BT wiring / broadband question

timking · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:08

Right, hopefully an easy one this, but I'm not that well up on my home broadband/BT stuff these days...

A guy at work has recently gone down the Sky Broadband route, all is working fine, but only from his master socket. The house is quite old (converted barn), but he's sure the guy before him had his router off one of the sockets upstairs (master is in the hall). I've tried the router connected to every socket and it just won't connect, internet light flashes then goes off. BT phone works in each socket no problem.

There's no other phones in the house, the only thing connected is a Calor gas thing that dials up at night. I've unplugged this but still no joy from the other sockets.

The only thing I can think is that it's something to do with the wiring? Any other possibilities?

Cheers

izzy eckerslike · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:11

Are there filters attatched to the extensions? it won't connect without ,you need one on each extension unless the BT master is one of the filtered type with seperate ADSL socket

tolien · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:18

If there are no other phones you don't need filters, but it sounds like the extension sockets are filtered.

timking · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:30

izzy eckerslike said:
Are there filters attatched to the extensions? it won't connect without ,you need one on each extension unless the BT master is one of the filtered type with seperate ADSL socket

There's nothing attached to the other sockets in the house, and the only difference between them is that the master socket has a horizontal line accross it half way down.

izzy eckerslike · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:41

timking said:
There's nothing attached to the other sockets in the house, and the only difference between them is that the master socket has a horizontal line accross it half way down.

Sounds like its not a filtered master socket then, you need plug in filters to get it to work

IAmATeaf · 7 Apr 2008 at 22:43

Open up the master socket and check what and how many wires are connected to the bottom part that slides out. You only really need a pair of wires connected and they have to twisted pair pairs so for example if an orange wire is connected then its pair wire would be a white wire with orange bands. The pair should be connected to point 2 and 5.

Then check the wires going to the extensions, again only a pair should be connected.

Before removing any wires make drawing of each box and what wire are connected to which number connection points, then modify the wiring if need be by removing any other wires except a twisted pair on 2 and 5, then try again.

izzy eckerslike · 7 Apr 2008 at 23:10

The wires must be correct or the phones wouldn't work in the extensions & OP says they do all work,

http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wiring/UK_telephone/uk_telephone.html

tolien · 7 Apr 2008 at 23:25

How do the extensions connect to each other, and to the master socket?

izzy eckerslike said:
Sounds like its not a filtered master socket then, you need plug in filters to get it to work

tolien said:
If there are no other phones you don't need filters

The ADSL side of a filter is just a wire...

izzy eckerslike said:
The wires must be correct or the phones wouldn't work in the extensions

Not necessarily.

Uriel · 7 Apr 2008 at 23:39

I once had broadband problems when I moved into a flat. BT tried all sorts and couldn't get it working. I ended up reversing the polarity on the phone line (can't remember quite how - looked it up on the internet). Anyway - it worked. Might be worth a try but I take no responsibility if things go awry.

Here's some line diagrams: http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wiring/UK_telephone/uk_telephone.html think I swapped the incoming orange and white wires.

IAmATeaf · 8 Apr 2008 at 13:17

izzy eckerslike said:
The wires must be correct or the phones wouldn't work in the extensions & OP says they do all work,

http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wiring/UK_telephone/uk_telephone.html

The phone working and ADSL working are 2 diff things, phones will work with 2 bits of wet spaghetti

an ADSL modem won't which is why I asked the OP to check that only 2 wires which are pairs are connected.

Usher · 8 Apr 2008 at 14:27

IAmATeaf said:
The phone working and ADSL working are 2 diff things, phones will work with 2 bits of wet spaghetti an ADSL modem won't which is why I asked the OP to check that only 2 wires which are pairs are connected.

I think you will find that all BT & cabled wired extensions have wires to 2,3 & 5
ours is newly fitted by Virgin using same colour codes as BT

BT V1.0 master sockets have the addition of a green pair for seperate ADSL socket

timking · 8 Apr 2008 at 15:44

Cheers for the ideas guys, will try to get over to his house this week and play with the wires

Mint_Sauce · 8 Apr 2008 at 15:54

Check out the XTE-2005 which replaces the BT master socket and provides built in splitting for the whole house so no need to use seperate filters. Also, it has a different resistor or capacitor on it which is better suited to BB and can increase speeds.