Unreliable broadband, noisy phone line - read this!

[Celeriacacaca]

We had the above for weeks. Our phone line was really crackly and broadband kept dropping off. I had gathered the problems were related but didn't know how. Many, many phone calls and several visits from BT engineers from different departments and nothing had changed. Each claimed it was a different thing. I returned from neighbour's where I'd been using their b'bd as I work from home and find there's an engineer unexpectedly on the doorstep. He says, "I know exactly what the problem is" and points to the cable from our house to the pole outside. He said he'd spotted it from his van when parking and said it was an old line and had corroded. Anyway, an hour or so later and we have perfect phone line and reliable broadband again. So, long story short, if you're having problems, it may not be a loop induction(?), the router, the exchange, the weather or our (brand new) computers - all reasons we were given by BT - but have a look at your line. It was just luck that I happened to arrive home when this engineer arrived as all the others hadn't even considered such a simple thing could be the source of the problem. Now I wonder when you upgrade to Infinity or whatever, why a physical check of the line isn't done as routine, as our broadband is much faster than before!

Thanks for posting this, I've got exactly the same problem & keep getting the runaround from the company I use.

If the problem with the line is outside your house it is BTs problem. The issue we had was that they were going to charge a massive call out fee for the engineer if the problem was at our end. We were pretty certain it wasn't, and we were right...

One suggestion on a techy forum I used to read was to start by contacting BT faults, rather than go through your ISP, and report a noisy voice/phone line only - don't mention any broadband problems. They can do some tests on the line and see if it needs replacing. Of course, that only works if people have a landline phone.

We have the same problem, have had since we moved in two years ago. Have replace our phone line inside our house, modem replaced twice. We're with TalkTalk, and they're not interested. I will have to keep trying, but they're so reluctant to send an engineer out, and the last one just blamed our modem. I will try again, but it's so difficult to get anyone to listen. Good advice about just saying it's the phone line, not mentioning the broadband.

The line replacement was BT's responsibility. In all previous calls, we had been advised repeatedly that we would have to pay if the fault was inside the house. One of the engineers who came (who didn't identify the problem) said they were sent on the basis that the customer would be paying, which was shocking. He said although I'd been told the line had been tested when I first called re the fault that it hadn't at all as he said there'd been some (unrelated) issue on the line for the previous week due to work at the exchange and a test would have identified that quite easily. Anyway, very frustrating all round until the unexpected engineer turned up.

Coincidentally, and I have a hunch these may be related, since speaking to all and sundry in the UK and abroad about the fault, we are now receiving 4-5 Microsoft scam calls per day now when we normally hardly have any calls on our landline, ever. I think someone from BT in India has sold our name and number to the Indian call centre which is calling each time and flagged that we have broadband and therefore, likely a computer...no proof but seems to be a strange coincidence.

Just to confirm this is probably far from uncommon, but the bit about "we had been advised repeatedly that we would have to pay if the fault was inside the house" is perfectly true, and something ISPs feel they have to warn about, and the reason they go painstakingly through all sorts of boring scripts to get users to check everything three times (OK, OK, but you know what I mean!)

When I moved from one area to another in N Wales to a home where the line had not been used for some 7 years, the first thing I noticed was a hum on the line, and I complained, even before broadband was set up. Engineer was unimpressed, sat outside and had his lunch then checked back some of the way (I would say 'all' but I would not be surprised if he didn't do much more than he felt necessary) to the exchange. Came back and suggested I'd just have to "put up with it" (the hum).

I had 6 months of hassle with that line. Back in 2001, I was getting 500 kbps (that was the standard speed for ADSL broadband), but there I was, in 2010, lucky to get 150 / 160 kbps (too slow to do anything with iPlayer but listen to radio).

When it rained (and we had a few showers in that summer), I lost not only the broadband but even voice calls for up to 5 days.

Luckily, I also had a Three broadband dongle, so I could run the BT line test online from my laptop that way. That kept on pointing the finger at the house wiring, and because of the possibility of a hefty fee (I think it was 100, but now 125 quid) I didn't request any engineer visit.

(Incidentally, the cheeky sod who told me I'd have to put up with the hum classified the problem as house wiring, and there was that big call-out fee on a bill about 2 months later, which I complained about, and had BT refund to me.)

Anyway, finally, when I could stand it no more (I think it was August or September and the line was activated in early February 2010), a young engineer came on Saturday, off his normal Merseyside patch, and by the time I got to the door (9am, and I was more asleep than awake) he was already up a ladder, because just as for the OP, the problem was perished insulation on the dropwire from the gutter level into the hall/ master socket. He spotted it from the garden and instantly knew the solution!

Since it was an old house, and old wire, and old master socket, and I had my computers up in one of the bedrooms, I asked if he could fit a new socket and new wire in that bedroom... Speed went from 150 kbps to 2500 kbps (2.5 Mbps).

Now I am on Merseyside and get 10+ Mbps on both my phone lines, but hope to go to 35 Mbps soon... no VirginMedia on my road, and the chippy behind me is meant to be able to get 70 Mbps (from a different cabinet).

Anyway, the 300 Mbps BT service is about 1,500 quid to install and 100/month wholesale, so no idea what an ISP would try to charge me... will have to wait until my business takes off :)

On the scam calls ("flagged that we have broadband and therefore, likely a computer") just tell them you use Linux, not Windows (even if you use Windows) and hang up.

They will start trying to scam people, saying their Linux system is infected.

Ask which version of Linux they support (there's a hundred or more versions, so whatever they say, it will be wrong... example versions: Fedora, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Lindows, Kubuntu... just so you have a few you can use to confuse them).