Extension telephone socket

Section62

moneysaver1978 said:

Vortigern Whose logo is on the lid of the brown box? - and who is your broadband supplier? Does the black cable come down from an overhead feed?

Not sure, it is a very old brown box (we purchased the house 2 months ago) and we cannot see any logos. Our broadband supplier is Vodafone. And yes the black cable is coming down from an overhead line.

I'm fairly confident the brown box belongs to a cable provider, not OpenReach.  Normally you wouldn't expect an overhead line to be connected to a cable provider's box.

If you have an overhead cable coming from a pole in the street, and that is the black cable running down the wall into the brown box, then I'm inclined to think someone has done a DIY lashup between the OpenReach network and the remains of the cable provider's brown box, in order to get the OpenReach cable connected through to the internal master socket without having to drill a new hole through the wall.

What you've got (outside) simply doesn't look like the work of a telecoms professional - whilst that doesn't mean it definitely isn't work done by OpenReach, it is what leads me to feel there is a DIY lashup involved.

Network providers typically advise a router should be plugged into a master socket rather than an extension.  Whilst in theory the router should work in an extension socket, it may be less than reliable - more so if the master socket itself hasn't been wired in correctly.

I'd suggest you need to get OpenReach to investigate why an overhead cable is going into the brown box - even if the box is an OpenReach one it should have a cover on it, and the redundant cables should either be removed or at least safely terminated.  The problem with that is OpenReach are likely to want you to pay, and will probably deal with a 'fault' report of a router not working in an extension socket with the advice that you need to plug it into the master socket instead.

ThisIsWeird

moneysaver1978 said:

We currently have our broadband router connected to the master socket downstairs but we'd like to move the router to upstairs in the study where an extension telephone socket is.

Does this router work? Do you have BB? If so, that master socket is clearly wired correctly to an outside line.

moneysaver1978 said:

Do these wiring look right?



This is the entry to the master socket.

This is where it starts to go wrong... The only cable that could be the outside telephone line is surely the black one, with the orange and white wires passing through that wall. But, these are unusual colours to use. And, your recent pic shows the 2xblue wires actually connected to the master socket. So, is that a connector showing in the middle of that hole? If so, do the orange/white wires go it to?

Could you trace that black cable again, please! It surely does not travel overhead to a telephone post, as it doesn't appear to be a high-tensile cable that could take the loads from being suspended - unless I'm mistaken.

ThisIsWeird

moneysaver1978 said:

Below are photos of the master socket:




From my observation, I think the only cable going inside is the black one connected to the master socket. Also it seems that only 2 blue wires are connected - is this correct? Note: we purchased the house only 2 months ago.

That bit, at least, appears possibly 'correct', although it doesn't make sense in relation to the other photos. Orange and white come through the wall, and turn into the two blues?

And - quite importantly - are there any other cables/wires going to that socket from behind? If not, then your slave telephone socket can surely not be connected?

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

Could you trace that black cable again, please! It surely does not travel overhead to a telephone post, as it doesn't appear to be a high-tensile cable that could take the loads from being suspended - unless I'm mistaken.

There may be a juction/connection box at eaves level.

But if not, then I doubt there's much of a problem using a cable like that as an overhead.  The modern stuff is much lighter weight than traditional cables, and the sheath is more capable of taking strain than it once was.  Ideally you wouldn't want the cable to be very 'high-tensile' - if it gets snagged by something it is better for the cable to snap than cause a pole to topple, or rip a bargeboard/fascia off the house.

ciderboy2009

Surely, if the router is working when it's plugged into the master socket then what's outside in the brown box doesn't really matter as the OPT is clearly getting a connection.

To me it's clearly a problem between the master socket and the extension.

Section62

ciderboy2009 said:

Surely, if the router is working when it's plugged into the master socket then what's outside in the brown box doesn't really matter as the OPT is clearly getting a connection.

To me it's clearly a problem between the master socket and the extension.

The quality of connection/signal also matters.

A poor signal at the master socket could become no usable signal at the extension socket.

molerat

It looks like the white wire going in to the wall is connected into a crimp which could explain the different colours coming out the other end.

FFHillbilly

moneysaver1978 said:

Is there another cable that we haven't seen a phot of inside the master socket? If not, that is why the extension/slave socket isn't working

moneysaver1978

I can confirm that the router works fine reliably (and getting speeds of 63mb) and we haven't had any issues since we got a new router. No engineer visit required either - just plug in and go.

I am able to trace the black cable along the front of the house towards the top where it's then connected to the telephone mast. I don't see an other junction box or anything like that.

There's a sky dish already but the cable doesn't go down that brown box - it instead went up over the roof and coming down to the other side of the living room!

Unless I am mistaken I think many years ago by the previous owners had a cable TV (NTL? virgin media?) for TV where the TV was by the front of the house and then the owners after them went with Sky and had TV by the back of the house. And it was perhaps these owners or engineer who cut the cables?

There was a big box next to the master socket (FM/TV) with a cut white cable sticking out. When I went to the other side (brown box) to investigate what the white cable was, I realised that it was cut from outside too! So I simply pulled it out.

Below are the pics before we painted the walls an as you can see, only 1 black cable for the telephone socket.

If you have an overhead cable coming from a pole in the street, and that is the black cable running down the wall into the brown box, then I'm inclined to think someone has done a DIY lashup between the OpenReach network and the remains of the cable provider's brown box, in order to get the OpenReach cable connected through to the internal master socket without having to drill a new hole through the wall.

That does worry me!

Will pick up a landline telephone tomorrow to determine if the line connected to the extension socket is a dud or not.

FFHillbilly

moneysaver1978 said:

Will pick up a landline telephone tomorrow to determine if the line connected to the extension socket is a dud or not.

you don't need to bother, if there is only one cable going into the master socket, you don't have any slave sockets connected. mystery solved!