Adjusting a telephone master socket

[Meddle]

In my home, we have 2 phone lines installed, 1 extension socket has the 2nd line and the rest are the standard original phone line. This is kind of a relic from pre-broadband internet days. I wish to change the socket that is the 2nd line over to the 1st line and get rid of the 2nd line. The socket was never a socket for the 1st phone line and was installed when the 2nd line was set up. Is there a way I can swap this socket over the 1st line? Is it adjustable through the master socket?

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[john boy]

if i were you i'd find myself a friendly BT technician and ask them to do it for you.

sure its simple as pie but without the knowledge it could be easier creating Rome in a day!

[Neil]

no adjustment on master socket [one with capacitor ]
as advised get bt to change as you are not allowed to fit a master socket onto the bt exchange line it has to be done by bt [or other supplier]
once master fitted you can then alter your internal phones to what you want
don't know if bt will charge for fitting new master

[Paul McNamara]

Meddle,

it will depend a lot on how the second line was set up in the house. if it was a new box on the outside being fed from one pair of copper wires then you will need BT to come round and uninstall the second line - and that will cost you as a colleague at work has recently found out.

Paul

[Meddle]

Any idea how much that cost? Im pretty sure a second line wasn't fed in, I was there when it was installed and it seems all he did was fiddle with something in the master socket and then built the socket extension to the room required.

[Neil]

HI Meddle
it now sounds like you have not got 2 phone lines then
take front off master socket should be 2 incoming
cables [thats bt line]
are there 4 thin cables going from this to your next [slave, no capacitor fitted on this] socket?
if so all you have to do is copy the wiring from the slave socket to your next slave socket [you can do this up to 5 times ]there are lots of sites on web showing more details ps Homebase do a slave socket with screw type terminals for the slave cost about £4.00 each

[Paul McNamara]

Meddle,

To be certain if you have two lines or not check your bill - they will charge you for two if you have them! If it says you have two lines, ring them up and they will tell you how much it will cost to remove one.

To make the extension part of your single line, check the back of the faceplate for the "second line" box. If it has a capacitor on it then it is a master socket and you cannot use it, you will have to buy another faceplate which does not have the capacitor. If it does not have the capacitor, check which contact the wires are connected to (e.g. blue/white ring on 2 white/orange ring on 3) and make the same connections on your master socket plate to make the "second line" socket a slave on your "first line".