problems with broadband speeds have prompted me delve as far as this.

i moved house 2 months ago, the previous owner had a seperate phone line in the study for work which has been disconnected.

can i get Bt to reactivate the line/sockets using the existing number?
or should i just rip out the disused line and sockets altogether?

my broadband speed has dropped from 2 mbps to 0.2mbps. after speaking to BT tech support i moved the router from the bedroom socket to the main one in the hall. the speed went up to 1.5mbps. it dropped again an hour later to 0.4mbps so i'm thinking these extensions seem to be the root of my broadband problems.

It's likely that both lines came into the house at the same point and so the wiring all starts, probably, in the main socket in the hall.

Rewiring that disused socket as an extension off the remaining line should, therefore, be easy (it's just a question of knowing which colour wires need to be connected to terminals 2, 3 and 5).

BT will do that for you but it won't be cheap (£50 upwards). Better to try finding a local 'sparks' wanting a half hour job on an evening or weekend and paying him £20 or so (my son, who works as an electrician during the week, did exactly what you want in my house and, at the same time, sorted out the master socket having been - unknown to me because everything seemed still to be working normally - blown by a nearby lightning strike a year or so previously).
Last edited by Heinz : 06-12-2006 at 16:45

Unless you actually WANT two phone lines there is no point doing anything with the disconnected line. In any case it won't be having any impact on your broadband connection anyway so it's up to you whether you do anything with it or not. But bear in mind that you are not permitted to touch the incomming BT line nor the first socket on the line. You can only remove any extension sockets from the line.

As for the broadband problem. It is possible poor extension wiring can cause problems. Also have you fitted microfilters to every device on the line? Every phone instrument, FAX machine, Sky box or whatever else requires a filter. In fact the only device that doesn't is the broadband modem !

If you have the BT NTE5 style socket - it has a removeable lower section to the face plate - you can check out if it's the extension wiring fairly easily. If you unscrew the lower half of the face plate it will reveal a BT style socket, you will also notice the extensions are wired to the removeable section. So with this part off the extensions are out of circuit. Plug your modem into the socket now revealed and see if you still get problems.

If this cures the problem a longer term solution may be to get a replacement face plate section that includes the filtering. Solwise do one (second item from left on this page ) which other DS posters have reported works very well. It allows you to wire extensions to the filtered side of the unit so you don't need separate filters elsewhere.

thanks for your replies

microfilters are fitted to other devices. in fact while testing i disconnected the phone and sky box totally

unfortunately i dont have the NTE5 socket. it is the master though, it has a huge capacitor or something on the back of the plate, and the BT logo on the front.

could i get BT out to replace the socket with a new one, ie the type with separate phone and adsl plugs?

Re electricians - would any reputable spark out of yellow pages be competant to do phone wiring?