I know its illegal for me to touch the telephone wiring, so im not going to do that. BUT...... im on a virgin line.

some time ago there was a bit of an accident and the front of the main connection box got broken.

I unscrewed the front of the box and found another socket inside (i believe its the test socket) so I plugged the phones into this and its worked fine since.

however it looks like a bit of a mess, so I was wondering if I could get hold of a new front plate and just screw it up like it used to be?

or does this count as interfering with the wiring?

I'm not sure how things work on cable but on Openreach wires, the demarkation point (where our responsibility ends) is the NTE (or master socket). The bottom part of that NTE is yours to remove, replace or add/remove extensions.

yeah it is a NTE master socket. but the front section has been broken and now thrown away.

it must be better to have some kind of front pannel than connect straight to the test socket.

where can I get hold of one of these?

Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Solwise-PBX-NTE5/dp/B000LQ9UNQ

so, basically, i could purchase one of these units for approx £5 and just use the front section with my existing master socket.

and, i believe with nte5's you can legally wire in extensions without having to have those unsightly trippeler adapters plugged into the socket aswel?! (which is what cause the damage to the socket in the first place) if u have a computer unit which is movable on wheels, its best to keep it away from fragile telephone sockets!

Yes you can just use the front plate,

Always make sure if you fit an extension position the socket above the skirting board not on it has this will stop any hoover bashing happening.

you can just message me your address and i'll post you out a new face plate.

thanks for your kind offer. but I'd already managed to get hold of one.

Just one more quick question.... as I am thinking of wiring my extension into the faceplate the correct way, instead of having those ugly splitters.

Looking on this site: http://www.wppltd.demon.co.uk/WPP/Wi...telephone.html

It is clear that the incoming line only contains 2 wires (usually orange and white) but when adding extensions we connect 4 wires up.

what do the other 2 wires connect to??? im sure ive wired up extensions in the past using only 2 wires.

Also....

Is it true that you can only connect 2 extensions into the front plate, because the IDC(?) connectors will only accomodate 2 wires?

Yeah, the incoming pair (A & B) connect up to the A & B inputs which go to pins 2 & 5.

The master socket contains a capacitor & resistor (ring circuit) this is used for some 'made for UK use only' phones to ring, most phones have a ring circuit built in, but some el-cheapo phones that are only produced for UK often crappy Chinese made BT badged phones (not all BT branded phones are crap, they do have some good ones badged up for them) save a few pennies and don't include the ring circuit.

The extensions don't include the capacitor and resistor (ring circuit) so you connect pin 3 from the master to pin 3 to the extensions.

Some people wire a 4th wire to make it look tidy, but it does nothing and not worth bothering with.

Yeah, not really designed to take more, though you just wire an extension from another extension.

The way to get round this is to strip back the insulation on the wires and then twist them together before terminating on the IDC, I have managed to accommodate 4 extensions this way but no more than that.

Make sure you twist them together for several turns as if they are not tight after you've finished fiddling around with them (i.e. inserting them into the connector and getting the plate back on) you are storing up trouble for yourself as the wire tarnishes and the quality of the connection deterioriates. Probably wouldn't affect voice but could silently compromise ADSL and certainly slow it down.

If you must do this it's best to solder the twisted wires, but daisy chaining the extensions is the best solution and in most circumstances, probably the easiest wiring job.

cheers guys.

one final question....

I have never used these IDC connections before. but I managed to get my extensions wired into the faceplate.

just wondering... are these IDC connections permanent? the tool seems to bend the metal connectors together. so if I ever wanted to remove the extension cabling and attach a different one.. would I have to scrap the faceplate and start again?

IDC connections are not permanent. The tool you used should not have bent the connections at all. If you were using one of the cheap plastic tools the connections are more likely to damage the tool rather than the other way round

All the tool should do is force the cable down into the jaws of the connector. The metal cuts into the insulation and makes contact with the copper conductor. It is this action that holds the wire in place.

But all you should need to do is give the wire a tug and it will pop out. Ready to be used again. Believe me if I had a quid for every IDC connection I have made I would not have to play the lottery every weekend

Though what I have seen on some brand new connector blocks is you get a thin bit of plastic coating the metal connectors. this gets rubbed off when you push the wire down, exposing a bit more metal on the connector. So you might think it has bent the connector because you can now see more metal.