In article ,
Chris Green   wrote:
>No!  That's the whole point.  The POTS phone doesn't work if the cable
>has a break but the signal used by the internet connection is a fairly
>high frequency and the wires act as aerials and the connection will
>still work.  I have actually experienced this myself, the POTS phone
>didn't work but we still had a (rather slow) internet connection.

Never mind a *break*, while in the process of repairing a fault on
my line, I was left ovenright with my actual exchange line coming to
the top of the pole and connected to "pair A" in my overhead cable
to the building, but my phone/router/house wiring going up the wall and
connected to "pair B" in the overhead cable instead.

This was because the job of swapping pairs had been done at the house
end (ladder access) but needed a lift platform to complete at the pole
(elf and safety).

            Overhead
Me: <-----o============ (nothing)
(nothing)  ============o---> BT:

Phone line -- dead. 0v. Obviously.

ADSL, disconnected on BOTH wires, working at very low speed.

The engineer didn't believe it possible that the modem was
syncing *at all* "because you are not connected" ...

It battled on, despite this, from the leakage/capacitive coupling
between pairs in 30 feet of overhead cable.

--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk  |    http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05