phone line problem?

[f1ngerz]

got asked to check a phone extension that was wired from a master socket , I had a quick look as a favour (no charge was already there doing some lights) and saw nothing wrong , the chap had this line fitted to his study for a fax and had worked fine for months but he started to get probs with his broadband , checked the teminations and couldnt find a problem , so took the router to the extension and tried it there and got it working ? but his phone line would then only ring in not dial out? I put it back to how I found it and told him to contact BT . They sent 2 enginers in two seperate tansit vans , they said the conections on the extension were crossed ( fairly sure they were not ) and that this had caused the fault , told him that this had damaged his router which WILL definitely have damaged his PC , charged him £180 for 1 hour two men and told him he has to buy a new router . He is mad at me for not spotting this fault and says I made it worse?? I think he has been taken for a ride by BT . He has even gone out and bought a new PC ?? Would like your thoughts on this ,

 

[chris gray]

i wanna work for bt

 

[acat]

Dont do people favours you NEVER get any gratitude for it and considering the low voltage and the fault had developed before you touched it how could you be resposible. I bet the next bulb that blows will be your fault as well.


Chris

 

[Crosswire]

Dont do people favours you NEVER get any gratitude for it and considering the low voltage and the fault had developed before you touched it how could you be resposible. I bet the next bulb that blows will be your fault as well.


Chris

True. Anything that happened 6 months before you entered the building, and 6 months after you leave, is ALWAYS your fault.

 

[nickblake]

All i can say if you get a problem like this go the the main master socket and unplug the face plate behind is the main socket test from there , then check the lines and sockets see if they are ok ,just done a phone call like that in my case it was a faulty slave point . i hate it when you get blamed i got it when i replaced 4 mcb,s to RCD's people were plugging in alsorts of dogy equipment i got the blame bulbs went i got it , my answer was well the RCD.s are doing there job !!

 

[UNG]

With ADSL(broadband) connections on telephone lines I would leave well alone unless you understand the technology and have the right test equipment and can identify / rectify the faults

Common problem is too many phones / other telephone equipment plugged in on one line

Got a lot of this when I worked on intruder alarms, systems fitted with RedCare got allsorts of faults with customers plugging in non compatible or too much equipment

 

[rocker]

It is highly unikely (but possible) that this will have damaged his router.

It is nigh on impossible that this will have damaged his computer.

 

[carrerasprak]

Impossible that the crossed wires in the phone line will have damaged his PC, very much doubt that the router will have been damaged either.

I only know the basics about phone wiring but often the third wire which is treated as a sort of earth is at fault and on disconnection of this 3rd wire the problem disappears. I only use 1 pair for all the phone in my house and the connection and sound quality is spot on.

 

[chloebear]

Hi All,
No way will a crossed pair in the socket cause any poblems as the phone lines are not polarity concious (Adsl or Not). If you can get calls in you can get calls out asit is as simple a circuit as you can get.

Could be a router problem, but unlikley. One way to check would be to disconnect any of the extensions and filters & routers etc and plug the phone directly into the BT socket. If it works then the problem is internal, if not, then its outside in the land of BT.

 

[jjjinx]

if you don't know what your doing then don't do it!

This of course means that I should continue the rest of my life rocking in my chair sitting on my hands. The only problems is, whos going to pick my nose?