Telephone wiring connection help, please!

[pirate]

Hello all, probably not the right forum but here goes anyway.
My house phone wiring has become scrambled.
I have the usual incomer with the screw-on plug - in faceplate, and 3 other sockets in the house, which have been unused for ages.
Some months ago I had problems with my internet, so TalkTalk sent a very nice chap, Darius, to sort it.
He fitted a new router, and commented that the faceplate was very dated and that a new one would be good, so he fitted one, too.
At that point he said that the wiring to the extension sockets wasn't right, wrong colours in wrong slots. I told him everything was working fine, but he insisted on changing it, saying it would work better. I let him get on with it, and thought no more about it. My main phone, which is plugged in there worked fine, and my internet was fine too.
Today, for reasons I won't bore you with, I discovered that none of the extension sockets work. Now, in the past I have installed extensions, followed the colour coding etc but on one occasion it didn't work because one cable had a break somewhere. Let's say the blue/white, so I substituted an unused core, let's say green/white for that socket, put a note in the back-box etc. No problem, as long as the wires are connected correctly, the colour is immaterial except when it doesn't follow convention, hence the explanatory note in the box.
However, my current installation has me stumped (that's my wooden leg, clearly!).
This is because the layout of the back of the new faceplate is different from the others. The old boxes have 6 IDC or in one case, screwed terminals, in 2 colums, 123 on one side, 456 on the other.
The new faceplate has only one column, with 235 only.
The wiring to this is:
Blue/white to 2
Orange/white to 3
White/blue to 5

OK, I tried that configuration on an extension socket, one with the 6 terminals, but of course it didn't work...

My question, to save me a lot of time trying different configurations, is what do I connect to what, to make the extension sockets "LIVE" again?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[telectrix]

3 is not used now.all you need is the line pair to 2
and 5.

 

[Shoei]

This page might be a bit basic but it shows both types of socket and how to wire them.

Guide to rewiring internal UK phone wiring - http://www.rob-r.co.uk/other/UKphonecatwiring.htm

 

[pirate]

Wow! Thanks Tel and Shoei, super-fast responses!
I will try to fix tomorrow...a curry has just arrived!

 

[littlespark]

On the 123-456 connections, 3 was green/white not orange/white
But as suggested only the 2-5 pair are needed. You can connect with bell wire if you wanted to.

One - Orange (starts with same letter)
Two- Blue (rhymes)
Three - Green (kinda rhymes??)
Four Five and Six are the reverse of these, mirrored.

 

[rsgaz]

substituted an unused core, let's say green/white for that socket ... No problem, as long as the wires are connected correctly, the colour is immaterial

If you're trying the move the router away from the master, then this really is a problem. It's only number 3 that can be any old colour.

The pairs are twisted together for a reason, they need to stay in a pair. So, if you found a break in a blue wire, you should swap to using the green pair for 2 and 5, not have half of one pair and half of another.

 

[Leesparkykent]

On the 123-456 connections, 3 was green/white not orange/white
But as suggested only the 2-5 pair are needed. You can connect with bell wire if you wanted to.

One - Orange (starts with same letter)
Two- Blue (rhymes)
Three - Green (kinda rhymes??)
Four Five and Six are the reverse of these, mirrored.

Was it? I’ve always seen and known it as blue 2, orange 3 and white/blue 5...with 3 no longer needed with digital phones.

 

[littlespark]

I’ve maybe been wiring extensions wrong for past 25 years??

As long as it’s the same at every extension socket, the colours don’t really matter.

 

[Bellendian]

Was it? I’ve always seen and known it as blue 2, orange 3 and white/blue 5...with 3 no longer needed with digital phones.

Yep, pretty sure the blue and the blue/white deal with the signal, and orange was just the bell line, generated by the master socket, hence just 2 wires at master and 3 at extensions.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Correct. The line pair is across 2 & 5, which must be a twisted pair and not just two randomly chosen cores. Historically, 3 was for ringing and 4 sometimes used for a functional earth e.g. for metering, but now generally redundant. Pairs in CW1308 are numbered in sequence blue, orange, green, brown, slate; so blue is the first line pair.

 

[pirate]

Many thanks folks! Not sure still. Not trying to move the router, just want to connect the 3 extension sockets. Twisted pair? Lost me there, sorry.
I think I only need B/W and W/B? and these should be connected to 2 and 5? Ignore the rest and try that?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Yes.
Many types of signal and data cables are made with pairs of cores twisted together, forming the circuit for one signal (L & N, if you like). Generally the higher the data rate the cable has to transmit, the more tighly the pairs need to be twisted. The twisting improves many aspects of the performance; using two cores that are not twisted, especially when they are twisted with unrelated cores, alters the electrical characteristics, degrades the signal and picks up and radiates much more interference.

 

[littlespark]

Twisted pair.
The blue/ white and the white/ blue are twisted together throughout the length of the cable... as is the other colours.

Um..... what he said above