Installing Master Socket and Extension

[liam.s.harper]

Hi all,

I've recently had my flat refurbished, during which my master socket was unfortunately ripped from the wall. In fact, the cable was pulled right out and cut just outside my property. I have since bought a replacement master socket and reconnected it to the external cable (to connections 2 and 5, if I recall (I'm currently at work)).

I also installed an extension socket in another room and ran that cable through the wall to the master. The extension cable was just the raw cable, so I pulled it through the wall and spliced a connector on from something else. However, from the extension, I am getting no ringtone and significantly slower broadband (with Sky). From the master, I get a ringtone and faster BB, but only 6Mbps, as opposed to the 14 I was getting before the renovations.

I'm a complete novice with telephone cabling, so I've undoubtedly gone wrong somewhere. Can anyone offer advice on how to get my BB speed back up and fit the extension properly? I have pretty much no equipment at the moment but can probably get whatever is required at B&Q or something. By the way, I noticed the spliced-on connector only has two wires inside, whereas the extension cable itself has four, so I'll try finding another cable with four wires and take the connector from that.

Thanks for looking.

[qasdfdsaq]

Best to get a BT engineer out to fix it properly (they may charge).

[liam.s.harper]

Thanks for the response.

That was going to be Plan B. Do you happen to know how much they will charge and if they will place the master socket wherever I ask them to (i.e. where my extension socket currently is)? I rent my line from TalkTalk and not BT.

[Rob]

Any cable on the street side of the master socket, including the connection to the master socket is the telco's responsibility. It can actually be against the terms of service for you to alter the telco's cable. You are only permitted to connect extensions and run those, from the extension connectors on the master socket.

Although phone line often has two or three pairs, often only a single pair is in use. But if you are making a repair in a length of wire that could be the cause of higher resistance or interference, reducing services. You'll only get that corrected by a replacement wire. But if you don't get a ringtone on your extension, and yet do on the master, that suggests you have connected something incorrectly, and that could explain the dial tone issues, and broadband speeds.

There will inevitably be a charge to call out BT. As your provider is Talk Talk, it should be arranged and co-ordinated by them.

If there is a call out, it would probably be charged as if it were a new connection (it's not Talk Talk Bt's fault the cable was damaged). If they are charging as if it's a new connection, because they are haveing to run a new wire from the street, then you should be able, within reason, to get the master socket positioned where you wish.

[craigj2k12]

Rob is right about being against ToS - and he said sky not talktalk btw :P

If your "master socket" is connecting by 2 and 5 then its not a master socket, the master socket connects from BTs network on an A and B connection, theres only 2 wires and they connect around a screw plug, sounds like both the sockets in question are extensions

[raging bull]

The master has a small capacitor on the circuit board.
Connections are 2 and 5 with 3 being the bell circuit.

[craigj2k12]

Originally Posted by raging bull

The master has a small capacitor on the circuit board.
Connections are 2 and 5 with 3 being the bell circuit.

yeah thats for connecting extension sockets, read my post above

---------- Post added at 19:27 ---------- Previous post was at 19:24 ----------



thats where you connect the extension sockets (1,2,3,4,5 - only 2 and 5 should be used)



Thats the master connection (A and B)

[jay_g]

They may not be screw points, the ones I have on my van are krone (openreach ones)