Phone extension project

[stevo59]

Hello,
I'm just in the process of renovating my home and have decided to extend my telephone system around the house whilst I'm doing this. I want to connect a line from the Master BT socket which will run to a junction box - then off this junction box, I want to connect three slave sockets up at various locations. My problem is in choosing a suitable junction box that will accomodate all four phone wires going into it (the feed from the master plus one wire from each of the three slave sockets)..... the junction boxes I have looked at don't seem to accomodate this many wires.
Could someone point me in the right direction and issue guidance please?
Many thanks,
Tim.

 

[TonyW2]

Before settling for that arrangement, are you sure it is the best design when you are undertaking a house phone network desire?
You will have 5 sockets that are OK for phones but less than ideal for broadband.
For broadband you would have to fit filters on all socket outlets and the star wiring from the first extension socket is not the best choice.

 

[stevo59]

To be honest, for the broadband requirement, I was going to do a seperate run of ethernet cable around the house, going from my router to various locations. You can probably tell from this that I am a novice to this but in my mind, it seems logical. Although, if you have any suggestions for alternatives, I'm all ears. I have to lay whatever wires/lines next week - after that, the renovation work will be too far along to plant new wires under floors/ above ceilings...

 

[OwainDIYer]

IDC connectors will take 2 wires.

If you arrange your wire correctly and don't cut the cable, but strip the sheath leaving the cores continuous, you can use the same continuous cable for 2 points, running unbroken through the terminal.

That counts as 1 wire. Use another unbroken cable for the 'in' and the third 'out'

Or use a screw terminal block as sold for burglar alarms.

 

[bernardgreen]

A BT 77A junction box will connect 4 cables together with up to 6 cores per cable

http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/BT77A.html

( there are other suppliers )

If you are star wiring your phones then you shoul use a filtered front plate on the master socket to separate ADSL and phone signals. Star wiring can seriously reduce the quality of ADSL signals.

http://www.solwise.co.uk/adsl_splitters-faceplates.htm

( there are other suppliers )

 

[stevo59]

Thanks to the replies, you have given me something to think about over the weekend!

 

[TonyW2]

Use the filtered face plate mentioned to replace the front of your BT master socket.Get solid core telephone cable.Get extension sockets with phone and ADSL jack outlets. Use one pair of the cable to link the A B connections and one pair to link 2 & 5 from the master to the extension. Then continue onto the next extension. Do not fit to 1,3,6.
Everything is now neatly fitted with filtered phone and router socket options everywhere.
Then consider fitting your computer network, using RJ45 wall outlets simply interconnected with cat5 or 6 solid core cable. Use proper IDC tool (£10)
Lovely neat job.
Options then exist to interconnect all your computer stuff.

 

[stevo59]

Use the filtered face plate mentioned to replace the front of your BT master socket.Get solid core telephone cable.Get extension sockets with phone and ADSL jack outlets. Use one pair of the cable to link the A B connections and one pair to link 2 & 5 from the master to the extension. Then continue onto the next extension. Do not fit to 1,3,6.
Everything is now neatly fitted with filtered phone and router socket options everywhere.
Then consider fitting your computer network, using RJ45 wall outlets simply interconnected with cat5 or 6 solid core cable. Use proper IDC tool (£10)
Lovely neat job.
Options then exist to interconnect all your computer stuff.

Now there's an idea! I'm going to price this up today - I'm guessing it will be cheaper than buying seperate ethernet cabling and sockets etc.... thanks.

 

[stevo59]

Use the filtered face plate mentioned to replace the front of your BT master socket.Get solid core telephone cable.Get extension sockets with phone and ADSL jack outlets. Use one pair of the cable to link the A B connections and one pair to link 2 & 5 from the master to the extension. Then continue onto the next extension. Do not fit to 1,3,6.
Everything is now neatly fitted with filtered phone and router socket options everywhere.
Then consider fitting your computer network, using RJ45 wall outlets simply interconnected with cat5 or 6 solid core cable. Use proper IDC tool (£10)
Lovely neat job.
Options then exist to interconnect all your computer stuff.

I wouldn't need to fit the RJ45 sockets yet? I could simply plug computers etc into the ADSL socket of the dual slave plate couldn't I? And then expand the computer network at a future time?

 

[TonyW2]

Well you could plug your router/modem into the ADSL sockert of the phone extension but then your computers would need to be fed by ethernet cable from the router/modem, just as though you had not wired up a network.
The RJ45 sockets cost very little so I cant understand why you would not want to fit them whilst cabling up the house.
Should be far cheaper than having ethernet cables trailing everywhere

 

[stevo59]

Well you could plug your router/modem into the ADSL sockert of the phone extension but then your computers would need to be fed by ethernet cable from the router/modem, just as though you had not wired up a network.
The RJ45 sockets cost very little so I cant understand why you would not want to fit them whilst cabling up the house.
Should be far cheaper than having ethernet cables trailing everywhere

I know this sounds dim but you've lost me with the RJ45 sockets. How would I interface these sockets with extension dual phone and ADSL sockets? Would I not just plug computers into the slave wall socket with integral ADSL socket? I'd be very grateful if you could clarify this as the idea you suggested sounds really good and like you said, will net a considerable saving against having to run ethernet cables throughout.

 

[bernardgreen]

The RJ45 sockets cost very little so I cant understand why you would not want to fit them whilst cabling up the house.

If you mean to run the ADSL signal around the house ( separate from the phone wiring ) to RJ45 sockets then you need to ensure there are no stubs on the system. ( A stub is a cable that branches off from the main cable, the equivalent to a dead end side street from a main road ) Some of the ADSL signal will go down the stub, be reflected at the dead end and return to the main highway after a delay ( the time to travel along the stub ). The modem see the signal followed by an echo ( from the stub ) and this degrades the ADSL signal as seen by the modem / router

 

[TonyW2]

The extension sockets are only for connecting telephones or your internet router/modem to the incoming phone line.
Your computer network cabling and sockets are entirely separate circuit with a different type of cable, but easily installed whilst house is being rewired.
Your computers need to connect to the router/modem using Ethernet cable. This can be neatened up by fitting RJ45 system wall sockets wherever convenient in each room and interconnecting each of those sockets with cat 5 cable to sockets near to the router.
These sockets can be fitted into one wall box for neatness.(Google modular fittings)
Perhaps you could read up on computer networks and also consider a patch panel

 

[stevo59]

The extension sockets are only for connecting telephones or your internet router/modem to the incoming phone line.
Your computer network cabling and sockets are entirely separate circuit with a different type of cable, but easily installed whilst house is being rewired.
Your computers need to connect to the router/modem using Ethernet cable. This can be neatened up by fitting RJ45 system wall sockets wherever convenient in each room and interconnecting each of those sockets with cat 5 cable to sockets near to the router.
These sockets can be fitted into one wall box for neatness.(Google modular fittings)
Perhaps you could read up on computer networks and also consider a patch panel

Many thanks for your advice - I'm just looking into computer networking now and hopefully during next week, I can get everything wired up as necessary. You've certainly spurred me on to make a good, tidy job of it!