Master Socket

[Monarch08]

Hi all

I've just moved into a new house and have a question about the master socket. The master socket is by the front door, but the previous owners seem to have routed out of this into another room via a cable coming out the bottom, as below. Following the cable, this appears in the next room where there is a socket not mounted to the wall flapping around in the corner.

We got our router from Vodafone and I plugged it into the socket above, but it doesn't seem to work (it never connects), plugging into the 'extension' works immediately. This is a terrible place for the router though!

I'm wondering if I can just disconnect this extension, but:

1 - not sure if it's as simple as this. 

2 - I'm not sure if disconnecting it would then 'enable' the main one. I would've expected both to work now. 

I took the cover off and took a photo of the wiring within. There are 4 wires going down the cable out the front plate - brown and green come from the connector at the front plate, orange and blue come out of the mess in the wall, but I didn't want to poke around too much. 

Any advice from anyone? Or should I just call out an expert?

 

[Jayach]

@Monarch08 

Just to let you know, we are not ignoring you, but it may take some time before your pictures are moderated and we can see them,

[Ripshod]

Do you have an IDC (punch down) tool and do you know how to use it? Do you know a friendly ICT engineer or electrician who'll sort this for a cuppa and a couple of digestives?

I'd much rather have someone experienced sort this. 

[Jayach]

@Ripshod is probably right, but I'd like to see the pictures first. However as it's Sunday they are unlikely to be moderated today.

[Jayach]

Your pictures are now showing, and it looks like that socket should indeed work as well as the "extension". It also looks like there are other extensions somewhere in the house.

Did you try from the test socket (the one that is exposed when the faceplate is removed) and did it work? If it didn't the previous occupants have done something wrong.

[Ripshod]

I think it may just work from the test socket as @Jayach suggests. The problem you have is the extension connection to the faceplate - only 3 wires should be connected. So, rather than being correctly wired, someone has been jabbing wires here there and everywhere to get that extension working. 

[Monarch08]

Thanks! 

I tried the test socket after posting - doesn't appear to be working as the router just continually flashes red. 

I'm a new homeowner and haven't dealt with any stuff like this in the past, so it is perhaps best to just get someone over to look at it - especially if it's been bodged in the past.

There are other extensions in the house. Nowhere useful but probably worth testing to see if they work at least. 

[Jayach · Accepted solution]

If it doesn't work from the test socket, it looks like the previous occupants have taken the incoming line and directly connected it to the extensions, which is very naughty.

If you report it doesn't work from the test socket to Vodafone, they should call out Openreach. Hopefully the engineer will just correct the wiring, they might even fit a new pre-filtered socket, and if you provide tea and biscuits they won't consider it chargeable.

[Cynric]

And if you are very lucky, like I was, they'll do a line test (this is FTTC) and trot down to the green box and put my connection onto a better rack position.

[Ripshod]

Yes you'll likely find a connection elsewhere, but the longer the telephone cable the slower your vdsl speed. Let us know how you get on.