Can Someone Please Explain?

[meeksie]

HI,

I am with openweb. My phone line just went stone dead this morning, but my internet is fine.At the risk of sounding (and being) ignorant, can someone please tell me how that is possible? surely, no phone line, no internet?

Thanks in advance,

Meeksie

 

[Yotch]

Yes I have also found that this happens from time to time, no phone but ADSL works fine. This is why I have said before that Voip is more reliable than Telkom's voice service!

 

[jeppe777]

try pulling out filter and stick it back in! workd for me!

 

[mercurial]

ya it's probably the micro-filter.

 

[Leftfoot]

Not nessasarily, ADSL can still operate over physical line faults such as partial short circuits etc....

 

[HavocXphere]

I'd just chill for a few days. More often than not it sorts it self out after a few days. If it does not come right then you can always go on a witch-hunt then.

 

[Dakota_za]

If there is a partial line break/loose connection, DSL only needs 1 line (of the pair), your telephone needs both.

 

[Gunny]

errr need both legs of the pair for dsl to work.

 

[Surv0]

that problem usually arises from the exchange.... normally it gets resolved within the day, if not you know what to do. This issue is pretty frequent.

 

[MFour]

Well from watching Telkom Techies install ADSL a few times I've noticed that the ADSL portion and the telephone line actually use different wires. The wires are in the same cable (that cream coloured cable in your house), but use different pairs. So it is possible that only the telephone line can get damaged, without any effect on your DSL line. Whether it runs on seperate cables to the exchange I'm not sure, but I would asume so.

Then also, like others have said, it has happened to me a few times, the telephone goes south, but ADSL works fine. Few days later and it miraculously repairs itself. Most common problem being static on the phone line, specially after heavy rain. So I suspect a connetion somewhere gets a bit moist, but is back to normal once it has dried up. Contacting Telkom for this problem does not help, they apparently can't find the fault or repair it...

 

[meeksie]

Thank you to all who posted a reply - It was a Telkom fault. Apparently,
someone was busy changing something or other in the exchange, and in the
process disturbed something else, causing some phone lines to go down.

I reported the problem to telkom, and they were quite on the ball coming out,(which did not help, cause the fault was not here) but they got it sorted out. hmm- quite impressed!

Meeks

 

[ambo]

Well from watching Telkom Techies install ADSL a few times I've noticed that the ADSL portion and the telephone line actually use different wires. The wires are in the same cable (that cream coloured cable in your house), but use different pairs. So it is possible that only the telephone line can get damaged, without any effect on your DSL line. Whether it runs on seperate cables to the exchange I'm not sure, but I would asume so.

huh? were you smoking something odd at the time?

I will agree that some of the RJ-11 connectors and cabling has 4 conductors but I can assure you that as soon as the cable reaches the telkom pole there is only one pair connecting you to the exchange.

 

[MFour]

huh? were you smoking something odd at the time?

I will agree that some of the RJ-11 connectors and cabling has 4 conductors but I can assure you that as soon as the cable reaches the telkom pole there is only one pair connecting you to the exchange.

Hmm maybe you should stop the smoking, read my post again...

 

[Leftfoot]

@MFour

No I need to disagree with you on your comments.

ADSL is a single pair system......all the way to the exchange (excl fibre systems).
As for the cream cable second pair being used, Telkom techs like to use as few micro filters on the line as possible to reduce line capacitance. Somtimes they backfeed the "filtered" line via the second pair of wires (in the cream cable) to other connections in the house/office to avoid using a second/third filter.

Contacting Telkom for this problem does not help, they apparently can't find the fault or repair it...

I cant disagree more...when the fault is on call the tech, its the one time they can find the fault.

 

[JohnnyQ]

Well from watching Telkom Techies install ADSL a few times I've noticed that the ADSL portion and the telephone line actually use different wires. The wires are in the same cable (that cream coloured cable in your house), but use different pairs. So it is possible that only the telephone line can get damaged, without any effect on your DSL line. Whether it runs on seperate cables to the exchange I'm not sure, but I would asume so.

Then also, like others have said, it has happened to me a few times, the telephone goes south, but ADSL works fine. Few days later and it miraculously repairs itself. Most common problem being static on the phone line, specially after heavy rain. So I suspect a connetion somewhere gets a bit moist, but is back to normal once it has dried up. Contacting Telkom for this problem does not help, they apparently can't find the fault or repair it...

Your telephone line, meaning the the two physical wires that connects you to the exchange is your DSL line. No "other" pairs in the cable is used. This is also confirmed through the fact that i do cable installations, and are sometimes asked to move a telephone line, for the modem to sit at the client's desired spot. You always use the telephone wires otherwise there is no connection.

 

[MFour]

Well then I must be in a unique situation. I've noticed the different wires being used when they came to install the telephone and DSL line when I moved in. It is in a security complex, where at random points there are underground junction boxes throughout the complex. Having a interest in what they do I followed the tech where ever he went, in fact had to help pull on some wires to get it into my place. I noticed that when he was connecting the cream cable running to my place to a connection point box (whatever you call it), that he used 2 pairs, and not one. I questioned this, as we all complain about paying twice for the same pair of wires, he merely answered that: "this is the way it has to be connected" (he was not very talkative unfortunately). So in my case (must then be the only one in SA), from the connection box in the wall (one duplex away) to my unit, the cream cable runs underneath the floor to where it enteres my unit at the provided box in my lounge wall. Each unit has a connection box thing sitting next to each other in this wall, i.e. 4 in a row, one for each unit, which is accessed from outside through an inspection plate. From this connection box the cable dissapears into the wall and goes underground to the junction boxes. From the box in my lounge, one pair goes to the phone socket in the lounge, and the other one goes up to my study.

This is the way my installation was done, whether it should or should not be is besides the point, this is what was done. Now taking the above comments into consideration, and the fact that the connection has to be from only one pair from the exchange, the only explanation I can come up with is that they must have made a split at the underground junction box (a black cylinder like thing with thick black cables running in and out of it), i.e. splitting the 2 wires into four, from there to the connection box in the wall.

I would asume that the whole complex must be wired in this way.

 

[Leftfoot]

Oh ok.....in new blocks of flats usually 2 pairs are hardwired through to each unit. One pair physically takes the telephone line(dailtone) through, the other remains spare and is there for redundancy should the first line go faulty or in some cases should you require a second line.

 

[Playing]

Just make sure you are not paying for 2 lines.