Moving Master Socket (without additional wiring)

[SteveG2460]

Hi, My BT master socket is located in a cupboard in my hallway along with my router. I currently user powerline adaptors to link to my TV box in the lounge but recently I have been getting annoying picture breakup problems. I would therefore like to do away with the powerline adaptors and use an Ethernet cable to connect my TV box directly to the router. However at the moment this is not practical due to the position of the router.

My question is – can I get BT to make an existing socket in the lounge my master socket (to allow me to move the router here and connect the TV box to it via an Ethernet cable) without the need for additional telephone wiring?

And if so roughly how much would this cost?

Many thanks!  

[Bob1001]

@SteveG2460You would have to ask BT who in turn would have to ask Open reach to move the master socket, no idea of the cost. Any extension sockets are yours and you can either move them yourself or get someone else to do it.

HOWEVER

When I was rearanging things in the house I moved my router from the main socket to an extension socket and it worked just as well with no measured loss of speed, so it may be worth trying this first.

Depending on which master socket you have you may need to use filters if you don't already use them.

[Paul608085]

I had our master socket moved from the hall to the lounge about 8 years ago. According to my bank records, it cost £128 back then.

Incidentally, in case anyone was thinking of doing it themselves, the next Openreach that came to the house for a fault had on his record where the master socket should have been.

I wonder what the "penalty" would be for it not being where they think it should be? 😉

[licquorice]

As @Bob1001  says, your router doesn't have to be connected to the master socket. If there is an existing extension socket in the lounge simply connect your router to that. If you have a filtered master socket (i.e it has separate sockets for phone and broadband), simply move the 2 wires that are connected to terminals 2&5 on the removable faceplate and connect them to the data extension terminals instead. If you also use a phone in the lounge, you will need to fit an external filter there.

[SteveG2460]

Thanks Paul608085. Could you confirm that the move didn't require any additional wiring?

[Paul608085]

@SteveG2460 

It did need a short piece of new cable.

The telephone cables, (and old BT Cable TV coax), in my area are fed underground, looping in and out of a box in the front wall of each house, underneath the bay window, that is accesible via a small metal door in the outer cavity wall.

Originally, the telephone cable was then extended to a socket in the hall via a tube that was put in when the house was first built.

I wanted the master socket moved to the lounge, on one side of the bay window alcove. The Openreach engineer cut the original joint in the outside box, and drilled a small hole through the inner wall of the cavity to feed the new cable through.

So in my case, barely 1 metre of new cable.

[SteveG2460]

Thanks Paul608085. In my case I live on the first floor of a newish apartment block and the telephone cable comes up through the centre of the building and enters my apartment via a hall cupboard where the master socket is.

What I am trying to work out is whether it will be necessary to run an additional cable from the hall cupboard to my lounge (which would be very unsightly) or whether use can be made of the existing (hidden) cabling that obviously exists between my master socket in the cupboard and the existing phone socket in my lounge.

Sorry I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to these things!

[licquorice]

@SteveG2460  Did you not read my message 4?

[SteveG2460]

Yes licquorice but I have no idea what "simply move the 2 wires that are connected to terminals 2&5" means.

I would like BT/Openreach to carry out the work which is why I would like the question I posed answered if possible before i contact them.

[licquorice]

Perhaps not, but it answered the question as to whether extra wiring was needed or not, you already have a cable between the 2 sockets.

Does your master socket have separate sockets for your phone and broadband or just one socket and you use a filter?