Parents have crap ADSL. We reckon it's a combination of the wiring and the phones, based on testing by removing bits.
The dumb question is, will an ADSL faceplate replacement help here? Having the entire extension circuit on the other side of the filter seems appropriate to me, and means they don't have to faff around with filters any more either.
(if it were my house, I'd be checking the wiring/connectors out for problems/considering replacing it - but for now that's not really an option - so would the faceplate help if the wiring is a bit nasty?)
Any suggestions for models/vendors?
Oh - the router is physically very close to the BT master socket.
The 2nd one one this page is probably what you're after: (if you've got a relatively new NTE5 type master socket)
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eliminate all the internal wiring by getting a decent DECT base station, putting it into the master socket (after filter) and upgrading all the internal phones to use DECT. I've done this in one house with good results.
If you have a master socket with a removable face-plate you will find a test socket behind it. Removing the face-plate will disconnect the extension phones and you can plug your router directly into the test socket. See if you get better results on your ASDL (assuming you have a router that can report the line statistics).
The 3 suppliers often recommended for filtered face-plates are:
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a related article in the news archives Tiny URL
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to the top of the page to view the whole discussion)
Plug the router directly into the test socket behind the faceplate, and see if it magically becomes useful again - if it does, there's definitely a problem on the internal wiring.
I discovered I had two master sockets set up in ours (one was essentially bypassed, it was just sat on the circuit as an extension), but it was enough to pull my connection speed down from 6Mbit to
"Colin Wilson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net...
Exactly what we did - hence 'testing by removing bits'. We then went a bit further, by trying the extension lines without any phones plugged in, hence the comment about it being a combination of the wiring and the phones.
Would an ADSL faceplace help in that instance?
(remembering we're not necessarily in a position where such things can be identified - I can remote control their computer, but not their eyes :-) )
If the two master sockets are in wired correctly as a master and a slave, then yes - but it's possible two faceplate filters may be needed if they are simply wired in parallel on the incoming BT wires.
I've seen this where a system, having two phone lines was "converted" back to a single line. The customer probably wanted both sockets live so someone simply connected the two masters onto the one incoming line rather than correctly wire one as a slave off the one master or replace one with a slave socket. If you have this arrangement, then both masters are a combined "point of demarcation" so you need two faceplate filters - or pay for the regularisation of the circuit.
You can't mistake a modern master with its divided faceplate and the visible screws that only remove the lower half. With these, simply replace the lower faceplate with a filtered version from e.g. ADSLnation, and reinstall the house wiring onto the correct terminals on the back of the filter or use the front telephone socket.
If it's an old installation, then the master and slave sockets could be externally identical with both having the old BT or even a GPO logo. You can only determine which is the master by examining the internals for the extra ring circuit components which includes a largish capacitor. If you have these, then you cannot fit a faceplate filter unless the master is also converted to the new type - which you aren't supposed to do, unless...
On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:20:44 -0000 someone who may be "Clive George" wrote this:-
You first need to identify the wiring layout. Is there one master socket from which all extension wiring comes? If there is, are the wires from the extensions connected to the correct place in the master socket? Or is the cable split outside the house and there are two what look like master sockets?
If there is one master socket wired up properly then replace the bottom bit of the faceplate with something like
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and wire the extensions from the back. This should improve ADSL, though nothing is guaranteed.
That was indeed my idea. One of the "removing bits" stages was removing the faceplate and using the direct connection underneath, which is how I came to the conclusion that the wiring was squiffy on the extension side (which appears to be correctly wired to the faceplate - it's a relatively recent install by BT).
Thanks to all for answers - it seems like I'm on the right track.
Hmmm, just food for thought - BT once required that the "main" phone was a conventional corded phone, presumably because of the "uncertainty" or unreliability of cordless.
Is this still the case? (that requirement to have a corded phone) or has that passed with time?
DECT wireless phones are useless in a power cut as the base stations require mains power. It used to be recommended that a wired phone is kept for emergencies. It was not a BT requirement and probably not now so important if you have a mobile phone as well.
I think it has changed from "thou shalt have a corded phone" to having a warning on the packing of phones that are not line powered and thus are not suitable for making emergency calls under certain conditions. I expect there is a standard wording for this.
Unless the power cut also affects the local mobile phone base station(s). An awful lot of people round here found that out the hard way in the last major power cut...
Curiously all four networks behaved differently, one went the instant the power went, another a few minutes latter, a couple lasted a few hours. On power restore a couple came back straight away, another within an hour or so, the last took the best part 24hrs to return. There was no correlation between the order of dieing and order of returning.
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