Understanding home wiring?

[EthanWilson]

Hi there,

I have just moved and am trying to understand the layout of the wiring to each of my phone sockets as I am having some trouble working it out. As far as I knew, there is normally one master socket with extension wires going to different sockets around the house.

The current way it is setup is the master box has 2 of the 4 incoming wires attached to A and B connectors (the other two black and green wires I thought were unused but the attach to the extension connectors?):

Note that there is also a facia that separates the phone and broadband attached to this socket but isnt in the image.

So, I assumed the other sockets upstairs would have the wires that left the extension connectors in the master (orange/white, blue/white, white/blue) however they all have 4 wires (solid orange, white, black and green), the same as the incoming wires that go into the master box. How does this work? I'm guessing they are not extensions from the master box? Images of the sockets upstairs:

Are these sockets even connected to the master socket and will they work when my line is connected on tuesday? Appologies if I am just being dumb, I havent really had much experience with this stuff!

[lnajr02]

You are correct, the BT line should be one pair of wires, normally the White and Orange, but it depends what was spare on the cable when installed. ( I am assuming you have no other devices connected to the line other than the extension wiring ) then from the removable faceplate the pair A&B wires ( pins 2, 5) are then shared with the internal wiring, pin 3 is used for ringing ( but many phones to day only require A&B) Keep all the internal wiring on the removable plate this allows you to disconnect the internal wiring if you should have a fault, ( you own the internal wiring) newer (NTE's )face plates have the ADSL socket for the broadband to plug in.
Search for "How to wire up a NTE5 TELEPHONE MASTER SOCKET"

Hope this helps,

[Devon_Dave]

Can I suggest that you disconnect the green and black wires from the front plate as this could cause problems to your set up.
Also, I would only connect up the extension sockets that you intend using.

[EthanWilson]

Hi and thanks for the replies,
Turns out that the green and black wires in the master socket connect to the white and orange wires I found upstairs (so both upstairs boxes share the exa t same connections) , I'm sure this is an odd way of wiring these as I have no idea where the striped cables go to!
I have one other issue however, after I figured out where the connections all lead, I moved the wires that lead upstairs to the broadband extension rather than the phone extension. This allowed me to have my hub upstairs as to provide a better connection to WiFi around the house (as it is 3 floors). The issue is that when the land line rings and/or is used, the broadband will disconnect. I will move the hub back downstairs to test it but as far as I can see, it would use the same contacts regardless as to there where it is as I am using the extention points on the main faceplate.

[NeilO]

Hi @EthanWilson welcome to the community and thanks for posting, it's not recommended to connect your router from an extension socket as the wiring may not be the best for broadband. If you do choose to connect to the extension make sure you are using a broadband filter, if you're not using one it can cause the broadband to disconnect when the land line is in use.

If you're having wireless coverage issues I'd recommend you take a look at our complete wifi service it may help if you're experience wifi black spots in your home. 

[EthanWilson]

Hi there, 

I did end up connecting the router to the extension upstairs, and the broadband was working perfectly, however I am still experiencing issues with broadband going down when the phone is in use (it is fine if the phone rings, but when it is picked up the broadband goes off). 

I have tried using the test socket with a filter and it works fine. I then tried with the faceplate on and it stated playing up again, and the same happens upstairs.

What else can I try? I have the master socket wired in a similar way to how this video shows :

https://youtu.be/0MLeYTaasr0

Many thanks 

[imjolly]

if it works ok and does not disconnect when using phone in test socket then you have a problem with either master faceplate or your internal wiring or both

do you have any other extension sockets?  if so are they wired to the master socket or your extension socket or a different extension socket?

as it works in test socket then engineer visit would probably be chargeable

[EthanWilson]

all the extension sockets seem to share the same wiring as they all work the exact same but there are only 2 wires leaving the master socket. same results for every extension socket and the main socket - phone gets answered and the broadband goes down. Do you think it is worth buying a new faceplate?

[imjolly]

so all the extension sockets are daisy chained together  is there an extension socket with a device connected without a filter - common one is sky box

[EthanWilson]

No, the only things plugged in are phone and hub