Internet and Phone Issue

[Gary16]

I recently had Uverse internet and phone service installed to replace my AT&T DSL and landline phone service. Overall it's working fine except that when the phone rings, the internet drops out briefly. The install comes into the house and into the 2WIRE876 gateway. The wired output of the 876 goes into a Netgear DualBandN router which is what supplies the wifi around the house and thru the electrical wiring for ethernet.

I did not have a problem with the previous installation. Any suggestions before I call at&t?

[JefferMC ACE - Professor]

Do you have a lot of phones connected to the RG?  Or ones with a high REN?  Just a thought that the ringing signal is either causing crosstalk in a shared cable, or that it's pulling to much current away from the RG so that it's having trouble holding the conversation with the VRAD.

[Gary16]

Thanks for the reply. Yes we do have a lot of phones (at least 8 or 9 that I can think of). Is there a way around this problem? Do I have my phone service switched back to land lines?

[JefferMC ACE - Professor]

Well, first I'd be sure that's the problem.  Try disconnecting the backfeed cable from the RG and hooking just one phone in there.  If the problem still exists then I think I'd bug AT&T to fix that, as it should be a supportable config.

If it works like that, then reconnect the backfeed and reduce the number of phones plugged in throughout the house, to just one or two.  See if it works then.  This may tell you if you have an issue with crosstalk in the wires.

I don't know if there's a way to see how much REN an RG can handle.  The FCC statements say that your REN shouldn't total over 5.0 for connection to POTS.  You could try disabling the ringers on some of your phones.