What to do with crazy telephone wiring?

[b-doherty]

Hi All,

This is my first time posting on this site, so be gentle.

I am setting up an office in my new house and want to sort out the telephone wiring.

Here's the current setup:-

The BT line comes into a connection box in the hall.

From here a line runs to a master socket in the living room.

Another line runs from the hall connection box back outside up to the second floor where it enters the spare room and goes into another connection box. The line then flows from here under the floor boards to the other side of the room to the first slave socket. From there it goes up to the attic, down to a socket in the master bedroom, back up to the attic, then down into the office to another socket, and then finally down through the floor into the dining room! (phew out of breath)

My primary concern is that all the additional sockets don't seem to be going through the master socket as recommended by the web sites I've been looking at. Such as this one:

http://www.diydata.com/projects/telephone_socket/telephone_sockets.htm

So am I right to be concerned by this? What is the worst thing that could happen if I continued with this setup?

 

[plugwash]

to be honest the worst that can happen is that if there is a fault bt can blame it and possiblly charge for disconnecting it before they start looking into the fault.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I thought the worst that could happen was that the local time-flux could get reversed, and a singularity would materialise inside the master socket, leading to local gravitational anomalies and a strange buzzing noise.

Good job I didn't post that!

 

[Har_vey]

Shame scotty isn't still with us though. That's the sort of thing he would have liked to have said.

 

[blueblob]

if its working then leacve it alone...if its aint it could have something to do with the amount of sockets you got were from what little I know the forth socket needs a capacitor to "pull" the ring circuit though!!!

 

[JohnD]

That only happems if you've got a blue box.

One of my neighbours connected his extension sockets without going through the Master socket, and had problrms with (I think) the phones not ringing.

But it's a very easy job to put the master socket wherever the BT line enters your house, and run all the extensions from there. Just needs a whlte sutface box, a small screwdriver, a little plastic wire-pusher and a bit of paper to carefully note which colour wire goes to what terminal. You can even buy a reel of phone cable and a 6-way connector bix from screwfix.

Obvioulsy, I've never done such a thing myself.

 

[plugwash]

One of my neighbours connected his extension sockets without going through the Master socket, and had problrms with (I think) the phones not ringing.

yes the ringer line is generated in the master socket mostly for historical reasons. ofc if there are spare wires from the master socket back to your branch point (which there usually are as most phone cable is at least 4 core) then you can use one of theese for the ringer signal and of course theres the possibility of a second master socket.

But it's a very easy job to put the master socket wherever the BT line enters your house, and run all the extensions from there. Just needs a whlte sutface box, a small screwdriver, a little plastic wire-pusher and a bit of paper to carefully note which colour wire goes to what terminal. You can even buy a reel of phone cable and a 6-way connector bix from screwfix.

and the beuty of doing this is that bt have no way to tell (i highly doubt they keep records of the exact location in the house of everyones master socket and if they do i doubt they have the time to recognise)

finally does anyone know exactly what cable type BT use? i have a friend (and its someone who is on theese forums) who moved the master socket before getting a line reconnected (his family moved from BT to ntl some time ago and he moved the BT line to his room so he could have his own phone line and ADSL) and the BT guy spotted the "diy cable" (it was 4 core phone cable from screwfix) though when my friend denied having touched the system the bt guy connected the line anyway.

 

[JohnD]

I have a friend of a friend who laid his hands on some surplus BT cable from the skip after BT had been working at his office

 

[HDRW]

...

My primary concern is that all the additional sockets don't seem to be going through the master socket as recommended by the web sites I've been looking at. Such as this one:

http://www.diydata.com/projects/telephone_socket/telephone_sockets.htm

So am I right to be concerned by this? What is the worst thing that could happen if I continued with this setup?

Do phones plugged into the secondary sockets ring properly? If so then they must have run-back the ringing wire (on pin 3) in which case you're fine. Sockets don't really go through the master socket - it provides the ring capacitor connected to pin 3 as I said, plus a gas-discharge tube to give some lightning protection, which connects across the incoming pair. You may find the latter is less effective in your setup because there's plenty of cable past the Master that can act as an antenna. There's no way to check this, and the only way to "fix" it is to put one or more of the lightning protectors in your secondaries. But they're not easy to find for sale, unfortunately.

Overall I'd say if it's working (and all phones ring) then I'd leave it alone.

Cheers,

Howard

 

[supersparks]

ive got stacks of BT cable to their spec, its about 40 quid a reel but thats for 200meters and its also the wholesale price so i dont pay it

 

[ban-all-sheds]

i have a friend (and its someone who is on theese forums) who moved the master socket before getting a line reconnected (his family moved from BT to ntl some time ago and he moved the BT line to his room so he could have his own phone line and ADSL) and the BT guy spotted the "diy cable" (it was 4 core phone cable from screwfix) though when my friend denied having touched the system the bt guy connected the line anyway.

A couple of years ago I was having new doors and windows, and when the guy came to do the front door, and window next to it he said "err.. phone cable", as it went in through the old wooden frame.

I had to do a quick cut'n'shut and ended up with a "temporary" BT cable -> chock-block -> 2-core flex -> choc-block -> BT cable -> master socket.

Yea, right - temporary. It was still like it months later when the ADSL guy came.

He didn't bat an eyelid, just did his thing.

 

[plugwash]

is it still like that now or did you do something a bit more permanent?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

No - I did sort it - would have done so before the ADSL, but I'd lost my round tuit.

Anyway, BT have since replaced the pole and drop cable.

 

[Softus]

ive got stacks of BT cable to their spec, its about 40 quid a reel but thats for 200meters and its also the wholesale price so i dont pay it

Have you found a source for that cable supersparks?

I've tried and failed - I even asked BT for the specification of their wiring, and after about 9 goes at being transferred between departments (each with its own queueing system), the best answer I had was "standard telephone cable"

 

[Steve]

No - I did sort it . . . but I'd lost my round tuit.

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