Hi all,

A few years ago, BT had to come round to me mums to fix the phone line.

Did a sterling job except the the last 2foot. As you can see in pic below, they put new wire in except for the last 2foot. When they threw a block in and used the existing wire, thats older than me

I've changed the master socket but the wire could do with an upgrade.

As BT won't come out without charging I basically want to renew the wiring.myself.

The problem I have is where is the best place to get the wire and what are the connectors use to join the wire and again how can I get em?

Cheers,

P s I know how I shouldnt be touching this but as the phone is working fine (net speeds are the issue) I don't see why my mother should have to pay for BT to redo a job they didn't do right the first time round.

Edited 19 July, 201411 yr by Thisday

Everything on the other side of the BT master socket is BT property, so you could get in trouble if something goes wrong and they find out you have messed with it.

 

Cable-wise, are we talking just outside of the house?? For internal use, a length of cable from an old phone extension is perfect. In fact ANY bit of thin cable will do, the official phone line may have multiple cables, but they only actually use two; as you can see in your photo.

 

Telecom cables usually use blade connectors, where the un-stripped end of the cable is pushed down into a scissor like connector, which cuts through the insulation and makes contact with the copper inside; an engineer will use a special tool, but you can do it with an old butter knife or a suitably sized screw driver.

 

Connectors, tools and cable can be got from an Electrical trade counter, and some electronic hobby shops (I think Maplins stock this stuff).

I presume the 6 wire on the left is the new and the grey wire (now obsolete )is the original,and could still be faulty,so get the line tested as this old cable in possibly well over 40yrars old could still be faulty

Hi all,

A few years ago, BT had to come round to me mums to fix the phone line.

Did a sterling job except the the last 2foot. As you can see in pic below, they put new wire in except for the last 2foot. When they threw a block in and used the existing wire, thats older than me

I've changed the master socket but the wire could do with an upgrade.

As BT won't come out without charging I basically want to renew the wiring.myself.

The problem I have is where is the best place to get the wire and what are the connectors use to join the wire and again how can I get em?

Cheers,

P s I know how I shouldnt be touching this but as the phone is working fine (net speeds are the issue) I don't see why my mother should have to pay for BT to redo a job they didn't do right the first time round.

 

 

 

I don't think rewiring this will sort our your BB slow issues to be honest...

 

Can you tell me what you are syncing up at? If you are unsure tell me what router you are using and I will guide you through it.

I don't think rewiring this will sort our your BB slow issues to be honest...

 

Can you tell me what you are syncing up at? If you are unsure tell me what router you are using and I will guide you through it.

 

I'm not exactly sure, the router is the  siemens router that sky used to provide. 

 

I added a master socket myself a few years ago coupled with one of these https://www.claritybroadband.co.uk/clxcart/BT-Openreach-ADSL-VDSL-Adaptor-Faceplate-for-NTE5-Master-Sockets-Modified.html and that doubled the speeds from 0.5mb to around 1mb, which into days world is pretty poor.

 

I'm not saying they should be getting more than that, but is you look at that wiring its old and battered.

 

I've found some external cable here - http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CAEXGPO5.html, but could do with some of those connectors used in the picture to both fit within the connector box and help maintain an original look. 

Edited 21 July, 201411 yr by Thisday

Can you access the router and post the line stats??

 

Some routers are a lot better than others when the line is poor, I found older ("G" spec") TPLink routers very good on marginal lines

should be dropping by in the next day or so so i will have a try.

Is that the cable into the house or an extension?

that's the main cable into the house

I'd be calling faults and ask to talk to a supervisor ( could be they're called level one these days) . That is not right- problem with the connectors (jelly crimps) is that before long  corrosion set in where the wire enters the crimp, and you get problems. It looks disgusting. Just looked at the incoming ,and that is one sloppy job . It shouldn't sag. But all these cables are internal cabling, so how does the line come in (from pole, or box on wall). If pole, where's the other joint box. Again, outside requires external UV non reactive cable , which BT changed to many years ago and it used to be brown sheath . But the thing you should know as someone posted earlier ,is that the master socket provided by BT is the end of the line that they are responsible . It's called a NTTP (network terminating point ) ,to provide a junction between their wiring/responsibilities and renters. I'd be very careful of interfering with anything before the master socket and the master socket it's self .

If the black 6 wire is going into the property ,it is wrong but wont effect BB speed as I've said before ,get the line tested ,question the result ,IT COST NOTHING.dont waste time and money messing around changing routers,unless line is ok u r wasting time and money,the connectors used are ok,the closure is ok the grey wire is obsolete and regarded a a major issue and any decent engineer would change this first and take the new wire direct from pole into property to the nte (socket)

+1^^^^ The 6 wire is internal cable which as a general rule should only be used beyond the nte which is a bit confusing. You should have either a modern dropwire or cable downlead if your feed is overhead. Was your mom in at the time? If so he should have renewed it all the way in if it was possible to do so (he'd have to drill a new hole though somewnere else as he wouldn't want to risk damaging the window frame if its not wooden)

More important than the phone line for broadband is the call quality.

 

Is the line noisy/crackly? If so, get a BT engineer out on that and point out that random box.

I'd say you're far better off getting a proper BT engineer out, than trying to fiddle with it yourself.

 

If you fiddle with the line, pre NTE-5, it's going to cost you many thousands if anything is broken or goes wrong and BT etc find out.

NTL, BT and the rest of them don't like you to mess around with their network for good reason.

 

The other thing would be to live with it until a storm or something damages the cable and pulls it out of the box, and then report it and ask them to fix it properly.