Thanks, we have several extensions. one in the living room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom.
The kitchen one we do not use.
However tonight I got a phone call on my mobile saying why aren't I answering my house phone. Apparently its just ringing and ringing, but its not at my end and there is no dialling tone when I pick it up, it is plugged into the living room extension.
This has all occurred since plugging the router into the master socket last night as the phones were working fine during the day, is this normal for this to happen?
Not been able to unplug the router and check to see if the phones start working again, although I presume they will as I have an uninterruptible download going on currently.
So I will have to daisy chain the living room and bedroom extensions, unless I can just run them separately? or is daisy chaining the best?
I presume it will lower my speeds even further though by having more than 1 extension daisy chained?
STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING WITH THE EXTENSION WIRING
If the phone your end is not ringing the first steps you should take is ensure it is not the extensions causing the issue first.
1. Plug a landline phone one known to work (or if possible have two to make sure) into the MASTER TEST socket. This is the phone socket behind the faceplate as shown in your pictures.
2. Ring the person on your mobile and ask them to recall your home number to see if it now rings.
3. If it does then the extension wiring is likely at fault THEN you can start ripping that to bits. If it still does not ring then it is either
A) Dodgy Master faceplate (normally the ring capcitor in the faceplate)
B) Faulty or loose wiring from from drop wire outside to master socket (IE the incoming line to the socket is loose or has a fault, these wires are behind the socket, you will likely have to remove it FULLY from the wall to check the incoming A&B wires are connected)
C) Actual fault on the line (as suggested by misschief)
D) Faulty telephone (thats why i said try with one known to work or 2 different if you have 2 phones available)
Everything except C (and possibly a bit of B depending on how far you want to dig) above you should and can check first, if its B or C then ripping out the extensions will not help. a single bit.
If possible also connect modem/router to MASTER TEST socket with a known working xDSL line filter and check speeds, if it is then consistent that will point to internal wiring, if it is not consistent then again its line fault or incoming pair badly connected.
Regardless although your extensions look old the philosiphy of rip them all out before you have tested and tested some more is 110% wrong.
The advice about what pairs to leave i also suggest you double check. The connectors for all those extension wires should be numbered on the faceplate (normally molded in the plastic). You need wires to be in pins 2 and 5. Normally it is the blue and blue/white wires as another poster said BUT DOUBLE CHECK those are actually in pins 2 and 5 first, DO NOT just assume the colour coding has been followed correctly.
As to what the other pins do.......
Pin 1 is Not used unless you have some alarm or a PBX or in rare case second incoming line (IE you have 2 phone numbers or more, pay line rental for more than one line etc)
Pin 2 is B wire from the incoming drop wire and is one that is used by phones and modems
Pin 3 is the ring/bell wire, normally orange or orange and white in colour, not often needed with modern phones as they often have their own ring circuit built into the phone. Line filters likewise also have a ring capacitor so anything connected to a line filter does not need this wire....... Old phones and PULSE dial rather than TONE dial phones will STILL need it to ring.
Pin 4 is used for Earth in PABX systems not needed for most home phones but often used by old school engineers for neatness, it will not normally affect speed at all unlike the bell/ring wire.
Pin 5 is A wire from the incoming drop wire. IE The brother to Pin 2.
Pin 6 is cousin to Pin 1 and is used or not used in most case for the reasons described for pin 1 above.
Basically pins 1&6 would work together where/when required. Pin 2&5 work together for all home installs, Pin 3 is ringer and 4 is earth. (if you leave pin 3 connected leave pin 4 it wont hurt further and in anything is good for surge to the ring capacitor).
More infor for replacing internal extensions with CAT5/e/6 cable can be found here...
http://www.rob-r.co.uk/other/UKphonecatwiring.htm
Use that as your bible for phone wiring.
PS if you are going to get serious with wiring extensions or even wire network your house BUY THE RIGHT TOOLS FIRST a flat head screwdriver is fine for the odd extension but it will often need wires to be pushed down more than once.