Hi I have a BT voyager 210 adsl router and I've noticed within last month it kicks me off frequently, especially when I play some games with ping/peer 2 peer? I don't know I'm not a pro at that, but yea it's getting worse day by day I rung my ISP they told me some old baloney of unplugging my wires and putting them in, hello I've done this numerous times. My DSL + Internet light shut out when I disconnect, they take a while to return back, avg 5 minutes.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Obviously unplugging cables and resetting the router is a valid diagnostic process and ISPs do get you to perform these checks for a reason.

How far have BT taken you through the diagnostic checks. Have they got you to perform a router reset? Have they got you to check the microfilters? Have they asked you to remove the cover from your phone socket on the wall and plug your telephone cable into the internal socket rather than the cover and see how this affects performance? Have they performed a test on your line?

The most obvious faults that could be caused your problems are a faulty microfilter, problems with internal wiring (extension cables and the cable from your phone socket to the line) or a problem with the actual phone socket.

It could also be a problem with the actual router, but since it connects most of the time but then drops the connection this seems unlikely. If all checks and diagnostics check on things on your side, it is obviously a line fault which is BT's responsibility to repair.

If you ring BT technical support, they may irritate and annoy you, but they will take you through all the necessary steps to test your broadband connection. It is of course more difficult for them to discover whether they have resolved the problem as it can take sometime for the connection to drop of course, so you have to remain patient and force the issue to get your line tested if you have truly explored all other possibilities.

Hi,

Sorry about that.

I called BT 3 times, first time they told me they was a fault on my line it would be fixed the next day, next day comes and it still happenning, this was around week ago. I then rung them up earlier in the week and they found no fault on the line, but it was still doing it. My mum rung them yesterday and they told her to unplug all the wires & restart computer & put them back in, did all that. I'm not actually sure what a Microfilter is, however if it's what I think it is, then yeah, I had a spare I used that one. I haven't looked into the problem with the phone wiring, due to the fact I'm assuming it would cost me a fortune for them to fix it? So I'm trying to rule other things our first. I also thought it was a router at first as it was making strange noises, but maybe thats just how it works.

If there was a problem with internal wiring, this would probably also affect your phone service. Have their been any problems with your landline phone?

Please find attached a picture of a microfilter (bottom of this post). These are used to allow both the house phone and broadband to be used on the same line, they simply split the two signals. If this isn't what you replaced, then please try a different one (you usually receive more than one from BT).

When troubleshooting a problem, you need to take it step by step so that we can therefore diagnose what the actual problem is. What we need to do is go through the processes, changing one thing at a time and seeing how this affects the problem. It requires a lot of patience.

Here are the steps I want you to run through. After each step, wait as long as it takes to see if the problem repeats itself and then we can narrow it down. If the problem repeats itself, note this down and then proceed to the next step. When proceeding to a new step, unplug the router from the mains whilst you unplug all the cables or plug them back in. Then once everything is connected up, wait a minute and then plug the router in and it will reconnect.:

1. Change the microfilter if you haven't already done so.

2. If you use any extension cable to connect the router to the phone socket, remove this and connect the microfilter directly to the phone socket and the router to this. For example, my setup is:

BT Home Hub > Microfilter > Extension Cable > Phone Socket (this is so that the router can be placed in an upstairs bedroom when the phone socket is downstairs).

3. On your phone socket, there are two screws on the left and right of the socket. Unscrew these and remove the cover. Inside there is of course wiring, but what you are looking for is a socket, usually on the left hand side. Plug the microfilter into this.

4. Try using a different cable to connect your router to the microfilter.

If the problem persists after all this, post back and we will see what else we can do.

No problems with my landline, I literally just phoned them again, they told me to do step 3 in your post which I did and call them back in 2 days if the problem is still occuring, well since I phoned it's done it twice so I guess it's not that. When I got broadband it came with 2 filters, I changed it to my spare when it started, so can't be that. I don't use an extension cable, not that. And believe it or not I even tried another wire from my router to microfilter too.
Microfilter is below.

Thanks.

Yeah thats a microfilter. Well in that case, you'll just have to sit tight and wait to see if Step 3 works. If not then it narrows it down to either internal wiring which could still be possible although I highly doubt it because you aren't having problems with your landline or your router.

If this current test does fail, would you be able to borrow a router from somebody to check whether or not it is a problem with your router?

Not of the same router nope.

It doesn't matter if its the same router type, as long as you can get any router that isn't locked to a specific ISP (e.g. the BT Home Hub is locked to BT) and connect it up, enter your ISP login details in the admin panel and then give it a whirl to check if it holds the connection.

Ah yea, I can borrow one. I also noticed in my master socket area you know theys 3 wires, well 2 was connected to some screw and one was hanging out, now I'm no electrician so I have no idea, is this way it's supposed to be?

Thanks.