On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 13:34:44 +0000, Richard A Downing
wrote:
My bungalow has an old fashioned telephone system consisting of a BT
cable connected to a grey box (about 70x40mm tapered with a single
screw fixing).
I'm puzzled as to your wiring, and how it got to be this way. What you
describe is typical of older wiring, but unusual for a line that has
been upgraded to ADSL.
What you should have is a square, white "New, new style" BT master
socket (NTE 5). This is the sort with a removable faceplate on a
socket, so that you're allowed (legitimately) to add your own extension
wiring to the fixed connectors on the faceplate. The backplate of the
box is still "BT only" and contains the incoming wires from the grey
oval box 53 and the "master socket" capacitor etc.
What you seem to have is an "old, new style" BT master socket, whether
installed by BT or not. I'm just surprised that this survived the ADSL
upgrade process without getting replaced - I thought BT policy was to
swap these when on-site for any ADSL commissioning.
I have ADSL filters on all the used
sockets, of course.
This is often a source of trouble, You're better off getting a proper
BT master faceplate with a single ADSL filter in it, then running
voice-only extensions downstream of that. Solwise will sell you one for
a tenner or so that plugs straight into an NTE 5
http://www.solwise.co.uk/adsl_splitters.htm
This is what BT usually install when they visit for an ADSL install, but
there are some routes (such as migration from ISDN/Home Highway) where
you don't get one supplied by BT.
Don't (IMHO) extend the data side of ADSL beyond the filter. If you have
to, leave your master socket whereever the phone cable enters the
building (but never plug directly into it)), put an ADSL filtered NTE 5
near the ADSL modem and run the voice extensions from that point
onwards.
What I think you should do now is to get a new NTE 5 fitted, together
with an ADSL filter built into it. You can either install this instead
of the existing master or install it downstream of the existing master
(Solwise etc. describe the process for this) - this would depend on its
location relative to your ADSL modem. Whether you do this yourself or
get BT to do it is up to you, BT charges, and whether you're still being
billed for an old system with chargeable extension bells etc. (which I
think they've stopped doing, but for many years it was cost effective to
pay the engineer's charge just to get these stopped so you could have
your own non-rented ones)
NB - Always use a real "Krone" tool. This can be either a proper metal
one, or a cheap plastic one-job one. But never use a screwdriver blade -
if your tool doesn't have a gap in the middle of its blade, then it
will distort the IDC tines and cause no end of future trouble. Equally
also only use solid core cable and avoid screw terminals.