extension.

(All files from http://www.adslnation.com/products/index.php)

Is there anyway to ascertain which is a faulty filter with a multimeter?

The "unfiltered signal" is the ADSL one. The filtered signal is the voice one. You do not need filters on your extension phones as they are already filtered from the faceplate.

No they aren't as I've run the unfiltered signal through the house in this set-up! So each extension has the option to have ADSL and and phone.

The filters are only acting on the telephone socket side of the dual face-plates of all the extensions as that is the way I have wired it. (Our ADSL router is on the 3rd extension the furthest away from the master socket, so it would have been useless filtering it out at the master socket!)

I can't see the point of you using a filtered faceplate, because you don't appear to be using it to the best advantage. To get the best effect from a filtered faceplate, the ADSL modem or router needs to be connected directly to the faceplate, and if it's too far from the PC's in the house, then it should be connected back by Cat5 ethernet. All the other (phone) extensions should be connected with all 3 wires connected to the phone extension connections on the faceplate.. Some phones need the ring wire connected, some don't. You should get a ring signal from the ADSL filter, if it is a good quality one, but if you use the filtered faceplate correctly, you won't need extra filters.

Edited by deleted (Tue 03-Apr-07 08:57:16)

We wanted all sockets to look neat, without filters hanging out of sockets, and now have the option for ADSL connection and phones anywhere at a later date, should we move the study without extra dangling filters. Fitting the first face plate boosted out sync speed a little.

It would be impossible to connect our router to the master NTE face plate as it's the at the other side of the house house to our study and a floor away (the NTE and the extension socket are probably as far away from each other as physically possible in a house! However the new filtered one looks good and has the option if we want to use a router there later on.

We aren't having a problem with ADSL speed, we are virtually at the maximum here, so it was to tidy things up with neat face-plates, and introduce high-quality filters rather than the cheap ones supplied with routers. Our internal extension wiring is high quality, although not Cat-5 (no unless someone would like to chase all our plaster and redecorate!). We are syncing at 8,096 at the end of the extension run, and getting the near maximum of speed considering our distance from the exchange.

As each filter only acts on the full signal transported on the phone cables to each extension, it shouldn't have any effect on the way I've set it up, and 90% of the time it's fine, but the intermittent fault is annoying as we are missing calls.

The ring-wire technically should have no use in modern phone systems, it is a hang-up from the old "loop-disconnect" dialling days, but if everyone thinks it will make a difference I'll reconnect it though, but I don't want to cause interference (some say the this wire can act as a giant aerial) on our pretty good ADSL connection. As far as I was aware, the ring wire has no effect on modern tone-dialling phones whatsoever...

But it's the phones that are an issue, they work most of the time, but ringing in sometimes is faulty.

Edited by deleted (Tue 03-Apr-07 09:27:33)

Don't connect a ring wire as the ring signal is generated by the capacitor in each filtered socket. I suggest that you disconnect your wiring and add one extension at a time as you most likely either have a fault in the wiring or a filter.

i may as well point it out. I had a very similar problem to this, and i found that it was sky digital's phone connection causing the problem. Do you have sky digital, try unplugging it?

Thanks - if that is the only option I'll have to give it a go, is there any simpler way to test each filter (components with a meter?). I know the connections are correct, so one of the filters must be causing the fault, if it's the master socket one, it'll be a lot of wiring an unwiring to eliminate each one, as most of the time the phone works ok, so they'll have to be changed and left for a reasonable period