How to tell which is your master socket?

JustAnotherSaver

Just bought a house & unlike the one i live in right now, there's 2 sockets - living room & bedroom.

I remember having plenty of issues with my broadband here over the years & the technicians would always ask about the master socket.

On that note, how do i know which one is the 'master' socket? I would assume living room, but you know what assuming does.

Ypaymore

It will be the one at the point where the external phone line enters your home.

macman

A modern BT NTE5 master has a distinctive horizontally split faceplate.

matelodave

have a look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbHbOJIsTPw

duchy

If it is an older house often the hall-as said above it's the first socket the line reaches coming into the house ...odds are it'll be the living room in your case.

That said -certain areas of the Midlands master sockets are routinely upstairs and I've come across them in cupboards under the stairs, in the garage, in airing cupboards......and one of the strangest it was in the living room but high on the wall where the wall met with the ceiling.....which was quite mind boggling

DigForVictory

If in doubt, AND you can do this safely, unscrew the faceplate (hanging onto both screws!) & have a careful look. If there's another socket-type hole at the bottom right, likely you've found the master socket.
Either way, gently tuck it all back in & screw it back up.

brewerdave

duchy wrote: »

If it is an older house often the hall-as said above it's the first socket the line reaches coming into the house ...odds are it'll be the living room

......but be aware that a lot of houses with extensions have star wiring where there is no true master socket - for example , my house wired up from new in 1986 by BT, has 3 sockets all originally wired back to the outside junction box independently - one of the sockets was called a mini-master and contained a capacitor - the wiring has since been rearranged to have a genuine master/test socket.:)

molerat

An older style LJ 2/1A, without the detachable piece, may have 2 wires in each of the terminals, one coming in from the junction box and the second going up to the extension. The master will also have a capacitor on the back. Look at the pictures here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_telephone_sockets

JustAnotherSaver

We'll take a look at the sockets. The wife tells me there's a 3rd in the hallway as well.

I'd quite like a modern socket/faceplate. One that takes the connection from your B/B router as well as your phone as well as having an in built microfilter.
If we don't have one of these in place, would BT (or someone) come & install a modern socket?
If so, would they charge for this?

We'd be taking a phone package with Sky. Would it be Sky who install this or would it be BT?

brewerdave

BT Openreach would carry out the work on behalf of Sky; if its just a question of reinstating a line to your property the work may not even involve your house-may just require some work at the local cabinet. If you want your internal wiring changed to set up a "modern" NTE5 with built in filter then it would involve more work and definitely a charge (unless you are VERY lucky as I was; the engineer who attended a lne fault,couldn't get his repair to pass the tests,so had to rearrange the wiring and install a new master socket -but then told me he would make sure I wasn't charged!!)

JustAnotherSaver

Is it likely to be costly if i end up having to pay or are you not able to say?