help needed

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Hi, anyone know which wires go where in this bt drop box connection. I simply cant afford to get BT out at the moment and my internet is running at 1/4 speed and no landline dial tone.

The box was pulled off the wall by ivy that i was cutting back.

The two core black dropwire is only connected on one wire and the only two wires are connected.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Surely, there are only 2 wires supplied by BT, and only 2 connected to your socket. It looks like a very old installation without a "test" socket and filter.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

This is the box under the eaves of the roof from which a cable drops down and into the house to the master socket.

Should the unconnected dropwire cable go into the crimp that only has the orange brown wire in? The the cable has probably snapped off at the neck of the crimp???

What about the loose green and black thin wires coming from the house dide of the cable?

Edited By mark smith 20 on 07/12/2020 15:36:02

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Probably worth browsing around this site, Mark : **LINK**

https://www.adslnation.com/support/extensions.php

MichaelG.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

There will probably be only 2 wires incoming. You can juggle the ones on your side and eventually will find the right combination. You could also look at the colour of the wires coming into the box inside the house.

[Mike LondonParticipant @mikelondon]

Is it possible to check inside your master socket to see what colour wires are actually connected to its input?

I think BT quite often run everything in their standard 4 core cable but may only use a couple of the conductors.

Old Mart beat me to it.

Edited By Mike London on 07/12/2020 15:49:21

[RedsetterParticipant @redsetter]

If it is a BT line and it is outside your property it is their responsibility to maintain and repair it. Clearly it failed through old age, not because of anything you did. They will not charge you. Just box it up, tell them its not working, and don't tell them you broke it.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Thanks for your replies , i think the people saying only two wires are probably correct, there is no sign of the loose black and green ever been connected up to anything.

So that leaves the white wire which is connected to one core of the 2 core drop wire ,the orange /brown coloured one is in the crimp at the bottom of the photo already.

So the only other possible connection is the other core of the dropwire must have broken off from the other side of the crimp with the orange/brown wire in?? Am i on the right way of thinking??

Thanks

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

The connection was running at around 70 down and 20 up ,its currently at 19 down and 3.5 up. How does it even work if only one wire of the drop wire coming from the telegraph pole is connected?

Edited By mark smith 20 on 07/12/2020 16:00:22

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

the broken wire is the ‘earth’ connection – the internet being on an injected high frequency carrier on the wire can be handled as there will be a capacitive link to ground – the telephony needs a dc connection

[John BaguleyParticipant @johnbaguley78655]

Hi Mark,

Yes, the unconnected dropwire needs to connect to the orange in the other crimp. It's probably corroded through and broken off. The black and green are not used.

You'll probably find that at some time in the past the dropwire has been replaced and rather than run the new dropwire all the way down inside the house whoever did it just put a junction box under the eaves. We had ours done like that a few years ago by sub contractors.

As Francis correctly says, the internet will still work with only one of the wires connected but the phone won't.

John

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

According to this site (which sounds right to me) the two inputs are solid orange and solid white, which is consistent with Mark's photo. The orange wire should connect to the broken-off drop-wire.

Note the site says the drop-wire contains steel cores for strength to be left alone.

Frances explains how the internet is still working – it's carried by a radio signal that can jump gaps.

Once repaired, the phone should work normally again but your broadband may stay stuck at the slower speed. It's because the system adapts to a poor line by dropping the speed. Once it's decided a speed for the line an engineer might have to reset it to get back to normal.

I had to jump through call-centre hoops before talking to the right person; I had to persist that the link speed had suddenly dropped. The ordinary call-centre script doesn't seem to cover that – it's tuned to human error, and – although they test the line, they're happy if it works at all. After explaining it was a severe line speed drop, maybe due to a thunderstorm, I got past front line support and talked to an expert who understood the problem. A BT engineer reset the link at the exchange and then came to the house to test it. Worked better than before.

Dave

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

The incoming cable to the house often has 2 pairs of wires, but as several people have noted, only one pair is normally used. The easiest way I know to identify the correct pair is to simply find the two wires with a DC voltage across them – can be anything between 20 to 30 Volts DC. These are the two you should be using.

If you have a junction box, then simply connect the two incoming wires to two of the wires in the dropwire,which should go to the socket in the house. (usually the a/b pair). The other wires can be tucked out of the way and ignored.

We actually have a 20-pair cable coming onto our property (if I counted right), and I had to locate the correct pair when I re-routed my on-property connection – this worked for me.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

most routers will reset if switched off for 30secs or more + then switched back on – they should then negotiate the highest speed – this might take time – my BT fancy router takes best part of 5mins to go thru its handshakes (the older slower routers did it in seconds but then such is progress)

Edited By Frances IoM on 07/12/2020 17:54:58

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Those scotch lock connectors should have silicon grease in them.

Drop wire is indeed steel and BT are responsible for it right up to the socket on the wall inside the house.

If you want to save time, reconnect the hanging scotch lock back on the dropwire.

Nothing will go wrong you, will then either get dial tone or not. You will not do any harm.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Thanks for all the advice i think i know what im doing now. Ive ordered 4 2A crimps like the ones already there which allow for two different size wires and will hope for the best. If the drop wire is indeed steel then that would explain the wire snapping off with rust. The current box enclosure in the photo is neither very secure or waterproof. Anyone know of a cheapish better replacement???

p.s i might as well replace the other 2A connector as well as i see signs of corrosion around the dropwire cable input.

 

Edited By mark smith 20 on 07/12/2020 18:43:00

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Just an update ,i reconected the dropwire cable to the orange wire with a dropwire 2A scotchlok gel crimp,whilst doing it the other drop wire side broke of the other crimp. So i reconencted that with a new one.

Now the phone line is working but the FTTC speed has only gone up to 25 down 4 up. So i guess i may have to ring bt and get them to check it out . Should be getting 60-70down and 20 up.

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