new flat - secondary phone socket not working - advice

neilmcl

wallofbeans said:

It's the master socket in the flat. They came earlier in the week and sorted it all out and apparently this is the reaplcement for whatever was there before.

There is apparently other bits in the building's electrical room downstairs so maybe there is a bigger one there..?

Who are "they" and what's the telephone socket next to it?

Whatever they've done there is now now cabling between the other sockets in the house and this new one.

wallofbeans

neilmcl said:

wallofbeans said:

It's the master socket in the flat. They came earlier in the week and sorted it all out and apparently this is the reaplcement for whatever was there before.

There is apparently other bits in the building's electrical room downstairs so maybe there is a bigger one there..?

Who are "they" and what's the telephone socket next to it?

Whatever they've done there is now now cabling between the other sockets in the house and this new one.

Openreach.
And I don't know!

Hasbeen

wallofbeans said:

neilmcl said:

wallofbeans said:

Jeepers_Creepers said:

And it's white with blue stripes to 5, and blue with white stripes to 2.

This should be the case at ALL three sockets. 

(That debris inside isn't surface corrosion, is it? If so, use an old dry toothbrush to clean it, adding a spray of WD40 type stuff for good measure - that won't cause any negative issues). Also spray the terminals if there's any suspicion of damp - again, no negative issues from this, but a damp socket will seriously hit broadband speeds.) 

Thanks. I think they are that way around already.

And the white stuff is just from the plaster I think. I can gently brush most of it away.

You will need to take the faceplate off your master socket to see if the extensions are connected.

What you should normally see (or not as the case maybe) the incoming BT cable terminates at connections marked A and B at the rear of the master socket and if you have any further telephone sockets they are connected via the 2 and 5 pins from the master socket faceplate. If you have a wire going to 3, this is traditionally called the bell wire or ring wire and you should remove it as it won't do your broadband any favours.

Ok. Took master socket apart and this is what I see:
https://imgur.com/a/0oYBi4K

Does this mean I need to connect some wires to 2 and 5 on the master socket? There are a bunch of wires behind -- which ones do I connect?

Nothing there to connect too.

Is it this?

wallofbeans

If you scroll down through these images then you can see lots of pics of it:
https://imgur.com/a/0oYBi4K
And yes, it looks very much like that!

wallofbeans

It does have a 5,3,2 to connect too. Can't I just use those points?

neilmcl

I'd open up the socket to the left of the master socket to see what's in there, what's the betting it will have the cables for other phone sockets. If so you need to connect these (via the appropriate wires) to the connections on the front of the master socket faceplate.

wallofbeans

Here's a pic of behind the other mystery socket. There's no dial tone on that one.
https://imgur.com/a/phtDuUV

Hasbeen

All sockets shown only have one cable running to them.
I would assume a joint box or other connection point somewhere else.
Some info here re wiring from:   https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Telecoms/Telephone Wiring.htm

wallofbeans

Hasbeen said:

All sockets shown only have one cable running to them.
I would assume a joint box or other connection point somewhere else.
Some info here re wiring from:   https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Telecoms/Telephone Wiring.htm

The mystery socket seems to have another cable going to it. Can't I just take the 2 and 5 wires from that and connect to the 2 and 5 ports on the master socket? Or am I missing something?

Hasbeen

wallofbeans said:

Hasbeen said:

All sockets shown only have one cable running to them.
I would assume a joint box or other connection point somewhere else.
Some info here re wiring from:   https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Telecoms/Telephone Wiring.htm

The mystery socket seems to have another cable going to it. Can't I just take the 2 and 5 wires from that and connect to the 2 and 5 ports on the master socket? Or am I missing something?

That's probably what I would try. Connect 2 individual wires to the master connection where the existing 2 wires are located to the secondary socket adjacent to the master again into where the 2 wires are located. So master to first adjacent socket then hopefully cable will be active to second socket.
Or disconnect adjacent socket and see if wires will reach through to master.