topic Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time in Broadband & Landline

Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:34:59 GMT

Novice here, really confused.
For the past 5 days my landline has not had a dialling tone and whenever someone calls they hear an engaged tone. For couple of days the internet keep dropping every 5-10 minutes, looking at the router I can clearly see the lights flash red and sequence through amber and eventually turn green. This now seems to have resolved but the difficulty with landline remains.
I have changed the dsl filter and when doing this I forget to plug the modem back into the phone socket, instead the I plugged the filter with the phone attached into the phone socket and the difficulty with the dialling tone was resolved. However, as soon as I plug the modem and dsl filter into the phone socket the internet works but still no dialling tone.
Any ideas what is happening or what I’m doing wrong?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:47:55 GMT

Have you tried the phone & router in the hidden test socket?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:08:30 GMT

Many thanks for reply. The phone socket doesn’t have a split front panel.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:49:06 GMT

@Atlanticflyer could you expand your explanation on what you do have? How many sockets, what type and so on.

It sounds like you have something wrong with either your phone or router or socket? Do you have any alternatives to try?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:53:10 GMT

Show us an image of your phone socket.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:12:05 GMT

Here is an image of the phone socket.

the main phone socket, plugged into the socket is a modem cable and a space to plug in the filter which had the phone cable plugged into it.
many thanks.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:14:25 GMT

Hi. Thanks for your suggestions.
the phone works ok, works when the filter is plugged directly into the phone socket and the modem cable is unplugged, it’s when they are all plugged in when it’s starts to fail.
that the only socket and I only have this router.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Mustrum — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:21:52 GMT

@Atlanticflyer what happens when you remove that splitter/extension and plug the filter directly into the phone socket?

Also, is the other Diamond socket connected to anything?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:27:30 GMT

Dunno what's going on there.

What's behind the off-white splitter?
What's that loop of off-white cable seemingly going into it?
Where's the router DSL cable?
What's that "Diamond" box that looks remarkably like a master socket & why aren't you using it?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 13:12:03 GMT

If you remove the splitter we no longer have the internet but the phone works.
diamond was there when I moved in, not connected to anything, I believe it was the box for cable tv

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 13:42:40 GMT

1. Photo attached, behind the splitter is the cable that takes the phone line to the modem.
4. Diamond has never worked. Was for cable tv but it’s never been connected since I move in 20 years ago.

many thanks for trying to help.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Ian06 — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:02:01 GMT

Just to clarify the telephone splitter (circled in red) appears to have an extension cable coming from it running round and back into the wall or behind the phone socket. Do you know what that connection is for?

When you remove the phone splitter (red) and plug the dsl filter (circled in blue) into the phone socket what happens?

The socket on the "Diamond" box looks like a master phone socket have you removed the lower front face plate from the "diamond" box to check what is connected to it?

Also just to be clear then internet modem/router should be plugged into the DSL filter in the socket marked Modem and the phone plugged into the DSL filter marked Phone. The DSL filter should be plugged directly into the master phone socket with nothing else in that master socket.

If you had Broadband Internet installed in the last few years the master phone socket should look like the one XRaySpecx posted a picture of earlier, when was this installed ad how long have you had broadband from EE?

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:26:12 GMT

Thanks for your help. The photo is only showing as a triangle, I can’t see your picture. Sorry.
been in the house for 20 years and the diamond box has never been connected and never used. It’s been many years since broadband was fitted.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

James_B — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:49:23 GMT

We've approved the picture @Atlanticflyer, so you should be able to see it now.

James

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Mustrum — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:53:02 GMT

@Atlanticflyer I have authorised the pic now so you should be able to see it.

I think it would be best to give the Broadband Care team a call to get Openreach out to sort out your socket and wiring. It is very old, and that splitter is just adding to the confusion.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

Atlanticflyer — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:56:44 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I had a feeling it was the hardware.

Re: Phone landline and internet doesn’t work at the same time

XRaySpeX — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 16:50:07 GMT

@Atlanticflyer wrote:

1. Photo attached, behind the splitter is the cable that takes the phone line to the modem.

The DSL cable for the router should never be plugged into any phone socket, but into a filter. That's why it's not working.

I suspect that the newer "Diamond" socket has been installed as a proper main socket off the older non-split socket.

Take the router cable out of the back of the splitter & plug it into the "Modem" socket of the filter. Then plug the filter into the phone socket that you are currently using or better still plug it into the "Diamond" socket & see if that works. If it does continue using it in future.

Bin the splitter.

I don't see how that arrangement ever worked.