You need to tell the ISP that there is an external NTE and no internal master socket, so ideally you need an engineer install.

There's a high chance the first person you speak to won't have a clue what you are talking about, as external NTEs were a stupid invention that was used for a few years on new build houses then abandoned for precisely this sort of reason.

However, looking at your photograph is should be possible, (and legal), for you to bodge it without much problem. Will you need any more than one socket in the house working? If not, which one do you need? The first one after the external NTE is definitely the best to use. I'll continue on that basis. If you want the modem/router at another, discuss it here before going any further.

The most important connections on that faceplate are those on terminals 2 and 5. Those are in fact all that is needed in most cases. I'll come back to the others later.

While that dial tone exists you need to hunt down all the extensions there are in the house. Check they all have a dial-tone.

Assuming they do, then you need to (gently disconnect either T2 or T5 at the faceplate you have open, making sure the bare wires you now have don't make a contact with anything else, and go round checking again. If all of them have now lost dial-tone, we are in business. Though it could take a while.

As it's probable that either that socket or the other downstairs one is the first, then check the other downstairs one first. If that is off, continue checking all others. If it is still on then reconnect whatever you disconnected and disconnect the same at this other socket and repeat the "all others" test. Including the one you disconnected first, so we can be sure one feeds the other, not both fed from outside.

With luck we have now identified the "first" socket. At that remove the other of T2 or T5 and work out which T2 and T5 wires go back to each of the two incoming cables. Make sure you don't let any wire ends touch, or even touch another terminal while you do this.

Now connect a blue/white from one pair to T2 and the white/blue of the same pair to T5. Do you get a dial-tone. If yes, job largely done. If not swap those for the other pair and check again. That should give a dial-tone. If it doesn't you have probably got the pairing wrong.

T3 is the obsolescent bell/ring wire useful only for some legacy old-type phones and a few substandard modern ones. Not needed anyway if you have a filter or a filtered faceplate. T4 is doing nothing. It has simply been used to park the pairs from T3 out of the way. I recommend you disconnect both T3 (which can cause noise on the line if left connected) and T4 and coil them out of harms way along with the now disconnected ongoing blue/white white/blue pair that fed the daisychain. Do not cut them off.

At this you have a single socket working and need a dangly filter if you wish to use a landline phone. There are ways of converting to a filtered faceplate at this point, but that's another story.

That all sounds complex but is fairly simple. I'd still recommend getting the ISP to arrange an engineer install, where a pukka NTE5C and Mk4 faceplate would be fitted, possibly wherever you choose, nowhere near any existing socket.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

They still need to visit to find which pair is yours at the cabinet. They connect an oscillator in your property which sends a signal down the pair, which they detect at the cabinet. The fact there's a line there shouldn't matter.

In which case self-installs are impossible.

I think you're reading me wrong. If the lines active there's no need for an engineer visit. They can connect to the pair at the cabinet and confirm the number. If the lines not active how do they know which pair to use? They visit the property and use an oscillator. What's wrong with that?

edit: to clarify, if you don't have an active phone line, a self-install comes with an engineer to activate the line. The fibre engineer doesn't visit, and only visits the cab.
If you have a phone line, a self-install doesn't require an engineer at all.
If you have no line and order an engineer install, you may even get 2 engineers. 1 to activate the line, and 1 to set up the fibre.

Edited by j0hn83 (Tue 11-Apr-17 17:29:23)

Thanks Robert. I think I can manage that. The socket in the lounge is where I would have the router, or the other side of the XNTE, either isn't a problem. I've not used a landline phone in years.

The right side of the XNTE doesn't close properly, in the picture there was a bit of crud on that side. As far as I'm aware property is 5 years old.

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Apr-17 17:25:35)

If the XNTE is dodgy, it could be argued that is an Openreach job in itself to fix. At which point changing it to an internal NTE could become free.

Remember we don't know where your lounge socket is, but presumably it is one of the downstairs ones.

What you need to know is that VDSL2, which is what FTTC becomes when it leaves the FTTC cabinet on its copper journey to you, attenuates far more quickly than ADSLx. We all default to recommending the least possible cabling from the NTE, but in your case this isn't likely to matter much.

If the lounge socket turns out to be the first, all well and good. If the other does, it's worth keeping that connected as now with all those wires and seeing if the lounge one is fed from it, then onwards. If so, just disconnecting the onward chain from the lounge would probably not cause any significant difference. Easily altered anyway once you have done the job in the first place.

Still disconnect the T1 and T3 wires on whichever or both.

Another possibility is that the other socket only has one set of wires. That would, in my opinion, rule out using it. It would mean it was the end of a chain all the way round the house, so loads of cabling which would be best avoided.

What you could also do if not installing a landline phone is fit an XTE-68/85 at the chosen socket. (Which size depending on the current back-box size).

It's filtering may not be up to the very latest BT VDSL filter plates but you don't expect to have one of those anyway. Only a dangly filter that could be even worse.

The filtering capability isn't important if you have no phone. The xDSL filters simply prevent xDSL frequencies getting onto the phone circuit, as they would make using the phone impossibly noisy. And also any extraneous electromagnetic noise getting onto the phone cable is prevented from feeding back, disrupting the DSL signal. The complete signal goes straight through all filters to the broadband modem, which simply only looks at the required frequencies. The phone frequencies just ignored by it.

I also plugged a phone in and there is a dial tone but the number for the line isn't mine.

*Possibly* an engineering number, is your number supposed to be live already ?

They still need to visit to find which pair is yours at the cabinet.

I'm betting that the number present will be renumbered on the go live date.

Hi

Number goes live on 20 April.

Seems like previous owners didn't cancel their ADSL2 either; looks like a fairly decent line? for ADSL2 at least.. My last line synced at around 19mb on ADSL2.

http://i.imgur.com/BxhcnXk.png

So yes, that's just an old or temp number till your go live date.

It looks like you could walk to the exchange and ask there in about a minute

Hi Roberto

Thanks for this, I followed your instructions below (now above ) and found it really easy to follow, less than 20mins which I thought was quick with my sausage fingers.

At the moment I'm using an old ADSL filter but I'll look at getting something better.

It turned out to be a 'managed' install in the end. OR engineer didn't fit an internal NTE although I did ask. Syncing at around 78~. At the old house I was 86~ and that line was longer. Min guaranteed speed is 73mb so well within tolerance.

Would a better filter make any difference to sync speed? I'm not using a phone. Not that a few mb make much difference I suppose.

Dan

Edited by deleted (Fri 21-Apr-17 14:52:26)