BT wiring problem

voodoomedoodoo

Hey all, I have a problem with my BT wiring. Long story short, I'm on sky broadband, get really bad speeds compared to my neighbours, then after some looking around the internet realised I have no master socket and some strange wiring. My router is plugged into an extension and where the BT wiring enters the house all there is is a faceplate and behind that is a massive jumble of wiring. From this there does appear to be another extension that goes upstairs to what looks like a master socket but I've plugged a phone in there and it doesn't appear to be connected. I really need help as I dont want to be charged a stupid price for BT to look at it and be charged by sky for a broadband speed I can't even get.

Fair enough if what I get is all I can get but it's odd how neighbours get a faster speed than me on 2 meg broadband when I am supposedly on 8?

Appreciate any suggestions and will try to give as much info as possible (please use laymans language)

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums voodoomedoodoo.

This should help you - http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

voodoomedoodoo

Thanks for that Heinz, will have a go and see what happens

voodoomedoodoo

Hey Heinz, another quick question that that page doesn't seem to answer. As there is no test socket and there are only bare wires coming in I wanted to know if there is a way to connect the upstairs socket to these wires. So how do I connect 2 sets of bare wires together? Is there some kind of a connector I can use?

I may not have explained myself very well but I'll try. There is what looks like a master socket in the bedroom upstairs, the wires from this go outside the house and into the hole where the bt line comes in. This is then connected to the bt line with a small round plastic connector, but like I said, the bedroom socket doesn't appear to work. So I basically need something to connect these 2 lines together.

I now this is difficult without a pic but would appreciate an idea.

Thanks

macman

You mention that your neighbours get a faster speed, but you don't say how much faster. You are not on an 8MBps service, you are on an up to 8MBps service, this can be as low as 0.4MBps in the worst case and still counts as broadband. It may be that the max your line will support is around 2MBps, primarily based on the distance from the exchange. What speed are you actually getting, and what speed does the BT line tester say you should be getting?
If your internal wiring is causing a problem, you don't need to get BT in to look at anything downstream of the BT master socket (be it a modern NTE5 or an older-style 'lozenge' socket). Anything on your side is your own responsibility and you can do whatever you want with it. Any electrician or DIY-er can work on your side of it, but you can't touch the BT master. You can connect the upstairs socket up, but not into the BT socket, you'd have to put your own box just downstream of it.
It's not clear why you have a master socket running outside to the street that doesn't seem to work. Is this the only line that comes in or is there another-perhaps there were two lines at some point? Maybe it's just the faceplate that isn't connected-try removing it and connecting to the test socket underneath it. If this works and you get a better speed from it, then your internal wiring is the problem.

voodoomedoodoo

Hey macman.

Where the BT line comes in off the street there is a faceplate, just behind the front door. This is just a faceplate, not a master socket. Behind this is the jumble of wires I mentioned. From there are what look like various extensions, but as I'm not technically minded I couldn't tell you how these are connected to each other, like I said a small plastic see through cap.

Your right, I'm on 'up to 8mbps' broadband. Speedtest.net tells me I'm geting around 0.92 mbps and that's about accurate. My neighbour gets three times that.

I haven't tried the test socket inside the upstairs faceplate, will have a go and see what happens.

voodoomedoodoo

No, the test socket doesn't work either. I have a pic of the wiring, but not sure how to post it

espresso

voodoomedoodoo wrote: »

No, the test socket doesn't work either. I have a pic of the wiring, but not sure how to post it

See here for info on posting your picture.

macman

So it would appear that the upstairs line is a 2nd line that is now out of service?
It would appear that you should be able to get more than 1MBps then.
Can you trace the nearest live extension to the old master and retest from that? If they're daisy chained, this is the best one to take your ADS feed from.
PS: I'm assuming that you have already have known good ADSL filters on all your active extensions? If not, remove and replace each one in turn and retest your speed each time.
I'm also assuming that you have no voice problem on the line, no noise, crackling etc?

voodoomedoodoo

Will try all of the above and get back to you, thanks for the help