landline wiring

[johnb]

I believe there may be people here who understand these things! Having had trouble with our router, my wife was persuaded to take telephone socket from its back plate, and as I put installed it in the first place, the inevitable happened and some of the wires left their connectors. I have actually sorted this now, I looked on the internet for help, but it seems things are different now. At the moment I have the following wiring: (predominate colour first)

Blue and white wire socket 2

Orange/white wire socket 3

White and orange socket  4

White and blue socket 5

My question is, on the internet (!) it says that disconnecting one wire can make the broadband faster, but the colour wire does not correspond with my colours. Is this true and does anyone know which socket I could disconnect to help with broadband speed without ending in divorce?

Thanks for reading.

[NorfolkNog]

Strowager's your man  

[johnb]

yes, thanks I am not sure if this is in the right category, just hope either he or someone similar reads this or it gets put into a more suitable place!

[BroadScot]

Hi John,

You have put your question in the correct heading. As Howard (Norfolk Nog) says, Strowager is the person to glean information. You wont be able, I don't think, to PM him.

Iain.

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, johnb said:

I believe there may be people here who understand these things! Having had trouble with our router, my wife was persuaded to take telephone socket from its back plate, and as I put installed it in the first place, the inevitable happened and some of the wires left their connectors. I have actually sorted this now, I looked on the internet for help, but it seems things are different now. At the moment I have the following wiring: (predominate colour first)

Blue and white wire socket 2

Orange/white wire socket 3

White and orange socket  4

White and blue socket 5

My question is, on the internet (!) it says that disconnecting one wire can make the broadband faster, but the colour wire does not correspond with my colours. Is this true and does anyone know which socket I could disconnect to help with broadband speed without ending in divorce?

Thanks for reading.

It's really silly how most Broadband helpline personnel start by glibly asking people to go to their master socket and unscrew the cover plate and remove it. Fixed phone wiring is "solid core", so unlike flex it breaks very easily when moved. Your wife is not alone, it happens so often.

The reason they do it is because when you remove the lower half of the cover plate to the master socket, you're disconnecting any internal house wiring and exposing the genuine master socket, inside the box. (Because the cover plate itself is plugged into it).

Conventional wiring from the exchange is always just one pair, (two wires), the "A" and the "B.

Old fashioned phones with bells needed a third wire in the internal house wiring between extensions to stop something called "bell tinkle while dialling", because dials used to pulse a short across the two wires to the exchange, which made the electro-mechanical equipment there step to the right contacts.

Phones and exchange equipment are totally different now though. Phones have electronic "ringing" sounders now, and dials send multi frequency tones to the exchange which has electronic systems to decode them.

That third wire linked the extension phones mechanical bells, so that they didn't tinkle when the "a" and "b" wires pulsed during "loop disconnect" dialling.

(It's bl**dy hard to explain this without waffling on......)

So, any wires not connected to the main incoming pair are now defunct for 99% of land line phones, and you can usually disconnect them. (I say usually, because there's always the slight possibility of a "DIY" special or a more complex GPO/BT planset). That third wire is what can cause additional unwanted capacitance to high frequency broadband signals.

The easy way to test if it will improve things is to (carefully) remove the master socket lower cover, then plug the  broadband splitter straight into the genuine master socket inside. That ensures that you have isolated the third wire and also any internal wiring in circuit. If your broadband speed improves, you can then permanently disconnect the third internal wire and put the master socket back.

(So the wire to disconnect is whichever one is not connected to either of the two coming in from the street.)

(The "master" outside pair is usually connected to 2 and 5 in this type of socket).

 

[grendel]

there is also the possibility that you have an old connection like my parents where the phone is hard wired into the box on the wall, this does not have any sockets, don't take the cover off these either.

when we had broadband problems after the local exchange went to fibre we called in an engineer - you have to be very persistant with the call centre (each time we called they tried to talk us through the same procedure, one even asked me to unplug the socket front while I was on the phone plugged into it)- and he found 3 faults on the cable external to the building, he then changed the incoming socket to a broadband compatible one ( as our old one was never designed for broadband), and finally provided a new router as our old one wasn't compatible with the fibre system. this was after the call centre had told us the fault was internal to our house.

So it may be necessary for BT Openreach to come and renew some of the hardware - our new socket has one socket for phones, and a second for the broadband router.

[johnb]

Thank you gents, I believe I have the box referred to by Strowager. I will give it a go when I next get a minute, although we have had so many problems with broadband dropping off, and my wife, who knows more about these things, so many arguements with our provider that when it is working we tend to keep a 10 feet exclusion zone around all sockets and equipment. We will move in a few months time and start again with another provider! Thanks again for your interest.

[grendel]

I think my parents still have one of these

[Guest]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

I think my parents still have one of these.......

A "BT52A", (Block Terminal).

It replaced the "BT30" when four terminals were required to place that one's three terminals.

No call in those days for sockets, because you were only allowed to use GPO/BT rented equipment.

(Why oh why couldn't I have taken my three year apprenticeship in something more useful, like boatbuilding...... )

[johnb]

Strowager, someone once said there is more to life than boats. I don't believe it! 

[johnb]

Bit flippant that by me-it was just one of those mornings when I wished I was on the boat  rather than here! Best  wishes to those going through difficult times, and thanks again for the replies.

[grendel]

14 hours ago, Strowager said:

 

(Why oh why couldn't I have taken my three year apprenticeship in something more useful, like boatbuilding...... )

But we always need experts like yourself to identify those esoteric pieces of junk History from the past.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, grendel said:

But we always need experts like yourself to identify those esoteric pieces of junk History from the past.

"Esoteric", yes, the precise word for it Grendel.

esoteric

ˌɛsəˈtɛrɪk,ˌiːsə-/

adjective

adjective: esoteric

1. intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

The technology I was directed to study became totally obsolete just as I completed my apprenticeship and technical college training.

If anyone needs a relay springset adjusted, or a two-motion selector cleaned and overhauled, I'm your man.......

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello Strowager,

The last time I saw any of those was in the mid to late 70's in the basement of the Dublin Post Office, we were installing tandem generators to charge the battery banks.

We needed to call a number in the UK which was engaged the exchange engineer  then showed us how easy it was to connect to that number after walking up the banks of switch gear.

Its a pity to loose all of your old skills, have you ever thought of using them on setting up old jukeboxes?

Regards

Alan  

[Bound2Please]

12 hours ago, Strowager said:

The last time i saw one, well many of those was in Shenfield BR exchange in late 70's

[Baitrunner]

Oh reminiscing of bygone days.

For my sins I was convinced to turn down a BT apprenticeship and do one at Marconi's! Great apprenticeship, but we were the paupers when we went to college with the BT apprentices!! I used to work at STC as well on PCM systems and 2 and 140Mbs undersea repeaters - some people have faster broadband at home nowadays.

I must get a picture for you, but we have an old Siemens PBX in one of our buildings (not quite as good as your picture) - has it's own room in the basement for 200 xtns!!! Our other building has a VoIP system in 2x 2u servers and an analogue patch module for 500 xtns!! I think the old system also has it's own power station

Mind you the old one only needs a hoover out once a year and the batteries checking

[Guest]

It wasn't my picture Mark, I just grabbed it from a Google image search.

Although I was always keen on photography, I never took any photos inside the exchanges at all.

If you were Paupers compared to the GPO apprentices you must have been on about five bob a week. Back in those days the GPO "civil service" pay was always lower than comparable outside industries. The guys from Plesseys and STC used to always show off their posh cars and motorbikes, but we had better job security in the long term.

Although they were indeed originally electro-mechanical Alan, I doubt if the mechs in old jukboxes bore much similarity to a Strowger exchange.

[Baitrunner]

Definitely the other way round in the late 70's although they didnt become BT until '81 according to Mr Google. We all had borrowed cars they had all the sporty ones and could afford to buy beer!!

A friend is the same age and did a BT apprenticeship - he had buckets of cash compared to us.

And your right, where are Marconi, Plessy and STC now? STC bought by Nortel - that's another one gone down the tube.

Glad I got out before it all went pear shaped.

[Guest]

This was my flash conveyance during my apprenticeship in the 1960's.

A secondhand Raleigh Supermatic that cost me £17.50.

[Bound2Please]

Do you mean £17- 10/- Strowager ???????

[BroadScot]

 A ten bob note went a long way in those days!

 Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

1 hour ago, BroadScot said:

 A ten bob note went a long way in those days!

 Iain

At least 4 to 5 pints and chips on the way home.

Regards

Alan

[FairTmiddlin]

1967 I earnt 25 bob working Mornings, Evenings and weekend at a newsagent/sweetshop in Doncaster

Bitter 1/4d a pint blody good night out on 10 bob

[BroadScot]

15 minutes ago, FairTmiddlin said:

1967 I earnt 25 bob working Mornings, Evenings and weekend at a newsagent/sweetshop in Doncaster

Bitter 1/4d a pint blody good night out on 10 bob

Third year Electrician Apprentice, take home pay after tax n insurance, £6.17/6d out of that £4.00 money to the house keeping, £2.00 saved towards my first car. 17/6d pocket money. We did though get loads of overtime in those days!

 Iain

[MauriceMynah]

£6 17/6   Hmmm, I don't think I earn that much yet!!!