Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!mit-eddie!gatech!hao!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!kitty.UUCP!larry From: larry@kitty.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Submission for comp.dcom.telecom (Noisy Telephone Lines) Message-ID: <8705130325.AA03968@seismo.CSS.GOV> Date: Tue, 12-May-87 23:25:34 EDT Article-I.D.: seismo.8705130325.AA03968 Posted: Tue May 12 23:25:34 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 16-May-87 07:29:03 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 71 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu In a recent article VICTOR@YKTVMX ("Victor S. Miller") writes: > I've had a separate phone installed in my home for about five years to access > the computer at work via my IBM/PC. Ever since it was installed, I've had > bad problems with line noise. Even trying to use the phone for regular > voice is sometimes hard: I get periodic loud bursts of static (sometimes > more than a burst: the static can go on continuously for a few minutes). > Most days when I pick up the telephone I don't even get a dial tone (though > it varies). I've called the telephone repair service so many times, I don't > remember. The person taking the call has many times remarked about how bad > the static is. Nevertheless, they have never been able to fix it. One of > the problems is that things are often much worse when the weather is rainy > or damp (or a few days after a rain), and get better during dry spells, and > invariably, the repair person comes out on a nice sunny day, and says that > he can't hear anything. It doesn't matter what phone (or modem) I connect > to the line. I would think that the phone company would be tired of spending > money on sending out repair people, and would try to really fix it. The > other line in our house has been fine. One thing is that the bad line > has a phone number on a new (at least it was new when it was installed) > exchange. Could that have anything to do with it? It sounds like you have an intermittent problem with a wet cable splice or water getting into an outdoor junction box. Water can cause some really insidious cable problems which are usually difficult to locate. The problem can totally disappear during dry weather. I can believe that a telephone company repairperson can find no sign of trouble when finally being dispatched to your premises. The fact that your other telephone line is okay suggests to me that it leaves the central office in a different cable, before eventually being cross-connected to the same cable which feeds your block. The only way that the telephone company can deal with this problem is to catch it WHILE IT IS HAPPENING, and isolate the different cable sections between the central office and your house in an effort to localize the problem using leakage resistance measurements taken in each cable section. This could take a couple hours of effort, and requires two people: the person in the field and a craftsperson at a central office test position. It is often not easy to motivate the telephone company to expend the effort to solve this type of problem. Unfortunately, your best hope is that the wet splice will fail catastrophically - affecting many other subscribers, and therefore imposing some priority upon the matter. Here are my suggestions for dealing with this problem: 1. To whatever extent is possible or reasonable, inspect the telephone wiring at the point where it enters your house. Some older homes have outdoor protector boxes; if so, could this be filling with water when it rains? Try to spot the pole-mounted terminal box or cable-mounted "boot" where the drop wire to your house originates; are there open covers which could admit water when it rains? [I don't recommend climbing your utility pole for a closer look! :-)] If you see any of these conditions, take no action yourself, but DO inform a telephone company repairperson upon their next visit to your premises. I make these statements because, unfortunately, some telephone company personnel are lazy, and you have to "hold their hand" a bit if you want expedient service. 2. When the noise problem happens again, call repair service and tell them you want a repairperson dispatched NOW! Tell them this has been a chronic problem that has remained unsolved, and the only way to repair it is to find the trouble while it is happening. If you can't get satisfaction, demand to speak with a supervisor - that should get results. 3. If the problem goes away, and the telephone company claims to have fixed it, demand some details to satisfy yourself that the problem was in fact localized, and that a repair was in fact made. Unfortunately, lazy telephone company repairpersons sometimes report these problems repaired when it fact the problem spontaneously cleared without any actual repair effort. <> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York <> UUCP: {allegra|ames|boulder|decvax|rocksanne|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry <> VOICE: 716/688-1231 {hplabs|ihnp4|mtune|seismo|utzoo}!/ <> FAX: 716/741-9635 {G1,G2,G3 modes} "Have you hugged your cat today?"