Hi all,

My brother recently moved into a new property and I've been helping him sort out the broadband, etc. Problem is that we can't seem to find the master socket! There are slave sockets in nearly every room but no sign of the master. Reason is that he's had sky broadband installed, and with a line attenuation of 15dB, I was expecting near full speed (16Mb on LLU circuit) but he's only getting about 3Mb, and I suspect the slave wiring is at fault.

I'm assuming that a master socket is required, or is it possible that the lines from outside are run straight into a standard socket and split to the other rooms from there? The only socket downstairs is a BT branded one (person with the flute design), the rest are generic. I had a look inside that socket and no sign of a capacitor or anything. Haven't had a chance to trace the wires from outside either (as its always dark when I got there!)

Anyone have any thoughts? or should I test out the downstairs socket, or maybe call BT (last resort).

Cheers
B

Hi if the socket downstairs looks like this then that is the master socket, it is highly unlikely that the the bt line would come in from the pole without a master socket on the end, if it did your phones wouldnt ring as it houses the ring capacitor.


When testing from the master socket, remember to remove (only) the lower faceplate of the socket (this is the only part of the socket non bt employees are alowed to remove) and plug straight into the socket that becomes exposed, as all your extentions (should) be connected to that faceplate, thus removing that wiring from the equasion.
So if your speeds go up when testing from the test socket you know its your extention sockets/wiring at fault.
Hope this helps
Robert

Quite a lot of modern phones will still ring without the ring line being connected. If they're all electronic, they just look for ring tone across the line. Also some people are saying to disconnect the ring line to make the broadband more reliable. You shouldn't do this, but who knows what the builders have done? Best thing is to get there in daylight and trace where the wire comes into the house. And get a wiring plan for extension sockets and see if they're all connected up correctly.

@lamplite, definately not an NTE5, standard slave socket, no capacitors or surge arrestors present.

@vanyablue, yep, most modern phones can detect the voltage difference for ringing so don't need the bell wire. Infact, at my parents home, I think only 2 and 5 are actually connected to the slave sockets dotted around the house!

Thought as much, will have to visit during the day.

The previous owner did have a second line installed which is now disconnected, I'm thinking as a last resort, to strip out the wires and extensions and use the master socket for that line (in the study with no extensions) instead. Don't think BT would like a customer messing around with their wires so might get an engineer to do it. How much do BT charge for call outs?

B

A minimum of £50, I believe.

I'm afraid the visit charge has gone up a bit

Per engineer per visit or call out

Operative Date Normal Working Day



One-off charge for BT engineers, with the exception of BT Global Services engineers, including BT Openreach engineers, engineers in Northern Ireland and specialised Retail engineers (eg those working on Payphones)
(NB This charge does not apply to Redcare visits)
20.12.2006
exl. vat £99.00
inc. vat £116.33

Hi All,

Apparently BT came round earlier, disconnected the old extensions and rerouted the line to the master spare master socket in the study. Now the modem syncs at nearly 8Mb, more than double than before! So it was probably the old extension that was causing issues.

The thing is, the line attenuation is around 15dB, so I'd expect it to sync nearer the 16Mb mark. He's definately on LLU as he's on the Sky Max package, so what could be the cause of the low sync rate? The only bit I haven't checked is the microfilter, it's the standard one that Sky give you, so might try another make.

B

Has he been charged for that?

Yeah, think he said it was £75, don't know if it was plus VAT or not.

B

That will be openreach then and the charge should be £85 for visit.