Wiring problem: Phone socket off the wall....

vodambo · 25-07-2009, 00:04

Hi there,

I have had a rather unfortunate accident this evening with the NTL phone socket.... The cable from my phone to the socket in the wall got wrapped around a chair leg and when I pulled the chair out it ripped the front panel straight from the wall, pulling all of the wires out from their connectors....

I have wires as follows:
blue with white bands
white with blue bands
orange with white bands
white with orange bands
green with white bands
white with green bands

I have looked on numerous forums already and tried to wire as described using the two blue wires to connectors 2 and 5, but still get absolutely nothing....

When I take off the removable front panel there are connectors 1-6, but when I take off the main panel there is also 3 connectors. The bottom marked A, the top, B. I wondered if I needed to connect any wires to these too?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dave_dph · 25-07-2009, 08:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by vodambo

When I take off the removable front panel there are connectors 1-6, but when I take off the main panel there is also 3 connectors. The bottom marked A, the top, B. I wondered if I needed to connect any wires to these too?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Are there any wires connected to terminals A & B? If so, plug the phone into the inner socket and see if it works. If it does, you can screw this plate back into position as nothing else needs to be connected behind there.

If there is nothing connected to these terminals you will need to look for the incoming cable that feeds into the socket from outside. You will see there are probably four coloured wires feeding into the back of the socket, mine has orange / white, white / orange and I think the other two are green / white, white / green.

I suggest you connect the green / white & white / green to terminals A & B and then try the phone in the visible inner socket, have you got service? If not, try the orange / white & white / orange instead. It shouldn't matter which of the pair goes to which terminal.

Once you have established the connection you can screw the inner plate back into place.

Now from what you say I would imagine that the six coloured cable you mention actually feeds an extension socket, somewhere else in thye property? If this is the case, remove the cover from the extension socket and see which wires connect to which terminals. At the line box connect the same colours to the terminals in the front removable face plate - you will need a telephone connector tool to do this, but you can get a plastic one very cheaply. Once you have connected the wires plug the front face plate back into the socket and the usual front socket will work.

Hope that makes sense!

vodambo · 25-07-2009, 12:44

Thanks for your help, Dave. Unfortunately, I still cannot get the phone to work. This NTL socket is the only one of its kind in the property there is a BT one next to it but this has never been connected since we have lived here. So I would have though the NTL one is the master... There is only one cable coming into the property, which is the 6 coloured one.

The A and B connections in the back panel were also ripped out when the chair was moved, so they also need to be reconnected. I have tried both the green/white and orange white pairs here, to no avail. I know that the blue/white pair needs to be in sockets 2 and 5 of the removable cover, as there were still little bits of them in there. I've removed these and have tried pretty much every conceivable combination of the wires, whilst consulting a BT socket wiring guide too. The only thing I can think now, is I must've damaged the socket itself. Suppose I'll have to give an engineer a call....

Foo Fighter · 25-07-2009, 12:53

You could look in box on the outside of your propety to see which pair is being used. It should be the blue pair unless the cables damaged some were. You can use any mastered socket so i wouldnt call a engineer just yet, try using the blue pairs on the BT socket on the A and B terminals.

vodambo · 25-07-2009, 13:23

I'm still not getting any dial tone when I connect up the wires to terminals A and B ni the inner sockets, before I do anything with the 1-6 connections. Could this mean there might actually be a line problem too?

Foo Fighter · 25-07-2009, 14:10

You only need A and B connected then plug straight to the front of it. Make sure its defiantly the blue pair connected at the front of your house, then look too see if the copper has been pulled or snapped when it came from the socket.

If your getting no luck with the blue pair and feel up to the job try changing the pair on the outside of your house or even put the socket out there and make sure it works. Worth a go to save Â£100 or whatever they will charge?

dave_dph · 25-07-2009, 17:09

If that is the only socket then there shouldn't be any wires connected to the removable front plate. The front plate is used for connecting extension sockets to the circuit.

If you can establish which pair is used by looking into the outside box, all you need to do is then connect these to the A & B terminals. If you still don't get a dial tone just report it as a fault. Unless there is damage evident to the socket I don't see how they can charge for the call out.