Well, well, well, just as one Orange Livebox problem is resolved - without the help of Orange themselves, mind - what a surprise, another one comes along to replace it…
Having recently recovered from the dreaded “PPP server is down” problem with my broadband internet access (using the wonderful Speedtouch 330 USB modem + latest drivers solution), I discovered this morning that we had been hit with the equally awful “no VOIP dialtone” on our Orange second home phone line. Although this is seemingly not as dire as losing broadband access, our lodger has been using the service to call New Zealand for free which is, naturally, quite a significant saving on… er… not free…
Having just switched (back) over to a dedicated Linux PC (dual boot begone!) I was re-he-he-healy not looking forward to calling Orange technical (un)support to find a solution so I decided to do a thorough internet scan for fixes. My first port of call for such problems was, as always, the orangeproblems.co.uk and broadbandbuyer.co.uk forums. Unfortunately, despite finding many people who have been suffering with the same problems for months, I found no one proffering a solution.
Fortunately, I found a very obvious one. I managed to solve the problem at my first attempt without recourse to Orange Technical Support at all and I’d like to pass on a very simple tip to anyone else who is having the same problem and who has a cordless DECT phone and has been using the BT phone adaptor provided with the Livebox. You may not need to have a DECT phone, but since I’m not a telephone expert and I only have a DECT wireless phone at present, this is the only phone type for which I can say this fix works. Chances are, there are quite a few of you out there who have this sort of phone and have this exact problem. However as is always the case with these things, your mileage may vary (YMMV) with this solution. On the other hand, if this tip sorts just one person out, I’ll be happy.
As well as having a DECT phone, you will need to own an additional RJ11 to RJ11 cable. What’s an RJ11 to RJ11 cable? An RJ11 to RJ11 cable is nowadays more commonly referred to as an ADSL modem cable. This is the same cable you use to plug your Orange Livebox into the ADSL filter and, thus, into your phone line. If, like me, you have a SpeedTouch 330 modem hanging around just-in-case, you should have an extra one lying around. The important thing to note is that the cable required to solve this problem only has 2 contacts on each end. The RJ11 cable has 6 grooves in it, but only the middle two have copper contacts. Any more than that and it’ll be an RJ14, RJ25 or some other sort of cable. Suffice it to say, If your end piece has more than two contacts on it, the cable will not help you here…
So, you have these items; what now?
- Go to your Orange Livebox. Unplug the RJ11 to BT phone socket adapter. Turns out you don’t need this if you have a DECT type phone.
- Go to your phone. Follow the cable with the BT plug on the end all the way back to the phone (or the phone’s base station). Unplug it. Have a look at the contact that was plugged in there - hopefully, it’s an RJ11 connection as previously described.
- Get your spare RJ11 to RJ11 (ADSL Modem) cable. Plug one end into your phone in place of the cable you just removed in step 2.
- Plug the other end of your RJ11 to RJ11 cable directly into the Livebox where the adaptor was before (the terminal with the white mark below it)
- VIOLA - pick up the phone, press to get an outside line and you should hear the joyous three pips that confirm your service is back up and running…
A caveat - this isn’t a totally kosher solution. When you get an incoming phone call it’ll sound a bit…. well continental… I think this is because of the way ring pulses are normally transmitted by BT, but I’m no BT engineer, so don’t quote me.
Also, as previously mentioned, this solution comes with no express warranties or guarantees whatsoever and may well not work for you. Could be this is a one off solution for a particular phone on a box with a particular problem. Gotta be worth a try though - who the hell wants to spend another 40 minutes on the phone to Orange Technical Support, wait another five days, then rinse, repeat for 8 months, when a simple solution is staring them in the face?
Orange Livebox DETAILS ARE ON GOOGLE but I’m pleased you have your answerphone working now. Thought I would look at my accumulated bookmarks and wondered if you kept your Wordpress up to date. Keep posting. I have Wordpress too and blogger but they are mainly about Zotero and the OU course “Beyond Google”.
Welll…. the details may well be on google - including my own post at number three - but they weren’t there at the time I wrote this….
I’m with Be* now and they’re great. For some strange reason Orange are still billing me for internet services despite the fact that I’ve had no service from them since November 2007 and that I migrated to Be in January…