I've got BT coming Monday to connect my phone line but it's dangling on the wall due to the previous tennants/owners either smashing it or stealing it. The wiring looks to be some older type, black outer with three yellow wires, green, orange and I think black maybe.
Is it possible to get a master socket anywhere on a Sunday and where do I find out how to wire it up with the old wires. Failing that would they just look at the wire and condem it and rewire it back to the pole considering I want ADSL installing and it looks like it would fail the noise test anyway. Mark S.
Are you paying the full whack to get an old line connected from the previous owner which has been cut off? This is effectively a new installation. When you pay for installation - what is it now - getting on for £200? - you pay for installation. Even if there's no cable from your pole to your house. That's what you're paying for. So you get a new socket fitted in the room of your choice where you want it. When I booked the reconnection I also told them I didn't want the old number assigned to my house. No problem They offered me a selection to choose from.
When I got the phone connected in my house after I bought it 14 years ago, installation cost me around £168 I think. There was a crappy old style socket hanging off the window ledge in the living room, with an old dial type phone connected. The engineer started to check the connection on this and get it working. I said hang on a minute, I've just forked out £168 and I want better than this. I said I didn't want their crappy old phone (and have to pay rental on it) because I'll get my own, I want a new style socket, and I want it upstairs in the front bedroom. He shrugged and said ok, and that's what I got.
If you're wondering why I wanted the master socket upstairs, it's for safety. If there's a fire downstairs during the night or a break in, I don't want to find the phone disconnected when I need it the most. I've run an extension downstairs.
Remembering the blue wallpaper anything's possible :-)
B&Q have them, and also plastic punchdown tools which may last just long enough to handle four wires if you are lucky. They do have a bit of CAT5 stuff now, but I've never seen a proper metal tool in there.
To be honest, I wouldn't bother. There probably isn't any power on the line anyway so you wouldn't have a way to test anyway.
I would just act a bit dim and say you've just moved in and have been renovating the place. The master sockets cost them buttons so let them sort it out.
Possibly. Often these overhead installations have a terminal box up on the wall of the house which terminates the run of cable over to the pole, and then there is a separate cable to the socket (or inside terminals with older installations). My parents place has this arrangement, and they wanted to have the master socket moved to an upstairs bedroom that they use as a study. The technician wanted to cable from the existing terminal unit in the house but the wiring from there to the terminals on the end ov the overhead wire had become flakey. With a bit of persuasion and some tea and biscuits, the guy wired around the outside of the house which was what they wanted.
I am pretty sure that if the wire from the house to the pole requires replacement that a different team works on it, much like for underground wiring.
You might want to mention that you are planning to have extra phone lines - although of course, DSL runs over an analogue line anyway. That way, if any cable does need to be replaced, they will put in something like 4 pair; although I suspect that may be standard anyway.
I'd forget about bothering with the master socket and buy some biscuits instead. Also, I'd tell the guy that you are planning on getting "broadband" rather than ADSL. That way, you can perpetuate the myth of knowing less than the technician, which in this case may well help. You really want them to treat this as a reconnection and not a new connection, which costs a lot more normally. ;-)
My natural inclination would be to try and fix something like this as well. However, there are times when it doesn't buy anything....
A number of years ago I laughed at a colleague who wanted the master upstairs for just such a reason. I found myself apologising to him when I read, within a week of our conversation, of a burglary where the telephone lines had been cut in just such a manner at ground level where it entered the house.
The BT wallah will almost certainly replace the old connection box with a modern, master socket. If I recall correctly, the old sockets did not contain a line termination capacitor -- that was carried in the telephone "instrument" itself...
"Mark S." wrote | I've got BT coming Monday to connect my phone line but it's dangling | on the wall due to the previous tennants/owners either smashing it or | stealing it. | The wiring looks to be some older type, black outer with three yellow | wires, green, orange and I think black maybe. | Is it possible to get a master socket anywhere on a Sunday and where | do I find out how to wire it up with the old wires. | Failing that would they just look at the wire and condem it and rewire | it back to the pole considering I want ADSL installing and it looks | like it would fail the noise test anyway.
If you ask the engineer really nicely (and he's got one on the van) he might give you an ADSL Linebox which has a built-in splitter for the broadband and phone signals. Even if he doesn't, a Linebox is better than a master socket because (a) it's easier to wire your extensions to, and unplug them for testing, and (b) you can unplug the front of it and replace it with an ADSL one with a built-in splitter like the first two items at
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is BT's responsibility to fix the linebox so let them do it. If they later found you had an unauthorised (non-BT) master socket and there is a fault they can charge you a 'regularisation' fee.
If the phone line enters the house at ground level it is easily accessible. If it enters through the bedroom wall/window frame you would need a ladder to get to it. That's assuming your house is fed via an overhead cable from a telegraph pole, as mine is.
"Dave Holland" wrote | No-one wrote: | >A number of years ago I laughed at a colleague who wanted the | >master upstairs for just such a reason. I found myself apologising | >to him when I read, within a week of our conversation, of a burglary | >where the telephone lines had been cut in just such a manner at | >ground level where it entered the house. | The phone line enters my house from underground within the house | boundary (the linebox is on an internal wall). Is that relatively rare?
It's normal on new build estates where poles and overhead wiring are disliked.
Buttered him up with a cup of tea and biscuits and deined all knowledge of the missing box and hacked off wiring.
Put me a new master socket on without saying anything so left it at that. Said the wiring was ok for broadband so have to see if it fails the test etc. when that's booked.
That makes sense. Though on a couple of houses built within the last few years I've noticed the phone line comes up from underground outside the house, adjacent to the wall, then usually goes into the house through the wall, leaving (say) 30cm cable exposed.
I've booked today with Demon as it took them overnight to put my number on the system at BT.
Gives some garbage about it being too far from the exchange but suspect it read just for uploading and a 1 or 2 mb connection. Said the 512K download would be ok so we'll have to see. :-)
That can be. There are nominal distances from the exchange that are used as a guideline, but that's all they are. Sometimes people are disappointed because they imagine that the cable will take the most direct road route, but that's not always the case.
In the event they go on line loss. If you want a 1Mb or 2Mb connection, you can apply for that and you will get a pass or a fail. The fall back is a technology variant called RADSL (at 512k) which will allow operation under worse line conditions and by implications, longer distances.
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