poking about in a live socket.
Ah yes, I remember it well!: seeing my Dad take a quick jab at something with a screwdriver to see if it was live!
I just had a quick word with an engineer, and he "lent" me a new master socket, re-wired it in place of the old one, then ran the extension & Cat 5 cable from my Router/Modem which controls the phone as well upstairs to my den/bedroom to a 16 port switch that controls everything it that room. Downstairs has Powerline plugs to a 5 port switch which when I get round to it will be replaced with a Cat 5 cable as well, as the plugs keep losing the signal once a month.
When we moved in here, it had never been lived in and the phone line was a bit of a mystery ...BT chap came to put some phone sockets in the house as there were none, and he told us that the wire going up the garage wall and into the main bedroom was to the master socket, but that he'd wire the downstairs sockets without any problem.
Over the years, the wires got extended and moved depending on what was wanted and where.
When I ended up with Talk Talk from my Pipex account, I decided to make the move to a better one, and that was when I decided that the master socket should be in here, because having digital phones, we didn't need extensions dotted around the house.
Chap came to do the job and I asked if the wire could be external rather than drilling and lifting floors etc., and he said it was no problem - he then discovered that would be even easier, because the phone line actually came into the outside wall of the garage to a blank plate just under the boiler! Simple for him to bring the wire to the outside of the garage, and around to the rear and through the wall into here. So, we'd never actually had a master socket!
Instead of then ordering the FTTC as intended, I found my connection speed was so improved with that and the new router I'd got, I didn't need super fast for my purposes.
I have my computer wired, but everyone with smart phones and tablets has no trouble picking up the Wi-Fi as long as I've given them the password. Haven't tried using any of them upstairs though as far as I know. My TV does auto updates too, and my notebook works perfectly in the kitchen. So, for the time being, I'm happy.