Extending phone to hub

[Dark_Fiber]

Many of us need to extend the cable from our phone to reach our hub. (The lead from my phone, actually a DECT base station, to my Hub3 is a frustrating 2ft short) The tidiest solution is to run an RJ-11 to RJ-11 lead since most modern phones have an RJ-11 socket where the lead is plugged in.

Most leads of this kind are four wire leads. Can anyone knowledgeable about VoIP and the Vm hubs see any problem with using these?

[Carley_S]

Hi @Dark_Fiber 

Welcome back to the community forums 

In some cases you do not need an adapter to connect from the phone to the hub, thought this will vary on what handset you have. 

If you need support on setting up your landline to complete to home phone switch over and would like to keep your phone and router in their current positions, we can arrange an engineer to come and wired up the home as needed. 

Please let us know if you are having any further issues or have any questions at all. We'll be here to help on the community forums if needed :). 

[goslow]

The problem sometimes encountered is that the phone base requires the original cable that was supplied with the phone (due to the way the cable is wired internally).

The method most likely to work is to use a conventional telephone extension lead (BT plug to BT socket) in conjunction with the VM adapter.

Alternatively ask VM to modify your existing home phone wiring so you can continue to use your telephone sockets after switchover. VM should do this free of charge after the switchover process.

[Dark_Fiber]

RJ-11 to RJ-11 is working well.

The BT socket to BT plug extension suggested by goslow is, of course, the safest solution but I was trying to minimise the number of joints in the circuit rather than increase them 🙂

My original question stands: Can anyone knowledgeable about telephony as implemented on the Vm hubs foresee any problem with using a four-wire cable?

[goslow · Accepted solution]

If you have got the RJ11 cable to work, all good.

The hub uses only the centre two pins (3 and 4) so you should be fine with a 4 wire cable. There will be no connection from the hub on the other pair of wires.

[Garsa]

My phone works fine following switchover, but only by putting my hub on the floor in the corner of the room next to the phone connection point. This is both untidy and inefficient in terms of wifi signal. Can I get an extension cable (of around 6 feet) so I can put the router back on its desk?

Gary

[Adri_G]

Hi again, Garsa.

Thank you for your reply and for sharing more on the issues, we can gladly assist with this query. 

I'll send you a PM now to discuss the details and see if an engineer is needed or a longer cable will suffice. 🙂

Please, check the top right-hand side of our page to find a little white envelope.
Click on this and you'll see my message.

[goslow]

VM might supply one for you (can't recall that happening on here though). Probably easier and quicker to pick one up locally or online. For the length you want, likely to be sub-£5.

[angiemike6]

Due to another problem since changeover, Virgin sent me a RJ11 to RJ11 lead, and told me to connect one end in to my DECT phone and the other end to the router, and to throw the adapter they supplied away.  So Virgin are able to supply the RJ11 to RJ11 lead and it works perfectly.

[goslow]

Glad to hear it worked in your case. There have also been past topics where VM have supplied a RJ11 to RJ11 lead and it hasn't worked for some customers!

Either that was because the particular phone system required a particular lead or VM sent a lead with a different configuration of the wiring within the cable. There are various configurations for a RJ11 to RJ11 cable not all of them will work to connect a phone/base to the hub.