Is there a BT Engineer in the house?

[Smitho3]

I have a simple question. When the contractors that wired my home up installed the bt line they did it all backwards! The master blue and blue white feed coming in is wired directly to the faceplate with an orange bell wire. The extention lead is wired into the test socket (master input) section. I am going to be replacing the whole socket with a new openreach box obtained from an engineer.

My simple question is, do i need to wire the bell wire in as i have heard that this can cause speed issues with broadband? If its not wired in will my phone not ring?

Cheers

 

[tolien]

If they wired it wrong, it's really BT you should be getting to fix it. Your phone will still ring without the bell wire though, unless it's particularly ancient.

 

[Ahleckz]

The bell wire causes speed decreases in broadband and some ISPs recommend removing it. Unless you have an old phone, your phone will still ring.
Try not to cut the wire though, just lift it out. The reasoning behind this is so you can reconnect it at a later date (if you move out, for example), cutting it may result in it being too short.

 

[Smitho3]

Thats all i needed to know. I understand that it should be BT's responsability however I was severly put off using them as the lady on the phone told me that if they suspect that the box had been re-wired after it was initially installed that they would pass the charge on to me. As i am not the first tennant to have lived here I am not willing to risk a £140 charge! I have spoken with an engineer today who lent me his crimp tool and gave me a new master socket. I have wired Cat 5 in the past and this seems far simpler

Thanks for the advice my phones are new cordless jobbies.

 

[Smitho3]

Re-Wired and working perfectly also gained 800Kbit of line speed form my extension socket

Actually managed to get an extra 3 meg