Why do phone sockets have a separate faceplate and test socket?

[#1]

@VileReynard  @shermans

The  telephone connection socket and the test socket aren't RJ11 but BT431A. 

[#2]

ejs

Sorry, you have misunderstood what I said.

I actually said "Plusnet can test the line remotely without the fear that there would be any interference from the house wiring...........the purpose is to allow remote testing of a virgin master socket".

Plusnet always ask you to remove the faceplate so that they can test the line themselves.  Having myself gone through this process hundreds of times, they may ask you to temporarily plug a telephone into the Master socket AFTER the faceplate has been removed, and even sometimes to plug a filter into the Master socket and then to plug the router into the filter (note emphasis on sometimes) as part of their checks, especially when they are listening for noise on the line.  Without removing the faceplate, Plusnet cannot distinguish between noise on the external line and noise caused by the internal wiring.  If they hear noise on the line with the telephone or the router plugged in, but not when they are removed, then they can be sure that the problem lies with your equipment and you will be charged for a visit !

Note also that Openreach always remove the faceplate from the Master socket to carry out on site tests.  I speak from lots of experience as I have had to put up with copper from the exchange for far too many years, and even now with FTTP, I continue to suffer from regular outages.

Purely as a matter of information, I have a filter built into the faceplate with a separate RJ 45, so under  normal circumstances, I do not use a "dangly" filter.  But even my filtered connection to the router could theoretically be troublesome, which again is why Plusnet ask me to remove the faceplate altogether for testing.

[#3]

I stand corrected.  I always get RJ45 and RJ11 confused (and probably did again this time) but I did not know the designated code for the BT socket.  Why can't we be the same for telephone at least all over the World ?  You should see the size of a French telephone socket - it's like a nuclear power station !

[#4]

Is it even possible for anyone to hear anything on your line with no phone plugged in at your end? They might want to run the copper line test with nothing at all plugged in, but I'm not sure about listening for noise.

[#5]

It's easy to (not) hear noise by dialling 17070.

[#6]

Less easy to do without a phone plugged in!

[#7]

But how would removing the faceplate differ from just unplugging everything and then plugging in just what they ask? They have to trust you've done what they ask either way.

[#8]

ejs

You would have to ask Plusnet why they request that; I am not qualified to say.  Except that on one occasion, the handset I was using had a crackle and Plusnet asked me to try another one, which turned out to be quiet.  So on that occasion, it was clearly my hardware which was causing the noise.

The Openreach engineers always ( and there have been enough of them) comment on whether there is noise on the line.  No doubt rather than be pedantic, they simply use layman's language rather than the correct technical terminology, but I never take it too literally - I assume they just mean interference or the lack of it.; it is a generalisation.

[#9]

@VileReynard,

Do you realise your animated GIF is not securely hosted and generates security warnings which could cause browsers to refuse to display pages containing your posts?

[#10]

kjpetrie

The house wiring should ideally be connected to the faceplate in a professional manner, with the house-wiring concealed in ducting etc., rather than having a nest of wires and filters and tripple adapters plugged into the faceplate BT431A socket. (Editor's note : I used the right code name this time ) Plusnet presumably have a simple routine which asks you to remove the faceplate because that would cover all eventualities, irrespective of whether the house wiring has been professionally connected or by some Heath Robinson array of danglies.  The latest Openreach Master sockets do not even connect the faceplate wit screws like they used to do - they are simply a push fit.  Maybe you should ask Plusnet to change yours out to the latest type if it is inconvenient to have to undo two screws.

[#11]

Thanks @kjpetrie - hopefully this works better...

BTW The push-fit NTE5's aren't very good as the faceplate doesn't clutch the fixed part very tightly.

[#12]

@VileReynard,

Thanks. That fixes it.

@shermans,

You're interested in cosmetics and convenience. I'm interested in reliability. The more pairs of contacts, the more opportunity for dirt, moisture or corrosion to degrade performance. That is why I plug directly into the test socket. I see no reason to introduce another pair of potentially noisy contacts in each wire. I think that's bad design.

I think we've done this issue to death. I raised the question because I think the current arrangement is illogical. There really is no point turning it into a contest. The sockets are what they are and neither of us controls that. I just wanted to raise the question to encourage thought.

[#13]

And it has encouraged thought, two pages of it! My conclusion is that if you have a broadband connection then a single outlet faceplate decreases reliability slightly as it introduces an additional contact pair in the data path. A filtered outlet eliminates this problem, allows fixed extension cables to be properly terminated and is neater than having a dangly filter hanging from the Test Socket..

[#14]

I think the reason for having these multi-segment phone sockets is that wired-in extensions used to be very common.

What with DECT phones and mobiles these are now much less common.

[#15]

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@Baldrick1 wrote:

And it has encouraged thought, two pages of it!

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Egg & Soldiers got FIVE pages!

https://community.plus.net/t5/General-Chat/Egg-amp-Soldiers/td-p/1484004