Crackling sound on my phone line

They sent me out a new hub months ago but that didn't help.
 
some test systems installed in the are exchanges are advanced and are able to detect noise faults.its called CIDT...(copper intergrated demand test).older,smaller exchanges might still use the old system that cannot detect noise.noise faults can increase SNR (signal to noise ratio) which will cause broadband speed to slow.this will show the fault on WHOOSH which is a system to moniter broadband health.dial 17070 and select option 2 which is a quiet line test and will show any noise faults present.intermittant HR Dis (high resistance disconnect) faults are the worse to find but can be done.if you have an engineer visit demand they do a pair quality test which tests the line and will show each wires leg resistance measured in ohms.these need to be no more than 4 difference.if they re more it shows one leg is breaking down and causing noise.a good pair of wires will give you a high AC Balance which is needed for good broadband speed.any ac balance below 50 db is showing there is a problem.
 
I surmise your phone is with BT but who is your ISP?

The received wisdom is always get the phone fixed do not report a bb issue to BT but I wonder if you, if needed, can get the ISP on your side to help resolve the phone fix?
 
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Box Brownie said:
I surmise your phone is with BT but who is your ISP?
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Same. I waited years to get fast speed internet (even though I'm just outside London). BT are the only ones in my village. Virgin haven't been here yet. Wish they would hurry up lol.
 
also take a shot of your main phone point.certain sockets are obselete and we get told to change them on sight as they area known problem.
 
robmac said:
some test systems installed in the are exchanges are advanced and are able to detect noise faults.its called CIDT...(copper intergrated demand test).older,smaller exchanges might still use the old system that cannot detect noise.noise faults can increase SNR (signal to noise ratio) which will cause broadband speed to slow.this will show the fault on WHOOSH which is a system to moniter broadband health.dial 17070 and select option 2 which is a quiet line test and will show any noise faults present.intermittant HR Dis (high resistance disconnect) faults are the worse to find but can be done.if you have an engineer visit demand they do a pair quality test which tests the line and will show each wires leg resistance measured in ohms.these need to be no more than 4 difference.if they re more it shows one leg is breaking down and causing noise.a good pair of wires will give you a high AC Balance which is needed for good broadband speed.any ac balance below 50 db is showing there is a problem.
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I won't lie, no idea what was said there ;), but I did the quiet line and it's a very crackly quiet line :)
 
are you testing in the test socket?.you need to take of house extensions to make sure.
 
undo those two screws and pull the plate off.then put the phone in the test socket and do a quiet line test.then you`ll know your extensions arent to blame
 
In the test socket it still crackles even on quiet line. I took it out, re-plugged, dialed the quiet line it and let my wife listen. Same result.

I have been telling the operators this but it really is like banging your head against the wall.
 
Can you access the Hub information pages and what are your stats?

For example my router (it is not a BT hub) says:-


Downstream.......................Upstream
Line Coding (Trellis) On.............On
SNR Margin (dB) 2.6..................6.7
Attenuation (dB) 52.5................29.7
Output Power (dBm) 0.0...........12.8
Attainable Rate (Kbps) 4284......940


Also by comparison what does the line checker tell you you might/should expect to get speed wise http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ ?

If you login to your ISP is there reference to the "stable rate" that you are on?

Last but not least what does the speed checker tell you here http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/ if once you have done the speed test click on further diagnostics and see what it 'reports'?

I am just thinking as BT are both your phone & BB supplier what other ways are there to get them to "own" the problem???
 
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My max download is 77.35 Mbps. It says I'm getting 74.32 Mbps at the mo.
Max Achievable Speed, 20 Mbps, getting 16.91 Mbps.

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Don't know how to get Hub information. Everything is running good at the moment. It can go like this for hours, then it slows right down or cuts out.

 
I am with PlusNet and they have a good active Community Forum, do BT have the same?

IMO the best site that is not affiliated with any ISP but has active forums for all UK ISP's and the link the BT one us here.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/bt.html

Perhaps other BT users can throw some light on your issue and possibly routes to a resolution?
 
They
tijuana taxi said:
All the suppliers use Openreach to maintain the line between the exchange and your premises. Admittedly another supplier may take your complaint more seriously, unfortunately in most cases a noisy line does not show an abnormal line test result.
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They do but the problem is the OP is not speaking to openreach.
Open reach charge the telco (BT, ZEN, TALK TALK ETC) to fix a fault if it turns out to be customer wiring at fault so they all try and wiggle out of sending an engineer.

Just demand an engineer and accept any possible charge. If you have removed your home wiring and are sure the problem is BT then you have nothing to worry about.
 
My mother used to get exactly the same problem, it always happened when it had rained. It was caused by water getting into the footway box near her property and the cable joint getting wet. The OP sounds like he's got a similar problem.
 
More than likely Larry, wet joint would be my first guess or if applicable junction box at premises
 
Or if in a joint with other lines it would possibly be a battery contact as it would be getting voltage form another line.a working line uses 50v
 
tom24 said:
They most certainly do try to fob you off and they seem to insist it'll be within the house which will cost that £130 odd, not impressed with them at all.
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what he says:

ecoleman said:
Open reach charge the telco (BT, ZEN, TALK TALK ETC) to fix a fault if it turns out to be customer wiring at fault so they all try and wiggle out of sending an engineer.
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a "favorite" of mine recently is ISPs trying to get you to replace all of your equipment including router before placing an engineer appointment for ASDL issues.


robmac said:
im a BT Openreach engineer.any help i can do let me know
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GET HIM!

:p
 
Or if in a joint with other lines it would possibly be a battery contact as it would be getting voltage form another line.a working line uses 50v
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Not necessarily earth either, nsy lines quite often don't show up as a valid condition, spent some time as a PTO and even with specialized equipment it wasn't easy to isolate some faults. I retired two years ago having been a BT engineer for 38 years and have seen many confirmed problems that just didn't show up on any meter.

HR connection is the most likely culprit, corrosion has always been the major enemy and despite all the different methods employed has never been successfully beaten.
 
I did state it was a HR
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You did indeed and I agreed, just not that it would always show a condition, one oft quoted old chestnut was a "rectified loop" Most didn't even know what it was or how it was caused, let alone test for or recognize it if it bit them on the arse.

This type of fault location often comes down to experience, local knowledge and enough time to thoroughly investigate every available connection point.

Not doubting your knowledge, but its not always cut and dried, listening to the customer is very important, nobody reports these things just because they are bored.
 
tijuana taxi said:
Not necessarily earth either, nsy lines quite often don't show up as a valid condition, spent some time as a PTO and even with specialized equipment it wasn't easy to isolate some faults. I retired two years ago having been a BT engineer for 38 years and have seen many confirmed problems that just didn't show up on any meter.

HR connection is the most likely culprit, corrosion has always been the major enemy and despite all the different methods employed has never been successfully beaten.
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I recall when we had line engineers round some years ago (BT were trenching to lay some new cable following a lightening strike and severed our unaffected cable/wire....!) to restore our line and I chatted with them about the state and age of the wires. He remarked that they still having many issues with dis similar metals problems i.e. copper and aluminium from a time when copper was deemed too expensive so they used aluminium but the records of where used were so poor they could only replace as it failed.

Was I being told the truth about such a mixture of wiring and the sort of corrosion issues?
 
The engineer has just been and gone. The crackling sound wasn't there when he first came in (typical), but then it started and he got to hear it. On his equipment it was saying the line was good but as he could hear there is a problem.
What they are going to do is send a guy around to find the joint on the pavement, he will circle it then they will be back, dig down and replace the parts down there. The engineer is guessing it might be a joint problem there. He said they will start with this and eliminate one thing at a time. The joint being the first as this could be the main problem. Again, guessing, he said water could be the problem as the lines were put down when the house was built in the 60's. There's a very slight slope going from my house to the pavement/road and 50 odd years of water running in that direction would fit the problem.

Problem not fixed but happy an engineer has heard the noise and something is being done.
 
I
tijuana taxi said:
You did indeed and I agreed, just not that it would always show a condition, one oft quoted old chestnut was a "rectified loop" Most didn't even know what it was or how it was caused, let alone test for or recognize it if it bit them on the arse.

This type of fault location often comes down to experience, local knowledge and enough time to thoroughly investigate every available connection point.

Not doubting your knowledge, but its not always cut and dried, listening to the customer is very important, nobody reports these things just because they are bored.
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very true...I do broadband faults mainly and no matter what tester I get given,9083,hawk or exfo now the best thing is to just listen to the line...few quiet line tests and listen for crackles that test heads miss.
 
Skyline said:
The engineer has just been and gone. The crackling sound wasn't there when he first came in (typical), but then it started and he got to hear it. On his equipment it was saying the line was good but as he could hear there is a problem.
What they are going to do is send a guy around to find the joint on the pavement, he will circle it then they will be back, dig down and replace the parts down there. The engineer is guessing it might be a joint problem there. He said they will start with this and eliminate one thing at a time. The joint being the first as this could be the main problem. Again, guessing, he said water could be the problem as the lines were put down when the house was built in the 60's. There's a very slight slope going from my house to the pavement/road and 50 odd years of water running in that direction would fit the problem.

Problem not fixed but happy an engineer has heard the noise and something is being done.
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Surely they can find where its quiet and where it's noisy?.sounds like your feed is direct buried to your house.
 
I'm just waiting for the engineer to come and sort mine,I don't hold out much hope though going by recent visits,quite calm and brightish here today,at the weekend it was thick fog and damp,result crackles galore and internet dropping out and unusable for the most part,but what can you do ?
I recorded the noise and will play it back to the engineer when he gets here.
 
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Was I being told the truth about such a mixture of wiring and the sort of corrosion issues?
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Indeed you were, alu cable has its problems, main problem is that the individual conductor doesn't like being bent, twisted or pulled. Transmission wise it's properties are different to copper, when it was used nobody could know what future demands would be placed on the local line network.
Not being able to get broadband on the local network is not a fault, only speech is guaranteed not data (unless that has changed)
Alu does seem to be more affected by moisture although copper isn't exactly immune to similar issues, jointing and closure methods have certainly improved though.

Persistence is the key to getting a noise problem sorted, managers don't like engineers spending countless hours and money replacing faulty line plant, but sometimes these things need doing.
 
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Skyline said:
The engineer has just been and gone. The crackling sound wasn't there when he first came in (typical), but then it started and he got to hear it. On his equipment it was saying the line was good but as he could hear there is a problem.
What they are going to do is send a guy around to find the joint on the pavement, he will circle it then they will be back, dig down and replace the parts down there. The engineer is guessing it might be a joint problem there. He said they will start with this and eliminate one thing at a time. The joint being the first as this could be the main problem. Again, guessing, he said water could be the problem as the lines were put down when the house was built in the 60's. There's a very slight slope going from my house to the pavement/road and 50 odd years of water running in that direction would fit the problem.

Problem not fixed but happy an engineer has heard the noise and something is being done.
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I'm not sure if they still have them but I was an SFIO (Special Faults Investigator) for BT whose job was specifically to deal with intermittent issues like this. Might be worth an escalation to see if they still have that role (or maybe @robmac knows). Noisy/TestingOK faults are the hardest to find. One other option - which again might be outdated now - is to (and I quote my old ST's tech speak) "megga the $hit out of it" which was basically looping the wires at the house end and and throwing a large voltage through the pair to hopefully force a dodgy connection to break completely - making it much much easier to find. When your underground engineers arrive to have a look down the hole, mention it to them :)

There's quite a bit can be done, but unfortunately as Rich said - it requires time and investigation. You just need to get an engineer who has the impetus.

Good luck!
 
I got a call Saturday morning to say is my line fixed? No I said, oh, the engineer hasn't put anything in his report and closed it (after he told me what they would do). The call center said, someone will be back out Monday then. 30 minutes later the phone line and the internet is dead. I walked around the corning to see a guy working on the box. I asked him if he was looking at faults for my house. He was. I told him they just said they would be out Monday. He shook his head and laughed. Sounds about right he said.
He told me the first engineer hadn't done any of what he said he would do. I asked him why he would do that. Probably wanted to get a clear in. (They get told they have to put so many clears and fixes in a month). So the guy comes around, hears the problem, then reports it as fixed :mad:
So this engineer has sprayed all over the pavement and my lawn what's to be done. They are going from a point in my road (few houses up), by-pass the joined and run a new line up to my house. This might take a few weeks though to get done.

There is no communication at all between the people who fixed things and the people in the offices.
 
Skyline said:
I got a call Saturday morning to say is my line fixed? No I said, oh, the engineer hasn't put anything in his report and closed it (after he told me what they would do). The call center said, someone will be back out Monday then. 30 minutes later the phone line and the internet is dead. I walked around the corning to see a guy working on the box. I asked him if he was looking at faults for my house. He was. I told him they just said they would be out Monday. He shook his head and laughed. Sounds about right he said.
He told me the first engineer hadn't done any of what he said he would do. I asked him why he would do that. Probably wanted to get a clear in. (They get told they have to put so many clears and fixes in a month). So the guy comes around, hears the problem, then reports it as fixed :mad:
So this engineer has sprayed all over the pavement and my lawn what's to be done. They are going from a point in my road (few houses up), by-pass the joined and run a new line up to my house. This might take a few weeks though to get done.

There is no communication at all between the people who fixed things and the people in the offices.
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As it seems BT have owned the problem and they have through their deprived you of your voice phone line are they still obliged to put a divert on the line and their costs to your mobile? The reason I ask is because as I think I mentioned when they were fixing lightning strike damage they cut our 1970's laid in the ground wire without realising it!

Granted a different situation to yours but we had it diverted at their cost and they had a trenching team back out (a different team that had trenched the repairs) to put a pavement box in where we wanted it and trunking to the house, within I think it was 4 days and the wiring guy about 3 days later.

Only once they new line was confirmed AOK by us did they stop paying for the divert and......the paid compensation for loss of service.
 
Box Brownie said:
As it seems BT have owned the problem and they have through their deprived you of your voice phone line are they still obliged to put a divert on the line and their costs to your mobile? The reason I ask is because as I think I mentioned when they were fixing lightning strike damage they cut our 1970's laid in the ground wire without realising it!

Granted a different situation to yours but we had it diverted at their cost and they had a trenching team back out (a different team that had trenched the repairs) to put a pavement box in where we wanted it and trunking to the house, within I think it was 4 days and the wiring guy about 3 days later.

Only once they new line was confirmed AOK by us did they stop paying for the divert and......the paid compensation for loss of service.
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I've no idea if they would do that as it is intermittent.
 
Skyline said:
I've no idea if they would do that as it is intermittent.
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I posted the suggestion because you said:-
"The call center said, someone will be back out Monday then. 30 minutes later the phone line and the internet is dead. I walked around the corning to see a guy working on the box. I asked him if he was looking at faults for my house. He was. I told him they just said they would be out Monday. He shook his head and laughed. Sounds about right he said."

So did he then reconnect you? If so then my suggestion is not relevant............but if you will be without your phone line for some days as a direct result of BT's action then perhaps there is something to be done by way of a phone connection diverted to your mobile and/or some compensation for the temporary loss of service?

If they have a growing cost of the diversion of calls and/or compensation that should be an incentive to expedite the completion of the job ;)
 
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Sorry for the confusion, he was testing things and had cut us off in doing so. He then reconnected everything.
 
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