moving bt phone socket

[Wendelspanswick]

Pin 4 on a telephone socket is for Earth Recall, used on on PBX systems to sieze a new line while keeping the original caller on hold, and for Earth Calling lines, a line that will not give you dial tone unless it is briefly earthed, designed to stop you dialling out at the same time as a call was coming in.
Nearly all redundant now as phones use Timed Break Recall instead.

There is no advantage to using 4pr in the home, 3 or even 2 pr will do. We use 4pr on site as it means if an office wants an extra extension we can turn a single socket into a double, or even 2 doubles just by changing the face plates.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

CWS1308 is white internal 4pr
CWS1128 is black external 4pr

 

[the snooper]

ended up I put a new cable from GPO junction box Stan

GPO, showing your age there that was over 32 years ago

 

[Turbo]

I've rewired the phone lines in our house & I've gained the following knowledge from a friendly spark & the net.

BT don't know where your master socket is fitted but they will have a record of what type is fitted. So you should re-use the old one but if you want to take a chance and upgrade make sure it is one with the bt openreach logo on it. The best type of one to fit is the nte5 with a filtered faceplate as that does away with all the filter dongles at each phone socket. The disadvantage is that your router has to be located at the master socket.

As for cable you need to be careful. The incoming line from the pole is usually 3-core and probably runs to that BT80a box you linked to. It carries a small voltage all the time which increases when the line is in use but you can work with it live - just don't let the wires touch each other as you could cause a problem at the exchange.

I would fit one of those BT80a boxes in the kitchen, run a piece of cat5 cable from that to a new nte5 master socket, then wire your extensions from that in cat5. Then once you have all that done disconnect the incoming cable from the old BT80a, insulate the wires from each other and reroute it to your new BT80a and rewire exactly the same as the old one.

The cheapest place to buy cat5 cable is probably your local electrical wholesales outlet. You can get a 100m roll for around £20. When you are connecting it into the socket DO NOT use a screwdriver as it will damage the terminals - use a proper krone tool. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Network-E...686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33797ca7ee
They are so cheap nowadays and they make the job so much easier.

Between the BT80a and the NTE5 the blue/white, white/blue & orange/white will probably be connected - check your existing connection and copy that. After the NTE5 leave out the orange/white wire, the extensions only need the 2 wires. The o/w wire is known to cause broadband interferance and is left out in modern wiring. It is only needed in really old phones to make them ring. If you find you have a phone that doesn't ring add on a broadband filter dongle and it will ring.

Try to avoid sharp bends in the wiring and use cable clips to secure the cable, being careful not to damage the cable. It is very easy to break the solid thin copper conductors - I learned the hard way.

If you need to join the cat5 cable only use gel crimps. Cheapest place I found was Maplin.

Hope this helps.

 

[brewdexta]

GPO, showing your age there that was over 32 years ago

It was still the GPO when I started my apprenticeship, the top floor of Doncaster telephone exchange was filled with mainly female telephone operators - joy!

If your extending outside there is a black shiny exterior grade CAT5E cable you can get, I use it for all cabling internal or external except for making my own data patch leads, its a bit stiff for them.

 

[hareng]

Can get CAT5E and CAT 6 in brown, white or black.

Moved our master socket from hall to living room in 1988 and just shortened the cable using original box etc, needed the plastic tool though to inserts wires.
Doing alarm at same time used alarm 4 core for the extentions using two wires only, main difference its solid core.

22+ years passed BT came in for FTTC self install Feb 2011, in other words just checked the line from inside, no problem. 14 months later migrated to BT, again self install which they didn't recognise (already up and running 14 months) came in and changed the master to latest spec, checked the line etc. Retain the VDSL modem and change to D Link DIR855 router sees 3meg increase over BT supplied ones to 42meg. Quite poor considering cab only 270 yards, BT no interest "you have a good connection we have lifted the barrier at 40meg" Problem is alum cable laid in the late 70's, still used to the door. Various ADSL's I was 5.5km from exchange and saw 70db attenuation, dropouts measured by the hundred per day could even tell if it had rained.

Have CAT 6 hardwired throughout, right pain channelling walls and routing

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I've rewired the phone lines in our house & I've gained the following knowledge from a friendly spark & the net.

BT don't know where your master socket is fitted but they will have a record of what type is fitted. So you should re-use the old one but if you want to take a chance and upgrade make sure it is one with the bt openreach logo on it. The best type of one to fit is the nte5 with a filtered faceplate as that does away with all the filter dongles at each phone socket. The disadvantage is that your router has to be located at the master socket.

As for cable you need to be careful. The incoming line from the pole is usually 3-core and probably runs to that BT80a box you linked to. It carries a small voltage all the time which increases when the line is in use but you can work with it live - just don't let the wires touch each other as you could cause a problem at the exchange.

I would fit one of those BT80a boxes in the kitchen, run a piece of cat5 cable from that to a new nte5 master socket, then wire your extensions from that in cat5. Then once you have all that done disconnect the incoming cable from the old BT80a, insulate the wires from each other and reroute it to your new BT80a and rewire exactly the same as the old one.

The cheapest place to buy cat5 cable is probably your local electrical wholesales outlet. You can get a 100m roll for around £20. When you are connecting it into the socket DO NOT use a screwdriver as it will damage the terminals - use a proper krone tool. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Network-E...686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33797ca7ee
They are so cheap nowadays and they make the job so much easier.

Between the BT80a and the NTE5 the blue/white, white/blue & orange/white will probably be connected - check your existing connection and copy that. After the NTE5 leave out the orange/white wire, the extensions only need the 2 wires. The o/w wire is known to cause broadband interferance and is left out in modern wiring. It is only needed in really old phones to make them ring. If you find you have a phone that doesn't ring add on a broadband filter dongle and it will ring.

Try to avoid sharp bends in the wiring and use cable clips to secure the cable, being careful not to damage the cable. It is very easy to break the solid thin copper conductors - I learned the hard way.

If you need to join the cat5 cable only use gel crimps. Cheapest place I found was Maplin.

Hope this helps.

Whoah you got that wrong, the incoming to the NTE (master socket) should only have Tip and Ring connected, so Blue/White on pin 2 and White/Blue on pin 5. Any outgoing extensions from the consumer side of the master socket to capacitorless slave sockets need the ringer connected on pin 3, normally Orange/White.

 

[Turbo]

Any outgoing extensions from the consumer side of the master socket to capacitorless slave sockets need the ringer connected on pin 3, normally Orange/White.

Sorry, I have to disagree there. Its a common solution to disconnect the orange/white ring wire if you are having adsl problems. Google 'ring wire removal' and read up on the subject. Here's one link http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm
The NTE5 socket is supposed to cure this but I would remove the ring wire anyway, it's simply not needed any more. BT are only responsible for the wiring up to the master socket. The extensions and internal wiring are yours so BT will not mind that the ring wire is not connected. Some BT engineers on the BT community forum are even recommending you disconnect it.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Sorry, I have to disagree there. Its a common solution to disconnect the orange/white ring wire if you are having adsl problems. Google 'ring wire removal' and read up on the subject. Here's one link http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm
The NTE5 socket is supposed to cure this but I would remove the ring wire anyway, it's simply not needed any more. BT are only responsible for the wiring up to the master socket. The extensions and internal wiring are yours so BT will not mind that the ring wire is not connected. Some BT engineers on the BT community forum are even recommending you disconnect it.

Not the case. many corded telephones rely on pin 3 and there is no scientific reason not to connect it, even though lots of old wive's tales abound. Perhaps you would like to explain how pin 3 can give issues with the adsl service?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Sorry, I have to disagree there. Its a common solution to disconnect the orange/white ring wire if you are having adsl problems. Google 'ring wire removal' and read up on the subject. Here's one link http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm
The NTE5 socket is supposed to cure this but I would remove the ring wire anyway, it's simply not needed any more. BT are only responsible for the wiring up to the master socket. The extensions and internal wiring are yours so BT will not mind that the ring wire is not connected. Some BT engineers on the BT community forum are even recommending you disconnect it.

It was more the fact that you stated 3 cores coming into the NTE, the line coming into the master NTE from the exchange is always just a pair.
You can do away with the 'Ringer' wire on extension cabling so long as any phones you plug in to slave sockets are designed to generate a ring without this. Phone handsets that have mains adaptors (display phones, speaker phones, cordless phones and fax machines) all have this internal ring generator but not all standard handsets have this, especially older handsets.
If you disconnect the Orange/White from pin 3 and your extension phones stop ringing you know why!

 

[Turbo]

Not the case. many corded telephones rely on pin 3 and there is no scientific reason not to connect it, even though lots of old wive's tales abound. Perhaps you would like to explain how pin 3 can give issues with the adsl service?

The ring wire (sometimes called bell wire) is a hang-over from old telephones that needed the telephone line to generate the bell ringing signal on a third wire. Modern telephones generally do not need this third wire, and its presence creates an imbalance in the telephone wiring and can cause rate adaptive ADSL connections to connect slower than would otherwise be expected. The ring wire can also act as an antenna, picking up interference from other electrical equipment in and around the house.

It is not an old wives tale, there is too much evidence out there with back to back tests that show improvement in line speed after removing the ring wire. Even BT recognise the problem - one of the things they fit to speed up a slow connection is to fit an I-plate adaptor to you socket. Essentially all an I plate does is disconnect the ring wire.

If you disconnect the Orange/White from pin 3 and your extension phones stop ringing you know why!

That can be solved by adding in an adsl plug in filter between the old phone & the socket. I had to do that with one of the phones in our house.