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Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 15:30:59 GMT

Hi all,

Me and my partner have just moved into our first house and ordered BT broadband (Fibre 2). The instructions to set up the Smart Hub 2 talk about connecting it to the master socket, then running a broadband cable from that to the Hub.

However, there’s a problem - the master socket is in the cupboard under the stairs (I think - see photo), but I wanted to set up the Hub in the living room where it would be connected to the TV box via Ethernet cable.

Now in the living room, coming out of the wall is a BT fibre broadband cable (other photo), but I’ve got no idea where this leads. Can I plug this directly into the Hub and expect it to work?

The previous owners of the house had EE phone/broadband which I believe uses BT so the setup must be there.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

jac_95 — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 15:42:04 GMT

That second image of the cable looks like an ethernet cable probably installed by the previous owners.

There must be another end to it or installed to a patch panel maybe near the copper NTE master socket.

Unless the previous owners have made this into a strange extension phone cable with a RJ11 connector (hard to see in image)

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 16:00:45 GMT

Thanks for the reply. So you don’t think that cable to the wall goes out to the street? So, there’s a good chance the other end of it is somewhere in the cupboard under the stairs near the master socket?

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 16:21:29 GMT

Unfortunately the silly size limits for images on this forum makes most of them next to useless, especially when viewed on a 4k screen. 🙄

Have you removed the faceplate from the master socket in pic 1 or was it like that?

With pic 2 it's impossible to tell if that's an RJ45 (ethernet) or RJ11 (DSL). See if it fits in the grey Broadband port of the SH2. It's possible the previous owners lashed up an extension from the master socket to do as you wish to do.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

licquorice — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 16:34:44 GMT

I suspect from picture one that the previous occupants have hard wired a cable to the rear of the master socket connecting it to the incoming line. The cable in picture 2 is the other end of the cable in picture one and if an RJ11, simply plugs into the DSL socket if the hub.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 16:57:06 GMT

Thanks.

We found the master socket like that (faceplate removed). Could that mean they’ve had some work done to put that extension in?

Also, perhaps this is a silly question but, the cable going into the back of the master socket is grey, but the one coming out of the wall is black, so surely they aren’t part of the same cable?

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 17:05:15 GMT

Just see it the plug fits & if it does, see if it works.

Unpicking previous owners DIY is all part of the fun. 😁

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 07:12:49 GMT

Thanks for the reply. The cable coming out of the wall is black, but the cable going into the master socket is grey. So I don’t see how they can be the same cable?

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 09:17:11 GMT

If you're going to carry on resisting simple suggestions that would take minutes to try, then I'm afraid I have nothing more to offer.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

imjolly — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 11:27:23 GMT

@lane26 wrote:
Thanks for the reply. The cable coming out of the wall is black, but the cable going into the master socket is grey. So I don’t see how they can be the same cable?

the colour of the cable is not important as it appears that the incoming openreach cable is black and connected to terminals A&B you then have a grey cable also connected to terminals A&B which then appears in pic 2. as both are connected to A&B then the colour is immaterial

try the suggestions

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 11:27:59 GMT

Happy to try what you’ve suggested, but my previous reply was directed at licquorice

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

licquorice — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 11:35:54 GMT

We are all saying the same thing

There appears to be 2 cables in picture 1.

If you wish to attribute a reply to a particular post or poster, use the quote function or the @ function otherwise nobody knows who you are replying to.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 15:37:41 GMT

Thanks all.

I’ve checked today and basically it seems like the cable coming out of the wall in the living room is an RJ11 cable. On the cable was a sticker saying “BT Fibre to cabinet, outside house and under the stairs”. However, the other end of that cable under the stairs appears to be of RJ45 type.

I’ve spoken to BT, and it seems like one solution might be to use mini connectors, by putting the Hub under the stairs and then a connector in the living room where I want the TV box to go with an Ethernet cable coming out.

Has anyone got any experience with these?

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

licquorice — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 16:08:55 GMT

Can you post a picture of the other end of the cable that goes to the living room? Is it near the master socket?

There are 2 cables shown in picture one, is one of them the cable that goes to the living room?

If the other end is not connected to the master socket and is just hanging loose, I suspect it is also an RJ11 and the previous occupants have simply unplugged it and removed the filtered faceplate from the master socket.

If that is the case, either just fit a filtered faceplate to the master or use a filter to convert the RJ11 to a phone plug to connect to the socket in master.

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 16:37:41 GMT

When you say the connectors "seem like", how have you determined this? An RJ11 connector will fit snugly into the grey port on the Hub. It will also fit into a yellow LAN port but won't be a good fit. An RJ45 connector will only fit into a LAN port.

So have you traced this cable outside & back in again, so that you're certain it's the same cable? It's all a bit odd & highly unusual to mix RJ45 & RJ11.

I've just noticed something odd on the cable that almost looks like a second connector. What is it?

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

lane26 — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 12:42:46 GMT

Hi again - so the end of the cable you can see there is definitely RJ11 because it fits nicely into the corresponding port on the hub. This cable goes outside the house and then back in under the stairs and is RJ45 at the other end. Can’t understand why that’s the way it is, to be honest. The part you’re pointing to isn’t really anything - it’s just something that the wire is fed through.

I’ve had to place the Hub under the stairs because that’s where the master socket is. What I haven’t been able to test yet is whether the TV box will run off the Wi-Fi fine (waiting on a TV delivery) - it’s about 5m away from the Hub

Re: Ordered BT Fibre 2, Phone and TV - but setup is confusing

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 13:44:01 GMT

I can't conceive of any way a setup like that would have worked. Are you able to ask the previous owner?

You can get an RJ45 to RJ11 adapter, but that ideally needs a filtered faceplate on the master socket. Although presumably your currently using a micro filter, which would do. Maybe you could ask what happened to that too? But even then we have no idea what the wiring configuration may be in that cable, so still may not work.

See how the WiFi connection works out. If no good you can get a cheap RJ11 crimper from the likes of Amazon to replace that RJ11. Or check locally for someone who could do it for you.