Old style wiring with Block Terminals

[iannufc]

Hi all.

I could do with some advice here. Although I have replaced all of my cable with Cat 5e, and improved the filtering, I can't get the CRC errors down enough to be confident enough to get Sky to remove my cap and not get any problems.

My connection on G.DMT is reliable, but I can't eradicate the errors or noise fluctuations enough. At the moment, I will drop down to 4 - 5 if the cap is removed.

I have heard that old-style wiring that comes into the house, into an old block terminal and then to an NTE socket with rubbish wire can affect your connection quality and speed. This what I have.

I guess that the only way I can get a connection that I am confident with is to get the wiring done from scratch. Even though we've been wired since 1982, with the NTE socket added later, I'm highly doubtful that BT will do this for us without charging a fortune.

So, does anyone know a workaround, or a way to get this done for us by BT?

[ricopico]

You could buy yourself a NTE5 of ebay, and fit it yourself.

Its dead easy to do, just connect 2 wires to the A and B, and forget about the rest.

It should be noted that this is against your terms and conditions of BT contract, and such BT wont be very happy about it. However if you do a good job, BT will never know.

- At the end of the day, its just a standard sized backbox with an NTE5 screwed to the front.

Make sure you get an nte5 box with a piper logo on it, - Only BT boxes have this piper logo on it, and such BT will know of a cheap rip off one that doesnt have this logo. Often builders stick these on ebay from refurbs, - as they know they are wanted for these kind of situations. - Expect to pay around £8 for one.

[JaXanim]

As ricopico says, get a second hand BT NTE5 unit and wire it directly to your drop cable. That's what I decided to do and the results were impressive, especially with an NTE-2005 faceplate. It's the only low cost method to eliminate the tatty junction box. The crux is whether you have enough slack in the drop cabling to cut away the terminal block and rewire the new box. Doing this is will get you into trouble if you foul up the telephone system, so be sure you know what to do. Read the info on phone wiring given under the stickies on the main page of the forum. That even tells you how BT engineers fit the drop wires into the box connectors, so there's no give aways.
JaX

[jayhab]

Alternatively, you could register a fault with BT - complain that there is intermittant crackling on the line - they'll send someone out, who may change all the outside wiring for you - (not a guarantee!)

[stephens]

Alternatively, you could register a fault with BT - complain that there is intermittant crackling on the line - they'll send someone out, who may change all the outside wiring for you - (not a guarantee!)

Although if they arrive and check for a crackle and find there is not one they will charge you for the call-out, so not a good idea at all.

Most of the NTE5 boxes on ebay are brand new, all you will need is a standard back box. Just do a good job of it and they will never know.

[iannufc]

Thanks for all of that - much appreciated.

Not sure how much slack I have, but I will certainly give it a shot.

Many thanks for the advice, and here's hoping!!

[jayhab]

Although if they arrive and check for a crackle and find there is not one they will charge you for the call-out, so not a good idea at all.

Well, you see the thing with an 'intermittant' fault is that it's not always there! And would you believe it, the day the engineer visits happens to be a day when the fault won't show itself!!!


There's nothing better than a happy customer, they'd probably see a load of old wiring and come to the conclusion that that's the cause of teh fault - a lot cheaper to change it the first time than to have to come out again.

[stephens]

Well, you see the thing with an 'intermittant' fault is that it's not always there! And would you believe it, the day the engineer visits happens to be a day when the fault won't show itself!!!


There's nothing better than a happy customer, they'd probably see a load of old wiring and come to the conclusion that that's the cause of teh fault - a lot cheaper to change it the first time than to have to come out again.

It is all down to the engineer you get really, some can be nice and would replace it for you. There is also the possibility they could be stubborn when they can't see the fault for themselves and no do a single thing. It is not really worth taking the risk when it can be done yourself for under £10.

[jonathanen]

Well, you see the thing with an 'intermittant' fault is that it's not always there! And would you believe it, the day the engineer visits happens to be a day when the fault won't show itself!!!


There's nothing better than a happy customer, they'd probably see a load of old wiring and come to the conclusion that that's the cause of teh fault - a lot cheaper to change it the first time than to have to come out again.

That's funny, you should say that because BT Engineer called "Tony" come this morning around 8:20am, checking out my old fashion non-NTE5 LJU2/2A PABX BT Master IDC socket, and he use the BT Line Test using 17070, but there is no noise at all, no fault found, but when I showed him my junction box in the living room, he said "Oh, my gosh! Its very old, but still works perfectly". Fortuantely, the cable on the right side snapped when he touched my junction box. Unfortaunatly, he just only added a small new wire joining from the old wire to my old junction box, but not changing my old phone line to the new standard wire. Then he said that I won't charge you for the call out fee because the wire did snapped when touched the junction box, and same for external wiring outside my house, and its seems clearly now. Then, he went out to check my phone exchange, but seems fine, no problems, after he spend about 2 hours checking out all the phone posts and phone exchange, as well my phone line.

I said to him, I'm better to have a new phone wiring connection. Then he said, I have sorted the wiring a bit, but if the noises come on again, call 151 again and tell them that you want to have new wiring installation which cost around £124.99 + VAT, but I not sure.