Can a laptop access the internet by a wired connection to a phone socket?

[giomach]

Hi, I'm helping a resident of a care home to connect her Windows laptop to the wifi, but the wifi in the building is constantly breaking down, so I'm looking for an alternative.

Could she make an ethernet connection from her computer to her phone socket?  I've got a BT Home Hub 5 which became obsolete when I got switched to fibre broadband.  Before the switch, when my connection to BT was copper wire, this hub used to be connected to a phone extension socket on the wall, and to the ethernet port on my laptop, and this was how I got broadband for years.  Could the same thing work for her?

I tried to test the theory in my own house, connecting the hub to an extension phone socket, but sadly it didn't work. The hub showed blue briefly, as hoped, but soon turned to flashing red.  Why is this setup not working now, given that it worked when I was getting my broadband by copper wire?  Has the switch to fibre broadband made a difference to this?

Any thoughts on whether this method is feasible, or on any alternatives, would be welcome.

[licquorice]

No, that is not going to work.

Not wishing to be rude, but with your level of understanding of networking, you are not in a position to provide any alternative method of connection. Neither I would suspect would it be feasible to provide an Ethernet connection by anyone with the necessary expertise in any case in that environment.

Your only hope is to get the care home to improve their WiFi coverage.

[iniltous]

If this phone socket is simply a part of the care homes  internal phone system, used to contact ‘reception’ or used in similar way to a hotel , where you can get an ‘outside line’ by dialing 9 for example, and then make external calls that appear on your room bill , then it’s of no use ….

if it’s a socket connected directly (not via a switchboard) to the Openreach external network and the care home allow it , then that room may be able to order its own broadband like any regular address , but I suspect that’s not  what you mean , you are not asking about that person getting their own broadband service and giving up on the care homes unreliable WiFi  , you presumably mean trying to making the care home broadband better in that particular room , and that’s not  doable.

[chrisjp]

"I tried to test the theory in my own house, connecting the hub to an extension phone socket, but sadly it didn't work. The hub showed blue briefly, as hoped, but soon turned to flashing red. Why is this setup not working now, given that it worked when I was getting my broadband by copper wire? Has the switch to fibre broadband made a difference to this?"

The answer to this is yes, of course it has. When you were switched to full Fibre to the Premises your old copper phone/broadband line would have been disconnected at the exchange, so is no longer operable.