BT master socket - extension - general problems - Help...

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Gille

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Sorry for the longish post...

My house is a 3 bed semi in a cul-de-sac with telegraph pole providing a line to my house at the eves. My line then drops down the front of the house and enters my downstairs front room. This is my master socket. It's a single white box with BT logo on front. I have no other sockets/extensions in the house. I have a adsl filter and wireless router connected, and of course my phone. At the moment all works well.

Problem 1 - Previous occupant of the house had the windows replaced and the fitters partially buried the BT cable when fitting the frames (fools). My master socket is screwed to the window cill but I want it moved. We are about to decorate and change the room around and I want the socket moved lower down the wall close to the skirting. As the cable is partly buried there is no give in the cable - I thought I could pull a little more through the wall to reposition the socket. What are my options? Do I need a BT engineer to put in a new line and socket from the eves to the front room, if so, how much are we talking about or is there anything I can do without me destroying my line.

Problem 2 - Before I solve problem 1 and part with my cash I am thinking about getting BT broadband/Vision. As I understand it, it's best to have the BT hub and obviously the vision box sited together by the tv. My tv is in the back room of the house and there is currently no BT socket there. I have recently decorated this room (wood floor fitted, all new skirting etc) and I don't want unsightly cables trailing through the house to to accommodate a BT extension. Can or will BT route a new cable from the eves at the front of the house through my loft and down the back of the house (near to my tv). This would then become my master socket. Or if I have the line/socket replaced in the front room as I have described in problem 1 - what is the easiest way to take an extension through to the back room in the house? The main concern I have is seeing cables.

I hope what I am trying to do makes sense, any help would be appreciated before I speak to BT.
 
Gille said:
Problem 1 - My master socket is screwed to the window cill but I want it moved. We are about to decorate and change the room around and I want the socket moved lower down the wall close to the skirting. As the cable is partly buried there is no give in the cable - I thought I could pull a little more through the wall to reposition the socket. What are my options? Do I need a BT engineer to put in a new line and socket from the eves to the front room, if so, how much are we talking about or is there anything I can do without me destroying my line.
Click to expand...

If you would be happy to have a junction box on the window sill, with then a wire going down to supply a socket by your skirting and you could probably (but shouldn't) do it yourself. If you want it renewed from the outside in one length straight down and in to back of socket by skirting, then you will need to call BT to arrange for them to send an Openreach engineer to do this work.

Gille said:
Problem 2 - Before I solve problem 1 and part with my cash I am thinking about getting BT broadband/Vision. As I understand it, it's best to have the BT hub and obviously the vision box sited together by the tv. My tv is in the back room of the house and there is currently no BT socket there. I have recently decorated this room (wood floor fitted, all new skirting etc) and I don't want unsightly cables trailing through the house to to accommodate a BT extension. Can or will BT route a new cable from the eves at the front of the house through my loft and down the back of the house (near to my tv). This would then become my master socket. Or if I have the line/socket replaced in the front room as I have described in problem 1 - what is the easiest way to take an extension through to the back room in the house? The main concern I have is seeing cables.
Click to expand...

BT (Openreach)'s policy is to only surface mount cable. Therefore they will not run cable through lofts, behind plaster etc. It would be either cleated to the outside wall, or stapled to the skirting boards. Sorry this isn't the answer you want. If you wanted to run the cables yourself, you could probably get Openreach to connect / commision it for you. This would be done on a time related basis. (Probably a visit and one hour). You will have to call you CP (presumably BT) for prices.
 
If you get bt or openreach out it cost bout £120 for a visit charge ,then you pay a hourley rate which I am not sur about but yo are lookiing at £200 plus,,,,,a friend of mine was in the same positon as you and he took off the master socket and with no extensions its only 2 wires on the screw terminals,put it in the hallway drilled through and rerouted his cable,,,,,his would not reach so he bought this off ebay............... EXTERNAL TELEPHONE CABLE 30mtrs.BT SPEC CW1308 BLACK.............and re-run it himself,connected the both orange/whites at the eaves with crimps as this was already housed this was ok.........if I was you I would buy this and run it through the loft myself but you ARE NOT supposed to mess with BT PROPERTY ( disclaimer)
 
Thanks for the replies - had a BT engineer out the other day, very helpful and advised that I could do the job and save myself £165.00 for moving a master socket - don't think this is BT's policy but hey who cares. He cancelled my job/visit so no charge and also supplied me with a master socket, junction box and gel connections - just need the cable. Have looked on ebay and found the BT spec cable mentioned in the replies to my post.

I am planning to cut the the black cable that runs down the front of the house and feed this through the eves into the loft space. I am not going to mess with the connection at the eves. I am then going to make a join in the loft space to my new cable and feed this back out the eves at the back of the house down to my back room.

As I only have a master socket with no extensions there is just 2 wires to connect on the screw terminals and at the join in the loft - my question is which coloured wires should I be using at the join and at the master?

Cheers
 
Thanks Johnboy, so when I cut cable at front of house and get my new cable from ebay I should find at least the following wires: ORANGE/WHITE,GREEN/BLACK IS SPARE

When joining my cable and at the master I need to use just the orange/white and the green - is this right?

Cheers
 
no,you will find the feed from the bt line as orange/white which is a pair,then the cable has a black/green which is spare and only used for second lines.....when you get the cable off ebay it should be orange/white as apair then green black as another pair but you may find its blue/orange as a pair and green/brown as another pair.....any more info req post back
 
Thanks for all the advice, did the work over the weekend and all is well. It turned out that my line was coming through the drop line as black and green. Cheers

Carl
 
You don't now need to have the HomeHub near to the TV for BT Vision. BT now supply ethernet power line adapters with the BT V box, so the hub can be wherever you like.
 
I have been told that the vision comes with a wireless adaptor for your pc and that the hub has to be by your tv or you have to have a ethernet socket from your hub at the tv , I was told the wireless adaptor cant be used on the vision box .
 
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