After a couple of dismal months with poor connection to our BT Broadband package, I phoned BT to seek advice. We’d had no problems with dropped connections previously, so I was concerned that the modem, the microfilter or the line was not working correctly.

BT did a line test and told me that the line was fine. However, I had done some tests on the Voyager 205 using the excellent Hacking at the BT Voyager 205 adsl router modem page to get at what the modem detects the attenuation and SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) values were, and wasn’t convinced.

BT sent me a new modem, which I duly plugged in and tested…

…same problem.

It would work fine for a while, then the SNR would suddenly cut out.

My attention was drawn to the rather dodgy looking cabling at the BT faceplate. Not only was the box loose, but the wire felt decidedly loose, and when I wiggled it, the modem would often cut out.

Having played about, albeit briefly, with Woolworths DIY phone extension kits, I thought I’d have a dabble insideâ€â€?I couldn’t make things much worse…

Turns out that there were a load of wires not connected to anything, and seemingly having no relationship to either the home or business line. I think the remnants of a previous Telewest line were hanging about in the box, potentially causing SNR problems.

Added to that, when I moved one of the attached wires, it snapped.

All that was required was to strip back some more bare copper wire, reattach, screw everything up nice and tight, and check…

Voila! No noise; clear as crystal telephone; no modem dropouts in over a week.

I’ve now requested our free upgrade to 2 meg (we’re still on 512K) which BT are promising all its customers, but is taking some time to roll out. We’ll be upgraded next Friday.

And now I have two BT modems.