Broadband/Eircom Phonewatch wiring

barftud

Hi,

I've been having some problems with my broadband dropping connection repeatedly and intermittently recently. I removed all phones from the line and it's still happening. And then I remembered Phonewatch....
It's wired directly into the phone socket so I can't just unplug it and there is no filter connected. I decided to disconnect the wiring. When I do this, the phone line and broadband are dropped. I don't understand why. The wiring I see is as follows....

Orange cables from master socket and alarm twisted together and connected to L1
Orange/White cables from master socket and alarm twisted together and connected to L2
Blue cables from master socket and alarm twisted together
Blue/White cables from master socket and alarm twisted together

As soon as I disconnect the Orange and Orange/White wires from L1/L2, the line drops. Can someone explain why?

Thanks,
A.

lucernarian

If phonewatch is installed, you need to call them to get them out and install a special master socket that will allow the phonewatch to work alongside the DSL. But you'll have to plug the modem into that master socket. As a pleasant side effect, it improves the quality of the broadband signal somewhat. On top of solving the issue with the alarm causing disconnects.

barftud

Well at the moment I'm trying to determine IF the alarm is causing the disconnects so want to temporarily disconnect it for testing purposes.

jor el

The alarm will cause disconnects, that's a guarantee. It may not be the only cause, but you can be sure that it is one.

barftud

Ok, and as to the the original question - what is up with the wiring?

jor el

I have no idea what way your line is wired, or what you've done with it. I'd imagine that you are disconnecting from the phone line, hence it drops.

lucernarian

The alarm is wired in series with the incoming phone line to the master socket. So one cable holding 4 wires is run from the master socket (or the wire to the master socket from outside) to the alarm. The incoming phone line is connected to one of the pairs in the alarm cable. This pair is connected to the input of the alarm. The other pair in the alarm cable is then connected to the other terminal of the alarm and this pair is connected to the wires that will lead to the centre L1 and L2 terminals of the master socket. In other words, all of the phone wiring within the house must pass through the alarm's modem before it connects with the outside world so that the modem can seize the line when it needs to dial out.

If you disconnect the wires from the L1 and L2 terminals of any phone socket, you're simply disconnecting that phone socket.

altor

P.W dont use the old Eircom filter anymore but it is connected as To_be_confirmed described above.

They use this one now that allows the broadband to be connected to any line in the home.

barftud

Ok, I think I understand what you are saying. However, I only disconnected the alarm connections coming into the socket. I do not understand why that would take down the whole system - all phone lines and broadband fail when I even disconnect any one of the alarm connections within the socket while leaving all others connected.

altor

barftud wrote: »

Ok, I think I understand what you are saying. However, I only disconnected the alarm connections coming into the socket. I do not understand why that would take down the whole system - all phone lines and broadband fail when I even disconnect any one of the alarm connections within the socket while leaving all others connected.

That is because the alarm has priority over all the phones in the house. If it is not done this way a burglar could easily take the phone off the hook, meaning the alarm will get a engaged tone instead of dialing the monitoring station.

barftud

Ok, so if i disconnect it entirely in the socket, how does it still have priority? Is there something else going on too?
Also, is the device in the image you posted what PW are calling a "splitter" which they want to charge me €90 for?

altor

barftud wrote: »

Ok, so if i disconnect it entirely in the socket, how does it still have priority? Is there something else going on too?
Also, is the device in the image you posted what PW are calling a "splitter" which they want to charge me €90 for?

If you disconnect the line going to the alarm it wont dial the monitoring station. You should also get a line failure on the alarm system.

Your main line comes into your house on two cores, this is sent to the alarm on two cores, the alarm sends it back to this point on two cores to go to house phones in the house. This is called line priority.

That splitter is the one they use now, most company's do. It is located either in your alarm or beside the main line.

Last

I have a couple of the eircom splitters/filters with the rj11 sockets that i am not using. I can post them to you if you want.

brianof

barftud wrote: »

Ok, I think I understand what you are saying. However, I only disconnected the alarm connections coming into the socket. I do not understand why that would take down the whole system - all phone lines and broadband fail when I even disconnect any one of the alarm connections within the socket while leaving all others connected.

Sorry to bump this thread but it's exactly what I'm trying to do now. Disconnect my phonewatch. Did you ever get a solution to this issue. I am also seeing a total fail if I remove any pair of wires.

Aepos

Hi I just changed from Land Line phonewatch to a GSM Dialler and because the eircom phone watch ADSL filter at the alarm equipment end has been removed I now have doubled my connection speed.

Looking at the stats for the router it would appear that the phone watch filter has an insertion loss of approx 6 to 7db which if you are on a long line from the exchange will really screw up broadband your speeds.

The GSM dialler cost €80 fitted and is more secure than overhead wires.

Cheers Ae