FabSwingers.com forum: telephone sockets

By *istress-Mazikeen OP Woman
over a year ago

bolton

Yes this is a serious thread, I have just moved house, and its a barrat house, which has phone sockets in it, but they have not been activated, barrat say that as they were not activated when the original owner was here, I may have to pay, but was told it is a 2 minuet job by the electrician. Any one out there who can tell me how to get them activated? without having to pay.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

When I moved in my flat I had phone sockets all over the place and no idea which was the real one.

I called BT who told me the line hadnt been active for years (previous tenants were with virgin I think) but as long as the line coming to the house is ok then there shouldnt be a problem.

My line was activated that day and we found out the line comes in at the side of the window in the middle bedroom. Now what prat thought that was a good idea put the phone socket in the bedroom that most families will put kids in??

Shona

x x x

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

If the line has never been activated, then I believe you will have to pay for the activation fee.

I do not believe it is something that can be done by doing it yourself or getting an electrician to do it for you, even though it may be a very simple job.

Good job the line is there already, otherwise it would have cost you a lot more to put one in!

Good luck!

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By *b430Man
over a year ago

Tayside

"Yes this is a serious thread, I have just moved house, and its a barrat house, which has phone sockets in it, but they have not been activated, barrat say that as they were not activated when the original owner was here, I may have to pay, but was told it is a 2 minuet job by the electrician. Any one out there who can tell me how to get them activated? without having to pay."

Unfortunately if the line isn't active then you will need to pay the line provider a fee to connect the main socket (electricians are not meant to do the main one).

If it's BT you are going with then it's BT Openreach that gets paid to connect the line that BT PLC rent to you. The fee is usually £125 for a first connection (up here anyway).

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I would advise checking if cable is available for your house, as Virgin can deliver phone and internet services via cable without the need for a BT landline!

Check out how the previous owner coped with not having a landline and seek their advice too if you can.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I can give you a phone number for the Chairman's office, high level complaints department BT: 0131 448 3010. Try getting it through just complaining via the 0800 number! It's all just shite, all hang on there for 45 mins! And of course you have to have a line to do that in the first place! If Shirly Mackie who's hidden number I've just given out asks how you got it, tell her it was Jayne who's broadband they fooked up for over a month then cut me off totally even though they owe me 60 quid! Lololol Love to be in her office in the morning!

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By *1dKingColeMan
over a year ago

east london

Had a similar problem when I moved into my current place, and I only wanted it for the broadband!

After some shopping through all the offers etc I found the problem is that, if you need to have a line activated, (even if the the last tenant was using it up until you moved in but had it disconnected) you will have to go through the connection procedure, which maybe up to the £125 quoted,

AND you are limited to very few providers, and if its BT (who do the most of them) you get stuffed for a year contract or they wont do it!

The answer I found was to go to the Post Office and get them to connect it, they use the same people at BT but under contract or something and you only have to sigh up to a 30 day notice contract and can then move to your provider of choice.

But as the PO is as good as most and a lot cheaper than BT, you could easily chose to stick with them!

Hope that helps.

PS the connection charge for me was a lot less as it was done from the exchange and no one had to come out.

Fingers crossed for you.

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By *ebzStarWoman
over a year ago

Notting

This is partly why i am still on mobile broadband.

Ina big shared house and lots of bloody sockets all over the place.

We have all decided we are gonna go for sky,

But which sockets who knows,

andd by going with sky you still have to have a bt line.

BUT,

Once they come in and check the lines, we should know - but funny - the lass who lives in the front room, she gets freeview, the rest of us cant get it, ulsess we all pile in her room,lol

Bitch when you are in rented property and dont know what previous tennent was doing!!

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By *thwalescplCouple
over a year ago

brecon

There will only be one NTE (main socket) the rest will be "slaved" to that one.

You are correct when you say any competant electrician can wire the sockets up, its easy, but there is no way he can connect you to the network, as there are proceedures to go through to get your account up and running.

I would advise getting an "NTE 2000" fitted, which is an ADSL compatible frontplate for the socket, if you are going to use your comp a lot, or like to have a reasonable download speed. Only ask for this if the telephone engineer has to visit the house, if you request it when you activate your account they will send an engineer even if you dont need a visit for the activation and bill you somewhere near what has been quoted (on top of the activation costs!) to fit it and its a two minute job with a screwdriver!!!

And, while on the subject of speed, dont pay through the nose for promises of faster speeds, its the same cable etc no matter who you pay your bill too, and there is no way of speeding up your internet just by going with company A instead of company B... no matter what they tell you!!!

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By *istress-Mazikeen OP Woman
over a year ago

bolton

I have the phone activated, and have a number, it is the extensions in the house that barrat have installed in the house, that I have been told need something done to them, and trying to find out what.

Been told by site lady that it is only a 2 min job. OK when you know how!!!

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

The first extension running from the master socket needs to be connected. All the others should be daisy-chained out so connecting the first one will connect all the others (assuming whoever wired them in did it correctly.)

If your master socket has a front plate where you can unscrew the bit you put the telephone jack in then all you do it unscrew it, and connect the wires from the extension cable as follows: (ext cable, if not connected, should be coiled up inside)

Port 2) blue/white

Port 3) orange/white

Port 3) white/orange

Port 4) white/blue

Ports 1 & 6 aren't used.

If you only have 4 ports then connect them as above 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now, if you can't unscrew the front section only then you have to get your provider in to do it as the telepphone company you use own the master box and you're not allowed to unscrew it or tamper with the main cable into the house. (technically, they'll never know but if you mess it up and they have to come out then they'll see what you've done)

* The colour code above is the official wiring pattern but engineers often use whatever colour pattern is familiar to them so long it's uniform throughout the house.)

It's far simpler thesedays to use wireless telephones where all you need is a main outlets for the bases.

If it's broadband you are trying to get working that's a different setup altogether. Virgin's BB works via a coaxial cable, whereas BT run it through normal telephone wires. If you are using V/Media you'll need to get them out to connect you up, if it's BT you may be able to work it out from the guide I've given you above but it's not as simple as getting telephone extensions to work.

Bear in mind that each device you connect to a telephone circuit has a REN value (most are REN 1) and you can have a maximum of 4 REN on your circuit.

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