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Working out sockets in house I'm purchasing


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Old 20-12-2016, 18:04
m0bov
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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Hi all. In the process of buying a 3 story townhouse. Its got a mix of Telewest branded sockets and BT sockets in there. I have attached a link to them. The Telewest and Openreach socket is in the living room (first floor) at the front of the house. The other pic is in the middle of the first floor between the living room and kitchen.

The last is the garage and shows a socket above a door. The garage is at the rear of the property. Ideally, I want the BT modem in the garage. Does it look like they have run phone extensions? Openreach socket I assume is the master? Can anyone tell me anymore?

https://goo.gl/photos/HB2Z5usNswmsGVST9

Thanks.
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Old 20-12-2016, 19:24
chrisjr
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Join Date: May 2004
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You can buy Openreach branded sockets so what it says on the socket does not really mean very much.

Telewest was one of the cable TV companies absorbed into Virgin Media so it is entirely possible that your phones are not connected to the Openreach network but Virgin Media's. The only way to be certain is to take the cover off the Telewest box and also take apart the adjacent phone socket and see where that thickish cable between them that's been painted over actually goes to.

If the phone socket is connected to terminals inside the Telewest box then it is possible you don't have an Openreach phone line. Doesn't mean the other sockets are connected to anything however.

You would need to try and trace where the cables run to to try and work out what is connected to what. There is a blanked off socket next to the Telewest box that looks suspiciously like it may have been a phone socket at one time. It is possible that the other sockets are wired to that and not the Openreach socket above the Telewest box.

The blanked off socket may have been where the old BT line came in and may have been disconnected when the Telewest service was installed.

But without tracing the cables and hopefully working out what goes where it is impossible to say. You might have to get someone in who has tools like a line finder that sticks a tone into one end of the cable that you can find at the other end with a detector.
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Old 20-12-2016, 23:05
mrprosser
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I'd also add that it is best practice to connect your modem to the master socket rather than an extension in the garage or wherever it might be.
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Old 21-12-2016, 13:14
lonewaller
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If the house currently has a phone line active use a cheap phone (that does'nt require power) and plug it into the sockets and see which, if any, of them are live.

Brian
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