I have a problem with an extention in our house, it's a BT wired extention, and I think it's a problem that I may have created! The ext in the dining room stopped, this was after I tried to fit the BT accelerator, I think I broke a wire, plus thje main phone got noisy, I called BT and explained the situation, they tested the line and said it was OK.

I had anothe rlook, and the main phone has gone quiet, but I can't fathom which of the multitude of BT wires is the right one, or which connection it should go to!

They said that they could send an engineer to the house and look at the socket, it would cost about £128 or so, I did agree, they then said that all the engineer will do is "disconnect the extention and leave" ! so i would pay £128 odd, for an engieer simply to either A) Maje no difference or B) make it worse!
sorry can't see the thinking behind that business plan!

f you use a fault report to get a BT Openreach engineer to attend to a problem thats not on a part of the network that they are responsible for you will probably be charged for the abortive callout (about £100 + vat) plus if while they are there you want them to repair/replace your faulty wiring or extensions then you are charged on a hourly basis (time related charges, minimum 1 hr,) about another £80, so almost £200 ish !!!
You should have only received an accelerator gizmo if you have a NTE5 type master socket , which should mean that any extension wiring should be connected to the removable consumer panel, so you could employ anyone you like to fit or repair your extension wiring....if you have an older style master socket,then your accelerator wont fit and you should use only BT as there is no point where the line can be split from the extension wiring,
A way of reducing the cost is by ordering a new extension from BT, this is a set fee (about £80 I think) and if required the BT engineer would upgrade your master socket to NTE5 to enable the new extension to be fitted in the required way
Something to note is extensions are not covered by the rental aggrement, even if fitted by BT, an extension socket fitted by BT has a 1 year warranty, so if they go faulty after that they are the end users problem, not BT's

Yes its a NTE5 socket, but the wiring behind it is so short, it's almost impossible to do anything with it once you get the front off.. hence the problem I now have. It has been in situ for about 10 years or more, but I foolishly thought that as BT is a Telecoms company, with Telecoms engineers that they would be (even if it cost a bit) fix a problem like this, silly me!

I am afraid it is no different to getting your local electrical supply company in to fix a fault on a table lamp.
They (EDF/Western power etc) are only responsible for the supply to your building, if you wanted them to sort out a problem past your consumer unit they will charge you.

I am afraid since telecoms liberalisation thats how it works for your telephone service.

My advice is to seek the assistance of an electrician or handyman to repair past the NTE.

Or you could get BT in for the repair, they have not said they won't repair it but as any company would do they would charge you for the work.

Thanks for the info, undertsand what you say, as fro BT, they have said they "cannot" repair it, all they could do would be to come in and disconnect it! can't see the point in that..... it's already disconnected

Gonna sound a bit dense here, but here goes!

On the back of the line box NTE5, there are 6 connections, and there are a multitude (well seems that way) of coloured wires, looks like 3x Orange, 3x Blue and 3 x Green, some of which are connected to the line box, but does anyone know which of the other colouted ones would be the one to the ext?
I don't want to try and wire up the wrong one and then b**ger it up all together!

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

BT will fix Extensions - at a price. Unfortunately most of their Call Centre staff have no idea about BT's services. This assumes that you did not tell the Agent that you wanted it fixed for free. In which case you would have been told: "no can do".


If you want to DIY it: Blue & White to 2 and White & Blue to 5. If you have any VERY old telephones you may want to connect Orange & White to 3 but if you have Broadband do not connect that wire. Connect NO other wires.

swills 'bt can't/ wo'nt fix a fault.
use local rag's small trade ads. or bt directory, look for ex. bt engineer, make contact, result will be circa £30 , cash in hand, ask first.

Quite simple.

Go to the extension in question. Open it up and see what wires are attached to terminals 2 and 5. If it is a bog standard BT extension socket it will probably have two sets of plastic terminal blocks with three slots for wires in each. If so 2 and 5 are the middle slots in each block.

Then match those colours to the wires in the back of the NTE 5 and make sure they are also attached to terminals 2 and 5.

By the way you really need the correct tool to terminate the wires. Pushing them down with the blade of a screwdriver often does not work and can damage the terminals.

http://www.solwise.co.uk/telesun_krohn-tools.htm

The 45p one will do for this job. You only need the other two if you plan to make a career out of terminating IDC blocks

If the correct BT spec cable has been used for the extension cables then you will have several pairs of wires with matching base/stripe colours. ie one wire in the pair will be blue with a white stripe and the other wire in the pair will be white with a blue stripe. Similarly for the orange, green, brown and grey pairs (depending on how many are in the cable).

If the wiring convention has been stuck to the blue pair will be used for terminals 2 and 5. There may be one of the orange wires on terminal 3. There should be nothing on 1, 4 or 6. In fact you can remove anything on terminal 3 as well. Most modern phones don't need this wire and it can affect your broadband performance.

One more thing to note. The IDC terminals that are used in the back of the NTE5 can only really take 2 wires each, in other words two extensions. They may take a third but it can be intermittent. Rarely will you get a fourth to make contact at all.

The terminals work by having a metal insert in the block with a slot in it. The edges of the slot cut into the insulation to make contact with the copper core of the wire. The size of the slot however means that only two or at best three wires can be pushed in and be gripped securely. A properly gripped wire needs some force to pull it out. And if you ram the wires home with a screwdriver you risk bending the contact so it no longer grips the wire or makes contact with the core properly.

Also if you don't use the proper BT style solid core wire there is no guarantee the terminals will grip the wire or make contact with the copper cores properly. The worst type of cable is the "tinsel" wire you often get in extension leads. So called because it resembles tinsel, it has a thin copper foil wrapped round string. A royal pain in the neck to terminate to anything but the proper connectors. Doesn't solder well and hardly ever works in IDC blocks.

Thankyou for the detailed info, as soon as I get a couple of hours free, I'll give it a go
Thnx again