Replacing Sky Phone Socket

Thanks.

Its just cause a guide I seen said trim the wire if its chewed so you have a fresh connection. Didnt want to snip and go flying through a nice new wall lol :P
 
Ok, got a great start on the new walls today, half of the timber battens are up :)

I got to the master socket but I noticed something while working... If you look on the photo the cable that comes out of the side of the box goes from my living room to my kitchen back door, then goes into a small box and outside.

What is this cable? Can it be removed or will I need to wire it back up when the new walls are up?

 
It's most likely a BT junction box (BT78a?).

If it is it'll need to remain in place. It's on BT's side of the master socket so you're back into things you aren't supposed to mess with.
 
Damn, opened it there to have a look and it was the blue/red cable (A & B), so yeah seems like it goes to the telephone pole :(

I suppose I will need to come up with an idea to hide the cable, feed it through walls rather than round door frames and under door frames etc.

Am I right in assuming I just wire in those red/blue into the clear cap on the back off the new NTE5C? Do I need to use the other colours for broadband or just leave them hanging?
 
You’d need a length of CW1308 cable.

It’s available with different numbers of pairs. I think they typically use 3 pair but check the existing cable.

The warnings about messing with stuff you shouldn’t still stand.
 
I won't touch the cable if I can, but look at the pictures, they have the cable going along skirting, along 2 doorframes, then instead of going through the wall it actually pins under the door frame, which causes the door to jam when shut.

I was hoping just to re-connect a fresh piece from the junction box, along the ceiling corner, drill through the wall (where my ethernet is) and fit that way.



Like I say hopefully I can get away with not doing it, and just plasterboard over the top of the cables.
 
Last edited:
Pretty much yeah. Its in living room next to a built in boxed unit for router to sit at. Plus couch will be there to hide socket.

Ill take a photo later of the wiring inside my socket but im sure it was red/orange and blue going into A & B with two other cables just dangling inside.
 
It's just twisted-pair cable. Given the age of that telephone point (its a 1980s British Telecom logo'd one) and the style of the junction box, the cabling into the house may be even older. Which may explain having different colour codes.

These days, Openreach would use 'jellies' to connect the wires if they were being embedded in a wall.
 
Ok my new socket came in post there, I have assembled it and all seems to be working perfect.



The colours inside where A=BLUE, B=RED, and GREEN and BROWN where going to nothing.

I put the same A-B colours in and its working :)

As far as replacing the cable going from the socket to the junction, what type of cable would this be?
 
It doesn't matter. You're only going to be using one of the pairs for this. Any additional pairs will be spare and probably never used.

If you don't care about what BT might think you could even use a length of solid core network cable.
 
I need to go to Screwfix anyway so ill pick that 50m up... that will let me run a neat cable that can be accessed again if needed... ill keep the old box and cable just incase anything happens to the socket ill fire it back on.

I assume attaching the fresh cable is the same at the junction box as it was fitting the new socket?

What difference would network cable make?
 
Last edited:
The new cable will use different colour codes. Choose one pair and connect it exactly as the existing cable is.

The junction box probably has IDC terminals which really requires a 'Krone' punch down tool, but for a single pair like this, you should get away without.

The telephone cable Screwfix list isn't, as far as I can see, spec'd as CW1308 (it's also suspiciously cheap).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom