Master socket 5C faceplate issue

Long story short after diagnosing some issues last night where i had no connection, i noticed when i pulled the cable out of the master socket, a metal pin came out. Suspect that was the cause of no internet.

Pulling the front bit of the faceplate off a pin is missing. I removed it and tried from the test socket using a microfilter and connection works. So its the front faceplate at fault

So if i buy a replacement front faceplate am i "allowed" to fit it myself? Its only the front bit that clips on

Yes, the faceplate is a available to purchase, and you can replace it yourself.

Thanks. Ordered one online coming today.

Dunno how it managed to snap off, this a common issue?

Whether this was linked to my connection issues last night im not sure, the cable never gets touched

I've never heard of a pin breaking, and hard to see how it could, unless the faceplate has been on and off a lot.

A broken pin could definitely cause issues though, if it's a pin being used.

Yea seems odd.

Internet went down last night which may have been a separate issue (others on my street reported their connection not working). I did unplug and plug the cable last night but didnt fix it. Only this morning when i went to replace it thinking it could be the cable at fault did i see the pin.

Just glad the filtered faceplates have a test socket to use

Just question though. The faceplate just clips on no wiring required, so it basically just a fancy micro filter?

Yes, exactly that. It acts as the microfilter, and also enables you to run extension wiring if required.

Thanks. So with less and less people opting to have landline phones now (i havent had one for years), can you in theory just run everything from the master socket using an old style micro filter if you wished?

You could run a regular microfilter in the test socket, but as the newer faceplates have a microfilter built in, adding another one would likely make no difference, or perhaps slightly degraded service.

Yea was thinking more in my instance where the faceplate is fault. I have bought a new one so all academic now, but was thinking i could have just use an old micro filter i have and run the line via the test socket.

Save a few quid

Yes, the only added plus to using a faceplate filter, if you have no extension wiring beyond the NTE, is that the faceplate filters have RF filtering in them too.

*Well the Openreach branded ones do … not sure of the cheaper no name ones.

Edited by Zarjaz (Sat 07-Jun-25 11:07:12)

Thanks. Ive ordered this one which i assume is the official one? I know it says openreach on it but still knocks off exist

https://amzn.eu/d/1lO7FJM

U could ask the ISP to send out Openreach engineer they will replaced it for free because of no internet!

Edited by adslmax (Sat 07-Jun-25 11:29:16)

I was tempted to do that, but i dont work from home so would mean taking a day off to be home when they visit. Also i didnt want them to try and blame the broken connector on me when i was swapping out the cables, thus charge me

For a tenner easier to fix myself

Thanks for your help, new faceplate arrived and all good. Still love to know how a pin manages to break but least its fixed

No worries, glad it's sorted!

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Thanks for your help, new faceplate arrived and all good. Still love to know how a pin manages to break but least its fixed

If it was the same as this https://youtu.be/jD67a-ZC7VY?t=366 then you possibly had a poorly constructed black rj11/45 socket on the Mk4 plate. Unusual since if it was made by Pressac that would be the best part of an otherwise rubbishy NTE5C.

Yea not sure who made it, that was the one Openreach installed when i got fibre

Not sure who makes this one i bought today but see how it goes

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Thanks. So with less and less people opting to have landline phones now (i havent had one for years), can you in theory just run everything from the master socket using an old style micro filter if you wished?

Or even just a BT plug to RJ11 socket adaptor

I noticed last night my connection dropped around 1am and my sync speed also dropped slight

Could this be due to my messing around fixing the problem, and the various disconnects made it look like the line was unstable so the DLM kicked in?

Edited by bobble_bob (Sun 08-Jun-25 07:25:19)

Well, I had an issue on a few occasions where the faceplate was slightly disconnected (opened) if you know what I mean. I needed to simply push it back in. However, interestingly on those few occasions it did not interrupt my internet connection!

But it did feel scary to see it come slightly out despite the connection remaining. One reason for this is that I have a cupboard where I need to carefully open the door or else it would hit my master socket! I have clothes in there but I usually only use the right door of the cupboard and avoid the left one.

There's nothing we could do as years ago when we rented out our flat temporarily, an old tenant installed the master socket in that room exactly where we needed to install our cupboard. This is an annoying location for us to the left side of the wall and not a place where we want to have it located as the left cupboard door will hit it if it is fully opened.

If we want to move this somewhere else we have to pay Openreach. This is what we tried initially with TalkTalk with the promise in 2020 that we will get a new line! But the engineer refused. I also wanted to cut the copper length shorter so it doesn't travel excess length. The engineer was annoyed and told us "do you know this copper travels at least 500 meters from your cabinet and you are worrying over 5-10 meters of extra copper inside your flat, it will not make a difference, trust me"!

So, all he did was install a Master socket 5C for us in the existing location. But indeed like you, I could've bought this for £10 from Amazon and install it myself! I didn't need an Openreach engineer just for that so-called free telephone line. I feel betrayed from TalkTalk as live support chat told me they will waive off the cost and install one for free as part of FTTC upgrade. I could've signed up via Uswitch and had £80 voucher at that time and separately buy a Master Faceplate.

Now my only hope for future is to have Openreach upgrade to FTTP. If I sign up to an Altnet FTTP I'll make sure the ONT is installed in a better location.

Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to move the existing Master socket ourselves, which kinda sucks. But at least we can replace the Faceplate ourselves as this doesn't require an engineer visit.

Possibly …. do you have any before and after router stats ?

Also, of course, it might be that the filter wasn’t the issue.

Im pretty sure it was the faceplate at fault as literally i had no sync to the exchange until i used the test socked/replacement faceplate, then everything was fine again.

So im on a 38/10 FTTC

Sync before, down was 40000kbps. After resync 39999kbps so thats not really changed.

However ive gone from 36.5mbps to 35.5mbps despite the sync stayingthe same. I know its not alot but still. I did wonder if interleaving had been applied but pings still a constant 7ms.

SNR also the same at around 12-12.5db

Edited by bobble_bob (Sun 08-Jun-25 11:52:26)

OK then, and with that SNR I’d be surprised if DLM had intervened.

Just sit tight, and see what happens after , say, a week.

Thanks will do

Is there any reason download speed would have slightly dropped despite sync speed remaining the same?

Edited by bobble_bob (Sun 08-Jun-25 14:40:51)

The remote profile would be my guess.

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Thanks for your help, new faceplate arrived and all good. Still love to know how a pin manages to break but least its fixed

You're very lucky as Openreach engineer told me before you are NOT allow to removed Openreach master socket and replaced it. Only the engineer can do this.

Edited by adslmax (Mon 09-Jun-25 15:43:57)

What a load of popycock. They actually tell you to remove the cover and plug a phone in the diagnostic socket if you have a problem

In reply to a post by adslmax:

You're very lucky as Openreach engineer told me before you are NOT allow to removed Openreach master socket and replaced it. Only the engineer can do this.

I didnt remove the master socket. Just the faceplate that plugs into it

In reply to a post by iannewson:

What a load of popycock. They actually tell you to remove the cover and plug a phone in the diagnostic socket if you have a problem

In reply to a post by adslmax:

You're very lucky as Openreach engineer told me before you are NOT allow to removed Openreach master socket and replaced it. Only the engineer can do this.

As this, the clipped in part can be removed by customer, and it's quite common for the customer to be asked to do this. What your not supposed to do is remove the 'fixed' part of socket.
Some years back we had a clipped in socket which would fall out with just minor disturbance, I taped it in place, it was replaced after one of the numerous OR visits we had.

So interestingly connection been solid for 48hrs. Last night around the same time as 2 nights ago it resyncs. Syncs at the same speed, noise margin, SNR etc but this time speedtests show 36.5-37mbps

So ive got my speed back. If it was DLM profiling, it seems to have worked pretty quickly

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by bobble_bob:

Thanks for your help, new faceplate arrived and all good. Still love to know how a pin manages to break but least its fixed

You're very lucky as Openreach engineer told me before you are NOT allow to removed Openreach master socket and replaced it. Only the engineer can do this.

You are allowed to remove the front plate on the master socket, to expose the test socket, the new master sockets where designed for this purpose and to allow extension wiring.

I thought you knew this ..........

Well it will work pretty quickly if all the attributes are in fine fettle.

Glad it’s all sorted now.