BT NTE5 master socket issues

[ProDave]

I wired a loft conversion last year, including telephone points.  I left it all working, at least a phone plugged into each point got a dialing tone.

Customer was unhappy with broadband speed so called Open Reach.

Customer now calls me back, nothing works except plugged into the master socket.  The story from the OR guy was "it was wired wrong" and "I have disconnected unused sockets"  He also replaced the old NTE5 with the latest version.

I don't know if you have seen the latest ones but they are absolute rubbish.  Flimsy horrible things where the front just clips on, but worse the stupid method now used to terminate cables off to slave sockets makes absolutely no provision to connect test probes.

Anyway I re connected the disconnected sockets and tried connecting the cable to the new NTE5 outlet, but I just can;t get any life out of the slave sockets.

I have ordered an old version of the NTE5 and will go and fit that. I am sure that will fix it.

What idiots design this sort of stuff?

 

[Geoff1946]

I didn't think wired phone sockets were much used now. Everyone I know has wireless type. 

I wired my previous house for an extension in every room just before those came readily available and then never used most of it.

 

[Blue Duck]

What idiots design this sort of stuff?

Idiots who want paying lots of money for a simple job...

 

[Murdoch]

I didn't think wired phone sockets were much used now. Everyone I know has wireless type. 

I wired my previous house for an extension in every room just before those came readily available and then never used most of it.

Well, wireless units are fine until you have a power cut or the handset goes flat.

i normally recommend that customers, especially the elderly ones, have a plugged in phone ..... in addition to wireless units 

 

[Geoff1946]

i normally recommend that customers, especially the elderly ones, have a plugged in phone ..... in addition to wireless units 

No argument there. I have one in a drawer in case of emergencies.

 

[Murdoch]

No argument there. I have one in a drawer in case of emergencies.

Not a bad idea. 

We have 2 plugged in ... and 2 wireless

 

[ProDave]

This house is a bit odd.  They must have the router in the boys bedroom as he uses on line gaming that (don't ask me why) won't work on wifi.

the rest of the people in the house are happy with wifi. So there is the need to put the router in his bedroom.

Of course had I known this when wiring the loft, I would have suggested leaving the router at the master socket, and running a CAT5 to the boys bedroom.

 

[Murdoch]

This house is a bit odd.  They must have the router in the boys bedroom as he uses on line gaming that (don't ask me why) won't work on wifi.

the rest of the people in the house are happy with wifi. So there is the need to put the router in his bedroom.

Of course had I known this when wiring the loft, I would have suggested leaving the router at the master socket, and running a CAT5 to the boys bedroom.

Has he/you tried powerline adaptors?

 

[kerching]

No argument there. I have one in a drawer in case of emergencies.

I don't know if it still applies since everyone has mobiles now BUT it used to be a requirement that any commercial  premises with a PBX, PABX etc HAD to have a Power fail phone and a designated socket for same

new sockets are .....worse still are the openreach plug in RJ11/BT add on plates

worked on one last week. Undid the two 1 1-2 x4 self tappers that hold the front on an was left with a pile of bits

 

[UNG]

I wired a loft conversion last year, including telephone points.  I left it all working, at least a phone plugged into each point got a dialing tone.

Customer was unhappy with broadband speed so called Open Reach.

Customer now calls me back, nothing works except plugged into the master socket.  The story from the OR guy was "it was wired wrong" and "I have disconnected unused sockets"  He also replaced the old NTE5 with the latest version.

I don't know if you have seen the latest ones but they are absolute rubbish.  Flimsy horrible things where the front just clips on, but worse the stupid method now used to terminate cables off to slave sockets makes absolutely no provision to connect test probes.

Anyway I re connected the disconnected sockets and tried connecting the cable to the new NTE5 outlet, but I just can;t get any life out of the slave sockets.

I have ordered an old version of the NTE5 and will go and fit that. I am sure that will fix it.

What idiots design this sort of stuff?

Not sure what your problem is with the NTE5C, I agree that the tool-less connectors can be a bit awkward if you have not used them before and it is not clear that you have to have the faceplate fitted to connect the extension wiring, the old style NTE5 fitted with the ADSL mk2 or mk3 filter was more of a pain to work with at least the VDSL mk4 filter just clips onto the front of the NTE5C.

The new design was to allow for tool-less fault finding and making it easy for the customer to unclip the faceplate and disconnect the extensions and therefore making it easy to check the incoming line

I don't know if it still applies since everyone has mobiles now BUT it used to be a requirement that any commercial  premises with a PBX, PABX etc HAD to have a Power fail phone and a designated socket for same

new sockets are .....worse still are the openreach plug in RJ11/BT add on plates

worked on one last week. Undid the two 1 1-2 x4 self tappers that hold the front on an was left with a pile of bits

The PABX systems usually have a default fallback extension for each incoming line in case of a power failure.

The problem with the PSTN service now is as we transfer to fibre connections the local connection cabinets need power and while they have battery backup in an extended power cut it relies on Openreach swapping the batteries over to maintain the service

With regard to the old filtered NTE5 if you ended up with pile of bits after removing 2 screws then it couldn't have been fitted right

 

[binky]

I would tell customer to get BT back in and sort what they have broken,  cos it wasn't broke before he they and fiddled with it! 

 

[ProDave]

Not sure what your problem is with the NTE5C, I agree that the tool-less connectors can be a bit awkward if you have not used them before and it is not clear that you have to have the faceplate fitted to connect the extension wiring, the old style NTE5 fitted with the ADSL mk2 or mk3 filter was more of a pain to work with at least the VDSL mk4 filter just clips onto the front of the NTE5C.

The new design was to allow for tool-less fault finding and making it easy for the customer to unclip the faceplate and disconnect the extensions and therefore making it easy to check the incoming line

The problem was no signal at the remote socket.  I had the correct colours in terminals 2,3 and 5 of the "output" connector.  you push the wires in then fold it down and it is supposed to make contact by IDC connections.

But no signal at the slave socket.

I took the wires out, belled them through end to end, and they are fine, no breaks. they are connected into the correct terminals at the slave.

Re terminated at the master and still no signal at the slave. 

My gripe is the design of the teminals now means you cannot get a test probe of a volt meter anywhere to see if there is any signal.  My assumption is the IDC connectors are not connecting.

With the old style NTE5 you can push the cables down into the IDC connectors and check with a volt meter that you really are getting a signal out of the thing.

I would tell customer to get BT back in and sort what they have broken,  cos it wasn't broke before he they and fiddled with it! 

Read the small print.  BT's obligation is to provide a connection at your master socket.  Any slave wiring is not their responsibility.  If they come back to fix it, their hourly rate is a lot more than mine.

 

[NozSpark]

I had this kind of problem a few years ago.... I can't remember what they called it though... maybe a "Simple shift"

Basically you bypass the first socket and make the second one the master, and then back feed the first socket (now a secondary) through another pair in the same cable... worked a treat!!

 

[UNG]

The problem was no signal at the remote socket.  I had the correct colours in terminals 2,3 and 5 of the "output" connector.  you push the wires in then fold it down and it is supposed to make contact by IDC connections.

But no signal at the slave socket.

I took the wires out, belled them through end to end, and they are fine, no breaks. they are connected into the correct terminals at the slave.

Re terminated at the master and still no signal at the slave. 

My gripe is the design of the teminals now means you cannot get a test probe of a volt meter anywhere to see if there is any signal.  My assumption is the IDC connectors are not connecting.

With the old style NTE5 you can push the cables down into the IDC connectors and check with a volt meter that you really are getting a signal out of the thing.

.

I agree the new style connector is not the best to work with until you have fitted a few them

If the cable isn't properly and fully inserted into the carrier before folding it down into the IDC connector then you can get problems although you can see if the cable is terminated correctly through the plastic carrier

I'm assuming you replaced the faceplate on the NTE5C before checking for a signal at the secondary socket

Not sure why you are inserting anything other than the correct cable or an IDC tool into the IDC terminals, anything else tends to cause connectivity issues / terminal failure either in the short or long term it's better to use the proper test blocks https://cpc.farnell.com/chesivale-electronics/m0008-00a-b/modular-adaptor-bt-631a-type/dp/IN01148?st=bt adaptors

or an engineers butt phone

Unless any extension equipment requires the ringing circuit on terminal 3 to be connected I would leave it unused as it can affect broadband bandwidth due to the line interference it can cause

 

[Sidney]

I have one in a drawer in case of emergencies.

Same here.

 

[Badger]

No argument there. I have one in a drawer in case of emergencies.

And I still use a Wired version which I keep in my tool. Box for any phone extensions I install for diallers etc for alarm systems and Internet points for checking 

 

[UNG]

And I still use a Wired version which I keep in my tool. Box for any phone extensions I install for diallers etc for alarm systems and Internet points for checking 

I have 2 engineers butt phones one for the basic stuff and a digital one for the advanced stuff they double up as emergency phones at home

 

[kerching]

I started with one of these

then progressed to this 

my latest weapon of choice is this little badger



BUT the banana phone still came out on last weeks job