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Can anyone suggest how to find a fault on phone extension wiring?
We've moved in to a fairly modern house with a phone extension socket in every room. The BT Master Socket is in a hall cupboard no where near any power sockets so I put our BT Home Hub and phone in the living room connected to one of the extensions.
The Hub was regularly losing connection to the internet, just for a few minutes at a time but enough to be a pain when watching Netflix, so I moved the Hub and phone to the cupboard and connected it to the tester socket inside the BT Master.
That was a week ago and the internet connection has been stable since. To get the Hub working in the cupboard I've had to put a power extension across the hall which isn't handy- neither is having the phone there.
Now that I've identified there is a problem with the extension wiring does anyone have any advice as to how I go about locating and fixing the problem? Is it just a case of going round each socket and remaking the connections?
Thanks.
How many microfilters are you using? Do you have one in every extension socket?
(Assuming you're ADSL here)
I'm only using one microfilter on the socket with the phone and hub connected. Do the sockets without anything connected need one too?
Yes, definitely, [s]unless the extensions are being run from the "phone" side after the filter[/s]. It won't be that though, the filters are to protect the voice signal not the DSL.
EDIT - sorry, I missed that they were pre-wired.
Fact is, internal wiring is generally shit. Flat cabling offers no protection from interference and acts like a great big aerial for all the EM noise in the house. If you absolutely must use an extension, use twisted cable.
If you're using anything - phone extension, fax, burglar alarm etc then definitely yes. Otherwise, in theory, no, but I'd be tempted to give it a go if I had a few spares from previous ISPs lying around.
Sorry, I'll learn to read in a minute.
You need a microfilter in every socket which has a device connected. You don't need them in every socket if they're empty.
Best bet is to not run a router off an extension. I'd look at getting some power near the master socket.
Have you tried disconnecting the ring wire in the master socket?
Having a router plugged into an extension is not ideal, but the ring wire is defunct,and only serves as an antenna for broadband interference, disconnecting it might stabilise your signal.
[url= http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm ]http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm[/url]
Run the router off the master, using a tidy electric extension. 😉
Thanks for the replies folks.
The cable connecting the sockets is Cat 5e, so hopefully has some shielding.
The only things connected to the phone system are the Hub and one phone, no Sky or alarm boxes etc.
Getting a power socket in the cupboard and leaving the Hub there might be an option, the cupboard also houses the consumer unit. However, the phone can't stay there.
The ring wire wasn't connected in the master socket but it was connected in the extensions so I went round and disconnected all of them. In doing this I discovered that two of the extensions used master face plates rather than slaves, so I just completely removed those.
Hoping that had fixed the problem, I put the face plate back on the BT Master but left the equipment where it was and re-connected through the normal socket on the front of the BT Master.
The problem is now worse, the connection is dropping more frequently!
Do you get stable internet when plugged directly into the test socket, the one underneath the face plate on the master socket? But not when connected to the master face plate, just to clarify...
Do you get stable internet when plugged directly into the test socket, the one underneath the face plate on the master socket? But not when connected to the master face plate, just to clarify...
Correct.
Issue with the faceplate maybe, bad connection or something?
If the test socket is fine, the faceplate is the next link in the chain to rule out.
Until you can get good performance from the master socket face plate, there's no point looking further down the line for issues.. maybe try one of those 3rd party replacement master face plates, the ones with the built in micro filter
After some further playing it looks like the problem is being caused by electrical interference. If I go around the house and switch a bunch of stuff on the hub immediately losses its internet connection. Probably caused by the fact that the master is close to the consumer unit and I guess the Cat 5e for the extensions must run behind it somewhere.
I think the solution is going to be to get a power socket put in the cupboard to run the Hub and fit one of the face plates with the built in micro filter mattyfez mentions which should allow the phone to work on an extension without the interferance- something like [url= http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php ]this.[/url] I think!??
The ADSLnation faceplate is one of the best microfilters you can buy.
It won't filter the extensions though. But really, why not DECT phones? Unless you live in a mansion, phone extensions should have gone out with black & white TV.