Changing BT Socket for MK

[303mc]

Hi,
I have purchased an MK telephone socket to match existing accessories, but i am having a little trouble connecting it, perhaps you could help?!

My 'line in' has 4 cores, Orange, Blue, Purple and Green. Only 2 of these are currently being used. The orange is connected to 'A' in the BT socket, and the blue is connected to 'B'

MK Socket has number marked terminals, not letters.
(It's definitely a master socket BTW)

The instruction leaflet says to connect the Orange to number 3, and the blue to number 2.. I tried this, but no dialtone!

Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Spark123]

Think the line connects to 2(blue) and 5(orange), pin 3 is ringer signal which is produced by the master socket.

 

[crystal ball]

It may be apocryphal, but i have heard tales of BT charging to replace customers master sockets with their own (if they find out that is)

 

[JohnD]

What makes you want to change it?

(p,s, put the old one back before you go to bed as BT run line tests overnight)

 

[Lectrician]

orange 5, blue 2

This will work, but you should really have a standard BT master (NTE5 or similar) at the origin, and then run cables to secondary sockets. In new builds, it is common for the BT master to be located in a cupboard.

 

[Adam_151]

In new builds, it is common for the BT master to be located in a cupboard.

We had NTL install our master socket in the loft , I just need to properly sort out our structured cabling system, instead of having all the network points cabled back to points in my office (sorry bedroom ), going to have a patch rack in the loft, gonna put cat5 in for the phones as well eventually (just have to be careful not to get muddled and plug a computer into a phone port, or vice versa...)

 

[plugwash]

depending on what pins you put the phone signals on you may find you can wire a port so you can just plug in either!

as to messing with the master socket afaict you won't have problems until you have a line fault. Then they will often insist on charging you to replace anything non bt that shouldn't be there (read any non bt stuff they can identify in anything up to and including the top half of the NTE5) and you WILL NOT be refunded for this even if the fault turns out to be with BTs stuff.

If there is a connection box further back (e.g. on the outside wall) then you could get some bt spec cable (get CW1308 cable not whatever cheap stuff your local wholesaler sells bt CAN tell the difference) and move the NTE5 to a hidden location. Then run extentions from its customer side panel.

 

[viewer]

I had problems going from BT to a Crabtree because the numbering doesn't match. The answer was to see both ends as arrows (the pointed side being your reference); then just use the terminal positions to make them correspond.
Hope this helps.

 

[plugwash]

btw does anyone know if and where you can get NTE5 bottom pannels with no socket? i'm pretty sure they exist but i don't think i've ever seen them for sale.

 

[Steve]

crystalball and JohnD, if BT are so against customers fitting other brands of phone socket, why do they allow them to make them?

 

[JohnD]

crystalball and JohnD, if BT are so against customers fitting other brands of phone socket, why do they allow them to make them?

I didn't say they were against it? I've always assumed the other brands were when a housebuilder puts in the phone wiring and is paid by BT. I did wonder though what was the point of going to the trouble of taking out one white phone socket and putting in a different one. The overnight tests BT do are automatic and I believe test impedance, capacitance and resistance to earth, so they can forecast faults and they also keep a register of circuits quality so they know what can be upgraded (in a previous life I was involved in the provision of ISDN2E lines to 20,000 high street newsagents, and BT could usually forecast which ones would be OK prior to touching a screwdriver).

 

[crystal ball]

I used to be a spark in a factory which had its own phone system, policy was to use master sockets for all extensions, it was always the case in a domestic property that the first master was a BT one, things may have changed now with other operators in the scene

 

[plugwash]

master sockets are sold for a few reasons

1: they are used on PBX systems (private exchanges in commercial buildings)
2: they can be used for extentions where only two wires are availible.
3: bt can't stop manufacturers selling em.

i doubt any of thier automated tests will pick up a non-bt master. its just the case of if there is a problem with the line and the bt guy notices it that theres an issue.

with new builds i think bt still generally fits the master sockets though i could be wrong.

 

[1974stephen]

The three components on the back of a master socket are a capacitor, an arrestor / suppressor and a resistor. The capacitor is for the ringing, the arrestor / suppressor is for lightening protection and the resistor was an "out of service resistor" which was originally going to be used by BT for seeing whether a line was still in use, but they never used the latter hence, BT will never know whether it's an NTE5 or other master socket connected. Whether they choose to change it when they find one very much depends on how much of a jobs worth the particular engineer is who turns up.