Issues with Digital Voice Adapter connecting to Wifi Extender

[BartonEnd]

We recently switched to EE and received a DVA for our landline.  Paired the DVA with the router and then moved the DVA to the base station location in another part of the house where the Wifi is provided by an extender (which is hardwired to the router).

We get great Wifi strength and download/upload speeds at the location of the phone base station.

Since plugging the phone into the DVA we have had issues.  The DVA green light goes solid green for a while then starts flashing.  Most of the time it is flashing.  Even when it is solid green, it starts flashing when we try to make a call.

The broadband is fine (checked several times) and a phone next to the router and plugged into it works fine.

Would be interested to know if anyone else has any of the same issues and if so whether there are any known solutions.  EE are sending a new DVA but I suspect that is not the issue here.

Could it be that while the DVA is paired fine with the router, it is not actually connecting to the wifi extender signal but is trying to connect direct with the router?  I'm not technically knwledgeable enough to know whether the wifi signal coming from the extender will have a different identified from the router that the DVA might not recognise.

The extenders are large commercial grade hard wired ones (not the usual plug in ones you can get from PC World) and have give no issues to date with wifi signal/strength.

Any thoughts very much appreciated.

[AndyChapman1]

Adding myself into this thread as it seems to have knowledgeable people here already and it's very similar to my problem with the digital voice adapter (DVA?).

Background Information: I have two broadband connections (BT and Airband) upstream from a load balancer (with failover configured because the BT copper line is slow and fails often) and then a powerline ethernet system providing grid wifi around the house and garden (because the internal walls are two feet thick). My BT hub 2 is in a small room with those stone walls on all four sides. So, any signal doesn't get outside that room except over the powerline ethernet.

What works:

1. I have WiFi calling enabled and working on my EE mobile phone (because there is no mobile signal in my house or garden). I assumed the landline digital voice would be similar. I suspect I am wrong based on the rest of the thread.
2. I also have an old analog phone plugged into the back of the BT Hub 2. I can make and receive calls on my landline number via that. I presume there is a DVA inside the BT Hub 2 that makes that work. 

What doesn't work: I've been trying to get the DVA paired via WPS and just get blue-yellow flashing lights for a while and then red.

Questions:

1. I'm guessing from the earlier conversation that the DVA won't connect because it doesn't do WPS with a WiFi signal but only DECT. Is that right?
2. I also have internal phone cabling to all the rooms in my house. If the above is correct, my next option is to open up the Master Socket (a BT MK4) and connect the household internal phone cables into the back of the BT Hub 2 directly. Are there any suggestions for what socket type I need? I'd rather use a standard socket one than bodge it.

I'm starting to feel like I may as well throw away my landline phones and just use my mobile phone. If there is an emergency, a visitor could use the ancient analog phone plugged into the BT Hub 2.

Cheers
Andy

[JimM11]

@AndyChapman1 If this is like your socket, you are good to go, the front connection is isolated and if you Extension side was done correct when the socket was fitted then you just cable back of the EE Router to the Telephone jack on the right, when connected just see if your extensions are all live. BT male to BT male connector, just try to keep the length down.

Sample for cable link idea. BT Male to BT Male Cable 3M | BT Voice to Old Phone Sockets | BT Male – BCE Direct CCTV & Networking

BT Openreach New NTE5C Master Socket - Faster Broadband? - Telecom Green Ltd

Dect connection to the DVA is through the wps button but that is all it does, wireless wifi IS NOT used for the signal. The connection on the rear of the router is an ATA connection only, DVA is for the dect side on the internal side of the router and digital dect frequency range only. 

[AndyChapman1]

Awesome. I have exactly that Master Socket. Well done spotting it from the Mk4. I assumed that there was some connection between my internal phone cabling and the external OpenReach cable that would get in the way of just using a male-male connector.

I found an equivalent cable on Amazon (free delivery) so I will let you know if this works.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DRUT-Wire-431A-Telephone-Cable/dp/B0BYT9821W

One oddity, I noticed that I can still call out on the analog phone connected to my internal phone cabling. Weirdly, it shows as a different number (the one connected into my BT Hub 2 calls out as the number I expected). I was wondering if this was something really clever for emergencies during the switchover or if it was actually weird.

Cheers
Andy

[JimM11]

@AndyChapman1 If you can and still have access to the landline on the 5c Master socket then OR have not done the disconnect side at there end correctly and a number has been assigned to the port, think 17070 will announce the number on the line try it and see what is filtering through the fttc connection, DV should not return anything. How long since the changeover on the service?

[AndyChapman1]

Dialling tone has now vanished on the analog phone connected to the internal phone cabling. My switchover was today so I guess it was a timing thing only. Thanks again.

[AndyChapman1]

Male to male BT cable arrived today. One end in the NTE5C Master Socket. The other in the BT Hub 2 (the socket was hidden under a bit of tape). Worked perfectly. Thanks again.