Moving phone/fibre points

greedy123

greedy123

greedy123

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Nottingham
We want to move our BT phone and fibre internet point upstairs into one of the bedrooms. I'm having major wifi issues with it being located in the kitchen/hall so want to move it closer to my PC so I can network via ethernet.

Anyone know where I can find someone reasonable to do this in the Nottingham area? BT want a fortune to do this it sounds like.
 
You're better off running some Cat5e/whatever cable to where you want the new outlet and then terminating this as an extension off the existing master socket.

Actually getting the master socket relocated is a bureaucratic process that will make you think Brazil was light on red tape.
 
If you are going to the effort of running cat5e though, you may as well leave the router where it is and get a 2nd AP.
 
The router and modem are in the way in the kitchen which is the other reason for wanting them moved. I agree about leaving the current sockets where they are and just extending the access.
 
OK so now I'm looking at getting a long RJ11 cable to route through the house to upstairs. Need around 20m I've measured. Got to go through 2 walls though. Can you buy cable without connectors pre-attached to make it easier to thread through a wall? If not is it possible to remove/reattach the connectors? Thanks. Would also be useful as finding a cable exactly the right length will be impossible so if I want to trim the cable to length, is that possible?
 
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So you have no existing phone extensions in the house to use? If you're going to go through the effort of laying cable then make it Cat5E. You can leave the modem where it is and move the router upstairs (if they're actually separate). Extending the phone line will only increase the chance of the modem syncing at a lower rate.
 
First, you obviously want to relocate the router. Do you also want to relocate the phone (assuming you have one)?

If you've got a BT VDSL faceplate it'll have two sets of IDC connectors you can punch down solid core cable to. One set filtered (phone) and one set unfiltered (data).

Cat5e cable is the best bet for this job. You'll want solid core rather than stranded. You could also use CW1308 if you'd prefer.

Connect two of the four pairs in the cable to the two sets of IDCs. There'll be two pairs spare you can ignore. If it's for data only there'll only be one pair to connect.

Run the cable to where it needs to go. You'll want a single gang modular faceplate and a suitable backing box. You'll also need a Cat5e module and a BT extension (not master) module.

Connect the data pair to the Cat5e module (pins 4&5). Connect the phone pair to the BT module.

The new socket(s) will work exactly the same as the ones on the master socket.

Done properly an additional 20m of cable will make no noticeable difference to the connection.
 
Leave the main router/modem where it is. From this point run a cat5e cable to a better position and at this point either add a wifi access point or a switch with multiple cables running to multiple points.
 
As I said

greedy123 said:
The router and modem are in the way in the kitchen which is the other reason for wanting them moved.
Click to expand...

The point were in this position when we moved in the to get power to the modem at the same point we have trailing cables across the kitchen worksurface. I would run cat5 but this would leave the modem where it is which isn't what we need.

We don't use a house phone and we don't have any other phone extensions in the house. We are on fibrebroadband (openreach point in the kitchen though we are with Uno) so there is only one access point for this at the moment. Is this box just a fancy DSL filter or is it needed to connect to the network?

Bremen your reply sounds very useful, if only I knew what any of that stuff means haha. I will google everything one by one :) Thanks!
 
You could buy a roll of cat5e, unterminated so you can add in the connectors yourself. It can even be used for the RJ11 connection, you just need a 6P6C head and RJ11 uses the innermost 2 pins. You can then use the rest of the cat5e cable to wire up everything else to the router, using a 8P8C head.

You'll need a cable cutter and crimp tool to add in the connectors and may take a bit of practice to get it right. I would suggest a network cable tester as well to make sure all connectors are working.

Last time I checked a 305m roll of cat5e was around £40.
 
Thanks, orcvader! That's really helpful. I will look into it, sounds like just the thing for the situation.
 
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Can you get rolls of white flat cat 5e? I got a flat white ethernet cable recently that's just the right shape for going under carpet:

71qz_NDsoph_L_SL1500.jpg


Any recommendations on where to get reels? Not a huge range I can find in white.
 
I'm not really sure flat is the right way to go as ideally cat cable needs to be twisted to eliminate crosstalk and electrical interference.

The rainforest seems to sell a few. Cat 6 is also pretty cheap, but it is trickier to deal with due to being thicker.
 
greedy123 said:
Bremen your reply sounds very useful, if only I knew what any of that stuff means haha. I will google everything one by one :) Thanks!
Click to expand...

The BT VDSL faceplate has a set of terminals inside where you can connect an extension to the data socket. It allows extension wiring without anything plugged into the front of the socket. They're IDC terminals where you can push in solid core wires and a set of blades cut through the cable insulation and into the copper. There are proper tools for this (Google 'Krone') but for a one off you can get away without.

The IDC socket requires solid core cable. Cat5e and CW1308 are just cable standards. For what you're doing CW1308 should be okay and is easier to find in white and in sensible lengths. It's also thinner and more flexible that Cat5e.

I'd use Cat5e because (1) I have it available, and (2) it can also be used for data at a later date.

Whether you use Cat5e or CW1308 you only need to connect a single pair. By convention this would be the blue pair but it doesn't matter.

At the remote end you can either crimp on a plug which is fiddly and requires special tools, or terminate at a faceplate.

For the faceplate you just need a standard Cat5e Ethernet socket which are easily available. You terminate your cable pair to pins 4&5 in exactly the same way as you did at the master socket.

You can then plug your modem/router's RJ11 cable into the extension socket.

You're best bet is to Google 'VDSL data extension kit' or similar and you'll find sellers that'll provide all of the required parts and the necessary instructions. It shouldn't cost you much over £25. Just make sure that they specify the cable is Cat5e or CW1308.
 
Thanks for another great reply bremen and orcvader.

Here's photos of the current faceplate:
Photo_31_07_2016_12_34_35.jpg

Photo+31-07-2016, 13 05 28.jpg

Photo+31-07-2016, 13 05 39.jpg


Bremen, is this the faceplate you were expecting in your reply? If so where's the terminal you mentioned. Will be a lot easier If I don't have to get a crimping tool etc and just get a RJ11 termination block on the other end I think.

Regarding cable - CW1308 cable is a lot cheaper and much easier to get in white it seems. It's also a smaller cable so will (as orcvader said) be easier to twist etc.
 
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Flip the piece in the bottom photo around and take the bottom-half off the front. There's a punch-down terminal hiding inside.
 
greedy123 said:
Regarding cable - CW1308 cable is a lot cheaper and much easier to get in white it seems. It's also a smaller cable so will (as orcvader said) be easier to twist etc.
Click to expand...

Twisted refers to the construction of the cable not what you do to it.

The cable contains pairs of wires. Each pair is twisted together along its length.

Cheap phone extensions often use cables where the wires aren't twisted. This is fine for voice but terrible for data. You also find hard wired telephone extensions where cheaper alarm cable is used in place of CW1308 which has similar problems.
 
Ahhh okay now I get you. Gone for a twisted cw1308 - just £26.37 for 30m on the jungle.

Many thanks!
 
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That's expensive but whatever.

Hopefully you got 2-pair cable so you can run a filtered and an unfiltered extension and terminate on a double faceplate.
 
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