In reply to a post by meditator:

Well, you know what I mean. I called BT Faultline.

And they'd probably be only too eager to earn a quick buck!

Yeh, I was kinda bounced into calling in Openreach. In my old age, I must be losing my touch.

Incidentally, since the last changes I made, e-mail access has remained up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If it stays okay, and browser access to the Internet similarly, then it would appear that my mail account had somehow become corrupted. My view now is that the phone phenomenon must have been something separate and was caused by some sort of change at the exchange being made. I've noticed that with both of my high-grade faceplate filters - the one in use at the start and then the new one I fitted yesterday - there was an extra 3dB of SNR (and hence more speed) suddenly available after all the troubles began. Remember, I'm on ADSL1, not ADSL2 or FTTC. That's still the case. According to the OR guy, some exchanges do have the ability to generate continuous phone rings on customers' phones, so perhaps during some sort of upgrade to the ADSL kit at the exchange, that phone function was unintentionally triggered, and then maybe later that day it was found and turned off. Otherwise, I can't see how anything at my end could have mysteriously simulated an incoming phonecall. In the early hours (2am) of the preceding night of the beginning of all of this, the phone had rung in the normal way for about 3 mins. Being in bed at the time and semi-conscious, I didn't answer it. As far as my limited knowledge goes, it's invariably during the 'early hours' that engineers at exchanges perform switchovers and other changes.

Now that I've the Clarity faceplate filter in place - the so-called Modified NTE5 BT Faceplate Filter - I'm leaving it like that. The ADSL Nation one employs one or two transistors and it seems to me that, although that one's probably still good, it's perhaps better to use a non-active one, as at times the phone line can be a hazardous environment for such semiconductors (high levels of noise, voltage surges caused by lightning, etc). It's my understanding that the filter in the Clarity one is non-active. Had I had the time to do it, I would have removed the back cover of the Clarity one and had a look at its pcb, to check.

In reply to a post by meditator:

I'd have thought there was a clue in the e-mail client's error message, in that it's telling me it's a 0x800CCC0D error and, as you know, it's saying that it can't find the e-mail server. I've googled for that error code but all I've turned up are vague explanations.

This is the Error you get when you have no connection to the Net and so is part of your bigger issue and nowt to do with the other email issues you had.

The latter I'd put down to the problems your ISP had with email which were so severe that the MD had to issue an apology letter which, in itself, is so unusual. As you are no longer having these email issues I'd take it your ISP has fixed them and you should now forget them and not connect them with your lack of Net connectivity.

I'm wondering if the ringing phone was a complete red herring and the ISP's attempts to fix the email problems created authentication problems. Tiscali and a few others were absolute stars at creating such conundrums out of simple problems.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that Error 0x800CC0D, and possibly also 0x800CCC0E, is non-specific as to cause. They both indicate a condition of non-access to the Internet but it's not possible to say whether the blocking of the access is occurring at the output of the e-mail client, within the router or modem, or instead somewhere further up the chain at, say, the ISP's server. In my case, the overall error message was saying that the e-mail client simply couldn't find the Skymarket server - but that could have been for any number of reasons.

Edited by deleted (Sat 28-Apr-12 16:14:37)

True, but the 1st 2 causes are very unlikely when you know everything your end is connected (and works sometime later without being touched) and the 3rd cause is the most likely when you know you are syncing with exchange OK.

In reply to a post by meditator:

..... They both indicate a condition of non-access to the Internet......

What the error code indicates is that the client cannot connect to the server. There are many reasons for this including but not dependent upon not being connected to the internet.

Well, thanks for all your indulgences in this, but the saga of my problems with my phone and with my Internet access has just taken an extraordinary turn.

I live in Hampton, a SW suburb of London, and the local free newspaper dropped belatedly on to my doormat half an hour ago. What should I find in it but:

Underground cables stolen.

Hundreds of households and businesses have been left without phone or internet connection after thieves stole two underground cables.

BT said its engineers installed new wires overnight on April 23rd, but some traders and residents in the Hampton area will suffer disruption until the weekend.

A BT spokeswoman said: "There has been a lot of damage and this is complex work and we expect it to take us into the weekend."

Well, it was the 21st April when I first posted here about my problems. I'd already been wrestling with the problems since 15th April and, as you know, had had an Openreach engineer attend. The newspaper report doesn't state the date when the cables were thought to have been removed but it does sound to me as though the uncontrolled ringing of my phone and my subsequent difficulties with accessing the Internet could be explained by either that removal process or by BT's revamping of everything in the days that followed. There must have been considerable chaos caused. It seems that the repairs, and presumably reconfigs of the associated kit at the exchange, have continued throughout this last week. It's only today (28th) that my e-mailing and my access by browser have been stable. Earlier today, I'd concluded that that was because of reinstalling my e-mail account, but this news report certainly now throws a different light on the matter.

It's perhaps possible that the bouts of phone instability that I had on the eveniing of the 15th and then on the 16th were due to repairs being made to my and others' lines. Thus, when the OR guy turned up, the line had - at least for phone usage - been fixed by then. But maybe on the ADSL side of things it's taken much longer to correct things and get them fully working again?

Hmm, maybe I won't have to pay that £120 + VAT charge after all? Perhaps if I can get in touch with the billing people at BT and tell them about this outage, they'll waiver that charge? After all, it's happened well outside of my control.

In reply to a post by meditator:

...... Hmm, maybe I won't have to pay that £120 + VAT charge after all? Perhaps if I can get in touch with the billing people at BT and tell them about this outage, they'll waiver that charge? After all, it's happened well outside of my control.

PM me if you need to contact BT's CEO. I find this "short circuit" very effective in favourably resolving disputes.

My technical problems aren't yet fully solved, as this evening (Sat) I've started to lose access again in a very intermittent fashion. I'm streaming radio while occasionally catching up on e-mails but the Internet's been disappearing and coming back again a minute or two later.