Internet socket that brings wifi into the house, is there a slimmer one?

gradyhawks · 15 May 2021 at 13:41

Wanting to put a mirror infront of a load of unused plug sockets, except it has an Openreach 5c Master socket with the built in filter there that our broadband comes out of. The entire plug is about 6cm deep... which makes it too deep to stick something in front of it.

https://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/images/VDSLMK4NTE5CMK22019FRONT.JPG]

Now, I know that the socket belongs to Openreach and you're not supposed to fiddle with it but ... is there something smaller we can stick on there that's not so damned ugly and CHONK? We don't have a phone line, so not even sure if it needs said filter anyway.

** Do Not Hotlink Images **

dlockers · 15 May 2021 at 13:42

Can you trace the cable outside? You could relocate quite easily if so. I wouldn't terminate with anything else it you don't use it. I cut mine off, taped it up, and tucked it back in its hole. That's a future me problem.

Edit; I'm unclear whether you said you still have internet through this. If you do, you can't get rid of anything that's currently there.

Delvis · 15 May 2021 at 16:18

Theyre big regardless tbh.

Most you can do is get them to move it I'd have thought, we had one moves from downstairs to upstairs as that's where the main office and Hub was at an old place.

ShadowMan · 15 May 2021 at 17:16

You cannot move or do anything to a BT master socket yourself. They are owned by BT/Openreach as part of the network. If you want it moved you can call them and they can come do it for you. It’s about £120 though I think at least.

Puzzled · 15 May 2021 at 20:25

Could buy a thick framed mirror, that will give you some space behind.

MissChief · 15 May 2021 at 20:34

This one is easy. Unscrew the screws, the top section will come away. Remove the smiline bottom section as well. Place the slimmer section back onto the wall socket and screw on. The screws will stick out but you've slimmed the socket down by 2cm and you'll need an old fashioned plug in microfilter.

K.C. Leblanc · 16 May 2021 at 09:27

If your hanging a mirror in front of sockets bare in mind there's probably cables buried in the wall.

theone8181 · 16 May 2021 at 12:27

This is going to sound stupid, but will a mirror (which is typically silver backed) infront of it screw up the WiFi? You could try some sort of spacer on the rear of the mirror.

MissChief · 16 May 2021 at 13:17

theone8181 said:
This is going to sound stupid, but will a mirror (which is typically silver backed) infront of it screw up the WiFi? You could try some sort of spacer on the rear of the mirror.

No because the WiFi comes from the router, not the socket?

godinman · 16 May 2021 at 13:51

Good lord.

dlockers · 16 May 2021 at 17:43

theone8181 said:
This is going to sound stupid, but will a mirror (which is typically silver backed) infront of it screw up the WiFi? You could try some sort of spacer on the rear of the mirror.

You were right

theone8181 · 16 May 2021 at 19:49

Sorry, I thought the op meant the WiFi literally came out of the socket. Didn't realise he had a separate router

. We don't have BT in the area (hu postcode) I don't know if you have something fancy in the rest of the country :cry:

. It was based on the title. Also its not just the thickness of the box, but the cable coming out of it which must be quite a distance.

Rroff · 16 May 2021 at 19:58

As MissChief says you can remove the front plate from it, even change the front plate, without an issue. The back plate marks the demarcation point and you shouldn't change it (for liability reasons) or anything behind it without going through BT.

You can even remove the front plate and leave it off and run a cable direct to the socket in the back plate to an external filter further away - though I'm a bit out of touch as to what you'd need for that as I've not messed with it since early ADSL days.

spoffle · 16 May 2021 at 19:59

theone8181 said:
Sorry, I thought the op meant the WiFi literally came out of the socket. Didn't realise he had a separate router. We don't have BT in the area (hu postcode) I don't know if you have something fancy in the rest of the country. It was based on the title. Also its not just the thickness of the box, but the cable coming out of it which must be quite a distance.

This is why I don't like people using "internet" and "WiFi" interchangeably.

Delvis · 16 May 2021 at 20:55

Rroff said:
As MissChief says you can remove the front plate from it, even change the front plate, without an issue. The back plate marks the demarcation point and you shouldn't change it (for liability reasons) or anything behind it without going through BT.

You can even remove the front plate and leave it off and run a cable direct to the socket in the back plate to an external filter further away - though I'm a bit out of touch as to what you'd need for that as I've not messed with it since early ADSL days.

Remember my dad split the main phone line master socket and put one upstairs, you'd get shot for doing that now

dlockers · 16 May 2021 at 20:57

Delvis said:
Remember my dad split the main phone line master socket and put one upstairs, you'd get shot for doing that now

Nothing drastically wrong with this, but it is certainly the root cause of folk splicing ethernet

Rroff · 16 May 2021 at 21:02

Delvis said:
Remember my dad split the main phone line master socket and put one upstairs, you'd get shot for doing that now

When we moved in where I'm living now it was a mess - someone had removed the master socket entirely and we couldn't actually find where it went after entering the house and there was a mess of extensions using various grades of wire anything from spliced in sections of the kind of cable you'd use for a mains powered appliance, speaker cable, cat2/3 or whatever, etc. the FTTC was running at like 13Mbit down, sub 1mbit up or something. We got BT to just cut it off where it entered the house and do a new run and pulled the rest out at our leisure - FTTC jumped up to 30 down 5-6 up which is still meh but living "out in the sticks" it is what it is.

EDIT: Nice thing was the engineer turned up - took one look at it and came up with the same strategy as I'd thought was best without prompting - usually they want to try all kinds of silly things first

(even offered to trace and pull out the existing mess of extensions for us but declined that as we were gonna be ripping stuff up anyhow to redecorate).

Armageus · 16 May 2021 at 21:10

ShadowMan said:
You cannot move or do anything to a BT master socket yourself. They are owned by BT/Openreach as part of the network. If you want it moved you can call them and they can come do it for you. It’s about £120 though I think at least.

I relocated mine - come at me bro

At the end of the day they are unlikely to know (assuming you are half competent and don't mess anything up)

If anything I was more competent than whoever originally installed it using some unneeded jelly crimps

Rroff · 16 May 2021 at 21:12

Armageus said:
I relocated mine - come at me bro

At the end of the day they are unlikely to know (assuming you are half competent and don't mess anything up)

If anything I was more competent than whoever originally installed it using some unneeded jelly crimps

At the end of the day it is a liability thing - not touching it gives you more protection "should" anything happen on the BT side of the network. Fiddling with the BT side of the demarcation potentially exposes you to more likely being liable in the unlikely event something happens. BT themselves don't really care.

(Generally it is aimed at the kind of people who wired up the monstrosity that was in the house I mentioned above heh).

LeeUK · 17 May 2021 at 00:38

I love how everyone calls the internet wifi these days.