Telephone and ADSL installation wiring

[diyfodder]

Hi There all,

I have my phone line coming straight in to my socket (there is nothing in between). I bought an "ADSL nation" XTE-2005 (I think that is what it is). It has the following connections:
2, 3, 5, A, B.

The electrician left me a cable with four coloured wires:
White, Brown, Green, Black.

After some tinkering I found that if I connect it up as follows both my phone and broadband work:
Brown -- A
White -- B

Nothing else is connected at all. So I lived with that for a while, but then I wanted to move my phone to a different location and leave the adsl where it is. So I run a second cable connected to A and B to where my phone is and connected that to a remote socket, and this also works ok.

However I have no idea why! So my questions are:
- Is correct?
- Is this causing unnecessary noise on my system?
- What are 2, 3, 5 used for?

Finally my adsl nation fixture does not fit my wall mounting because the wall mount is flat and the adsl is not flat back and has slightly different screw fixings. What do I need to do to attach it to the wall nicely - is there some spacer I have to buy?

Pic 1 shows my wiring. You can see the Brown and White wires coming in from the "outside" world, and then my "extension" wire (which is just an ethernet cable that I am using 2 of the wires from) is also connected to the same connections A and B to my phone extension socket elsewhere in the house:

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• diyfodder
• 18 Dec 2013
• 1

Pic 2 shows my wall mouting and the ADSL that don't fit together : (

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• diyfodder
• 18 Dec 2013
• 1

Thanks very much for any pointers.

 

[ericmark]

The standard extension uses wires 2, 3, and 5 so it would seem likely that's what you need to do.

Wire 3 makes bell work and is not required with powered phones i.e. cordless. Also cordless do not seem to mind if 2 and 5 are swapped. However if 2 and 5 are wrong way around with normal old type phone the bell can fail.

I say this as I thought I had a faulty phone when 2 and 5 got swapped as it would not work but others would.

 

[AndyPRK]

that is a front plate you have, and is meant to fit on a master socket.

You can get them off ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-B...968?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cd9cdec28


your missing the back bit shown here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-...814?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4acd867856

 

[diyfodder]

Thanks both for your replies,

I will try to wire my phone up through the 2 and 5 connections and I am ordering up a master socket... : )

But what confuses me at the moment is why everything even works!, and as it is working, is it working in a very poor quality way? (i.e. would I expect better signal to noise ratio if/when I re-wire this up with master socket / and split the phone off using 2/5 connections?

 

[AndyPRK]

yes you are quite lucky its working.

I wouldn't expect a noticeable improvement though.

 

[maltaron]

I am confused as to your setup. Your incoming phone line should be terminated by BT Openreach to an NTE5 socket and the only connections you should make to this is extension phones to terminals 2,3 & 5 on the removable front plate. You can get a replacement filtered front plate which allows you to plug in your phone and an Ethernet lead for broadband. If you need to call out Openreach to a fault and they find non standard wiring you may well get a big bill.

 

[diyfodder]

Well, I just ordered a "BT Openreach Master Sockets NTE5a", but quite literally my setup is just using a "faceplate" connected directly to the outside cable.

I also read on the ADSL nation that you are not meant to replace the Master Socket with the faceplate so I will be fixing this as soon as it arrives. But I still have no idea what A and B connections are and why they work... are they equivelent to connections 2 and 5?

 

[Sureitsoff?]

the connections 2.3.5 and A.B on the back of the adsl nation plate are for normal extensions via an inbuilt (but better quality) micro filter these are the 2.3.5 and the A.B are for connecting a socket for your modem. I have had one of these faceplates for years and it is a great bit of kit

installation guide here

http://www.adslnation.com/downloads/docs/XTE-2005_Guide.pdf

 

[flameport]

The electrician left me a cable with four coloured wires:
White, Brown, Green, Black.

After doing what? Where has the original master socket or other connection box gone?

If this electrician removed it, then it is up to them to pay Openreach to fit a new one.

A&B are the incoming line, generally orange and white.
The green/black pair would be used for another separate line if you wanted one. As you only have one line, they are not used.

While buying a master socket from ebay and fitting it yourself may resolve the issue, the real question is why it was removed in the first place.

 

[bernardgreen]

Wire 3 makes bell work and is not required with powered phones i.e. cordless.

Not true for all "powered" phones. Some do use the bell wire for ring detect so wire 3 and the capacitor in the master socket are necessary.

Without doubt diyfodder needs to get the builder to rectify the bodge he has created. While it may work at the moment if there is ever a need to report a fault on the line then OpenReach will discover there is no master socket ( the lack of capacitor and inservice resistor will be detected ) and an expensive call out will be needed. DIY ( non OpenReach ) wiring connected directly to the incoming pair ( other than by plug and socket ) is a no no and it is likely that no amount of tea and choccy biscuits will swing the OpenReach technician.

 

[cajar]

Electrically much the same as a standard setup if you put your extension cable into 2 and 5. However, the cable the electrician left your line on looks like cheap stranded alarm wire, not to bt spec. If so, it wont make a firm connection in the idc terminals and the quality of the wire itself isnt good enough. Could be knocking your speed down substantially. Will need to be re-ran in proper bt spec cable.