Hello all

I have been having problems with slow speeds on my 7616kbps Broadband
connection and as a test I took the user panel off the Master Socket to try
to connect to the Test Socket to see if I had any better speeds through
that.

Problem is, the Test Socket does not seem to work.

Even stranger is that there are 3 sets of cables connected to the IDC
connectors on the back of the user panel.

We only have three sockets in the house, the master socket, one in my
bedroom and one in another bedroom.

It must have been connected like this since the house was new, 18 years.

Who do I need to contact about this at BT?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

Kevin Cowans wrote:
If the master socket has a fault then BT faults - get a test done online
first - then track that.

With regard to the three connections from the panel - just disconnect
each set in turn to see which isn't being used and leave that one
disconnected for now.

Richard Oliver wrote:
pair.


--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

Old Codger wrote:

That might explain the lack of dialtone on the master socket - good thought.

"Kevin Cowans" <kevin@kncowans.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ejd874$9ld$1$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk...
front of it rather than the test socket. If you have dialtone then the mail
incoming pr has been terminated on the front plate rather that the socket!
Was it a new build 18 years ago. May have been done by the builders?

Hello

If I connect to the front of the user panel whilst removed I am still able
to use the socket on the front of user panel.

The house was a new build 18 years ago but the line was put in by a BT
engineer.

Bye for now

Kevin

"SJP" <someone@somewhere.invalid> wrote in message
news:IaedneArh4R8scfYRVnyuQ@bt.com...

Then it has to be wired wrongly! Ask BT to sort FOC.

Peter Crosland

Kevin Cowans wrote:
Weird, but not particularly unusual given the cackhandedness of many
installers out there...

My guess is that with the face plate disconnected, your extension
sockets are still live, but may not ring, because the incoming pair is
connected to the front panel, and not the A+B connectors on the back of
the main part of the socket.

BT Faults could examine it; you are likely to be charged for a visit to
rectify it.

If you can identify the incoming pair (it will be connected to pins 2+5,
but not to anything else) and connect this to terminals A+B on the back
of the socket, then it will be a 'normal' linebox.

Normal colour scheme is Orange to 'B' and White to 'A'; or if the cable
is Blue and Blue/White, then Blue to 'B' and White to 'A'. You will
need to strip the end of the wire to wrap it around the screw terminals.

The volts across the pair will be ~ 50V dc, but will be significantly
higher when ringing. Just avoid shorting the pair together and you
should be fine.

Of course you should not be doing this. It is BT's problem, and they
should fix it if there is a fault; convincing them that there is a
fault is likely to be difficult...

Slow speeds do not indicate a line fault, unless you are getting VERY
slow speeds; you didn't quantify things. Everyone is getting slow
speeds around here, with no changes to line conditions. When I changed
to Max, my line pegged at 8128k for three weeks, but courtesy of BT's
BRAS logic, it tends to get whacked down to 5.5M even though the current
line speed is 7488k. The 'blip logic' fix was supposed to help this,
but I get the general impression it didn't help as much as it could do.

The other problem with BRAS is that it does get stuck, and it takes a
prod (of BT) by your ISP to get it unstuck at times.

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:00:45 +0000, Jim Howes
<jimhowes@this.address.is.wrong> wrote:

I was told the opposite by a BT engineer who didn't need to look it
up. Now I'm confused.

Which way round should the voltage be - is A the earthy one or B ?


Phil
--
http://www.notspot.info/ - if you can't get the Broadband you want.

Hello all

Thanks for the replies.

Contacted BT about this and they asked me to remove the front plate and try
connecting a phone to the test socket to see if that works.

I did this and there is no tone of any kind so it looks like the test socket
is in fact disconnected.

BT is contacting me again tomorrow for the results of this test so
hopefully, since it was wired by a BT engineer they will fix it free of
charge.

Also, I noticed that the wires in the socket are twisted together, is this
normal?

I know when wiring Network Sockets it is good practice to twist the pairs
together as it reduces interference/noise on the line. Is it the same for
phone lines?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

"Phil Thompson" <phil.thompson@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:0egll2t47lpltp7vtbo3ti81lltb4iutbl@4ax.com...

Kevin Cowans wrote:
Yep. Try a phone in the front of the faceplate WHILE it is disconnected from
the main body of the socket, and I suspect you will find that this works, which
suggests that the wiring is as I described earlier.
Please expand a bit, if you mean that conductor pairs are twisted together, as
in CAT5 wiring (which given your next paragraph seems likely) then yes,
perfectly normal, nothing to be concerned about.

If you mean that individual conductors are twisted together as a way of
electrically connecting them, then no, definitely not normal, and a good way to
nadger an IDC socket.

Phil Thompson wrote:
The reason you don't need to look it up is that it does not in fact matter for
any normal purpose, PSTN or ADSL.
Officially, the B wire is -48V wrt the A wire
Note that neither wire is 'earth', atleast not your local earth potential, which
may several volts (or more) different at the exchange to where you are.

Officially, it does not actually matter, but there are standards.

Typically, the polarity of your pair may reverse several times over the course
of it's journey to you, depending on how much wire-hackery has gone on since the
cable was originally laid, patched, repatched, nudged, fat-fingered, or
otherwise re-routed..

It also reverses occasionally as part of routiner testing.

The only things that polarity is important for are:
A) A few really weird contraptions, such as old FAX machines and modems, which
were mostly designed for the USA market.

B) Installations where master sockets designed by Professor Farnsworth of the
ACME corporation are in use. (I think screwfix direct may still sell them, they
have a zener diode instead of a spark gap for surge arresting. This most
definitely is polarity sensitive, and probably not much of a surge protector
either).

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:04:01 +0000, Jim Howes
<sewoh.mij@moc.gisorp.backwards.invalid> wrote:

thankyou. More useful than colours I suspect.

that would be why I called it "earthy"

I had a case where a hard wired ADSL filter didn't provide the ring
voltage to the downstream phones. At the time I changed it but then
realised the polarity was the "wrong" way about. Will tes tit on the
bench rather than in a roofspace and see if it works with the opposite
polarity.

ADSLnation have transistors in their filters, so polarity might be an
issue.

Phil
--
http://www.notspot.info/ - if you can't get the Broadband you want.

Ooh look Dad, fuses with 3 legs........

In article <9uoml2lm2fgeb3bhn1vpgp4votcm2jvg5n@4ax.com>, Phil Thompson
<phil.thompson@spamcop.net> wrote
Must have used unidirectional semiconductor transient voltage
suppressors instead of the symmetrical types [that are specifically
designed for telecomm applications].

In the UK, the line polarity can reverse every time the phone rings.
[See SIN351, SIN227, etc.]

--
Bob Evans