I have had a terrible time with BT & Sky over recent weeks with two major problems.

I have had continued problems with losing by Sky broadband connection. When this happens, it’s usually down for between 12-48 hours at a time. I have spent large amounts of time onto Sky’s technical support, who continually suggest having the master socket relocated to our upstairs office rather than where it is now in the hallway. They blame the problems on too much extension cabling which interferes with the line!

The second problem is the continual crackling & noise on our phone line. This has been going on for 18 months and last time BT sent an engineer out, he found that the manhole on the road that contained the cabling was flooded with water. At no time did he step in our home but a few weeks later BT billed me for a call out as they said it was a ‘home’ visit. I had immense problems with BT trying to sort this out but eventually they cancelled the charge! Since this time I have had the line tested on numerous occasions and BT always rely that the line has no fault.

I have now bitten the bullet & booked a BT engineer to relocate the master socket to my office. The quote for this work is £166.33 + vat = £195.44.

Could anyone offer some advice on whether this will cure the problems once and for all and if relocating the master socket will make a significant difference?

What a load of crap, how does relocating master sockets solve such problems????

Try and use less equipment on the line, a standard BT telephone line can only allow 4 telephones on one line. That amount of money is ridiculas, I would tell BT and SKY to shuv there services where the sun don't shine.

And I bet you spent a fortune calling SKY support services.

The best thing to do is ditch BT and SKY and choose Virgin Media/NTL Telewest Business. Theres a lot less problems with them and another thing Virgin Media internet is not dependent on phone lines and is run down the cable tv network which means its faster and reliable. The telephone line will then be free of ADSL internet use and SKY.

What it costs for installation:

Standard installation of all 4 services costs between £10 and £74.99 depending on the special offers that are available. You get a discount when ordering online.

Additional master sockets for the line(Extensions): £25 per visit for up to 4 lines. Thats much cheaper than BT.

Additional lines cost between £25 and £74.99 depending on special offers and if you are in ex-telewest or ex-ntl region. Thats better than paying £124.99 for BT's rubbish.

have to agree relocating the master socket won't solve your problems. however when they do move it for you make sure they install an openreach branded nte5 as this has the new bell-wire filter in it that cures the problems that internal wiring has on b/band. with regards to the noise, ask them to check that the problem is caused externally, then report it as a fault. you never know he might be able to fix it there and then, but doubt it.