Internet and Dial Tone cutting Out

magnumlady wrote: »

Hi we have an ongoing issue where our ADSL internet and Phone Dial Tone cuts out in the house every time when it rains heavy (which is a lot in our area as you can imagine) and then as soon as it stops raining or if its just spitting then the phone tone comes back and then the broadband router locks onto a signal and then we get our Internet back. It is happening so frequent that its becoming really annoying also the kids are shouting out bloody internet's gone again!

Our provider for broadband and telephone calls is UtvInternet but when there is a fault you phone up UTV support and they then get eircom engineers to call out and fix the line. So they got us to do the usual unplug all the phones and they done a test on the line and it came back as no fault (obviously at the times we phone up its not pouring down with rain why would it be) then they want you to plug the router in on its own without the filter direct to the master telephone socket (again even knowing that the problem happens when its pouring with rain) - so anyway to cut a long story short they said they would log a fault but if the problem is found to be on the premises then we will be charged a coullout fee of 96euro + vat on our next phone bill, we were pretty certain that the problem is outside of the house on a telephone pole (maybe water getting into a connection box on the pole or something like that) so we said yes can you go ahead and send an engineer out but could you make a note for the engineer to come out when its raining because thats only when the fault shows up and the phone line goes dead.

So when does an eircom engineer call up to our house, yes last friday morning one of the sunniest mornings ever. He tests the phones and says its all testing fine and he had been up the telephone pole opposite our house and the connection box is fine and dry and not corroded, so then he was her a couple of hours and he changed the Master telephone socket in the hallway and swapped over 2pairs of telephone wire at the back of the master box (the wire that comes from the telephone pole has 4 wires and only 2 were being used so he swapped with the 2 unused ones and then swapped the unused wires on the pole) - and said thats all I can do - well the night of friday and saturday was poring down and Internet went off and checked for a dial tone and no dial tone on the telephone so all that was a waste of time and the problem was still there.

I texted the engineers phone on Sunday to say it is still cutting out in the rain and he phoned back later on in the afternoon and said he had done as much as he can and to Contact UTV on Monday morning and log the fault again, he seem to think that the telephone wire from the telephone pole opposite the house to the master socket might need replacing - but it runs underground that wire either under the brick drive or under the grass lawn.

So i was back onto UTV and they then started explaining they will log a fault as long as we are aware that if the fault is on our premises there will be a callout charge of 96euro+Vat.

Now what I would like to ask is, at what stage do they class on the premises? - if they had to dig up the drive or the grass lawn is that on our premises and charge? or do they class on the premises as being anything plugged in after the Master Telephone socket? if anyone can put us right on this we would be most grateful - we dont own this house by the way we are renting but i doubt if the owner/landlord would be very happy if eircom charged and we had to pass on the charge to him for them digging up the drive and putting in a new telephone cable!

Sorry for the book I have written here but i wanted to put down all the information. Thanks for any helpful advice anyone can offer (or maybe advice from an eircom engineer if they are reading it) so that we can have a stable telephone and broadband line that doesnt go off when its raining heavy.

magnumlady wrote: »

hi Mark thanks, it looks like the system we have in place for ADSL is one by there is a Dish pointing to a mast on the mountain here, then from that dish the signal goes into exchange box then is fed down through the eircom phone lines in our village. Another eircom engineer came to us this morning explained it that way and that when it rains heavy its cutting the signal (adsl and phone line) - even though the engineer last friday said we were the only ones that complained about it so it must be a fault on our premises the eircom engineer out today with us explained that there have been a few other complaints in the village about it cutting out so its not just us, all that worrying about paying a callout charge from eircom for nothing!

I dont know how they are going to rectify that then if its the rain pelting on their dish outside the exchange cutting the signal. The eircom engineer said they would most probably have to replace it by fibre optic cables but I cant see them doing that the cost would be astronomical - I dont know how these things work maybe if it works like a satellite dish where its gone out of alignment maybe they will be able to go up to the dish and re-set it in the optimal direction maybe to get a better signal or put some kind of amplifier into the system - I hope they sort it soon its a right pain losing internet and dial tone every time it rains heavy.