Connecting a new BT socket to existing extension cables?

Question

Having recently moved house, I find that the main phone line into the property (to which BT connected my number) is in the study - while the telephone points for our two Sky TV digiboxes are in the sitting room and family room respectively. Both of these points are extensions, connected to a redundant master BT socket in the dining room.

Rather than trail a completely new set of cables all over the house, I would like to make use of those that are already in place - so I need to know how to connect those existing cables to a short extension that I plan to run from the study into the dining room.

Can anyone tell me what product(s) I might need to buy? Obviously I can just use a regular off-the-shelf extension kit to 'double up' the socket in the study and create a 'tail' that I can run into the dining room - but then how do I connect the two cables (the new tail and the existing cable run) together once I have got that far? It can't be all that difficult - we're just talking about connecting four wires or something! - but I would appreciate some expert advice from someone who has done this before!

By the way, although I don't need to have the digiboxes connected to the phone lines under the terms of my original Sky contract (which I have had for donkeys' years) apparently when you have multi-room you HAVE to have both boxes connected so that they can be sure you haven't just given your second card to a relative or friend!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Most telephone extension kits come with a cable (usually 4 core but sometimes 6 core) with a BT "piggy-back" plug at one end and a loose socket somewhere in the packet along with some cable clips.

You are expected to lay the cable, cut to length, and attach the wires to the Insulation Displacement Connector blades (IDC) at the socket. Then you plug the piggy-back into the fixed BT socket and it all works.

The kit will have the instructions on what colour wire goes which pin.

If you buy one of these kits then you can cut off the BT "piggy back" plug and double-up the wires in the IDC pins at the back of the fixed extension socket. The colours should be a one-for-one match. This will be much more elegant than using the piggy-back plug.

Even if you have a peculiar imported kit where the colours don't match you can still do it by noting which coloured lead goes to which pin - but don't tell BT.

Remember that each Sky box counts as 1 REN, so does your broadband router and telephone instrument. You may only have devices to a maximum of 4 REN in total on a BT domestic line. If you have more than this they don't guarantee that the ringing circuit will work so you may get only intermittent incoming calls, if any at all.

Sky only want you to connect to telephone line because of contracts with their advertisers. It's supposed to make you use Sky on-line ordering to buy products. Also, they regularly download the memory from your Box so that they can compile statistics about your viewing habits. I.e. snooping.

Try not connecting either box to the telephone, or disconnecting a few days after activation, and see what happens. I bet nothing happens.

Answer 2

Hi Tim,

Firstly undo the two scews holding the OUTER casing of your Master Socket.

Then, undo the two SMALLER INTERNAL screws on your master socket.

Pull the INNER working forwards and you should see connections 'A' & 'B'

With the extension cable that you already have, connect the 'White/Blue' wire to the 'A' terminal. Now Connect the 'Blue/White' wire to the 'B' terminal.

Re-assemble the Unit(s) in reverse order.

At the extension Socket end, undo the face-plate of the socket. You should see an arrangement of connections numberred from 1 to 6.

Connect the 'White/Blue' wire to terminal '2'

Connect the 'Blue/White' wire to terminal '5'

The system should now work.

N.B. If the 'Blue/White & White/Blue' pair of wires are not available, use another compatable spare pair of the same colour group. i.e. White/Green - Green/White,  Orange/White -White/Orange, etc

Hope this helps.

Mike