ADSL connection probs during normal phone calls

[Thulsa Doom]

Was playing CS:S on Boomer tonight and had a few disconnects etc.
I've noticed that whenever someone phones, or the wife phones someone (frequent) then my connection times out.
Anyone any ideas why that may happen?

Knackered filters?

ISP is PLUSNET.

[BigFatCat]

sound like filters either packed up or missing, treat yourself to a filtered faceplate and some decent filters on other extensions if needed. I know i've said it before, but the adslnation stuff is good.

[Thulsa Doom]

Also the quality of my phone line has deteriorated, getting alot of background noise.
Have noticed this even with all phone/ADSL equipment unplugged and a single phone plugged in.

[Gandalf]

maybe a fault on the line then. I had an issue a while back where the phone operated perfectly but adsl was really bad, kept dropping. This was reported as an adsl fault so they sent an adsl engineer out but he couldn't find anything wrong.

It still kept dropping so a second adsl engineer was sent. Same result. After that I reported it as a phone line fault stating bad noise on the line and they sent out a phone engineer this time. After explaining to him the issue he got out his testers and managed to trace the fault to a bad connection up the pole outside my house.

After that was replaced everything has been rock solid! Kudos to the phone engineer who tracked the fault down as he said it was a very minor fault and the noise on the line was negligable. If it wasn't for the fact of the unstable adsl it wouldn't have been fixed!

[tugs]

Over here (USA) there are issues with the 2.4GHz cordless phones and 802.11b/g wireless... That's a fun one
 
UNlikely to be your problem though I hope!

[Dr Sadako]

There is nothing wrong with your connection Thulsa. This is a classical problem if you have ADSL. If you haven't connected the ADSL modem plug to the "first socket" in your house you will experience the disconnect problem every time someone picks up the phone. So how do you solve it? Two ways to go about it.

1. You remove everything connected to the phone sockets. Then you open the sockets and  look at  the wiring.  In the image below you see a swedish socket and how it is connected. I don't know if it is the same in UK but the principle should be. The image shows the first socket in the house. The lower cords come from the grid and the upper cords continue to the next socket in the house. The phone sockets are almost all the time connected in series thus the lost connection if someone picks up a phone closer to the grid. If a socket is missing the lower cords it is not the first socket. Easy enough.




2. The alternative method (a bit easier) is to remove all connected phones etc and then insert the ADSL modem plug without the cord connected to it. Then plug in one phone in a different socket. Pick up the phone and hear if you recieve a dial tone. If you don't you have found the first socket i.e. the ADSL modem plug is in the right place. If you do have a dial tone move the modem plug to a different socket and try again.

The first socket is, in Sweden at least, usually the one closest to the front door in the hallway.

[Thulsa Doom]

If you haven't connected the ADSL modem plug to the "first socket" in your house you will experience the disconnect problem every time someone picks up the phone.

I've heard that before, and Whitey also mentioned something about it.
However, I've had ADSL for a year, same setup etc and the problem only started about August (about the same time I saw BT loitering about at the exchange!)
I'm not on the 1st socket either.