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[Anushan24]

After a lengthy troubleshooting call with talk talk It was finally determined that my front face plate on the master socket is faulty as my router was not connecting to the internet with it on but connected fine through the test socket. Thats all great but here's the kicker they want me to pay £69 for an engineer to come out and replace the face plate.

After a bit of googling it seems like I could do it myself and fit a filtered faceplate for £15 including the tool. My question is whether this is legal as I was under the impression that all of that socket belongs to BT and I'll get charged out the bottom for messing with it. Is this actually the case or am I free to carry this out myself?

[gt94sss2]

If you are leaving the master socket in place and just replacing the face plate that is fine. BT's responsibility ends at the test socket.

Most modems also come with a DSL filter dongle - if you have one, you could use it from the test socket - though granted a filtered faceplate is a more elegant solution.

There should be no tool involved - just a few screws - unless you have extension wiring?

[Anushan24]

That's awesome will place an order for the plate tomorrow and yeah I have extension wiring in the current faceplate which I assume would need to be migrated to the new one. It looks like I'll need a punch down tool for that.

[WesBez7]

Yes you'll need a punch down tool. Just use the wires sparingly. Look on YouTube at "Mr Telephone" he has some good tutorials.

Are you getting a decent punch down tool or just getting a cheap plastic one?

What face plate are you getting?

[tickmike]

Just stop when you go past a openreach van and ask the nice man for a face plate- free

[ejs]

Or, as with everything else you get "free" from Openreach, that'll be effectively paid for by you and everyone else.

[Anushan24]

Im thinking of grabbing the ADSLNation one which seems to have some good reviews and from what I've heard the plastic IDC tools are rubbish so I'll probably get one of the metal bladed ones.

Got a nice speed boost through the test socket hopefully that increase stays once the face plate is fitted.

[Black Sheep]

That's awesome will place an order for the plate tomorrow and yeah I have extension wiring in the current faceplate which I assume would need to be migrated to the new one. It looks like I'll need a punch down tool for that.

The chances are, the issue is with the extension wiring and/or associated sockets and equipment connected to these sockets. It is very rare it would be the actual front-plate itself.

My advice would be to go ahead with fitting the intermediate filter-plate, and just re-fix your existing face-plate as it is now ..... ie: no need to disconnect the wires or purchase an IDC tool to reconnect them. 

[Anushan24]

My advice would be to go ahead with fitting the intermediate filter-plate, and just re-fix your existing face-plate as it is now ..... ie: no need to disconnect the wires or purchase an IDC tool to reconnect them.

This sounds like a good idea considering I dont need any of the extension wiring as I can just relocate the phone to the master as well but Im not sure what you mean by fit the existing faceplate. All the extension wiring is connected to the current faceplate so how do I replace it without having to disconnect wiring?

[Dray]

If you buy the correct master socket assembly there's a slot in the base for the existing wires to pass through, but it sounds like you're just buying an ADSL faceplate.

Do you have ADSL or VDSL? What sort of filter do you use at the moment?

[Anushan24]

Im on ADSL and currently have the standard micro filter plugged into the test socked and the grey adsl cable plugged into that micro filter.

Edit: After a quick google I think I know what you mean is it the Openreach MK3 face plate that I fit in the middle then pull my existing face plate over?

[Dray]

Yes, that's the one. It's the best one if your phone socket is a NTE5.

[ejs]

Is it the existing faceplate that is faulty, or is the fault with the extension wiring connected to the faceplate?

If the fault is in the extension wiring somewhere, or something connected to that, wouldn't it be better to fix that, or just disconnect it, rather than only filtering it off?

[aesmith]

I agree, first thing is to narrow down the range of possibilities.  If you have a dangly filter then test with the front plate right off, filter in the BT test socket, no phone connected.  If that's all fine then start adding things back in and see where it starts to fall apart.  No harm in starting with a new filtered faceplate, but try it first without the extension wiring connected.

[parkdale]

Do you need extension sockets? I got rid of mine and just use dect phones where needed.