Broadband issues, and no master socket found

[zvictor1]

Good day all,
We moved into a bungalow built in the '70s several years ago, and have gone through several different ISPs with varying levels of satisfaction - performance has often felt a bit laggy. Recently, after moving to Zen, I got in touch with their tech support 'cos the modem was resetting quite often.

They said plug the modem into the test socket behind the faceplate on the socket and I discovered I don't have one. What I have looks like an old 65mm extension socket, and the tech support guys were saying they needed to have it plugged in to the test socket on the master socket to run some diagnostics.

I have searched the house and I can't find anything looking like a 'master' socket. What I seem to have is:

1a,b,c Something that techsupport say looks like an extension socket but I think might be an old primary socket. The cable feeding this disappears behind the skirting board and I think it may go under the floor. I note that this box has the big yellow capacitor which I think I've read an extension socket doesn't?
This socket is just lying loose on the floor. It always has, and we've run several modems off it. I suspect it used to be mounted on an internal wall that got demolished during remodelling. The location is close to where the front door used to be.
2a,b. A second similar socket in my wife's study that's not in use. The innards of this look identical to the first one.

I've read that before the newer master sockets came into use a house might have a number of the sockets I have, with one as the 'primary' socket, all fed off a flat barrel-shaped junction box and there's no 'master'. If I have one of those junction boxes I dunno where it is.

FWIW, I have log file messages reporting the DSL resetting, like the following -

Do I need to get the old socket(s) replaced with a new master socket with a faceplate+test socket?

 

[Fred Blogs]

You have an old type socket that the main telephone line comes into. The newer sockets incorporate the ADSL filter inside the socket itself. The faceplat on the newer sockets have two connections, one for your phone and one for the modem. The newer sockets also have a removable faceplate that if you unscrew it there is a test socket behind. Basically all it does is dissconnect all your internal sockets from the main socket thus eliminating a fault in the phone wiring in your house from casusing the fault. Without that type of socket the only way you can connect to the line is the way that you are currently connecting. Once upon a time BT were changing thos old style sockets out for free but whether they still do it free I dont know.

 

[Diver Fred]

As the OR NTEx (the 'master socket') does not have a RJ socket behind the detachable faceplate (well not all the ones I've seen) and I doubt your router lead has a BT phone plug just plug the flying box marked ADSL into the BT socket with the Capactor in.

What they really asking for is the router plugged into the first socket in the house with no extension sockets in circuit.

Your phone wiring really needs tidying up.

 

[plugwash]

That socket is an old style "master socket".

However, it seems like whoever wired it did not know what they were doing. It looks like your phone line is split across two different pairs, rather than using the two wires fro the same pair. This split could well be the cause of your poor performance but to correct the split likely requires finding the other end of that cable.

Is there any chance of following the cable back and seeing if there is a junction box of some sort?

 

[zvictor1]

@plugwash that's my suspicion too. I am assuming there's a junction box feeding the two 'extension' sockets but since both sockets are connected with blue/orange to 2/5 it looks like they are wired in parallel in a 'star' setup. I'm guessing that is what causes the weird log messages. There's nothing connected to the second extension, and I'd happily disconnect it but I have no idea where the junction box is (assuming I have one).

 

[plugwash]

The cable looks like a type used for interior wiring, so there is presumablly a junction box somewhere between the incoming "dropwire" and the cables you see in your sockets.

Do you know where the phone wiring enters the property? do you even know if the phone line to the property is fed overhead or underground? Do you have any junction boxes in or on the property that you don't recognise the purpose of?

 

[davelx]

You have an old type socket that the main telephone line comes into. The newer sockets incorporate the ADSL filter inside the socket itself. The faceplat on the newer sockets have two connections, one for your phone and one for the modem. The newer sockets also have a removable faceplate that if you unscrew it there is a test socket behind. Basically all it does is dissconnect all your internal sockets from the main socket thus eliminating a fault in the phone wiring in your house from casusing the fault. Without that type of socket the only way you can connect to the line is the way that you are currently connecting. Once upon a time BT were changing thos old style sockets out for free but whether they still do it free I dont know.

There is a different version of the NTE5 faceplate that does not have the dsl filter but just provides the test socket and disconnects the extension wiring when removed. I have one of them as my master socket is downstairs at the front but my router is upstairs at the back, so I have an unfiltered extension running upstairs, and an external adsl filter to connect the phone extension wiring

 

[foxhole]

With the age of that set up your external wiring back to the post may be past its best , has similar problem at my last property .
A rewire from post back to property fixed all my broadband issues .
Most difficult thing was convincing the supplier to get Open-reach to fix it .

 

[zvictor1]

Ty plugwash & foxhole for the replies. I *think* the phone cable is overhead - there is a bracket on the side of the house which has two cables coming from a pole on the other side of the lane.

One is a big thick mains cable that is run round the house to the consumer unit in the attached garage.

The other thin cable I believe to be the phone - on the wall bracket it goes into some sort of junction box; what comes out of that box is a dark brown twin co-ax cable I think. That disappears behind the weatherboarding on the outside of the house and I know not where it goes.

(There is what looks like the same sort of cable coming down from a terrestrial TV aerial on the roof separately, that comes into the house in the living room to feed the TV set-top box but nothing else so I think that's a red herring.)

I think I have to get in touch with Zen and say I don't have a master socket with faceplate and I can't find the junction box feeding my existing old phone sockets, see if there's anything they can suggest. I doubt they'd be able to fit a new master socket themselves. The suggestion of a complete rewire is indeed tempting - just get one new master socket off that feed cable and ignore/remove all the old stuff.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

There's nothing connected to the second extension, and I'd happily disconnect it but I have no idea where the junction box is (assuming I have one).

Does your phone line arrive overhead, via a pole? If it does, it should be easy to follow the line, to where it comes in..

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The other thin cable I believe to be the phone - on the wall bracket it goes into some sort of junction box; what comes out of that box is a dark brown twin co-ax cable I think. That disappears behind the weatherboarding on the outside of the house and I know not where it goes.

That looks similar two core wire, to what BT used a few years ago. Two cores, side by side, like an 8. Inside is a steel wire, copper plated, so it will be hard wire to bend, and the steel can be run overhead, without stretching under it's own weight. You need to follow that wire, to wherever it goes, it might terminate in the loft.

 

[plugwash]

It looks to me like the "pole side" of that plastic box is modern BT dropwire and the "house side" is a much older type of dropwire that isn't great for broadband.

 

[zvictor1]

Well, OpenReach guy came today, looked at the outside of the house and the pole across the lane, said something non-committal, came in and after a few tests took out the 'loose' socket replacing it with a new OpenReach master socket. Ran some more tests, declared the download and upload speeds improved, went on his way. I have to say, I was half expecting the whole house feed from the overhead might need replacing. No outages since; will keep a watching brief.