Telephone wiring question....

[Carrera2]

I'm sure someone on here knows the answer to this, so here goes:

I've just moved into my new house and got BT to connect. However, there is a problem with the main BT box in the house. It's obviously something to do with the extension points around the house because when you remove the cover to the box and plug the phone directly into the test socket the phone works fine. (When the box is re-assembled and you plug a phone in it just rings once then goes silent)

My question is this: If I remove the cover to the box and simply rip all the wires I can see out will the box work when I reassmble it? (To anyone who hasn't seen inside one of these I know this sounds like it won't but the cover seems to have some internal wiring that I won't rip out).

I haven't made myself very clear here but I think if you've seen inside one of them you'll know what I mean.

Cheers,

[BliarOut]

Are your extensions wired from the cover or the main socket?

[Parrot of doom]

Be careful - BT don't like you doing this, and can charge you mahoosive amounts to put things right.

It gets even worse if the box belongs to them, which in many cases it does.

[vipers]

Parrot of doom said:

Be careful - BT don't like you doing this, and can charge you mahoosive amounts to put things right. It gets even worse if the box belongs to them, which in many cases it does.

Yes, I think the first box in the house is BT's and not the householders.

[ofcorsa]

If you remove all the wires from the front plate, this will disconnect all the extensions so you can replace the place back on the box and will have service from that box only

You could then try to isolate the problem by reconnecing each extension 1 by 1 until you find the offending 1

usual extensions use 3 wires each Blue/white = terminal 2 White/blue = terminal 5 orange/white = terminal 3

the colours arnt really important, above is just the usual scheme, as long as both ends are in same 2,3,5 terminals your good

[Carrera2]

Cool, so just before I go in with some snips - cutting all the wires is fine yes?

I'm not fussed about BT getting the arse TBH - they were going to charge a fortune to send an engineer out to look at it so I'm just deferring the cost really.

[ofcorsa]

yeah you can probably just pull out the wires from the front plate. as long as you keep the main socket on your golden,

[Carrera2]

ofcorsa said:

yeah you can probably just pull out the wires from the front plate. as long as you keep the main socket on your golden,

Thanks a lot - what do you mean by golden though?

[ofcorsa]

sorry, just mean your ok as long as you keep the main socket part connected,

even then only fed by two wires

[BliarOut]

Carrera2 said:

Cool, so just before I go in with some snips - cutting all the wires is fine yes? I'm not fussed about BT getting the arse TBH - they were going to charge a fortune to send an engineer out to look at it so I'm just deferring the cost really.

Stop!

Don't snip the wires, just pull them out of the Krone block. Then you can reconnect them one extension at a time until you find the fault.

[Plotloss]

Sure you havent exceeded the REN?

That may cause problems similar to the ones you describe.

[Carrera2]

Now I'm confused? I thought REN was only relevant if phone were plugged into the other sockets around the house?

There are a few wires that have disconnected from the front plate already - god knows how many extensions there are - haven't had a chance to go and count yet.

[Plotloss]

I didnt know if you had loads of phones already plugged in.

Theres 3 wires, one is the bell wire. Its the bell wire that controls the ringing.

>> Edited by Plotloss on Friday 4th November 11:24

[ofcorsa]

Yeah REN wouldnt usually cause ring trip anyway. either week ring or no ring at all. and it normally takes alot of equiptment to cause that.

My advice, use cordless phones. much easier lol even i have them now

[ultimasimon]

BliarOut said:

Carrera2 said: Cool, so just before I go in with some snips - cutting all the wires is fine yes? I'm not fussed about BT getting the arse TBH - they were going to charge a fortune to send an engineer out to look at it so I'm just deferring the cost really. Stop! Don't snip the wires, just pull them out of the Krone block. Then you can reconnect them one extension at a time until you find the fault.

If you have to cut them for any reason do it ONE AT A TIME

Plotloss said:

Sure you havent exceeded the REN? That may cause problems similar to the ones you describe.

Wot he says: If you have a fax machine and a load of telephones, you could exceed your REN (ringer equivalent number) which is 3.

Electronic phones are rated at 1 but are normally around 0.3 so you get 3 phones of today for 1 of the old bell types, which is why the REN factor was first introduced.

[Carrera2]

Yes it's a cordless phone's base unit I'm trying to sort out. It's weird as I thought everyone used cordless phones nowadays but the extension cabling appears quite new...

[Carrera2]

Sorry to labour a point here but there seems to be conflicting views on the pesky wires.

Am I correct in thinking that the face plate uses NO wires to connect to the socket as it plugs in? Or in other words, if I have no requirement at all for other extensions (which I don't) then it's OK to cut the wires?

[Plotloss]

If its a master there should be a wire in from outside and a wire out to the extensions.

If you dont need the downstream sockets just pull the wires rather than cutting them, just make sure you are pulling the downstream wire!

[Carrera2]

I'm worried about messing this up now. Maybe the best course of action is to leave it just plugged into the test socket with the face plate hanging off safe in the knowledge it'll sort itself out one day.

[L81]

[redacted]