Extension telephone socket

ThisIsWeird

moneysaver1978 said:

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.

MS'78, if you look closely at that second pic, you'll see what looks like a painted-over cable coming out of that master box in its bottom-rh corner.
Are you CERTAIN there's only one cable going to that master socket?

Ganga

If the master socket is working and you want a better signal upstairs or anywhere in the house just buy a set of power adaptors that can carry your broadband any where you want it.

kipsterno1

^^^ That or setup a Mesh with nodes that have LAN sockets.

Bigphil1474

OP, as above - I have BB router downstairs and a pair of TP Link plugs to take the BB upstairs to my office. Far easier. If you have plenty of plug sockets at either end just get the bog standard ones, if not, get the through plug ones. The one I have upstairs is a TP Link AV600 which acts like a mini router so I can connect to it via ethernet cable or Wi-Fi or both - works like a second network. 

casper_gutman

I have the router (actually set to operate as a cable modem only) downstairs, then four TP Link Deco P9 mesh wifi units around the house and in the garden office. For my money mesh systems are better than wifi "extenders" and the like, as they look like a single wireless network to your devices which switch seamlessly between them. I've never managed to get the same thing to happen reliably with other wifi devices.

moneysaver1978

ThisIsWeird said:

MS'78, if you look closely at that second pic, you'll see what looks like a painted-over cable coming out of that master box in its bottom-rh corner.
Are you CERTAIN there's only one cable going to that master socket?

Initially, prior to painting the walls, we thought it was a cable coming out but no it was just very poor painting!

Sorry my post wasn't clear - we do not have an issue with Wifi or internet (wifi signal is great in the study) so while mesh, extenders, or power adaptors would suit us, it still means leaving the BB router downstairs in the living room.

That said, a power adaptor could work as at least we could have the NAS plugged in the study instead of next to the BB router downstairs.

ThisIsWeird

moneysaver1978 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

MS'78, if you look closely at that second pic, you'll see what looks like a painted-over cable coming out of that master box in its bottom-rh corner.
Are you CERTAIN there's only one cable going to that master socket?

Initially, prior to painting the walls, we thought it was a cable coming out but no it was just very poor painting!

Sorry my post wasn't clear - we do not have an issue with Wifi or internet (wifi signal is great in the study) so while mesh, extenders, or power adaptors would suit us, it still means leaving the BB router downstairs in the living room.

That said, a power adaptor could work as at least we could have the NAS plugged in the study instead of next to the BB router downstairs.

Lol!

Ok, that master socket clearly works fine. It doesn't really matter what's going on outside in that brown jobbie, but there clearly is a cable coming in from and 'overhead' to that socket, so that's good. And you have strong BB - that's good too.

Since that is the only cable going to that socket, then there's your answer - the extension socket upstairs is just not connected.

I 'think' - perhaps depending on the master's design - that any competent person can add an extension cable to that master, as it usually connects to the removable bottom section of the faceplate, so doesn't actually interfere with the main wiring. But not sure if your master has that pull-off (but held by screws) separate bottom plate?

Anyhoo, if you want an extension, you know what you need to do - connect it up!

It seems pretty clear that one extension was connected at some point, and possibly the wiring to it was passed out through the exterior wall, and run externally to the master, so avoiding ugly wires inside the house?

ThisIsWeird

moneysaver1978 said:

Pretty sure that bottom section pulls off.^

It's held by clips at the sides, which you press in and pull the cover straight off, leaving the main plate behind. You can see the clips here. You can do this - it doesn't interfere with BT's wiring.

Extension cable goes to the connector revealed above, to the left of the rectangular hole. If there are no wires there, there's no extension.

The rear of the part that pulls off.

moneysaver1978

ThisIsWeird said:

Lol!

Ok, that master socket clearly works fine. It doesn't really matter what's going on outside in that brown jobbie, but there clearly is a cable coming in from and 'overhead' to that socket, so that's good. And you have strong BB - that's good too.

Since that is the only cable going to that socket, then there's your answer - the extension socket upstairs is just not connected.

I 'think' - perhaps depending on the master's design - that any competent person can add an extension cable to that master, as it usually connects to the removable bottom section of the faceplate, so doesn't actually interfere with the main wiring. But not sure if your master has that pull-off (but held by screws) separate bottom plate?

Anyhoo, if you want an extension, you know what you need to do - connect it up!

It seems pretty clear that one extension was connected at some point, and possibly the wiring to it was passed out through the exterior wall, and run externally to the master, so avoiding ugly wires inside the house?

At least that's a good mystery resolved! For the life of me, I cannot see in the extension socket how/where the cable was originally connected - I don't see any wires outside of the study and we have a solid wall (so no cavity, I assume).

Probably the easiest thing to do next if I cannot quickly trace the cable, I will need to make a hole in the back of the sideboards so we have the router inside and relocate the NAS to the study and connect to a power network adopter.

Thanks all for your help in narrowing down this!

moneysaver1978

Just to follow up....

Tested the line with a landline phone and as expected no tone. However, mystery deepens... when I tried the landline in the master socket and no tone either! 

So either the phone is a dud or there is some oddity with the connection!