Broadband without a BT master socket

Hi,

My mum wants to upgrade to broadband, however she doesn't have an
official BT master socket in the house (she has one that I fitted myself
many years ago), instead she is renting a traditional wall mounted GPO
style telephone.

She can't get rid of the old phone because, being wall mounted, it would
leave a hole in the wallpaper and "she likes the wallpaper and doesn't
want to replace it". So she is stuck with renting the phone for now and
renting the phone only will, I assume, be cheaper than renting a phone
and a master socket.

My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag a
problem?

Martin.

On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 21:57:58 +0100, Martin Wiseman
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
>notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag a
>problem?

No.

--
Hiram Hackenbacker

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Martin Wiseman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My mum wants to upgrade to broadband, however she doesn't have an
> official BT master socket in the house (she has one that I fitted
> myself many years ago), instead she is renting a traditional wall
> mounted GPO style telephone.
>
> She can't get rid of the old phone because, being wall mounted, it
> would leave a hole in the wallpaper and "she likes the wallpaper and
> doesn't want to replace it". So she is stuck with renting the phone
> for now and renting the phone only will, I assume, be cheaper than
> renting a phone and a master socket.
>
> My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
> notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag
> a problem?
>
> Martin.

They may not. However, how are you going to filter the wall phone if it's
hard-wired in rather than plugged into a socket?

I'm not aware that there is a rental for a master socket - it comes with the
line! If BT (as opposed to DIY or 3rd-party) install extension sockets,
they'll charge you extra rental for them.

I've got a vague notion that BT are converting the few remaining hard-wired
installations for free, but I'm not absolutely sure.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

If your mum has BT socket you can use it for BB, regardless if it's official
or not.
Get any old style BT phone (doesn't have to work), return it and STOP your
mum paying rental to BT !
She can leave the old phone on the wall, but it may not work properly unless
you find a way to connect microfilter to it.
Regards,
Martin

"Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> Martin Wiseman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > My mum wants to upgrade to broadband, however she doesn't have an
> > official BT master socket in the house (she has one that I fitted
> > myself many years ago), instead she is renting a traditional wall
> > mounted GPO style telephone.
> >
> > She can't get rid of the old phone because, being wall mounted, it
> > would leave a hole in the wallpaper and "she likes the wallpaper and
> > doesn't want to replace it". So she is stuck with renting the phone
> > for now and renting the phone only will, I assume, be cheaper than
> > renting a phone and a master socket.
> >
> > My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
> > notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag
> > a problem?
> >
> > Martin.
>
> They may not. However, how are you going to filter the wall phone if it's
> hard-wired in rather than plugged into a socket?
>
> I'm not aware that there is a rental for a master socket - it comes with the
> line! If BT (as opposed to DIY or 3rd-party) install extension sockets,
> they'll charge you extra rental for them.
>
> I've got a vague notion that BT are converting the few remaining hard-wired
> installations for free, but I'm not absolutely sure.

It may be that you could get BT to insert a master socket between the entry
point to the house and the existing phone. That way the connection of her
existing phone becomes her problem and I can see why she can not keep the
existing wiring.

Michael Chare

On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 21:57:58 +0100, Martin Wiseman
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>My mum wants to upgrade to broadband, however she doesn't have an
>official BT master socket in the house (she has one that I fitted myself
>many years ago), instead she is renting a traditional wall mounted GPO
>style telephone.
>
>She can't get rid of the old phone because, being wall mounted, it would
>leave a hole in the wallpaper and "she likes the wallpaper and doesn't
>want to replace it". So she is stuck with renting the phone for now and
>renting the phone only will, I assume, be cheaper than renting a phone
>and a master socket.
>
>My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
>notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag a
>problem?
>
>Martin.

I had a similar setup. There appeared to be a speed problem and my ISP
got BT to look at the problem. Originally I had 3 phones hard wired to
old sockets which were changed to more modern BT sockets some 20 years
ago. IN addition I have a separate bell hard wired into the system.

At this point there was no way to isolate the incoming line so when BT
arrived the first think they did was rewire the incoming line to a
master socket which then allowed the old system to continue when the
faceplate of the master socket was in place. This now enabled BT to
check the speed. I got a new master socket fitted at no charge as he
said it was part of his remit to upgrade this type of installation.

Now for the answer to your question..
I can isolate all my phones and use filters but there is no way I can
filter the bell which remains directly across the line at all times.

Fortunately I have a good signal for broadband and the bell does not
appear to have any effect on speed. This would be a similar situation
to yours except you still have one phone you can't isolate. All I can
suggest is you give it a try. You may find the broadband is not
affected and the only other problem is if the phone is affected by the
broadband signal. You may be lucky as it sounds like you have an old
phone which may not cause you any problem (background noise).

BT may change your system to a master socket (hopefully for free but
you need to ask) as they can't really expect you to agree to broadband
with the existing system. You should be able to connect your old phone
via a filter at the master socket then take the other filter output to
your modem.

David

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
(E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I can isolate all my phones and use filters but there is no way I can
> filter the bell which remains directly across the line at all times.
>
Well, it shouldn't be directly across the line - unless maybe it's got it's
own ring capacitor - it should be connected between pins 3 and 5. In any
event, it's easy enough to rewire it, using a lead with a BT plug on the
end - and plugging it into an extension socket, where it can be filtered.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 15:48:28 +0100, "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>(E-Mail Removed) <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I can isolate all my phones and use filters but there is no way I can
>> filter the bell which remains directly across the line at all times.
>>
>Well, it shouldn't be directly across the line - unless maybe it's got it's
>own ring capacitor - it should be connected between pins 3 and 5. In any
>event, it's easy enough to rewire it, using a lead with a BT plug on the
>end - and plugging it into an extension socket, where it can be filtered.

I'm sure the BT guy wired it correctly as he was checking low speed
problems and later even checked right at my PC modem socket.
As far as I know it's a 2 wire system so I assume the bell is across
the line. There were some comments about a capacitor as he changed one
of the sockets to a different type as I had apparently got two of the
same type. The one he changed feeds the bell from within the socket so
not accessible by me! He said something about having two master
sockets (old system)?

The good news was he checked the system and got almost 500Kbps.
The fault was eventually found to be 3xPC's all with a setting of RWIN
too low in value. Can't believe the difference now it's up to ~60Kbps.

David

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 15:27:57 +0100, NOSPAM wrote:

> On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 21:57:58 +0100, Martin Wiseman
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>My mum wants to upgrade to broadband, however she doesn't have an
>>official BT master socket in the house (she has one that I fitted myself
>>many years ago), instead she is renting a traditional wall mounted GPO
>>style telephone.
>>
>>She can't get rid of the old phone because, being wall mounted, it would
>>leave a hole in the wallpaper and "she likes the wallpaper and doesn't
>>want to replace it". So she is stuck with renting the phone for now and
>>renting the phone only will, I assume, be cheaper than renting a phone
>>and a master socket.
>>
>>My question is, if we order self install broadband, are BT likely to
>>notice that the house isn't listed as having a master socket and flag a
>>problem?
>>
>>Martin.
>
> I had a similar setup. There appeared to be a speed problem and my ISP
> got BT to look at the problem. Originally I had 3 phones hard wired to
> old sockets which were changed to more modern BT sockets some 20 years
> ago. IN addition I have a separate bell hard wired into the system.
>
> At this point there was no way to isolate the incoming line so when BT
> arrived the first think they did was rewire the incoming line to a
> master socket which then allowed the old system to continue when the
> faceplate of the master socket was in place. This now enabled BT to
> check the speed. I got a new master socket fitted at no charge as he
> said it was part of his remit to upgrade this type of installation.
>
> Now for the answer to your question..
> I can isolate all my phones and use filters but there is no way I can
> filter the bell which remains directly across the line at all times.
>
> Fortunately I have a good signal for broadband and the bell does not
> appear to have any effect on speed. This would be a similar situation
> to yours except you still have one phone you can't isolate. All I can
> suggest is you give it a try. You may find the broadband is not
> affected and the only other problem is if the phone is affected by the
> broadband signal. You may be lucky as it sounds like you have an old
> phone which may not cause you any problem (background noise).
>
> BT may change your system to a master socket (hopefully for free but
> you need to ask) as they can't really expect you to agree to broadband
> with the existing system. You should be able to connect your old phone
> via a filter at the master socket then take the other filter output to
> your modem.

You know the easiest thing would be to have a proper master socket fitted,
snip the phone cable at the end and crimp a modern BT plug to the cable.


JAB.

--
Jonathan A. Buzzard Email: jonathan (at) buzzard.me.uk
Northumberland, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 1661-832195