ok so yesterday tried to phone home & got engaged signal all day. When I got home I tested the phone & when you picked it up there was no dial tone but it sounded like someone was on the line. Broadband worked fine though. Plugged a phone into the BT test socket behind the main socket panel & it worked (but not in any other). Phone also works in the normal socket of that main incomming box. I conclude that the wiring from that socket to the others must be broken but we’ve had no work done or anything & the house was a new build in 2003. Any suggestions for the fault?

Sounds like your internal wiring has a fault.
If the line is fine from the master socket (behind the front plate of the main socket) then the line is ok.
I’d suggest you check all the extension sockets. Individually and ensure that only numbers 2 + 5 have wires connected (One wire is blue with white, the other is white with blue).

‘s about the size of it. Trial and error, then.

Beware that BT will charge you for callout plus any other reapirs if you get them to investigate the fault and the problem is inside your house. Their responsibility is upto and including the primary socket in your house.

Sounds like there is a short circuit on the wiring then, using a multimeter you can test the internal setup to prove this. Obvious things to check are the sockets/boxes themselves, any that are on windowsills are prime candidates for getting condensation in them. Visually check the wiring runs looking for any damage to the insulation, common thing is people have taken a shortcut and run the cable under the carpet and it’s got damaged on carpet grips. However first thing to do is unplug Everything plugged into the sockets, could be a faulty phone or ADSL filter.

Thanx everyone. Russell96- all our sockets are internally wired when the house was built in 2003. Do you think it likely we would have a problem with those in that case. The only socket that has been accessed is the primary one with the test box.Is it possible the connection from here to the rest of the circuit has been damaged?

When you removed the front plate to access the master socket, are there a load of wires still connected to the back of the front plate?
Those are the wires for the extensions. Make sure they are correctly connected and then check the extension sockets and make sure the connections are clean and tight. Normally the wires are just pushed in an a small blade makes the contact cutting through the insulation. You should be able to wiggle the wires out and then push them back with the aid of a small flat screwdriver.
These two sites are quite useful. Just reme,ber the bell wire wont be needed, but they are frequently connected anyway.
HELP 1
HELP 2

As above, remove the master socket front plate and plug into what’s behind with a normal phone, if it’s OK there it’s your internal wiring. If it’s internal wiring it’s probably where a cable has been led under a carpet somewhere without protection.

To be honest if it’s internal wiring within the walls, done properly, then there’s little chance of it getting damaged. In my field engineer days it was common in new homes fitted out with internal wiring to have some quite decent tubing within the walls, dunno about nowadays as it’s a long time since I was on the tools. Saying that I’ve attended lightening strikes where the wiring has been blown out of the walls and it’s been anywhere but straight..

If you leave the wiring connected to the master socket, but with everything unplugged from the sockets, phones, filters, extension leads, Skybox etc and try ringing the line and see if it’s still giving engaged or not. That way you have proved it onto the internal wiring or onto a device.

If you have Broadband ADSL and filters in every socket with a phone, then you don’t need the third wire (ringing wire/bell wire) and it’s a common trick to disconnect it from all the sockets to slightly improve the ADSL Sync speed.

Focusing on the wires on 2&5 disconnected from the line, using a multimeter starting off with it set to 240Volts AC (Good habit you never know when you are working on a fault where the line is in contact with the mains) then set it to something low on the resistance (Ohms) scale say 100/200 and see if it gives a reading, it shouldn’t if the wiring is OK, a short will most likely give a reading near to zero Ohms.

Just a big thanx to all for your help.AS per bigyins post I found that one of the wires in the main socket had come adrift somehow…popped it back in & hey presto all the other sockets work again. Saved me a few quid on an engineers bills THANX

Hey I got something right!!