broadband stuff

[Willie]

Thanks TTDegs, great information. I'm having trouble with BT Broadband and it has been ongoing for months. I will try some of your recommendations and hopefully get a result.

[sallytraffic]

Originally Posted by TTDegs

PLEASE NOTE!

all the above is for phone line internet connections - if you're on cable (Virgin etc) then it's a completly different ball game...

Indeed. But it can cost more for this kind of speed. This is just a snapshot done straight away. I do get a lot nearer the 20 Meg they claim as 'up to' from time to time.

[Glass Spider]

dont mean to brag:

[sallytraffic]

Originally Posted by Glass Spider

dont mean to brag:

Yeah, you do, really


But see, you have to divide yours by 3 as you are at least 3 times nearer than me

[TTDegs]

If you've got cable as an option, it's certainly a good one

@ Willie - definately use the 'what ISPs can I get?' link and see what your options are...

[dave525]

Originally Posted by TTDegs

in more detail

1) Filters. The first thing I did on my quest was to throw away the free filters I got with my modem. (The key word being 'free' - you get nowt for nowt as they say). And I replaced it with one of these -> ADSL Nation - XTE-2005 - Filtered Master Faceplate for £12.00
This then replaces the faceplate on your Master Socket.
The signal is immediately split into 2 - one for your b/band, and one for your phone.
Doing this alone increased my SNR from 18 to 30!

My ADSL Master Faceplate was delivered this morning I tested my line speed before I installed it and this was the reading

Your download speed is 4304Kbps. That is 1669Kbps above the average for BT
Your upload speed is 365Kbps. That is 18Kbps below the average for BT

After I installed the Master Faceplate my reading was

Your download speed is 6409Kbps. That is 3774Kbps above the average for BT
Your upload speed is 416Kbps. That is 33Kbps above the average for BT

A great result for little money, I also noticed that my wireless signal strength has gone from 4 to 5 (MAX)

Thanks very much TTDegs

[CrazyHawk]

Thanks for all the info TT. I'm hoping some of your homework will improve the speed I get.
I moved from Orange to Sky last year (due to price and customer service), and went from 4.5Mbps to about 2Mbps straight away. (Sky claimed they weren't capping me when asked!!!)

[TTDegs]

Originally Posted by dave525

My ADSL Master Faceplate was delivered this morning I tested my line speed before I installed it and this was the reading

Your download speed is 4304Kbps. That is 1669Kbps above the average for BT
Your upload speed is 365Kbps. That is 18Kbps below the average for BT

After I installed the Master Faceplate my reading was

Your download speed is 6409Kbps. That is 3774Kbps above the average for BT
Your upload speed is 416Kbps. That is 33Kbps above the average for BT

A great result for little money, I also noticed that my wireless signal strength has gone from 4 to 5 (MAX)

Thanks very much TTDegs

Result!

Very welcome Dave, glad it worked for you!

[Munro]

I have just ordered my Filtered Master Faceplate. I will let you know if I get an improvement once installed

Thanks for posting this TT

[TTDegs]

Welcome Munro!

it was too good to keep to myself

[Munro]

My Faceplate arrived today, but unfortunately it doesn't fit.

You need to have the standard NTE-5 master socket to start with. The new faceplate is designed to replace the removable bottom section of this NTE-5. Apparently mine is part of an older installation, with a spaghetti tangle of coloured wires behind it ! I should have checked first ......doh

Oh well never mind.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by Munro

My Faceplate arrived today, but unfortunately it doesn't fit.

You need to have the standard NTE-5 master socket to start with. The new faceplate is designed to replace the removable bottom section of this NTE-5. Apparently mine is part of an older installation, with a spaghetti tangle of coloured wires behind it ! I should have checked first ......doh

Oh well never mind.

It shouldn't be to bad to sort M, just make a quick sketch and take off one wire at a time.

[dondon]

Originally Posted by Moose

It shouldn't be to bad to sort M, just make a quick sketch and take off one wire at a time.

Or a photo with a digital camera.

[allan40alt]

I tried Sky Broadband via the BT line but I have to run it via a long extension. It was taking so long to download the Sky webpage that it just timed out.

I checked with Sky and they said the wireless router/modem has to be plugged into the master socket. Trouble is that's just inside the front door and it's not suitable to site it there.

I thought about it and decided to drill through into the garage and using it wireless, but as I had already returned the router etc, I thought it better to check the BT Broadband test site before re-ordereing from Sky.

When I enter my post code and press test it says 'up to 3mbps'; when I enter my phone number it says 1.5mbps !

Now I've already received the ADSL replacement master socket but cannot see the point in even trying to install Sky Broadband again with only 1.5mbps.

Do they make anything that compensates for a long extension of about 30m and boosts the signal?

PS: Anyone want to buy an unused XTE-2005 filtered master faceplate?

[TTDegs]

allan - they are talking rubbish (script monkeys...)

Certainly, it will work best from the master socket, but it will still work from an extention.

the speed checker (which one did you use?) will give a rough guess on the postcode, and a better guess (but still a guess) on your phone number.
This DSL ZoneUK - Broadband checker is a good checker
It errs on the low side (to be safe) though - mine reports "over 3.5Mbps" - I get about 7

It also shows what broadband providers are available to you - take a screen shot and post it up, and we'll see what we can see

how does your extention
a) connect to the master socket, and
b) get to where your router is?

and
c) how does your router connect to your PC?

[TTDegs]

PS - friend of mine was having HUGE problems with her Sky BB - exactly the same as you - took forever to load the Sky page (and pretty much anything else, except bizzarely Google).

Turned out to be a k'fecked filter - I gave her a couple of my old ones to try, and it was back to her normal (1.5 ish) speeds

[allan40alt]

Hi TTD, thanks for your response.

The extension is behind the faceplate of the master socket joined directly to the incoming BT cable. It splits into three extensions, apart from the master socket. The small faceplate I can change, but behind that is BT property.

I have plugged in an extension phone line into the socket in our bedroom(this is about a 15m run from the master socket) and run it around the carpet edge into the room where I have the computer, another 15m run.

The line checker is on BT's website under their 'Broadband' section. It allows you to check the maximum speed you can achieve.

The Sky wireless router I had 'hard-wired' to my PC by the supplied lead. The line connector was plugged into the supplied line-filter into the end of the phone extension lead from our bedroom, this connector adds about another 3m,or so, to the distance.

PS: Speedtest.net gives me a result of 3939kbps upload and 377kbps download on my current Virgin cable (this is soon being increased to 10mbps ! But Virgin does cost £25 per month against Sky £5). Around 4mbps is fast enough for my needs).

PPS: I doubt replacing the face plate on the mastersocket will make any difference, will it?...unless I actually plug the router into it directly.

[TTDegs]

ok...

when you scroll down on that speed test page you posted, how far (as the crow flies) are you from the exchange?


What you could do is:

after the 3 extensions leave the box, cut them (drastic, but bear with me! )
either replace them with new cables, or simply buy 3 'crimp on' plugs - make sure you get the right ones for each wire.
on the now 'dead' end (linking back to the master socket) isolate each wire to make sure they're not touching each other.
replace the faceplate with your adslnation one.
plug the extension leading to the bedroom into the 'modem' socket on the new faceplate (I'm assuming you don't have a phone in the bedroom? If you do, you will need a new extension to it, as this wire will now only carry BB signal)
plug a normal phone splitter into the 'phone' side of the new faceplate, and plug your remaining 2 extensions into that.

Job jobbed

The down side of all this is that whilst it will give you your best possible connection (ish - see below), it might still not be all that quick.
But until we try it, unfortunately there is no way to tell
Although your distance from the exchange will give us a clue


You could squeeze a bit more speed out by doing all the above, but moving the router next to the master socket (leaving the current bedroom extension as a 'phone' line if you need to - so 3 extensions into the 'phone' side of the new faceplate)
Then run a 30m cate5e cable from the router to the PC

But this is more in the realms of tweaking really.
It's what I did, but that was also partly to get better wireless reception in the house (my master socket is upstairs).

[Palindrome]

How crap is that! Will have to look into this

[TTDegs]

the clue is in the ISP Palindrome

follow the speedcheck link a couple of posts up and let us know what it says