Phone Extension Wiring Question

[PatrickW]

Hello all,

BT Engineer has just set up my broadband, but he had to fix some faulty wiring to get it done.

Because of that, one of the phone sockets in the house doesn't work. I have just moved in, so I'm not sure whether it ever worked or not.

The engineer told me that I needed to know that he "used the orange pair" and "the current wiring is "orange orange white", and that is how it in the extension box for the extension to work.

I have looked at the wiring inside that extension socket and it is currently wired

1. Blue with short white bands.

2. Not connected

3. Orange with short white bands.

4. White with short blue bands

5. White with short green bands.

6. Green with short white bands.

The cable white with short orange bands is not connected.

Based on what the BT Enginner said, can someone help me with which wires to connect to which pins?

I also seem to recall reading somewhere that with domestic phone extensions, usually only 2 of the wires are actually needed - is that true?

cheers

 

[kbdiy]

The extension socket won't work connected as you describe. The significant connections are 2, 5 and 3, all others are superfluous in a domestic setup.

What type of socket has been used for the broadband? It should be an NTE which has a removable plate which is used to connect extensions. You need a pair of wires, normally white/blue + blue/white to connect between terminals 2 & 5 on the removable plate to 2 & 5 in the ext socket. In addition use orange/white to connect terminal 3 from the face plate to term 3 in the ext socket.

EDIT - please post some pics so we can be sure what you are looking at

 

[plugwash]

We need more information.

Firstly can you tell us what type of broadband you have? I'm guessing from the fact you had a BT engineer out that it was some sort of fiber to the cabinet service (BT infinity, sky fiber etc).

Secondly can you discribe the wiring in all phone sockets you have both working and non-working.

 

[TonyW2]

The extension is incorrectly wired.
Check that the cable on the extension socket does go to the master socket.
On the extension, connect any pair to terminals 2 & 5 ( eg. blue to 2 and blue/white dash to 5) Connection 3 is not required on modern phones & may cause slower broadband if connected..Leave all other wires unconnected.
At the master socket connect the same 2 & 5 connections to the same colour used on the extension. It does not even matter if the 2 & 5 get switched around.
Use a microfilter on the sockets, or learn about filtered NT5 face plates.
And next time, post in alarms and phone section!!

 

[PatrickW]

Yes it is a BT Infinity service that was installed.

There is an openreach BT socket with a data connection at the top, and the phone socket at the bottom, fitted by the engineer. I am not sure but I think he fitted a new faceplate unit over the top of an old faceplate that had been labelled ADSL.

I am a bit worried about opening that up as I don't want to do anything that could disturb the broadband connection.

He has done something to divert the master socket from its original location in the hall, to the study, and installed BT infinity in the study.

There is a lot of internal phone wiring in the walls of the house, but it appears that at some point in the past, that wiring has all been diverted or disconnected. There is now a cable from the original master socket, around the outside of the house, to the study, and another cable from the study, to another extension in another room.

At this point, the only socket which is working is the one which is in the study and has BT Infinity also working on it. Effectively that is now the master socket. The engineer said that the socket in the hall was still working, and I'm pretty sure it did work when he left but it has stopped working now.

I am concerned that if I interfere with what's been done so far, I might break the connection to the socket in the study.

I am starting to think the safest solution now is to run yet another cables from the socket in the study to any other locations where we need a socket (for example for Sky TV). Either that or pay for another BT enginner to come out to fix the problems.

I was just hoping that from what the engineer said about "Connect orange pairs" that would be enough to know what to do.

thanks
Patrick.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And next time, post in alarms and phone section!!

Or look in the Wiki.

 

[davelx]

You should not need to touch the master socket, only the extension.

Connect the two orangey cores at the extension socket to 2 & 5 and try it. (the Bell connection, terminal 3, is generally redundant these days). Disconnect all the others at the extension socket.

If it works, you're sorted.

The BT engineer had to move your master socket because BT Infinity requires the modem to connect to the master, not to an extension.

 

[plugwash]

There is an openreach BT socket with a data connection at the top, and the phone socket at the bottom, fitted by the engineer. I am not sure but I think he fitted a new faceplate unit over the top of an old faceplate that had been labelled ADSL.

The FTTC master stocket setup has three peices.

The front peice is a normal NTE5 front plate, it has connections on the back (IDC) and front (BT phone socket) for the user and a plug on the back to connect to the next peice back in the stack. It is only involved in phone not in broadband.

The middle peice is the filter. It has the broadband socket at the top, a plug at the back to connect to the incoming line and a socket on the front into which the front peice is plugged for phone.

The back peice is a normal NTE5 back peice carrying the combined phone and VDSL setup.

He has done something to divert the master socket from its original location in the hall, to the study, and installed BT infinity in the study.

There is a lot of internal phone wiring in the walls of the house, but it appears that at some point in the past, that wiring has all been diverted or disconnected. There is now a cable from the original master socket, around the outside of the house, to the study, and another cable from the study, to another extension in another room.

It is very likely we can get all the sockets working without adding any new wiring but to tell you how to do it I need to know what connections are made in all three of the sockets (including wires joined to wires by jellies)

 

[plugwash]

You should not need to touch the master socket, only the extension.

Connect the two orangey cores at the extension socket to 2 & 5 and try it. (the Bell connection, terminal 3, is generally redundant these days). Disconnect all the others at the extension socket.

If it works, you're sorted.

Doing this sort of thing without knowing how the wiring is connected may end up connecting the extension to the unfiltered side of the wiring which will break or at least seriously impact your broadband.

The BT engineer had to move your master socket because BT Infinity requires the modem to connect to the master, not to an extension.

More specifically BT insist on a single filter system for FTTC with a filter at the master socket and all phones connected via that filter.

 

[PatrickW]

OK, because I an not a wiring expert and have not studied these things in detail, I do not feel confident at disconnecting and reconnecting wires at neither the master socket, nor the socket that used to be the master socket that is clearly where the main BT cable comes into the property. I do not want to risk interfering with the BT Infinity service as I have already had some problems and waited an extra week for the broadband to work.

However I am ok to change wiring on what was clearly always an extension socket and never a master socket, as I assume that even if it doesn't work, I can always disconnect everything and it will be no harm done.

Therefore I plan to try connecting the orange wires to 2 and 5 on the extension. If that works, fine, if it doesn't, I'll disconnect it again and I'll have to call in an expert.