no mastersocket

[MarcoM]

Hello we do not have a mastersocket.
We have one socket near the front door, one in thd kitchen and one upstairs.
All sockets look like the one in the attached pic.

Immediately outside the front door there is a grey box with three black wires going
out of it. I suspect these are phone wires.

Do I need to get bt down to install a proper master socket?

Regards

 

[rsgaz]

The one near the front door is probably actually a master socket.

The early/smaller ones looked the same whether they were a master or not. You will have to look inside it and look for the extra components on the PCB.

LJU2/1A master

Secondary/slave/extension sockets don't have the components soldered on...

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

BT tend to fit modern master sockets, when ever they need to enter a premises to investigate a fault on a line, otherwise they will charge for the work. That photo looks like an extension socket, but you need to look at the back of it to be sure - idea of the modern master is that is makes it easier for their engineer (or you) to isolate any extensions from the line and test just the master socket. Any fault found in the extensions, are then your problem to resolve, unless you are paying BT to install and maintain them.

 

[MarcoM]

hi again,

i have done some more investigation and thefe is a grey box outside the door with one black wire going into it and three coming out.
i think two go to the upler floor and one to a junction box downstairs which then spluts via white wire into two slave sockets.

now my question is, can i rewire the black wire into a more modern junction box or is connecting the black wire into something bt ' s remit?

also if i order fibre would they install a mastersocket for free?

regards

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It sounds very much like someone has just botched things up, rather than doing it properly. The whole lot probably needs to be ripped out and done properly. Are you using the line for Internet?

You incoming line should go straight to a master socket, then from there, it can go to any additional sockets you might need - idea is that an engineer (or you) can unplug all of the slave sockets and wiring from the line, to be able to just check the line alone easily. Modern master sockets also include a broadband filter, so a modem can be plugged straight in without needing a separate filter.

There are two versions of fibre. One has fibre to your door, the second uses copper from the box in the road.

We still don't know for certain what you have at the moment. Could you manage some photos showing the actual internal connections, including the inside of the grey box?

Many people these days use wireless phones, so much less need for more than one socket. My system has a master, with the fibre over copper modem plugged straight into that, then around 8 slave sockets around the house, which I installed in the pre-wireless days, along with LAN sockets and TV antennas. Only one of the slaves is used, that to plug a wireless base station in, then I have four wireless phone scattered around the house, in chargers (BT-8500).

The BT-8500 includes a built in nuisance caller blocker, which completely prevents them getting through - it logged 7 attempts, in the past 7 days.

 

[MarcoM]

hi here are some pics of the box outside with the black wire going in and the two blacks going out to junction boxes which then connect to slave sockets.

 

[rsgaz]

It's still not very clear what is going on from those photos. (You could have brushed out the spider eggs!!)

The second photo is a Block Terminal 80A, not a socket like we were expecting. Although those cables under the block terminal have been painted over, you can see from the stripped end that they both have a white jacket, so these would normally be for your extensions internally.

The black cables outside could be a red herring, especially as the incoming line(up from below) looks a thicker cable which can carry 4 or 5 phone lines(AKA 4 or 5 pairs). Have you traced them to see where they actually go? One could be your neighbours, or maybe a previous tenant had a second line for a fax.

You'll probably have to get BT to swap the indoor Block Terminal over for a modern master socket. Don't worry if that isn't where you want your router, that can still go into any socket. The outside grey box will almost definitely have to stay, without spending a small fortune on starting from scratch.