I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/02/2025 20:27, Andrew wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

I hate OR.

When I first moved in, they fitted a multiplexer on my wall and said I'd
have to add a power socket for it - in my freshly decorated hall. It
took years to get them to get rid of that multiplexer, which was slowing
my dial-up internet and costing me extra due to the time I was online.

On a visit for a fault (the problem turned out to be in their multi-core supplying the telegraph pole), they complimented me on my extension
wiring and it all being in the correct colours. Fault corrected by
shifting us to another pair.

The next time they shifted us to another pair again, as we had crackly
sound and no internet at all, but only after arguing with them, as they insisted that the sound was okay and that internet was another team -
after waiting 3 weeks, with no internet, for them to turn up at all!

On the last visit (turned out to be a module in the exchange this time),
by a different person. He disconnected my extension wiring and my high
quality ADSL/VDSL filter faceplate, put a link from the master to the
nearby secondary, put their own filter plate on there and linked the
filtered signals back to an unfiltered plate on the master, as mine was
"wired wrong."

I came home just as he finished this, showed him the manufacturer's
datasheet and that it had been wired 100% correctly, only for him to
decide that the fault was elsewhere and refuse to reinstate my perfectly correct wiring and faceplate.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

When we ‘converted’ I opted for a DV adaptor.

I disconnected to existing cabling - which runs to several rooms in the
house- from the Master Socket.

I used a short cable with BT male plugs a both ends and a male to double BT socket.

Plug the latter into an extension socket within range of the hub and the DV adapter nearby. Go through the linking procedure and link two with the
cable.

You can use the other socket for a wired phone.

The other sockets should also be ‘live’.

We had 3 working initially - a basic desk phone my wife like, a DEC phone
base ( which has several handsets but I’m counting as 1), plus an Amazon
unit which worked unit Amazon stopped the service ( nothing to do with BT).


I don’t use the phone socket on the hub - there isn’t a phone socket near it.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/02/2025 21:19, Brian wrote:

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

When we ‘converted’ I opted for a DV adaptor.

I disconnected to existing cabling - which runs to several rooms in the house- from the Master Socket.

I used a short cable with BT male plugs a both ends and a male to double BT socket.

Plug the latter into an extension socket within range of the hub and the DV adapter nearby. Go through the linking procedure and link two with the
cable.

You can use the other socket for a wired phone.

The other sockets should also be ‘live’.

We had 3 working initially - a basic desk phone my wife like, a DEC phone base ( which has several handsets but I’m counting as 1), plus an Amazon unit which worked unit Amazon stopped the service ( nothing to do with BT).

I don’t use the phone socket on the hub - there isn’t a phone socket near it.

There is supposed to be a special front plate for the OR NTE5C
master socket with a green phone socket (with all 6 wires connected)
which is isolated from the incoming copper pair, but that is not
what I have got.

I'll see how I get on with the DV ATA adapter first.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

On 06/02/2025 21:19, Brian wrote:

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

When we ‘converted’ I opted for a DV adaptor.

I disconnected to existing cabling - which runs to several rooms in the
house- from the Master Socket.

I used a short cable with BT male plugs a both ends and a male to double BT >> socket.

Plug the latter into an extension socket within range of the hub and the DV >> adapter nearby. Go through the linking procedure and link two with the
cable.

You can use the other socket for a wired phone.

The other sockets should also be ‘live’.

We had 3 working initially - a basic desk phone my wife like, a DEC phone
base ( which has several handsets but I’m counting as 1), plus an Amazon >> unit which worked unit Amazon stopped the service ( nothing to do with BT). >>

I don’t use the phone socket on the hub - there isn’t a phone socket near
it.

There is supposed to be a special front plate for the OR NTE5C
master socket with a green phone socket (with all 6 wires connected)
which is isolated from the incoming copper pair, but that is not
what I have got.

I'll see how I get on with the DV ATA adapter first.

Maybe but, in our case, the wires to the extensions were connected to a
front plate. I just disconnected them. That left the cables between the extension sockets isolated. We never used the master phone socket.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/02/2025 21:19, Brian wrote:

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

When we ‘converted’ I opted for a DV adaptor.

I disconnected to existing cabling - which runs to several rooms in the house- from the Master Socket.

I used a short cable with BT male plugs a both ends and a male to double BT socket.

Plug the latter into an extension socket within range of the hub and the DV adapter nearby. Go through the linking procedure and link two with the
cable.

You can use the other socket for a wired phone.

The other sockets should also be ‘live’.

We had 3 working initially - a basic desk phone my wife like, a DEC phone base ( which has several handsets but I’m counting as 1), plus an Amazon unit which worked unit Amazon stopped the service ( nothing to do with BT).

I don’t use the phone socket on the hub - there isn’t a phone socket near it.

My EE-branded DV adapter arrived today. It paired ok but has to
located well away from Hub+-Router+-TV because the phone buzzes on top
of the dial tone.

However it simply does not ring the bloody wired landline on its own. Eventually after looking through threads on the BT/EE community
someone with the same issue added a microfilter, so I plugged a
microfilter into the DVA and now the phone rings. Unfortunately
caller ID just shows "Invalid" and option 1 of 17070 loses the
initial word "this".

There was a suggestion that the microfilter reasserts the ring
wire but I have disconnected that from my extension wiring.
I tried plugging the microfilter into the green socket and
my OR (2-wire?) flying extension wiring into the microfilter
and the upstairs socket still does not make the phone ring,
even though the caller-id shows the incoming number.

This is baffling, it definately used to work.

Back to square 1. My caller-id 30 box with the BT relate 80
dumb phone is back to being plugged directly into the green hub
socket and I have the other BT Relate 100 upstairs connected
to the EE DVA and microfilter but no caller-ID.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

On 06/02/2025 21:19, Brian wrote:

Andrew <Andrew97d@btinternet.com> wrote:

I was upgraded to BT DV back in December.

OR Droid ripped apart my internal phone extension wiring for no
reason, apart from saying he couldn't understand it (It was done by
my cousin in the 1990's. He did his apprenticeship with the GPO back
in the 1970's).

The only change I have ever made was to remove the WHI/ORANGE cable
from pin 3 because this used to be the ring connector.

He patched in a new bit of cable with bizarre colour changes but
it all worked again.

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

Now in the last few days the only phone connected to the SH2 via
the extension no longer rings. The caller-ID display that it is
serially connected to, shows the incoming number but the bloody
phone does not ring. If I dial 17070 option 1, after picking up
the handset when I see the 0800xxxx number I get the expected
canned female voice saying "Ringback completed".

When plugged into the SH2 directly it works fine, and since December
2nd it also worked fine upstairs in my 3rd bedroom/office. Until
a few days ago.

I have shorted out the final socket in my office with a bit of
old modem cable with the modem plug chopped off and measured the
resistance downstairs at the flying lead socket that said OR droid
made up to plug into the SH2. The other end is connected to
my extension CAT5E cable with those gel-filled crimps (that
leak oily stuff). He use the same type of crimps to re-make
my internal extension wiring. Are these ok for internal use ?.

I get about 4.5 ohms resistance from the plug that goes into
the SH2 green socket, up to the extension socket in my office
and back via the shorting cable plugged into that socket,
down to the SH2 again. Is that OK ?.

Can't think what has changed. There was a massive outage near
Chichester with the Vodaphone network last weekend which knocked
out lots of mobile phones and data but I can't see any link
to my BT issues.

BT are sending me a Digital Voice analogue telephone adapter,
supposedly free but I have read bad reports about them. I
just want my corded extension to work again.

Any ideas ?.

Andrew

When we ‘converted’ I opted for a DV adaptor.

I disconnected to existing cabling - which runs to several rooms in the
house- from the Master Socket.

I used a short cable with BT male plugs a both ends and a male to double BT >> socket.

Plug the latter into an extension socket within range of the hub and the DV >> adapter nearby. Go through the linking procedure and link two with the
cable.

You can use the other socket for a wired phone.

The other sockets should also be ‘live’.

We had 3 working initially - a basic desk phone my wife like, a DEC phone
base ( which has several handsets but I’m counting as 1), plus an Amazon >> unit which worked unit Amazon stopped the service ( nothing to do with BT). >>

I don’t use the phone socket on the hub - there isn’t a phone socket near
it.

My EE-branded DV adapter arrived today. It paired ok but has to
located well away from Hub+-Router+-TV because the phone buzzes on top
of the dial tone.

However it simply does not ring the bloody wired landline on its own. Eventually after looking through threads on the BT/EE community
someone with the same issue added a microfilter, so I plugged a
microfilter into the DVA and now the phone rings. Unfortunately
caller ID just shows "Invalid" and option 1 of 17070 loses the
initial word "this".

There was a suggestion that the microfilter reasserts the ring
wire but I have disconnected that from my extension wiring.
I tried plugging the microfilter into the green socket and
my OR (2-wire?) flying extension wiring into the microfilter
and the upstairs socket still does not make the phone ring,
even though the caller-id shows the incoming number.

This is baffling, it definately used to work.

Back to square 1. My caller-id 30 box with the BT relate 80
dumb phone is back to being plugged directly into the green hub
socket and I have the other BT Relate 100 upstairs connected
to the EE DVA and microfilter but no caller-ID.

Odd, I just plugged mine in as I described and it worked.

Before Amazon ended the facility ( I had one of their Echo / Alexa variants which linked to your phone) it even announced who was calling.



Sorry, I can’t help further.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 06/02/2025 20:27, Andrew wrote:

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

I remember when GPO Telophone engineers, were engineers..

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 14/02/2025 21:52, Harry Bloomfield Esq wrote:

On 06/02/2025 20:27, Andrew wrote:

He was adamant that the BT Smart Hub 2 could only support one phone,
not an entire extension and had no idea what an REN was !!.

I remember when GPO Telophone engineers, were engineers..

My cousin joined the GPO as an apprentice in the early 1970's and
went through their in-depth training, which included mains
wiring. He spent the first 3 years fixing meters in Leatherhead exchange
then progressed to installing and fixing phones, extensions, bells,
faxes, etc (all GPO property remember) on customers premises, and then
onto business video-conferencing and private leased lines.

He actually did my internal extension wiring which the OR droid
simply snipped off (because he couldn't understand it) and discarded
even though it was perfect.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)