Steven Campbell wrote:
Is it correct that the BT drop wire only has 2 wires connected in the
junction box?

yes.

Yet the output side of the junction box that goes to the actual telephone
sockets has 4 wires.

in reality, three IIRC.

So in effect 2 of these wires weren't doing something
or were they?


Might be.

When I cut my external cable by accident, I had to connect all 4 wires to
get my broadband working correctly it wouldn't work with 2. Which I can't
fathom out.

Thats probably because you reconnected the wrong 2. I've got 2 pair
coming in, but only one pair goes anywhere anymore. Used to be two lines...


However since I had to renew the cabling from the junction box in the loft,
I have only connected 2 wires and the broadband appears to be fine.

Exactly

Here is a link to the junction box as a picture is worth a 1000 words.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_4858.jpg

What I'm asking is should I just leave as it is as 2 wires or go back to the
4?

leave as 2 for broadband.

The 3rd wire is are reconstituted by a 'master' socket with a resistor
and a capacitor.

IIRC the 4th wire is 'anti-tinkle and tells local phone extensions not
to ring because someone is dialling out on a LD phone.



Cheers.