Topic: Ever so intermittent ISDN connection problem

[Tony]

I have been having a problem with my ISDN going dead, all lines silent. It has happened about 4 times now in say 18 months [since ISDN conversion] the 'service' light on the Home Highway box goes out

Anyway if you contact them, they can reset the 'switch' and you are back in business. But every time they run a test the line shows up clear!!! But something must be 'tripping' the switch but just it is never there at test time, intermittent faults are a bugger to cure.

So in a process of elimination, last fault but one they came out the next day and fit a new HH box. Then the last time [Friday before Bank Holiday Monday] an engineer same out on the Saturday, but again found no fault. So he arranged for two guys? with a platform vehicle to renew my line back down to two poles away on the Tuesday, because it passes through some trees and the cables can get stretched by the branches, anyway so far so good..

[Apparently engineers can not use a ladder on a line that spans a road if that line dips lower than 5.5 meters, it has to be a platform for health and safety reasons. Apparently a wagon caught a line and pulled an engineer of his ladder and he died due to the fall]

Any way back to the plot,  a couple of days later the wife said the phones are down again, sh*t. Always seems to happen between me coming off the PC to make tea 5?ish and around 6/7 o'clock when she phones her Mum.

Sure enough all silent, no I was not connected to the web nor could I, both analogue and digital lines where silent but the 'Service' light was still on the HH box. So I rebooted the PC and hey presto it released the phones. I'm wondering if some how my PC is causing the trouble and after a set time the 'switch' at the exchange decides to disconnect the service.

Any ideas anybody?

[Sandra]

Sounds like there may be a disconnect if idle setting in the HH box or in your PC settings Tony,if its only happening when you are away from the PC ( How come you dont get "The Wife" to make your tea anyway   )
I have never had ISDN so am unfamiliar with any of the options,so its pure guesswork so far  

[Clive]

I had ISDN for a few years and I'm not aware of any disconnect switch.  However, I had exactly the same problem as yourself Tony and it always happened when we had a spell of very wet weather.  A "tell tale" sign that something was amiss would be an intermittent ringing noise from the telephone but when you picked it up the line was dead.  The fault was eventually traced to a BT box on the road which had filled up with water.  The engineer dried it out and swapped our rusty line for a new one which was already inside the box as a spare and we didn't have any problem with it afterwards.

[Tony]

Sounds like there may be a disconnect if idle setting in the HH box or in your PC settings Tony,if its only happening when you are away from the PC ( How come you dont get "The Wife" to make your tea anyway   )
I have never had ISDN so am unfamiliar with any of the options,so its pure guesswork so far  

Sandra you may have misunderstood me, it never faults when I'm connected to the web only when I'm disconnected. We are not all spoilt rotten with an always on connection  

Tea making? well kept men have to be good all rounders, so a bit of cooking also comes in handy Plus she goes out to work, well somebody has too.

Clive,

one BT engineer reckons it could be a software issue at the exchange end. Being an ex sparky I know I should tell em about me rebooting and it opening the lines again, but I would rather they give me new every thing  

Bugger still stuck at 182/350 exchange ADSL upgrade :'(

[Sandra]

Sorry Tony its not something I know about (one of many   ),so afraid I cant help you other than to suggest Move House to get BB  

[Adept]

We had something similar at work once Tony, but with an ISDN2e box not HH.

The line would intermittently drop out and then come back

After about 3 weeks of various BT engineers coming to scatch their head at it and say that they couldn't find a fault, one bright spark suggested that it might be an idea to change the copper between the office and the BT pole outside in our car park.

Hey presto - one fully working ISDN connection. Apparently the copper wire was corroded as there was a break in the plastic coating and rain-water had seeped through.

I'm not saying this is what your problem could be, just that you have to be insistent with BT

[Tony]

Adept lets hope they have cured it with replacing the cable, BT guy said branches can wear down the insulation by constanly rubbing the cable, also the branches can stretch and break the inner wire. But I personally would have thought if that was the case, with branch movement if would have been tripping out constantly  

Yo, the BB barometer is at 185/350