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home phone extension wiring missmatch

justjacci
justjacci Posts: 3 Newbie
edited 8 September 2012 pm30 10:05PM in Phones & TV
I have a home phone from Virgin Media. There are 3 extensions around the house, 2 in a series and one separate. Instead of using a junction box both the extensions had been wired into the master outlet many years ago. My phone died recently and when Virgin Media came they fixed it but disconnected the extensions as I now know extensions are not allowed to be directly wired in. I have read all I can on the subject and realised that I needed a plug in adapter to the master then connect that to a junction box with the 2 extension wires. My problem is that the 2 x extension wiring are the 4 core blue/white, orange/white, white/orange and white/ blue. All good so far. I bought a extension set from Homebase to use the RJ11 connection to connect to the adapter and cut the other end of it it to wire into the junction box. I then discovered that this wire is colour coded differently (there was no way to tell from the packaging). It is coloured black, red green and yellow which I understand is cheap import cable. Can anyone tell me which of these colours should be wired with which of the other colours in the junction box?? Failing that can you tell me which company sells the correct colour cables with the RJ11 connections already on? My only alternative is keep spending £10 or so on the kits in various stores or on line and gamble on which colours the wires will be once I cut them!!

Comments

  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,128 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It doesn't matter, as long as the same colours are wired to the same terminal number at each end-the master and the extension socket.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • sorry your reply doesn't help one bit. What i am saying is the wiring changes colour in between the master and the extension ie at the junction box because of the different wires!The colours are in the same same terminal number at each extension and into the junction box but I cannot do the same from the junction box to the master as the wire is different colouring and I want to know how to match them as whatever combination I have tried to date does not work
  • spike7451
    spike7451 Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    Wrong I'm afraid,you've wasted money for nothing......extensions ARE allowed to be directly wired in but it differs from they type of master socket used.

    If it's a CTE-5,then the extensions are wired into the removable faceplate (CTE-5 is the cable version of the BT NTE-5) but if it's a 2/1A Line Jack Unit Master,then the extensions are wired directly into the rear of the faceplate.
    It is the INCOMING wiring that you are not allowed to interfear with.

    Wiring should be;

    1-green
    2-blue
    3-orange

    4-white orange
    5-white blue
    6-white green

    Only important wires are 3 & 5. As long as the wiring from the sockets is the same in all sockets it should work.If the blues don't work,then try greens ect.
    Orange is often connected to run a ringer wire in older installations.
  • cajef
    cajef Posts: 6,283 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    spike7451 wrote: »

    Only important wires are 3 & 5. As long as the wiring from the sockets is the same in all sockets it should work.If the blues don't work,then try greens ect.
    Orange is often connected to run a ringer wire in older installations.

    Correction the important wires are terminals 2 & 5,

    2 = Blue/White

    5 = White/Blue

    3 is the orange ring wire which should not be needed nowadays.
  • spike7451
    spike7451 Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    cajef wrote: »
    Correction the important wires are terminals 2 & 5,

    2 = Blue/White

    5 = White/Blue

    3 is the orange ring wire which should not be needed nowadays.

    Thanks,I meant "2" didn't mean to put "3"...(old age) but in some cable installs the orange wire IS needed,the recommendation not to use it mainly applies to lines that have DSL broadband.As cable broadband is separate from the phone,the interference caused by the Orange wire doesn't matter.
  • jb66
    jb66 Posts: 1,705 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    But virgin won't fix extensions, so if they are faulty we will just disconnect them
  • spike7451
    spike7451 Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    jb66 wrote: »
    But virgin won't fix extensions, so if they are faulty we will just disconnect them

    We used to if they were installed by us & that was reflected on the customers account...once spent a good few hours tracing & toning out extensions & master sockets in a massive house to find which one went where...!!!!in nightmare!
  • justjacci
    justjacci Posts: 3 Newbie
    edited 9 September 2012 pm30 5:32PM
    Thanks guys for your replies. I know all the colours as above intimately as I have rechecked all my extension sockets several times. I do not have a BTNTE5 or equivalent master socket so I cannot directly wire the extensions into it. The Virgin Media engineer, my DIY books and all the websites tell me so!
    Being an enthusiastic amateur I am reluctant to ignore the rules and possibly incur a hefty cost from Virgin Media. The only way is either rewire all the extensions from scratch or to use an adapter and a junction box to utilise the existing wiring. I have talked to various electrical stores and discovered that all the extension kits nowadays have the cheap flimsy wiring in the red green black and yellow colours. I can buy the proper cable in the correct colours but that would involve fitting my own RJ11 at the end and buying a tool to do so. Not a job I really want to take on.
    As no-one can tell me which of these cheap cable colours match the proper telephone cable colours I have wimped out and bought a cordless phone with 4 handsets which will probably work out cheaper than trying to sort out the mess of my extensions!
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