Can you move a master phone socket?

Pulsedriver · 22 Jul 2008 at 00:24

Hey folks, I am going to be moving rooms shortly, this is how it is setup now;

For some reason the master phone socket is in my room, it used to be downstairs, but I don't know why, maybe SKY made my room the master socket when they installed 2 years ago?

1) I am getting SKY HD fitted to new room, engineer will no doubt fit a phone socket in there, shall I ask him to make it the 'master'?

I have a ADSL faceplate on my current master socket, does the ADSL router REALLY need to connect to a master socket? Or does it not make any difference these days?

Or am I gonna have to take out the faceplate and move it to the new room?

Thanks in advance

Defiance_co · 22 Jul 2008 at 02:23

As far as moving it i maybe wrong but that's BT's property

My new line just gone in and he kindly left me a fair length without fixing box to wall etc so i can redeco room so hide cable

No doubt someone more into the legal aspect can shed light on it for you

(if in doubt touch nowt, especially where BT is concerned lol, because any excuse they'll be after you for money)

EDIT: I mean altering the wiring legth etc, but thinking though, if movable without messing with bt wiring maybe you're allowed to relocate it ? (hmm still a sticky one really)

errata · 22 Jul 2008 at 14:04

The true master socket is BT property, you can make extensions off it (plug in or wire in) but moving it will usually require it be disconnected which BT will be hard on if they ever detect it. Are you sure its the real master and not just a full size box?

Theres no reason why if the wirings done right that the router needs to be plugged into the master provided the extension is filtered for phones and unfiltered for the adsl.

You shuld prpobably dig out the instructions so the sky guy can add any extension to the filtered part of the socket for the HD box and you can have an unfiltered socket for your adsl.

Pulsedriver · 22 Jul 2008 at 18:12

Would it be overkill for me to buy another faceplate to have in the room im moving in to? That way, I could just give it to the SKY engineer (although he'll prob not fit it lol).

Right now its great, as we don't use filters on any line, as the socket in my room is making it all filtered without external filters.

The real master was downstairs right next to the box outside (but inside obviously) but im sure when BT came years ago, they said to me the one in my room was the master...

I have a feeling it's just because mine is wired directly from the master box as well, as my current room is right above the outside phone socket box.

brendy · 23 Jul 2008 at 03:25

I moved my master socket, its low voltage so chances of doing any damage are very minimal, I shifted mine around 8 feet as I was doing a little building downstairs and instead of linking another faceplate, I extended the red/black wiring outside the house and drilled a new hole at the desired location which required no extra internal wiring and kept mess to absolute minimum.

roadie · 25 Jun 2009 at 17:30

I'm going to move mine, as I'm not happy with its current location. When BT activated the line a couple of years ago, an engineer came round and disconnected all non-necessary wires leading off the master socket. Therefore, all that needs to be done is a shortening of the cable to the point it enters the flat and screwing the box onto the wall. Easy!

valerian · 26 Jun 2009 at 14:14

ive moved them loads of times in many houses, and its never been an issue, you can always say it was like that when you put it in

[RB] · 26 Jun 2009 at 15:38

valerian said:
ive moved them loads of times in many houses, and its never been an issue, you can always say it was like that when you put it in

As others have said, I think the official line is that you're not to touch it. However what BT don't know won't hurt them

Tesla · 26 Jun 2009 at 16:00

Low voltage? Peaks about 70v when it rings iirc!

Make sure not to short the cables such as cutting through both at the same time etc.

edGfaCTor · 26 Jun 2009 at 17:27

I don't see what the point is of moving the master socket when you can just run extensions which are very tidy and easy to do if you have one of the new face plates.

If you don't have a new face plate just replace old one with new style.

adren · 27 Jun 2009 at 17:40

My master socket is in the dumbest place imaginable! Next to front door at floor level, no where near to put any router / phone. I wonder what the tradeoffs are from running a longish rj11 cable to the router over having a proper extension that is probably much longer.

Matteysan · 27 Jun 2009 at 18:28

adren said:
My master socket is in the dumbest place imaginable! Next to front door at floor level, no where near to put any router / phone. I wonder what the tradeoffs are from running a longish rj11 cable to the router over having a proper extension that is probably much longer.

In the little booklet I got with my Sky router it said not to use over 10m of cable else it affects the quality or some rubbish, So I've just plugged in the router downstairs next to the phone line & now running a normal Ethernet cable from the router up to the PC upstairs.

I dunno if it is true about the 10m though.

adren · 27 Jun 2009 at 18:36

Depends on the quality of cable, you'd think it wouldnt matter that much if it was decent stuff, after all it has travelled 1km+.