Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me with this one ?

A few weeks ago I had a visit from a BT engineer due to a fault on my line. He found an issue at the connection box outside my house which he fixed. He then looked at my master socket which he informed me was illegal due to the fact that it wasn't one installed by BT !!! I explained that this was here when we moved in. Since then though I have had a problem whereby my phone does not ring correctly, it rings a constant tone for about 5 seconds then goes off. There is no problem with my Broadband connection or ringing out/speaking on the phone etc. I checked the wiring in the socket and all looks ok. the two wires coming in are connected to pins 2 & 5. Any ideas ?
Cheers,
John

If it was illegal, and incorectly wired, surely the engineer should have fixed it? Or at least offered?

Cheers
Alun

Did you offer the engineer tea and hobnobs? It is rumoured that BT engineers will rewire your house for endless cups of tea and a packet of chocolate hobnobs.

from my days working for bt's 151 (residential faults) the socket normally has 3 wires, connected to pins 2 3 5. i might be thinking of the later style of socket nown as a "linebox" - the linebox has a screw half way down the front face which when removed reveals a second telephone socket for testing purposes.

he should have changed it to the new NTE'5s. have you just go the one socket? if so then it's either a phone/filter problem or the line card in the exchange is faulty.

The socket is a master socket but doesn't appear to be the NTE5. It has the big capacitor and surge arresting circuitry. There are only two wires coming in from a connection point outside the house. These wires go to pins 2 & 5.