Two landlines support

rustyboy

hi all. 

We moved into a house in April and there are two telephone lines running to the property from the telegraph pole near the property. 

One goes to the main house and the other to an outbuilding at the back of the property. 

The main one works - we have everything plugged in and working. 

I’ve tried plugging a phone into the outbuilding telephone line and that brings up nothing. I’d like to use this as a home office. The WiFi from the main house doesn’t reach that far as it’s a stone cottage and the boosters won’t boost. 

How do I go about seeing if the second phone line works/is registered with anyone? 

Thanks for  any support 

Neil_Jones

network cable.

You can get network cable that is suitable for an outdoor run/buried in the ground though you can put it into trunking if you wish and it connects to your router.

You can then just connect something like a wireless access point to this and you have wifi in this new office.

Keep_pedalling

Do you have power running to the outbuilding from the house? If you do then you maybe able to extend your network with power adapters. 

If not and running Ethernet cables to the outbuilding is not practical then a mesh network with an external node on the wall nearest the outbuilding might fit the bill.

Vitor

- How do I go about seeing if the second phone line works/is registered with anyone? -

Openreach can put a signal on the wire and try to pick it up at the nearest street cabinet or at the Exchange

rustyboy

Keep_pedalling said:

Do you have power running to the outbuilding from the house? If you do then you maybe able to extend your network with power adapters. 

If not and running Ethernet cables to the outbuilding is not practical then a mesh network with an external node on the wall nearest the outbuilding might fit the bill.

So I tried this when we first moved in. Ethernet through the window of the sunroom and over the path and through the window of the outbuilding. But not practical. 

Did you have any good suggestions for mesh network? 

rustyboy

Vitor said:

- How do I go about seeing if the second phone line works/is registered with anyone? -

Openreach can put a signal on the wire and try to pick it up at the nearest street cabinet or at the Exchange

Do you know how I’d go about this? Just ringing them?

Emmia

rustyboy said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Do you have power running to the outbuilding from the house? If you do then you maybe able to extend your network with power adapters. 

If not and running Ethernet cables to the outbuilding is not practical then a mesh network with an external node on the wall nearest the outbuilding might fit the bill.

So I tried this when we first moved in. Ethernet through the window of the sunroom and over the path and through the window of the outbuilding. But not practical. 

Did you have any good suggestions for mesh network? 

That sounds like a bodge to test it out, personally I'd dig a trench and run the appropriate cables properly.

mta999

Don't think the public can contact Openreach direct

Probably the best place to start will be to ring your supply of the number that is working and ask them to come and see if they can check the second line.

They should then contact Openreach to do it

Boohoo

Emmia said:

rustyboy said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Do you have power running to the outbuilding from the house? If you do then you maybe able to extend your network with power adapters. 

If not and running Ethernet cables to the outbuilding is not practical then a mesh network with an external node on the wall nearest the outbuilding might fit the bill.

So I tried this when we first moved in. Ethernet through the window of the sunroom and over the path and through the window of the outbuilding. But not practical. 

Did you have any good suggestions for mesh network? 

That sounds like a bodge to test it out, personally I'd dig a trench and run the appropriate cables properly.

You could get some Ethernet cable and push it through a length of hosepipe and drill a small hole in the outbuilding and the same in the house and crimp the connectors on each end connect to  router but this is only doable if you can place the pipe out of the way.

It's similar to Virgin media green pipe used for their installations.

Emmia

Boohoo said:

Emmia said:

rustyboy said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Do you have power running to the outbuilding from the house? If you do then you maybe able to extend your network with power adapters. 

If not and running Ethernet cables to the outbuilding is not practical then a mesh network with an external node on the wall nearest the outbuilding might fit the bill.

So I tried this when we first moved in. Ethernet through the window of the sunroom and over the path and through the window of the outbuilding. But not practical. 

Did you have any good suggestions for mesh network? 

That sounds like a bodge to test it out, personally I'd dig a trench and run the appropriate cables properly.

You could get some Ethernet cable and push it through a length of hosepipe and drill a small hole in the outbuilding and the same in the house and crimp the connectors on each end connect to  router but this is only doable if you can place the pipe out of the way.

It's similar to Virgin media green pipe used for their installations.

I think running the cable "in the air" between two buildings will be a bit irritating if you're moving things along the path (?) between them and will look terrible.
If you're doing improvements to the outbuilding to allow it to be used for a home office, I'd just do this as well.

Newcad

Activating the second line will mean a new phone number, with a new VOIP phone, new router, and a new broadband account - with all the associated setup and ongoing monthly costs.

Is that what you are looking for here?

If so then treat as as moving into any office anywhere that isn't currently connected, and get the provider of your choice to quote for a broadband with phone package and re-connection to the existing line.

If what you actually want is to use your existing phone (number), broadband, etc. then you need to extend those to the outbuilding rather than connecting to a different phoneline.