BT master socket query - no wires? Is that right?

I was asked by my ISP to try out the test socket on my master socket as I am having a few speed issues. When I took the face plate off it came off OK but with no wires attached, is this correct? I thought it was meant to have some wires attached?
The normal telephone ie voice is working ok and its the only socket in our house. The socket is a circle with T in it from approx early 90s.

this forum is for BT retail residential customers - is BT your ISP?
the wires connected to the front are your extensions - no wires means you don't have any extension sockets in your home
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Similar Messages

Request to resite Master socket-using external wir...

Sorry its a similar post, however these are my specific questions.
Engr coming this friday to install BT Infinty fibre service.Modem due tomorrow and Engr brings Router(I think).
My current layout is copper cable to house via BT Pole,to front of house first floor,then cable run down wall to lounge bay window and master socket is installed underneath/adjacent to bay window.(no power socket available nearby).
Lounge, hall, stairs and landing all recently replastered and redecorated.Yes I know I should had this lot installed first!
I will not accept Cat5 cable extension from downstairs to upstairs (clipped against skirting etc)and also fitting of a new twin socket outlet in the lounge.
We have a study at the rear of the house first floor where PC is installed with current Router, and sufficient sockets.
Will the nice Open Reach Engr consider the following,
1. reuse the copper wire to the house and cleat the cable run towards the rear of the property.
2. If the cable is not long enough, can he joint it-or is this a no no!(outside)
3. If 2 is not possible would he consider renewing the copper cable from pole and run it to my study(outside wall).
4. Will he drill through mortar/brick wall to gain access to study to run cable inside for less than 1 metre?
5. If he is not willing to do 4-Could I drill the hole for him!
I promise to make him unlimited tea/coffee, foot his ladder and buy loads of cake and biscuits.
If I am "kidding myself" please tell me!
Many thanks for any advice,
Regards
Graham
Solved!
Go to Solution.

graham6520 wrote:
Hi,
Many thanks for swift reply.
1. I have three sockets in the study with PC-so power sockets are not the issue!
2. I do have one"aftermarket non BT" phone socket in the study where the router/modem is currently connected to this socket. This socket is at the end of a "serial phone circuit"(ie master socket in lounge to phone in lounge to phone in kitchen then upstairs to study!).I know this route sounds long and "iffy" but its good quality cable and properly "terminated".I have had no problems whatsoever in 20 years re phone REN etc.Last time a BT Engr was at the property was summer this year and my download speed was 1.9mbps at the master socket and I asked him to test speed at the"end of my phone wiring in the study(where the router is plugged) and he confirmed same 1.9 mbps.
From this I deduced no loss on my DIY wiring!-I could be wrong-I am a novice!
the wiring will not be suitable for a master but the engineer will run a new cable then use the existing wiring just for phones
3. If the installer could just fit a master phone socket to replace my DIY existing socket in the Study, that would be fantastic and so easy! not possible
4. Please forgive my ignorance re your item 3 below, can you clarify or simplify ie does the router and modem"sit next to each other" and can they both reside in the study(if the installer can fit a master socket in the study).
master connects to modem, then modem to router, you can extend any of the cables that connect them though the best one would be modem to router as you can buy suitable cables in upto 100m length
I will be very grateful for a further update from you and other experts, this upgrade is really important to me, I am at home having lost my job through ill health 2 years ago and don't think I am well enough to drill a hole through the outside wall on a ladder with vertigo!-unless the installer refuses to drill the wall. I don't think my wife would sign off the risk assessment for me to do it! could always drill from inside, i always do, more important to have it in the right place on the inside than outside
Thanks once again,
Graham

Two lines in use, one master socket that is bypass...

I work at an organisation that has a subscription for two lines. One line is used for the main phone system of the business and the other is used for two purposes: 1. There is a payphone for guests on it; 2. The business internet connection comes through it (DSL). The internet connection is noticably slower than it should be and often drops out, so I've had a look at the wiring of the phone lines.
Both lines come into the building from the pole through a single 4-core black drop-cable, as is quite normal I think. This cable comes into the back of an NTE5 master socket. The wire colours are Green, White, Orange and Black. None of these connect to any part of the master socket - neither the main panel, nor the removable front plate. Instead, they are all connected with the little translucent crimp-type things to the wires of the internal "extension" cables. My first quesion is, is this correct? I think it's incorrect, especially as one pair of wires immediately gets split off to 2 extensions, as I'll now describe...
From the master socket there are two "extension" cables. One goes directly to what I think is a normal extension socket (smaller than an NTE5, but it does have some kind of inductor or capacitor, and it looks modern). This socket's pins 2 and 5 are wired directly from the orange and white wires respectively in the drop wire. To this socket, the ADSL modem is connected and nothing else.
The other extension cable goes off somewhere else. However, it must be carrying two phone lines - because the payphone must come off it (which shares the line with the modem), as must the main phone system. It is a 6-core round white cable. Its Orange and White/orange wires are connected to White and Orange in the drop cable (i.e. the same pair that goes to the modem extension) and its Green and White/green wires are connected to Green and Black in the drop-cable. I haven't been able to trace this cable yet, but all I know is that it must end up splitting off to the pay phone and the main phone system, because they are separate lines.
So, is the incoming line not terminated correctly, in that it doesn't connect at all to the master socket and the one pair of wires immediately splits off to two extensions? Could this be causing the internet connection problems?
Any help would be greatly appreciated - preferably from one of you former BT men ;-) I'm trained in electronics myself, so answer technically if you want.

Yes, the payphone has a filter.
Yes I agree that the line the main phone system comes off may not need a master socket for whatever reason (i.e. it may have its own circuitry).
But as for the broadband line - it splits off to the payphone extension and to the modem extension as soon as it leaves the drop wire, which seems wrong to me. As far as I understand, one of the purposes of the master socket is to be able to detach the front plate in order to isolate the consumer's extensions from BT's line; but with the extensions being hard-wired in, that's imposisble. And with no master socket, I assume that whatever circuitry is normally in a master socket isn't present on the line. Does this matter? Is it just surge protection, or is there some kind of filtering as well? We will of course contact BT about this, but I'd like to know first whether there really is something wrong.

Broadband speed / lack of master socket

My broadband speed according to all the speed tests is around 0.5Mb/s - sad, I know. One of the things I wanted to try to bump it up a bit was to plug the router into the master socket. It looks like we don't have one but one of those old junction box things above the front door. Has anyone had any luck trying to persuade BT to replace a junction box with a normal master socket? All advice welcome.

That thing above your door will just be a block terminal, they have them in place because the external cable can not extend inside your premises for more than two metres. This is because the plastic sheathing on it releases chemicals when burns, but to be honest if your house is on fire there are probably 101 other plastic household items that will also release harmful fumes on top of the already harmful fumes from the fire itself.
By the sounds of you will just have a LJU for your NTP, aka master socket. Will probably have the old T logo on it?
Anyway, as mentioned above you can't just ask they come and replace it. Openreach operate a 'if it ain't broke don't fix it policy' so if you called an engineer out they will charge you £130 for a wasted visit as it will have been right when tested. Depending on the engineer, he may replace it while on site but chances are he might not as it will be an easy close for him and he can get to his next job.

BT Infinity / Master Socket

Hi,
Last week I had BT Infinity installed, but having done some reading around I'm slightly concerned by the work that was (not) done, and thought I'd post this for some advice.
I used to have an ADSL Nation NTE5 faceplate, from which I had wired a telephone extension. I also had my ADSL router connected via a 5m (or so) RJ11 extension cable, as my master socket is nowhere near a power socket.
While the installer was there, I asked about moving the master socket but he indicated that I'd have to pay BT to have this done (though he actually recommended I look for a local contractor who could do it much cheaper). I've since heard that some rather more helpful installers have done this work as part of the job! Perhaps the fact that mine was the last of the day meant he just wanted to get away early...
In the end, he reused my RJ11 extension cable to connect my BT Openreach modem to the master socket, but I'm concerned that this isn't a good idea and should actually have been done using CAT5e? I asked about running an extension from the master socket to be able to connect the OR modem elsewhere in the house and he indicated that this is possible. Subsequent reading around suggests this isn't possible though, and you can only run telephone extensions from the new faceplate?
Does anyone have any advice? My ideal scenario would be to have the OR modem in our utility room (used to be the garage), and to probably connect the Home Hub via powerline - or CAT5e - from somewhere more central in the house.
Thanks in advance - I'm more of a software guy, so this isn't my area of expertise!
Cheers
Nat
P.S. This all started because I've had a couple of dropped connections since the install, which could only be resolved by power cycling the OR modem.

The engineer should do either of these.
Move the nte5 to where you need it.
Do an nte5/ extension swap.
Run an internal data extension.
Run an external data extension.
If they say you have to have it at the point of entry then they are not being completely honest with you.
Perhaps it was a contractor/ mobile workforce chap and not an openreach engineer.

No Master Socket in our House

We've been in our house for 30 years now, and having had problems with the Internet over the past week, it has only just come to my attention what a Master Socket is, and the fact that we don't have one of the newer NTE5 ones (that's what Wikipedia says the name of it is!)
Would BT replace our existing socket witha newer one?
Thanks

If you ask BT/Openreach to visit purely to update the Master socket then I would expect them to charge you for that service.
If they visit to sort out an issue with the external wiring then you could reasonably expect the engineer to update it (it is their equipment after all). BTW there are many versions of the "Master" socket and even 30 yrs ago some form of master socket would have been fitted.
If you were in a position to (and wanted to) upgrade to Infinity then as part of the engineer install the latest Master socket would be fitted.

Re-wire to Master Socket as part of Infinity insta...

The 15m cable from the point from where the BT cable enters my property to the Master Socket is at least 11 years old and follows an inconvenient and unsightly route.
Would BT/Openreach alter the point of entry (by about 2m) and replace & re-route the internal cable as part of my forthcoming BT Infinity installation, or am I hoping for too much? I don't want the Master Socket relocated, just the cabling to it.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

hi no they will normally only use another socket as a master or install up to a 30metre data cable any other rewiring would be chargeable
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"Master socket or lack of"

Ok trying to trce the phone lines
black drop line comes into the house via a door frame somewhere near the bottom of the door frame on the iside a white cable exits and on the end of this after a pass under the floor the cable ends at what looks like a BT master - single piece like an extension , cap inside and BT trumpeter logo however nothing its connected to it. My partner seems to think there is an old GPO box in the door frame!
there is an extension box on the oter side of the wall from the incoming wire which has a further extension bodged into it and on the end is the BT home hub and Vision box the phone works off the home hub
is it worth getting an eingineer in to sort it out a the master has clearly been stuck on a patched wire and the whole thing has been bodged and patched by previous occupant
Broadband is down to 1.something to a max of 3Kbps as for phone we dont have any hard wired phones to check the line.
are we liable for any charges for getting it sorted or likley to be fined for the messing about with the drop wire?
Sean

seanlyon wrote:
OK further investigation black drop wire goes into the door frame and caught in behind the standard for the door is a small white junction box, from that emerges 2 white wires, one presumably goes to the small single piece master socket, the other goes to what looks like a cheap DIY shed extension box from which comes a further extension under the floors to where the BThub is plugged, As the hub hasnt been attached to a "master" (the extension has no capacitor or anything in it) will this be contributing to the braodband speed drop off and vision not working.
As i said in OP no phones connected to the sockets so cant really test the line with a handset.
whats the best way to configure the set up for best quality
Hi
The socket that you think is the master is it possible for you to plug the Home hub into that? ensure that there is nothing else plugged into the other sockets, goto www.speedtester.bt.com and run a speed test.
I know you say that you do not have a corded phone to test the line but to ensure that you do not have a noisy line which (would cause speed issues) can you not beg/steal or borrow one?
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Master socket broken?

Hi guys,
had the second line in my house activated today.
Checked the master socket and test socket as when I plug a phone in, I don't seem to be getting anything. Phone doesn't work and neither does my new broadband
Here are some pics of what it looks like:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/pz6h.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/11/8iy3.jpg/
Is this right? The black and green wires aren't even connected to anything! I know this line used to work though, and im pretty sure the line hasn't been touched.
Excuse the wall, we're having it replastered lol.

Right okay, BT said that the line had been reconnected.
I guess not!

3 Master Sockets in the same room

So I have 3 Master sockets in one room (yes don't know why there are so many in the first place, previous owner probably) so I have 3 master sockets the 3rd still has the bt piper logo and the first one has the t logo so I might plan to move the home hub to the third one can I do that? the hub is currently connected to the 2nd one which has the openreach logo and stuff..

Do all 3 sockets still work?
Its possible that only one is the Master, more than likely the Openreach branded one and the others are just asting as extensions. You can do that by just connecting the Battery, Earth and Bell Wire to the terminals on the faceplate of the other two NTE's and not the A and B terminals on the back plate.
I used to do it for a living and sometimes when I changed sockets around for whatever reason and didn't have a flush mounted LJU on me I would just do what I described above. Might confuse an engineer for the whole of two minutes but they would soon work out which is the master and which is the extension.

Re: No master socket?

You are, of course, absolutely not allowed to buy a master socket from the internet and install it yourself. The two wire connection is too difficult for amateurs so it is never done. If an Openreach person found this had been done in 10 years time it would not be possible to say that it was like that when you moved in and the future Openreach person would never say that's OK it has been done properly even by an amateur. If only the things that never, ever happen did happen. Every master socket is listed in a big book and if you were to do this, you would be found out almost immediately by the Big Inspector and you would go to BT prison for ever.

The Openreach Law.
Section 5
Paragraph 3
Which states quite clearly that that, if we did not do it and you want a problem sorting out then you will be paying for it.
toekneem
http://www.no2nuisancecalls.net
(EASBF)

Help needed please for master socket wiring

I am renovating a house built in the 1970's which I shall be moving into shortly.
My electrician has put in telephone sockets in two of the bedrooms but when he came to the master socket he found the builders had by mistake cut the wire too short so he could not make a connection.
The master socket is in the hall low down on the wall and it looks as if the wire comes into the house underground.
I have spent hours on the telephone trying to get the right person to speak to at BT who tells me I need to contact Open Reach as it is damage and when I eventually found a number to ring them they tell me it is BT's problem.
In exasperation I telephoned the moving house line as none of the press button numbers seemed relevant.
I just want a BT person to come and have a look to see what to do but they have told me that I need to give them a date for when I move and they will come and look then. However, I need the builders to fill in the large hole in where the wire comes into the house so I can have a floor laid.
Any help would be so much appreciated

Hi Kh,
Thank you for your post and welcome to the forum. If you would like a BT Engineer to go out and take a look at your line this can bee arranged when you place an order to activate the service. With the line being damaged by the builder, there will be a charge of around £127.99 to activate the service.
If you need any help placing your order to activate the service, please drop me an email with any BT account details, along with the address details for you new property. My email address is [email protected]
Thanks
Paddy
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)

IPlate/Master Socket, Help Needed!

(Before i start this is my first post so sorry if i mess something up )
Hi,
I want to install a BT Iplate but i have a Master socket that is not supported. (Pic below)
Is there any chance i can change my master socket to the one below so i can install an iplate?

Hi Eaglealex7,
The newer Openreach BTNTE5 master socket already filters interference from extension sockets. Pre-filtered ADSL/VDSL master sockets also already filters interference from extension sockets.
if you have a look at this link here it will tell you what Master sockets work with the iplate / Accelerator : http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25075
The accelerator/iplate can sometimes cause more issues in some cases. Have a look at removing the BellWire/Ring wire from terminal 3 of your master socket and extension sockets which does the same thing as the accelerator/iplate but sometimes more effective. Link : bellwire removal
Cheers
jac_95 | BT.com Help Site | BT Service Status
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No access to my master socket - can I still get In...

Hi, I'll try and keep this as short as possible...!
I recently ordered Infinity. The BT engineer came and couldnt install as he couldn't access my master socket. I do know where it is, as my brother-in-law and I wired up the sockets a few years back when we were refurbishing.
Unfortunately however, the master socket is about 2 foot below the floor-boards in my dining room, which is then covered with a wooden floor, which I cannot lift. From that master socket, the primary line runs underneath my house all the way to the wall at the back where it comes up into a modular plate with 1 telephone socket, (along with an ehternet port and 2x co-axials for sky) . From the master socked under the ground another secondary cable comes out at the front of the house and up to the front bedroom which services my phone and my second sky box, i.e. I need this cable to allow my sky multi-room to work.
From the master socked underground we ran ethernet cabling from there to the socket at the back of the house, so Im sure there are at least 2 pairs of wires running to that socket, possibly 6, (if we ran only 2 upstairs to the secondary socket)
Hope ive explained my setup sufficiently. Can anyone advise if Infinity can be installed on the primary line at the back of the house based on this information? Or let me know if I need to clarify anything else?
any help would be much appreciated! thanks

ok thanks.
Problem is, if they put a new master socket in, my old master will be disconnected and the lines going to the back of the house and the bedroom upstairs will be cut off, and I depend on both those lines being there for both sky boxes to work, and also for my router to link back into my network wiring which runs throuhgout the house (again all channeled into walls and under floors so not easy to change)
Ill call BT tonight and see if they'll let me order Infinity 1 then. Even if my line speed is affected, I currently have their standard broadband (which they say runs at between 3-6mbps but it doesnt), its really slow, much slower than virgin adsl line which I had previsouly, but swapped to get BT sport free So any improvement on speed will be welcomed tbh
Thanks again

Can a faulty master socket cause linkdead / dropou...

I'm connecting to a Dark Age of Camelot server in the US (206.112.64.6) on BT Infiinity and my accounts are going linkdead every 3-5 minutes (when local game client loses connection with the server). This has been happening since I noticed that the cable to our master socket is threadbare and thee are individual wires poking out of the back of the socket (which is not attached to the wall).
Last time i had this problem, it was a routing issue between me and the server which BT was responsible for causing, but that was 8 months ago.
What can I do to remedy this. Below is a trace to the destination server. Web browing seems unaffected, as is Skype and Ventrillo (VOIP)
tracert 206.112.64.6
Tracing route to 206.112.64.6 over a maximum of 30 hops
1     5 ms     3 ms     3 ms BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254]
2     7 ms     8 ms     7 ms 217.32.147.99
3     9 ms     7 ms    10 ms 217.32.147.126
4    12 ms    12 ms    12 ms 212.140.235.202
5    13 ms    13 ms    12 ms 217.41.169.225
6    13 ms    12 ms    13 ms 217.41.169.109
7    13 ms    12 ms    12 ms 109.159.251.209
8    25 ms    26 ms    28 ms core2-te0-3-0-13.ealing.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
51.37]
9    19 ms    19 ms    19 ms transit2-xe1-1-0.ealing.ukcore.bt.net [62.6.200.
142]
10    21 ms    21 ms    18 ms t2c4-xe-9-0-0.uk-eal.eu.bt.net [166.49.168.49]
11    21 ms    21 ms    19 ms xe-8-0-0.edge4.London2.Level3.net [212.187.192.6
1]
12    20 ms    20 ms    19 ms ae-3-3.ebr1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.141.189]
13    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms vlan102.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.143.90]
14    93 ms    89 ms    89 ms ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.74]
15    90 ms    89 ms    99 ms ae-4-4.ebr1.NewYork2.Level3.net [4.69.141.18]
16    97 ms    96 ms    89 ms ae-1-51.edge2.NewYork2.Level3.net [4.69.138.195]
17    89 ms    89 ms    89 ms Verizon-level3-2x10g.NewYork.Level3.net [4.68.62
.42]
18    99 ms    99 ms   144 ms 0.xe-7-1-0.XT2.DCA6.ALTER.NET [152.63.6.117]
19   111 ms   100 ms   100 ms 0.xe-6-0-0.XT1.DCA6.ALTER.NET [152.63.40.49]
20   101 ms   100 ms   100 ms so-0-0-0.ur1.iad6.web.wcom.net [157.130.59.70]
21   100 ms    99 ms    99 ms 206.112.64.142
22   100 ms   100 ms   100 ms 206.112.64.6

I'm not decorating my house in lead emulsion No problems with wireless connectivity since the week-long problem that BT caused back in March or whenever it was and since them my connections been solid. Like I said, it doesnt affect VOIP connections (I game while using Ventrilo) which may or may not be less sensetive to a temporary loss of connectivity.
if BT want to move my socket somewhere more appropriate then fine. Not many people people i'd imaging have a computer in the front hallway of their house, next to the front door. besides, what's the point of providing a wireless router if not for convenience
Either its a BT socket problem (inside the box are 2-3 loose wires not connected to anything) or its a wider network problem between me and the server.

BT master socket query - no wires? Is that right?

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