Strange dial tone

Hello, just noticed recently when I pick up the phone I have a strange dial tone.
It sounds like the normal one but then the tone lowers, then comes back up, then down again. Kind of like a siren on a police car/ambulance only not as loud.
Any idea what could cause it, there is only one socket in the house, and we only bought a new phone back in October, broadband speeds all seem fine and I have removed the sky box to also see but its still there.
We have an overhead line and some quite heavy rain a few nights back, was wondering had the connection box on the side of the house got damp and would I be charged for someone to come and look at it?
Many thanks

Hi,
I've been researching this issue on the internet and came across this post as it sounds exactly what has happened to us.
On bank holiday monday, we set our phone on divert #21# as usual when we spend a day out. We came home only to find we had a strange ring tone (sounds like a siren) and we can't make any outgoing call, nor can we switch off the divert. Even though we can't make any outgoing calls, the divert still works so we can take calls on our mobile.
It is very strange. We have reported the fault with BT who have checked the line remotely and say it looks fine. We have test our internal equipment, and also tested a phone through the emergency socket which runs into the master socket. We still get the same ring tone.
BT.com/faults suggest now that it may be something not right near our home.
Did anyone on this post get their issue resolved? What was the issue?
Many thanks!

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Nokia 5530, On dialing I can not hear dial tone in...

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No dial tone/infinity still works

Monday afternoon we had a phone call on the line to let use know the Sky engineer was on his way to fit a new HD box, we then had a storm hit for around and hour. At 5pm we went to make a call and our cordless phones (fitted to diy extension) had no dial tone. We then went and put the phone base station in to the master socket that has the new infinity faceplate on it. Plugged into the bottom slot and no dial tone We then went out and purchased a £10 corded phone and plugged into the slot on the master socket, no dial tone and no power being supplied to the hand set to operate memory functions/lights etc etc Strange thing is Infinity still works fine.
Called up to log an engineer visit and told that if the fault is found with my wiring it will cost £130 :/ am I right in thinking that everything coming into the house and terminating at the master socket is BT's responsibility ? and the fact that I have had 2 phones hard wired into the master socket as evident that it is the socket or cab thats at fault?
Just want to check this as every email/phone conversation/text message, keeps saying it will cost me £130 if no fault found or with my wiring.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I swirched from ANOTher provider to BT on 11 may. The engineer was great and had all the correct details. Later that day teh phone went off.
SInce then (now May 13) I have contact BT around 8 times. They keep saying things like 'your account isn't active'. or 'the number isn't associated with the account' and even garuanteed the phone woudl be working by 12 May.
Evertyime I phone the help line or do live chat contact they find a reason not to be able to solve the problem. BT continually finds a way to blame it on SKY - the other provider.
The difficulty for me is that BT told me there would NOT be a any problem when I placed the order. They were happy enough to take my order, but unhappy enough NOT TO SOLVE the PROBLEM.
It seems to me that there is a competence issue here for BT. Either thay gave me false information whan they sold me the product, or they simply lack the competence to take responsibility for a problem they told me woudl not occur.
I am now the one who has to slove the problem BT garuanteed me would not be a problem. If they had told me it was a problem at the beginning I could have done somethign about it.
I think other people have had similar experiences and this is clearly a case of sharp pratice and unfair competition on the part of ANOTHER provider, but on the other hand BT shoudl be resolving this problem

No dial tone/power to master socket but infinity s...

Monday afternoon we had a phone call on the line to let use know the Sky engineer was on his way to fit a new HD box, we then had a storm hit for around and hour. At 5pm we went to make a call and our cordless phones (fitted to diy extension) had no dial tone. We then went and put the phone base station in to the master socket that has the new infinity faceplate on it. Plugged into the bottom slot and no dial tone We then went out and purchased a £10 corded phone and plugged into the slot on the master socket, no dial tone and no power being supplied to the hand set to operate memory functions/lights etc etc Strange thing is Infinity still works fine.
Called up to log an engineer visit and told that if the fault is found with my wiring it will cost £130 :/ am I right in thinking that everything coming into the house and terminating at the master socket is BT's responsibility ? and the fact that I have had 2 phones hard wired into the master socket as evident that it is the socket or cab thats at fault?
Just want to check this as every email/phone conversation/text message, keeps saying it will cost me £130 if no fault found or with my wiring.
And £130 for a call out is a bit steep if there was no fault ! or is that just me?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Engineer has been and gone ! says it is a problem with the Infinity socket, when he takes it off he can get a dial tone but when he puts the face plate back on we lose the dial tone again. He said he will have to get an Infinity engineer out, could be today but might not, which means Monday or Tuesday
Does not look good after my last BT experience......
http://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity/Customer-Service-DOES-NOT-EXIST/m-p/157427#M3551

Apple USB modem stopped recognising dial tone

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I have a wireless home phone connect device. Can call out on it when dial tone present, but most times cannot receive calls since purchase. Anyone else having a problem with their home connect device?

Have had Wireless Home Phone connect device refreshed and updated three times since I purchased it in September 2014. Last tech I worked with on it initialized an NRB to check the network. I checked the location of the tower, which is less than one mile up the hill with clear line of site. The device always has two antennas on it. The device is great when it does work, but most of the time it rings three times and then jumps to an automated message saying the person I am calling is not available. I've actually gone up there several times to try an fix the device, but always end up calling a Verizon tech who has me unplug it, pull the battery, and they do some network stuff and then we turn it back on and it works. After the last time on 10/02/14, I called it and got the message. I drove up there, 100 miles one way, and called it while standing in the room. Got the same message. I picked up the phone, heard a dial tone and dialed my phone and it range through. I hung that phone connected to the device and call it using my cell phone. It rang through. I went home and tried to call it the next day. Again it did not ring through and I got the message after three rings. I call another phone at the facility and had them call me on my mom's phone and it is fixed it again. The fix last for a day or two and then it's broken again, like it is today. If it's a network problem then it must be fairly close to the area because no matter what we do it fails again. So much for the 99.98% reliable. This thing is a piece of junk!
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jsavage9621,
It pains me to hear about your experience with the Home Phone Connect. This device usually works seamlessly and is a great alternative to a landline phone. It sounds like we've done our fair share of work on your account here. I'm going to go ahead and send you a Private Message so that we can access your account and review any open tickets for you. I look forward to speaking with you.
TrevorC_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

New Broadband - No Dial tone - Line Test shows no ...

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone can help me before i start pulling my hair out!....
I have recently attempted to set up my new broadband and phone.
My activation date was 4 days ago and ever since ive been on the phone to customer service trying to work out what the problem is.
Summary of problem:
my phone line has no dial tone at all. On my day of activation, the manager from the office below my flat came to tell me his phone lines had been cut off. After this, he tried to set his line back up and i recieved an email to tell me someone was requesting to take over my line. So i phoned BT and they cancelled off this request and assured me they had set up the line to the right address and not the offices below me. I was told it was an internet problem and that i should wait to midnight until my activation is complete (although i had already recied two emails to tell me this was complete).
I waited a further 48 hours until today - Phoned up, explained the problem again went through line tests/broadband tests and was told that everything was fine, it should be working. It must be a connection problem between my router and device. Ive tried several devicces (laptop, phone, ipday, tv etc) and none of which work. They connect to the router but say the router is not connected to internet.
My router has solid orange light with flashing red "b".
I dont know what to do next?
Help please!!
Thanks,
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I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
They are the only BT employees on this forum, and are a UK based team of people, who take personal ownership of your problem.
Once you get a reply, make sure that you are logged into the forum, then click on their name, you will see a screen like this. Click on the link as shown below.
Please do not send them a personal message, as they may not be on duty for a long time, and your message will not be tracked properly.
For your own security, do not post any personal details, on this forum. That includes any tracking number you are give.
They will respond either by phone or e-mail within 5-6 working days.
Please use the tracked e-mail, to reply, not via the forum. Thanks
This is the form you should see when you click on the link. If you do not see this form, then you have selected the wrong link.
When you submit the form, you will receive an enquiry number, so please keep a note of it
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Loss of phone line, no dial tone but broadband sti...

I have looged a fault with bt for this issue VOL012-*********, but no engineer turned up yesterday to look at it. I have tested 2 different phones in the master test socket and still have the same problem, no dial tone but broadband is working ok. How do BT get away with treating its customers like this?

@Scardy, this is exactly what happened to our phone line last September! The phone line was just mush, there was no dial tone, but we were able (just) to send email and look at certain web pages, but it was painfully slow. I tried everything, like you, no improvement. I got in touch with BT, they said there was a fault on the line, I said 'it's been fine for years why now?' BT sent an OR engineer, he turned up on time, it was a very enlightening time for me to be sure! He showed me the 'drop cable' that the phone signal came into our property on - 50 years old! Rubber outer, two strands of copper cable with cardboard insulation between them! I also found a big cut in the cable on the wall of our place, for the life of me that looked like vandalism. He arranged for a new armoured cable to be put in across our front lawn, and hey presto, all was well! With the confidence I had in that, we've got Infinity now, a new master socket and there's no going back. I hope this helps & it all gets sorted out out quickly for you.

No dial tone for the second time now

Hi guys,
Back in late November 2013 I discovered that the phone was not working correctly that being no dial tone and a faint outside crackling noise coming through, I couldn't call out or receive calls however when I called my phone the line rang fine but it was not coming through the headset, My broadband was still working perfectly fine so I instantly thought it was the headset and ordered a new one only to discover that it in fact wasn’t the problem at all. I began to call BT to report the fault and was directed straight to an Indian call centre the guy when through normal line testing faults only to come back with no faults found I told him that on my mobile my house is ringing but none of my headsets old or new was physically ringing we then went on to do the master test socket test and again same problem. After that he arranged an engineer to come out to have a look and was told the usual ''you may be charged if you have caused the fault'' blah blah now into December and I finally get an engineer out to have a look the engineer when on to say that whoever initially installed the face plate put a faulty one and that was the problem but if that was the case how had I been able to use my house phone perfectly fine prior to this problem? I asked the engineer if I would be charged for this call out and his said NO as it was not my fault, all things fixed and working.
My January bill came and what do I see £179 bill I look at the bill to see I’ve been charged for the engineer callout, furious I call BT in which this time I’m directed to English speaking people at last. I explain all of the above to the operator and go on to tell them I was told there would be no charge so they check the engineer report and then they tell me the engineer reported that the faceplate was damaged, I’m then question by the operator and asked how I had damaged the faceplate I told him what the engineer told me and that my master socket is up high on my window seal out of reach of my son so there was no way he damaged it, they told me they would look into for me and get in contact within 5 days. 5 days pass and I get the call saying sorry for mistake your money will be back in your account in 3 days well that’s great news.
Now I’m having the very same problem with my phone line no dial tone slight crackling sound but this time when I ring from my mobile may house phone rings fine but when I answer it up it continues to ring even though I’ve pressed the accept button I also cannot decline the call from the headset it really frustrating, I’ve tried to get though to BT but the queue times are just ridiculous even tried the call back feature and yet 3 hours later still nothing I’m not going to pay for a service I’m not receiving and I’m most definitely not going to pay engineer charges only to be refunded 10 days later a complete waste of time. I need my phone line fixed please can someone help me out here and give me some advice.
Many Thanks
Mike

jdybnsn wrote:
I have the exact same problem (also my second time in 4 months). Very frustrating as this is our business phone and it is frustrating knowing people are calling us but we can't pick up the calls ! More frustrating that its almost 2 days and no sign of an engineer !
You need to raise this on the Business Forum, this one is for residential customers.
You can click the white star next to this message if you think it was helpful.

Satellite L20: Modem doesn't get dial tone

Hi,
My L20 notebook doesn't get a dial tone whem I'm trying to dial up. On antoher pc the connection works well, so I'm sure that the line has a dial tone and that the other computer is 'listening'.
I also tried to uncheck the 'wait before dial tone' option, tried to remove it from the Device manager, but after this all the modem still doesn't work. The current driver that is installed is version 7.20.00.00, because I can't install the latest version (7.25.00.00) (setup doesn't finish well, no specific error is given).
Does anybody knows what to do??

Open the system control panel and choose the Phone and modem options.
There check the Modems tab. The modem should be placed in the list.
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LACK OF SERVICE FROM VERIZON IN SUPPORT OF MY NO DIAL TONE ON MY LAND PHONE

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ONLINE SERVICE HAS BEEN AWFUL IN TRYING TO CORRECT MY "NO DIAL TONE" PROBLEM.
CUSTOMER SERVICE KEEPS DISCONNECTING MY CALLS AND ONLINE VERIZON SEEMS TO BE ONLY CONCERNED WITH FIOS. I'VE TRIED ALL THE TROUBLESHOOTING AT HOME AS VERIZON RECOMMENDS. HOW DO I GET A REPAIR MAN TO MY HOUSE?

Hi veryirritated,
Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.
Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

My Mac Mini was not sending a signal to the monitor. I powered down using the power button and now it will not start. When i power up I get a strange 2 tone sound, like a warning alarm. The fan starts, and the light comes on, but no screen

My Mac Mini was not sending a signal to the monitor. I powered down using the power button and now it will not start. When i power up I get a strange 2 tone sound, like a warning alarm. The fan starts, and the light comes on, but no screen.
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No Broadband, No Dial Tone!??

My broadband went down on Friday. I rang the number that comes up on the browser, BT has done tests on the line and there is no dial tone either so I'm without phone as well! Their estimated date for fixing this is 23:59 on Wednesday!!
Does anyone know what the problem is?? It seems all the other houses around my area are fine? Living in a student house, the seven of us are in constant need of the web for our studies so this is very annoying.
Our contract with Bt started at the end of September and this is the second problem we've had. It took over a month for our speeds to be increased so that they were in the acceptable range given on the BT speed test. Before this the broadband was basically unusable.
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Dial-up and newly acquired AEBS ~ can't detect modem connection / dial tone

I've read the threads but have yet to find an applicable solution...
Just received the new AExtremeBS, connected and set up as prompted...
Not able to get online with my iBook G4 as the modem / dial tone cannot be detected.
Obviously, since I'm posting this dilemma, the dial tone exists and everything is fine as long as I remain wired (defeating the purpose of the AEBS).
Simple answer?
Also, when this is resolved, plan to connect wireless printer...
Suggestions?
iBook G4 (1.4 GHz / 1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.7) iMac (9.2); Performa 631CD (Ancient 7.5); MacPlus (Primordial Ooze OS)

I've read the threads but have yet to find an
applicable solution...
Just received the new AExtremeBS, connected and set
up as prompted...
Not able to get online with my iBook G4 as the modem
/ dial tone cannot be detected.
Obviously, since I'm posting this dilemma, the dial
tone exists and everything is fine as long as I
remain wired (defeating the purpose of the AEBS).
Simple answer?
Also, when this is resolved, plan to connect wireless
printer...
Suggestions?
* Figured it out myself...needed to use the AirPort Set Up Assistant AND the AirPort Admin Utility AND reconfigure modem settings PLUS reset the Base Station, ALL REPEATEDLY...but now can get online AND print wirelessly (using the Brother MFC-640 CW).

Strange dial tone

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