New build home with External NTE - best advice?

A home I'm moving into soon is a new build, and noticed all phone sockets looked the same - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12843960/socket.jpg so I checked outside and found the phone line is being fed by an external NTE box at the left side of the house.

The socket closest to this external NTE would be the living room, and one socket at the opposite end of the house on the right, the study. There are 3 more sockets upstairs on the left side of the house, 1 in the master bedroom, and 2 in the smaller bedroom (no idea why there's 2 in there) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12843960/snapshot.jpg

I'm looking to put in an optimal setup before I start ADSL training.

1. Do all 5 phone sockets need an ADSL filter, even if a particular socket is not being used? (read too much conflicting advice on this)

2. Is the best location for the router in the living room, which has the external NTE box on the opposite side of the wall? Or can I place it at any telephone socket?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

In reply to a post by Aaron_01:

1. Do all 5 phone sockets need an ADSL filter, even if a particular socket is not being used? (read too much conflicting advice on this)

If a socket has nothing connected to it then it doesn't need a filter.

2. Is the best location for the router in the living room, which has the external NTE box on the opposite side of the wall? Or can I place it at any telephone socket?

In principle you can put it on any socket, but the best one to use is the master, this reduces the effect of the extension wiring which can pick up interference. It's probably the one nearest to the NTE.

Others will doubtless be along with anything else you might want to know

Edited by billford (Mon 23-Apr-12 18:18:15)

In reply to a post by Aaron_01:

A home I'm moving into soon is a new build, and noticed all phone sockets looked the same - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12843960/socket.jpg so I checked outside and found the phone line is being fed by an external NTE box at the left side of the house.

The socket closest to this external NTE would be the living room, and one socket at the opposite end of the house on the right, the study. There are 3 more sockets upstairs on the left side of the house, 1 in the master bedroom, and 2 in the smaller bedroom (no idea why there's 2 in there) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12843960/snapshot.jpg

I'm looking to put in an optimal setup before I start ADSL training.

1. Do all 5 phone sockets need an ADSL filter, even if a particular socket is not being used? (read too much conflicting advice on this)

2. Is the best location for the router in the living room, which has the external NTE box on the opposite side of the wall? Or can I place it at any telephone socket?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,4124.0.html

#13 onwards

All depends on how the builder wired it all up. If it was me I would recommend opening each socket and checking the wiring, then figuring out whether you want to disconnect some of the unused sockets, or at least the bell wires. Also check that the builders using a twisted pair, and did not split pins 2 and 5 across two different pairs, or used bell wire with no twists.

But first socket closest to the external one would be best. You are free to replace any of the sockets in the house, as the Openreach responsibility ends on the grey box outside.

If the phone wiring is very bad, then if a new place do take photos, and report to the builder under the guarantee

A useful link that .

One question. How would one attach the ring wire, if desired? To the faceplate of the user's gutted NTE5A I expect?

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 23-Apr-12 18:51:55)

I thought about mentioning the bell wire, but thought modern installations didn't have them- am I mistaken?

but thought modern installations didn't have them- am I mistaken?

Depends which sparks fitted them.

In other words- maybe

Cheers, I'll remember that.

It wasn't just ISP's who moaned about them. In fact they *appear* to have been withdrawn now. The largest new build estate round here, Kennet Island, had them fitted on stage one houses, the first of the second stage are now being moved in to, and they are back to a connecter bend No.4 and a 'true' NTE5.

A factor in the withdrawal would surely be that they are not compliant with FTTC install, you have to bypass them, kind of negates the whole idea.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

...In fact they *appear* to have been withdrawn now...

The latest revision of SIN 470 (April 2012) confirms that the External NTE has indeed been withdrawn...