Which is my 'main' incoming phone socket?

[Baldchap]

I'm currently renovating a house that was clearly owned by someone who loved their landline phones. Every room has a socket.

Is there any way of identifying which one is the main incoming line? There's no obvious BT 'master' socket that I can see.

Thanks in advance.

[Big_Dog]

Either the one nearest where the cable comes into the house. Or the one with the big capacitor in it. Looks like a AAA battery.

[Baldchap]

Big_Dog said:

Either the one nearest where the cable comes into the house. Or the one with the big capacitor in it. Looks like a AAA battery.

No obvious sign of an incoming cable unfortunately, though there is a telegraph pole that then goes into the ground near one corner that I suspect is the badger, but wanted to confirm before doing anything daft.

I'll pop the covers off and look for a capacitor, thanks.

[2172cc]

Or just do Google image search for NTE5 . Could be fitted with either of these two if it hasn't been upgraded over the years.

[illmonkey]

They will be daisy-chained, so just disconnect the daisy-chains and test to see what one still works

But most likely it'll be the one fitted the worst...

[Baldchap]

illmonkey said:

But most likely it'll be the one fitted the worst...

[TwistingMyMelon]

All the extensions will bring down you ADSL (if you have it through the phone) so its worth taking them ouf if you dont use them.

[Hanslow]

If you have a socket with a split face, it could well be that one. Those ones have a separated out ADSL socket hidden behind the upper part that is immediately filtered which can be used to test the quality of line for pure comms. Or something like that, it's been a while since I had to use ours.

[Harpoon]

If the telephone line comes in from a pole, can you ID a point of entry into a specific room to start with? If a cable is underground, any sign of anything coming up and going into a room?

[sjg]

It'll probably be the closest one to where the line comes in through your wall - or maybe door/window frame in older houses before power drills.

There's a few examples here: https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/btsockets.htm

Likely to be an NTE5 type, where the lower faceplate comes away (and extensions are wired to that), many will have been replaced with broadband adoption over the years. Could be really old and the single face LJU type.

Either way, if you've not got fibre to the premises yet then you probably will soon and that's an entirely new line and socket, letting you strip out the old stuff at your leisure.

[Baldchap]

We've got a split face one with hidden test socket in the middle of the house with two cables attached. I assume one is the main line in and one is to the first extension. It's right where I want it to be.

I called BT on the off-chance I was wrong and as long as I don't touch the newly discovered grey box outside (opposite side to the pole, no idea why so far away) I can't really do any serious damage, so we're all good.

Thanks for all the responses.