Changing the Master Socket Face Plate

[tonupsuzie]

Hi all

When I unscrew the face plate on the master socket (in my front porch), there is a test socket inside.

I can run my internet (and phone) perfectly well from this test socket.
When I try to run the internet inside the house, it keeps cutting out. My service provider tells me there is a big resistance on the line possibly caused by the face plate on the master socket.

I have bought a new NTE5 to replace the face plate.

2 problems:
1 The existing face plate has 6 connectors (with 6 wires connected) whereas the new face plate has only 4 connectors.
2 The wire colour coding does not match. My six wires are solid colours, whereas the instructions for the 4 wires for the new face plate are blue with white rings, orange with white rings and the opposites. I dont have these coloured wires.


So my PC is currently stuck in the porch and its getting cold. Any help on what i should be doing would be much appreciated.

 

[plugwash]

you should find the connections on your existing plate are numbered 1-6 and those on your new plate are labeled 2-5, to replace the plate move wires to the corresponding numbers on the new plate and don't bother about those that used to go to 1 and 6

however I very much doubt that the front plate of the NTE5 is the problem whatever your isp says.

The first thing to try is to disconnect the wire from terminal 3 on the front plate of the NTE5. There is a good chance this will make your broadband work. If not then some work on your extension wiring is likely to be required.

 

[bernardgreen]

Best option is to take two wires as a pair from the customer side ( the removable part ) of the BT master socket to a new NTE 5 master box wher you are having the computer.

On this new NTE 5 you fit a front plate with a ADSL socket and phone socket.

http://www.solwise.com/adsl_splitters.htm#NTE5

Plug you computer / router etc into the ADSL socket and wire ALL your internal extension telephone sockets from this splitter. There is one filter in the front plate which separates the internal wiring from the ADSL signal thus preventing the internal wiring from affecting the ADSL signal.

Also read this which gives more details

http://www.solwise.com/adsl-around-the-home.htm

 

[plugwash]

or keep the extention wiring as is, use a faceplate splitter on the existing NTE5 and run a dedicated pair to the DSL modem.

but before we get into drastic soloutions like the one I mentioned above and the one you gave it is a good idea to try the simple stuff.

 

[Space cat]

Are your existing six wires solid core? Stranded wire doesn't make reliable connections in IDC terminals. This could be the cause of that 'big resistance'.

What plugwash and bernardgreen are saying is correct. It's not good to let the broadband signal run all around your internal phone wiring. Even if it doesn't have to go down an extension to reach your modem, the fact that it can go there at all will degrade the signal. It bounces off the far end and returns out of phase. A similar phenomenon produces ghost images on TV screens.

This --

or keep the extention wiring as is, use a faceplate splitter on the existing NTE5 and run a dedicated pair to the DSL modem

from plugwash is the second best way to do it. The best way is to put a modem router next to the socket and connect your PC over a network- but that's overkill if you only have one PC.

 

[breezer]

50p says its not high resistance on the face palte.

more likely a bad connection in the house.

 

[tonupsuzie]

Well many thanks for all the interest.
I'll get back with answers to questions and i'll try out the suggestions.
I can tell you that my main socket in the house is directly through the wall behind the master socket outside the house. In other words, the wiring is less than 2 feet long. My internet does not work connected to the main socket.
But I can tell you that Ive been stuck with this problem for over 8 months now and i'm really pleased to have found this site. At least ive got something to try.

Thanks again to all of you who contributed - i'll let you know what happens!

Suzie

 

[bernardgreen]

I can tell you that my main socket in the house is directly through the wall behind the master socket outside the house.
Suzie

I hope the master socket is NOT outside the house. They are NOT weatherproof. In the porch may just be OK but not the best place for a plug and socket connection that will deteriorate in cold damp areas.

 

[ugjointer]

Tonupsuzie,your master socket should really not be in a porch,check the copper terminals on the removable part of the NTE5 and make sure they are clean and not getting damp,you only need to connect terminals 2,5,3 to any sockets after the NTE,if you have solid coloured wires keep the same colours from the terminals on the nte faceplate to the terminals on your ext sockets.If you only have a NTE 5 and then an ext 2 feet away there is not a lot to go wrong as long as the sockets are dry and clean where the equipment plugs into the socket

 

[Space cat]

If you only have a NTE 5 and then an ext 2 feet away there is not a lot to go wrong as long as the sockets are dry and clean where the equipment plugs into the socket

That's true if the extension goes no further. Any extension wires that continue on from that inside socket 'twice round the gasworks and home' will degrade the broadband signal. It might not HAVE to go down them but it will!

 

[tonupsuzie]

Hi All

Well I disconnected wire 3 (as directed above) and the problem seems to have gone.
Can someone tell me what wire 3 is for please.

thx

Suzie

 

[tomy]

wire 3 is the bell wire ie the phone wont ring on your extensions normally . But when you have a dsl filter plugged in to the extension socket this acts as a master socket and the phone plugged into the filter will ring normally .

 

[plugwash]

Can someone tell me what wire 3 is for please.

A historical oddity of british phone wiring is that it has a single ringer capacitor in the master socket rather than one in each phone. With phones made in the traditional british way (many newer phones are imported and have thier own ringing capacitor) in the traditional way and plugged directly into the extention sockets wire 3 is required to make the extention phones ring.

however in the unfiltered part of an installation with ADSL the ringer wire is nothing but trouble. The filters contain thier own ringing capictors after the filtering and having an extra wire hanging off (the capaicitor behaves like a join as far as high frequencies are concerned) a line carrying high frequency signals is generally a rather bad thing.