In the back of my property there is a hose bib (bibb?) of a peculiar shape. It has small holes around the edge and some kind of plastic piece in the middle. I tried attaching a regular hose to it but water gushes from those little holes. I am assuming some special attachment is needed. Perhaps something has to push against the middle plastic piece. Please advise.
That's an add-on anti-siphon device. Prevents hose water from being sucked back into the clean water supply in the event of a loss of pressure on the clean water supply, common requirement for municipal systems (at least.)
If it's leaking it needs a rebuld or replacement. One of many options is to replace the entire hose bib with one that has an anti-siphon device (aka vacuum breaker) built-in.
