Anyone moved a BT Openreach master socket?

[Crumpet]

As per the title......anyone done it themselves?

Been quoted £150 for what amounts to about an hours work for me to do myself.

I’ve watched the YouTube videos and it looks far too simple, what am I missing? Or is it really that easy? If you google it you get loads of returns saying it’s illegal and you’ll ruin your connection etc...

[C0ffin D0dger]

<cough> Might of <cough>

Dead easy, just be careful not to let any of the wires touch while you're doing it and cause a short. Not exactly sure what would happen if you did but best not to find out. Use a proper IDC tool to get a decent connection. There is some voltage on the cable, 50-60V, so you may get a bit of a tingle if touching it.

[Andy-SP2]

It's classed as illegal because BT (Openreach) own the network up to and including the master socket... It's only a single pair of wires and will either a couple of screw terminals or an Insulation Displacement Connection.

As long as it works after you've moved it then no one will know or care

[C0ffin D0dger]

And of course if an Openreach engineer ever questioned why your master is where it is - "It was like that when we moved into the house". Not that they ever would ask I suspect.

[Mr Pointy]

No, never. It's definitely not allowed. If I were to think about doing it I'd carefully note which colour wire went to each of the two terminals, pull them off one at a time & wrap insulating tape around the ends so they don't short out. I might look to see if the drop wire from the pole went to a connection box (maybe in the loft) & then another cable runs onto the NTE in which case I might disconnect the cable in the connection box for complete isolation.

I also wouldn't look on ebay for a new NTE5c which has connection method so simple even an untrained monkey could get it right.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Openreach-Telephone-Mas...

[bristolracer]

C0ffin D0dger said:

<cough> Might of <cough>

Dead easy, just be careful not to let any of the wires touch while you're doing it and cause a short. Not exactly sure what would happen if you did but best not to find out.

If you short it out, anyone trying to ring you will get an engaged tone.
Answering your phone puts a short across the line, hence one of the reasons for an ADSL filter.

OP, you will be fine to move it.
The master will have either screw terminals or IDC (which will require a punchdown tool) or the newer ones are tool less using a push down contact.
If you find cables going off elsewhere these will be to extensions. You wont really get a shock unless your fingers are wet.

The overhead drop wire will have two pairs of cables orange and white/ black and green,just remember which was connected before you cut it off
(a picture on your phone is a good idea)

[Crumpet]

Ok, thanks guys, I definitely won’t be doing it! (Wish me luck!)

[beko1987]

I also have not done this.

Certainly did not remove the cover over the hole in the wall where the cable comes in from the road, cut the old smeggy 1980s wiring off and jelly crimp a pair from some nice cat5e to said wires. I then did not spend half a day hiding the cat5 around the edge of the laminate and replacing the edging strips, fed the cable through a handy existing hole into the front room and ran it behind the furniture to the TV and terminate it with a nice openreach master socket which certainly did not come from ebay, but with a nice filtered ADSL faceplate fitted.

Had I done this, I imagine I would see a speed increase of a whopping 12mb just from fresh internal wiring.

I do not recommend the above, as you will need a punchdown tool which are very expensive at a couple of quid, and being able to see colour so you use the same pair of wires at either end...

I also did not run a loop of new cat5 into and then back out of the now defunct first socket in the house, so when we move out (renting, hence why I didnt hide the wiring and not drill any holes) I can chop the cable and plug the existing sockets back in and take my very long cat5 with filtered faceplate with me to not do the same in the next house..

[Slushbox]

I woke up a couple of weeks ago to find that mysterious elves had moved my BT socket out of the hall into the lounge and fitted a VDSL faceplate.

I think it must have only taken them 20 minutes or so. Didn't hear a thing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solwise-ADSL-VDSLFACE-SOL...

[Accelebrate]

C0ffin D0dger said:

And of course if an Openreach engineer ever questioned why your master is where it is - "It was like that when we moved into the house". Not that they ever would ask I suspect.

Mine is now in my garage, next to a network cabinet. I've had a fair number of Openreach guys out because of line issues outside out property, a few have asked how it got there but none have really cared as long as it passes their tests.

[Crumpet]

Well, that was easy! Much easier than wiring up all the cat5 module sockets I’ve been doing recently!

Still getting 37Mbps and no dropouts so I’ve obviously done it properly(ish).

Now to tidy up the mess that is my ‘utilities cupboard’.....

[SweetZJ]

Hi guys I'm not thinking about doing this aswell. Quick question:

I can't find where the cable comes into the property as it's all caked in render, though half way down the the line there is a connector block where some old cable had been replaced and happens to be in a perfect place for me to reroute off from. My question is, it's currently telephone line, can I connect CAT6 to the telephone line in this connector block ( and then run to the new socket location) or does it need to be telephone line all the way to the socket ? Or "not" ?

[Accelebrate]

Cat 6 will work, but telephone cable might be less likely to raise any eyebrows if Openreach ever have any reason to look at it (although in my experience they’re unlikely to care).

[SweetZJ]

Is there any benefit using CAT6 if it's only half the length of the entire run?

[TwistingMyMelon]

Accelebrate said:

Cat 6 will work, but telephone cable might be less likely to raise any eyebrows if Openreach ever have any reason to look at it (although in my experience they’re unlikely to care).

In the offices Ive managed ive moved the socket and used Cat5e , my last office I moved 4 x NTEs about 25 metres all using Cat5. Never had any questions when we had issues being fixed

Also in my current office I even asked the engineer to run the last few metres in Cat5 I had, which he did. Ive since fitted and re-fitted in a couple of networking cabinets

[Carrot]

I spoke with an openreach engineer when they did our socket last week. I laid the CAT6 from DP to where I wanted the socket, he terminated it.

Apparently they don't really care as long as it is on your land (i.e you are not pissing around under the panel in the road!) and if there are any problems they won't even look without charging you.

[bimsb6]

Most new builds have a cat5 or cat6 fed to the outside termination point , first pair of the cable is white/blue then oranges, greens and finally the browns , so if anyone was to use cat5/6 the blues would be the pair to use .

[bimsb6]

C0ffin D0dger said:

<cough> Might of <cough>

Dead easy, just be careful not to let any of the wires touch while you're doing it and cause a short. Not exactly sure what would happen if you did but best not to find out. Use a proper IDC tool to get a decent connection. There is some voltage on the cable, 50-60V, so you may get a bit of a tingle if touching it.

Shorting the pairs does no damage , 50v dc when idle 75ac when ringing , that one you will feel !

[Who me ?]

Simple and keeps it legal option ( asuming that BT master is not an eyesore) is to extnd the wiring using 2w from pins 2 & 5of the BT MASTER to location of choice. But if the BT master is in an eysore position, I doubt if any BT/OR bloke would bother( unless you run the cable inside trunking/close to a cable with mains on it.

[bimsb6]

[quote=Who me ?]Simple and keeps it legal option ( asuming that BT master is not an eyesore) is to extnd the wiring using 2w from pins 2 & 5of the BT MASTER to location of choice. But if the BT master is in an eysore position, I doubt if any BT/OR bloke would bother( unless you run the cable inside trunking/close to a cable with mains on it.
[/quote]
You’re well out of date , the nte (master socket) hasn’t had a 2 and 5 terminal for years .