This topic

Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 10:27:53 GMT

Good morning. BT have sent me a new hub, which they reckon will solve my landline problems. No dial tone - just sounds like a permanent engaged tone. My question is on how to change the network name and password on the new hub so that I don't have to reconnect everything that is connected to the old one. I have googled and printed off a couple of pages on how to do it but, as I am completely non-techie, I thought I would ask the forum if there are any pitfalls I might encounter! I'm also very old and use a PC for most things as the smart phone is more difficult for me.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

imjolly — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 10:32:21 GMT

you need to access hub manager 192.168.1.254 into your address bar then enter admin password not wifi then go to wireless then change the change SSID to that of previous router and also change wifi password to that of previous router just ignore any warning about password not secure and length of password then save on exit

your existing devices should now connect as if no changes in hub

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

licquorice — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:03:19 GMT

I suspect your landline problem is simply that there is a voicemail message on 1571.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

iniltous — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:34:07 GMT

As @licquorice says , it’s very likely the noise you hear is modulated dialtone indicating that you have a message to listen to on the BT 1571 answer service , this modulated dialtone doesn’t stop you making or receiving calls, and regular dialtone is restored simply by listening to the message or messages, by dialing 1571 and following the instructions.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

chrisjp — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:40:16 GMT

BT's practice, when they migrate a customer to digital voice, of leaving a "Welcome to digital voice" message on the DV 1571 free voicemail system has caused a lot of confusion amongst some customers, because the message waiting tone sounds very much like the old engaged tone.

Maybe BT should rethink this?

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:42:25 GMT

Thank you for trying to help. I tried dialling 1571 but the 'engaged' tone just carried on.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:43:06 GMT

Thank you for trying to help. I dialled 1571 but the 'engaged' tone just carried on.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:43:47 GMT

Thank you for trying to help. I rang 1571, but the 'engaged' tone just carried on.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:45:23 GMT

Thank you for trying to help. I tried dialling 1571 but the 'engaged' tone just carried on.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

WSH — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:02:55 GMT

When you say 'the engaged tone just carried on' does that mean you could get through to 1571 or that the phone would not dial out?

Bit of a daft question, but you are aware that with digital voice the phone has to plug into the green phone socket on the back of the hub and not the old wall socket, aren't you?

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:39:26 GMT

Hi WSH

Not a daft question as far as I am concerned, as the whole system terrifies me. The thing is, both these phones were working fine until about 3 weeks ago, which is when I first contacted BT to ask for help. There is nothing plugged into the green socket on the hub. One of the phones has 2 leads out, one goes to a power socket and the other has a white connector with a button that says 'pairing', so I assume that means it is connected to the hub by wifi? The other phone is in the same room as the hub and I assume it must be the same but, unfortunately, I cannot crawl around and find out where it is plugged in or what else it might be connected to. I did try to get a BT engineer to come and take a look but no luck.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

WSH — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:53:12 GMT

Yes, the BT supplied phones can use a wireless system called DECT, like cordless phones. It's not Wi-Fi as such, but the hub supports both systems. It certainly sounds as though the phones are wirelessly connected.

It's not something I've used myself, but a thought occurs, did you pair the phones with the new hub? Changing the Wi-Fi password will not have any effect. As I said, they don't actually use the Wi-Fi?

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

licquorice — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:00:18 GMT

Ok, let's get back to basics.

Has the setup you currently have ever worked and suddenly stopped working or never worked at all?

Do you have new Digital Voice phones from BT or are you still using pre-DV phones?

DV phones don't plug into anywhere, they just have a charging cradle which plugs into the mains.

It sounds as though you have a Digital Voice adapter with an old phone plugged into it.

You need to press the WPS button on the Hub and then the pairing button on the adapter if this is the case.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

WSH — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:06:30 GMT

"...white connector with a button that says 'pairing'".

Licquorice is quite right, that sounds like a plug-in adapter. Some problem though, they'll need re-pairing with the new hub.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

iniltous — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 18:08:56 GMT

Why don’t you simply plug the cord from the phone you had owned previously into the hub socket , irrespective of it being a regular corded phone or the cord from the base unit of a cordless phone set you had owned …..if you don’t have a phone in the router phone port , or haven’t successfully paired a cordless phone directly to the hub or the DV adapter to the hub , then you won’t be able to use the DV service….plugging your own phone directly via its cord into the hub phone port will at least confirm the service is working .

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:30:04 GMT

Hi. Thanks for trying to help. Unfortunately, I am struggling a bit to understand. My 2 phones were installed by a BT Engineer and were working fine until about 3 weeks ago, when we had a 'flash' power outage (not sure if that had anything to do with it). So, they are the same phones - I don't have any others.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:34:49 GMT

Thank you.

Both phones were working fine until about 3 weeks ago.

They are DV phones, installed by a BT Engineer a while ago (months)

The charging cradles are both plugged into the mains.

At least one of them has a white piece of kit also plugged in - is that a DV adapter?

I will look to see if it has a pairing button and try what you suggest. Thanks again.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

jilly4 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:38:18 GMT

It's not a new hub, well not yet at least. BT have sent me a new hub as they say it might be the reason the phones stopped working. I don't see or understand why it should be.

They are the same 2 phones that were working fine until about 3 weeks ago. They were installed by a BT Engineer months ago.

I will try pairing the one I can get to and see if that works.

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

iniltous — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:50:06 GMT

So is it the case that you had DV working for a while , and now it isn’t working , that’s why BT have sent you a new hub , rather (as I assumed from your original post ) that you were recently converted to DV , you have never had DV working , and the new router sent because your previous /existing router wasn’t compatible with DV ?

If you had DV working successfully, and now it isn’t working , it sounds as though BT have determined that your router is the issue and needs replacing….you can swap the router temporarily and connect a corded phone to it to check if this is indeed the case ….if it is then if you want to change the WiFi name/password to the match the previous router to save having to enter new log in credentials into your WiFi connected devices using the new router factory settings , then that’s what you will need to do …plus if you use DV specific handsets and or DV adapters you will also need to re-pair those to the new router ……if you think that’s too much faff if the router swap is unnecessary, (and you suspect it is ) just connect it temporarily to see if DV is restored and if DV isn’t restored put your old router back in place and contact BT again ….but clearly a faulty hub can affect DV .

Re: Problem with digital voice landline phones.

WSH — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:59:14 GMT

@iniltous @licquorice @imjolly

A thought has just occurred to me. DV phones and power cut...could this be one of those situations where the rechargeable batteries in the phone have given up the ghost?

@jilly4 Just to explain that for you, there have been many posts on here where the batteries in those phones have been found to be defective.