Testing landline telephone socket

330d

Just bought a house and it has two phone sockets next to each other which is strange. I need to identify what the difference is between the two and which one is live.

Originally I thought one maybe BT and the other Virgin, buy there is no Virgin Media connection going to the house.

So is it a simple case of getting a corded phone and plugging it in to see if I can get a dial tone?

Will I even hear a dial tone as I don't have any landline services with anyone?

Roland_Sausage

One of the previous occupants probably had 2 lines. Eg a personal line and a business line. Or even one for phone calls and one for dial up, a long time ago.

You may or may not hear dial tone on one or both of the lines, depending on when they were cancelled and whether they are still connected to anything at the other end.

330d

So how do I determine which socket is live then?

J_B

There *may* still be a dial tone, even if the line has been discontinued.

Plug a basic phone in and dial 17070

Sandtree

330d said:

So how do I determine which socket is live then?

Have you contacted a provider to have a line activated? Have they confirmed its now live?

Most simply, plug a phone in and see if it works after they say its live.

Depending on how old they are you could take the front off, a modernish master socket will have another socket behind the face so if they both have these then almost certainly there used to be two lines. Unfortunately the absence of one can just be a symptom of its age.

forgotmyname

I have 2 sockets. Back in the days before BB I had 2 lines. One for the internet and one for the phone line.

BT fitted filter before they came in a small dongles you simply plug in yourself. I was a bit of a guinea pig
for hardware changes it seems.