BT Openreach socket and Alarm

[Mattatooi]

I have this in the hallway;



And i have this in the livingroom;



This is beside tv box and router etc for BT. When work was done with floors I got the cable rerouted under the floors, as it was installed around doors, skirting, windows etc bt BT guy.

Now, we have a basic alarm system that I need to setup. I would like to put the main keypad in the hallway and was wondering is there anyway I can get a phone line socket of this plate in the hallway rather than have to run a long and unsightly cable to hallway back from living room!?

Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance

 

[sparkymarka]

No it doesn't ...are you needing a phone line for the alarm system ?

 

[OwainDIYer]

The hallway box is a standard NTE with a blank (no-socket) faceplate. You can remove the blank faceplace and replace it with a socketed filtered faceplate eg
http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

If your lounge box is connected to the faceplate terminals, reconnect those wires to the unfiltered terminals on the back of the new faceplate. There are also filtered terminals on the faceplate which you can use if you want to hard-wire your alarm to the phone line so it cab't be accidentally unplugged.

This should be acceptable if you use ADSL but if you have FTTC / Infinity / fibre then it may slow down your broadband speed.

 

[Mattatooi]

Yeah I have Infinity which is why we moved the "master socket" to living room. I just need to connect alarm to phoneline, if i hard wire it as suggested will this effect internet performance? The run from this plate to master socket is approx 8m.

 

[bernardgreen]

Some alarm systems "take over" the phone line to ensure that the alarm call can be made even if the phone is already in use. Others simply connect to the line and hope that the line is not already in use.

Ones that take over the line have to be connected between the incoming line and the phones in the house. The incoming line goes into the alarm unit where it passes through normally closed relay contacts and then back out to the house telephone wiring. When it is necessary to make an alarm call the alarm unit first operates the relay to disconnect any calls in progress. It then connects its dialler to the phone line and waits until dialing tone is present before it makes the alarm call.

 

[Mattatooi]

Well we dont use the land line, we have it because we have to with internet. Its just a cheap alarm system that the wife decided she had to have one. Honestly I dont feel we need one, but it is a good detereeant i guess, as there had been some burgularys in the area. So she just got the Yale Premium Wireless one from screwfix - http://www.screwfix.com/p/yale-prem...rch-_-SearchRec-_-Area1&_requestid=257453#_=p

Now I believe it uses the old Radio Mic freqs (somewhere in TV63-70). And yea, I guess it isnt the most secure, but it is just meant to be a deterrant. But yea it just connects to phone socket to dial a number if alarm goes off. Was thinking of just getting the wireless keypad accesory from CPC, that I could put under the stairs, and then keep the main panel out of sight somewhere near TV in living room. Not ideal, but I do not want to run cables along skirting and through walls again!

I do have another option, i have a single cat5e cable running from same area to tv. Its not being used. It was originally going to go upstairs to room above, through ceiling, but I never went ahead with it, and its just sitting in a coil. I could use this and move the bt router to living room, but then I can only connect 1 device to it wired, and I have BT Youview box and Xbox there at the moment. All though I dont really use Xbox360 anymore, so I guess if i really needed to I can just switch the cable across.. not ideal, but hmmmmmm

 

[PBC_1966]

but then I can only connect 1 device to it wired, and I have BT Youview box and Xbox there at the moment.

Unless you have some specific need for a gigabit connection, remember that a 100-megabit connection needs only two pairs to operate over Cat5 cable, so you could run two links on a 4-pair cable.

 

[Mattatooi]

How can I do that then? I understand it only needs 2 core, think its 3rd and 6th If I recall, But as you said its irrelevant what colour cables it is, as long as the 2 ones being used are same on both ends.. so that leads to me to ask, how can I do this. How am i splitting this into 2 cables securely? Is there some sort of splitter socket type thing I can get, or do I just need to psychically split it. Wouldnt be very secure doing it that way.

I have a tool for making up rj45 ends etc. Usually I wire it to 568A, but would have to do this differently for this. Good idea.

 

[PBC_1966]

I understand it only needs 2 core, think its 3rd and 6th If I recall

Not 2 cores per link, but 2 pairs, one pair for each direction, carried on pins 1 & 2 for one pair and pins 3 & 6 for the other.

If you fit a box with a faceplate which will take two modular jacks at each end, then you can wire one jack at each end in the usual way using the orange/white and green/white pairs, then wire the second jack at each end substituting the blue/white and brown/white pairs. That is don't terminate them in the places marked for blue & brown, but terminate blue/white where you would normally put orange/white and brown/white where you would normally terminate green/white, or vice versa.

 

[Mattatooi]

Sorry I am a little bit confused, can you link me to this faceplate you are talking about? Can't work out how I am going to split it.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Move the DSL filter faceplate and router to the hall. Use the Cat5 cable to the TV. Behind the TV put a network switch and you will have enough sockets for Youview, Xbox, smart tv, and anything else needing a wired ethernet point.

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/823-netgear-gs105uk/

 

[Mattatooi]

Perfect this sounds like the simple option.

Thanks

 

[PBC_1966]

Sorry I am a little bit confused, can you link me to this faceplate you are talking about? Can't work out how I am going to split it.

A two-module plate, like this:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GU8060.html

And you fit two 8P8C modular jacks into it, like these:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CX402W.html

Then just use 2 pairs in the cable to one jack and 2 pairs to the other.

The idea of a single link and a switch as Owain suggested would likely work just as well for most applications, but keep in mind that you would then be sharing the bandwidth of the link between however many devices you connect to the switch, assuming that they're each talking to the router/outside world and not just to each other.

 

[ITGURU]

The hallway box is a standard NTE with a blank (no-socket) faceplate. You can remove the blank faceplace and replace it with a socketed filtered faceplate eg
http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

If your lounge box is connected to the faceplate terminals, reconnect those wires to the unfiltered terminals on the back of the new faceplate. There are also filtered terminals on the faceplate which you can use if you want to hard-wire your alarm to the phone line so it cab't be accidentally unplugged.

This should be acceptable if you use ADSL but if you have FTTC / Infinity / fibre then it may slow down your broadband speed.

This is what I have done with my alarm system. When I went to infinity, they changed my living room socket into the master as for some reason the one in bedroom was the master upstairs). I then connected A & B from the alarm system onto the 2 connections on the back of the master socket so it's first in line as shown below. Hidden away so cannot be disconnected - the white cable going into the back of the socket (have conduit round the room for other cables)

 

[OwainDIYer]

The idea of a single link and a switch as Owain suggested would likely work just as well for most applications, but keep in mind that you would then be sharing the bandwidth of the link between however many devices you connect to the switch, assuming that they're each talking to the router/outside world and not just to each other.

But 2 x 100 Mbps links (with each device limited to 100 Mbps) is a lot slower than 1 Gbps link shared between 2 devices, with each device able to use the full 1 Gbps when available. Even the 100 Mbps won't be available with any usual BT-based residential broadband service, but if multiple devices are connected in a home network then the Gbp will be useful for sharing stuff between devices.