My broadband router drops out (DSL light goes out) every time I run either my planer or my radial-arm saw. Nothing else seems to do it, even the 3KW router with a big bit. These machines both have induction motors, which I guess have a big start-up current.
I was planning to put in a new feed with 10mm T&E from the CU (about
35 metres - all in the loft of the bungalow) to the workshop, but it occurs to me to ask here first as there may be other things I can do to help protect the router. The router is currently on the same ring main as the workshop.
I doubt if the start up current has any effect on the router, mine survives visible brown outs without any problems. It may be RFI, its cheap and easy to put a ferrite on the mains lead to try to reduce RFI. Maplin sell them for a couple of quid. If that doesn't work then you may well have to invest quite a lot of effort in filters.
More likely to be RFI - picked up on your house telephone wiring. If you tell us what you have for your current broadmand/phone layout, then we can make recommendations - or contact me off-line since it's covered by other newsgroups.
Thanks. This the most probable cause as the the unfiltered phone cable runs quite a way near the T&E ring in the loft. The router runs with a noise margin of just 6.4 Db, so any significant extra noise will drop it, I guess - I'm 6 Km from the exchange.
I already have a filtered NTE5e plate, but have not got around to doing the rewire of the phones yet. Clearly that's the first job!
I probably should get some RFI ferrites too, next time I'm in Maplins. Glad I asked.
Certainly will, get as much separation as you can between the phone line and any mains and don't run stuff parallel. If cables must cross, cross them at 90 degrees with as much space as possible.
Consider moving the NTE to be as close as possible to where the line hits your house(*) and fit your ADSL modem/router there as well, Running CAT5 from it your PC or network switch. CAT5 is relatively immune to interference.
The POTS wiring can utilise the existing loft wiring to the original NTE position and distribution.
Once you have sorted the wiring try a few different filters. They are not all created equal. I bought and ADSL Nation faceplate but it doesn't work as well as the BT MF50 dongle type. Roughly 500kbps to 1000kbps worse on the ADSL side and less able to maintain a good daytime sync overnight.
Depends where you put them. The carriers for ADSL broadband extend to nearly 1.2MHz, you really don't want to be attenuating those upper frequencies any more than they already are. The filter should stop pickup on the POTS wiring getting back into the unfiltered side and thus mucking up the ADSL signals. But pay attention to ensuring that the POTS ring and earth wires do not connect across the filter to the unfiltered side.
(*) In theory you have to get BT Openreach to move it but don't fit it in the loft as BT Openreach won't go there if you have a fault. Even if the loft is fully boarded and lit.
Alternatively, if it's a speed controlled motor then the interference may well be from the controller. I think the OP has answered his own question though, he says the cables run close to each other in the loft so re-wiring the phones and running Ethernet to his PC from the router at the master socket instead of the ADSL signal to the router is probably the best solution.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.