Telephones

[nigelf1234]

Hi
One of my telephones here at the office is very crackly, so I bought a new one. If I plug it into the existing cable it doesn't work, but if I plug it in with the lead that came with it, it seems to work ok.
I notice the existing cables have 4 pins, whereas the new one has only 2 pins. Presumably that means I miss out on some features with the new phone?
I'm nor sure if this should be in Technology rather than How It works.
Can anyone help please?
Nigel

[Buenchico]

>>>Presumably that means I miss out on some features with the new phone?

No. The outer two channels (out of 6) on BT plugs and sockets rarely have pins in them, simply because they're never used. The central 4 channels include the 'A' and 'B' wires (which is all you need), with one of the other two channels carrying a wire which is only necessary with PABX exchanges (or with some fax machines). The remaining connection is the 'bell wire', which has been redundant since digital phones took over from analogue ones. (Many people actually recommend going into the BT master socket and disconnecting the bell wire as it can carry interference which slows ADSL speeds. BT even sell a device which effectively does the same job!).

So your phone should work perfectly
;-)