New OR NTE5C faceplate, does it have a filter

Presumably if it's single socket now copper voice is dead, it's now just carrying a broadband connection and there's no filter. The filter was only ever to prevent DSL signals from interfering with the voice - you didn't need a filter for a data-only connection.

In theory, the extra connectors add a bit of insertion loss so even in copper voice days it was better to have the DSL plugged into the wall socket directly if you never used the phone (or used it at another extension).

Theo

If it doesnt have a phone socket it doesn't need a filter

It looks a bit naff.? Do you still have a landline?

I would advise some contact cleaner and leave things as they are

Other way around. It's to prevent voice stuff degrading the broadband...it is essentially a low pass filter to the phone.

What actually happens is that the contacts slowly oxidise and create a crappy diode junction which is just another bad joint on the uplink.

That starts mixing the RF all together and generating side bands and the DSL takes one look and drops half its RF buckets...

The attenuation is unnoticeable compared with the copper uplink to the cabinet.

Your theory doesn't have actual numbers.

In practice it's the oxide that is the problem. It is in fact the grain of truth behind gold plated connectors rather than lead/tin or silver plated

(i've just had to replace my USB phone charging lead after the older ones went too unreliable)

As I said. any good contact cleaner and a bit of a wipe with a tissue or cloth should get speeds back to full.

The face plate is decorative and the dual ones had a filter to the BT phone socket. Still have some of those.

Master Socket 5C MK4 has a Pressac VDSL filer inside the chunky front section. Voice seems to have pins 2 and 5 direct connection.

It has a 'phone' socket but that only plugs into the BT Smart Hub.

The phone plugs into another (green) phone socket on the back of the router.

Yes, (for now) plugged into the back of the router so now IP connected

I'm surprised that it had such an effect. I'll check more regularly.

PS When I enter 192.168.1.254 a message now insists that I use HTTPS but that doesn't work because the https is in red with a line through it, prefixed with an exclamation mark in a red triangle.

This happens even if I use the option to use HTTPS.

google show this -

BT Smart Hubs (specifically newer versions or those with updated firmware) now require HTTPS to improve the security of the connection between your device (laptop/phone) and the router’s administration page, according to BT support. While accessing the router is done locally, moving to HTTPS ensures that management traffic is encrypted rather than sent as plain text.

Here is a breakdown of why this change was implemented: Improved Security (Encryption): HTTPS ensures the connection is encrypted, preventing anyone else on your home network from potentially intercepting data, such as your router password. Browser Requirements: Modern web browsers have started aggressively marking HTTP sites as "not secure." Switching to HTTPS avoids this warning, though it can sometimes be replaced by a certificate warning. Self-Signed Certificate Issues: The Hub uses a "self-signed" security certificate (created by the hub, not a third-party authority) to manage this encryption. Because browsers do not recognize this certificate, you may see a "Your connection is not private" warning, even though the connection is still secure.

Adherence to Standards: The shift aligns with broader industry trends toward forcing encrypted traffic, even for local devices.

If you receive a security warning when accessing 192.168.1.254, it is generally safe to click "Advanced" and proceed, as the warning indicates a self-signed certificate, not that your connection is actively being compromised.

I do click on advanced, and ignore the warning. I don't know any other way of proceeding to enter the password.

I wired my ADSL cable directly inside the NTE5 - I can't remember the exact details, but punchdown contacts and jellybean crimps were involved. It kept things neat and avoided a connector. No doubt OpenReach would have cried, but...

There are a bunch of different faceplates, some of which contain a filter and some which don't. The basic faceplate with a single phone socket does not contain a filter. The chunky faceplate with both phone and RJ11 sockets does contain a filter (on the phone port, and the passthrough to the extensions). The faceplate with a single RJ11 does not contain a filter.

There's other versions too - some designed for back-feeding voice from a router (with a green socket), which don't contain filters. These don't seem to have been popular and may be discontinued.

Mike

The usual socket that a landline phone would plug into. Since it is intended for modem use only, it would have made more sense to use the same style of socket that is on the back of the phone (or modem) and supply a suitable double-ended cable

No, just the original landline phone plugged into the router.

But the contacts are supposed to be gold-flashed, unless they came from China where faking Gold and Silver (in addition to lots of other stuff) and cheating their fellow citizens, seems to be the accepted way of doing things.

Well, it does both. The voice on the line is low pass filtered at the exchange at 3.4kHz. The broadband doesn't come anywhere near that low - the original ADSL Annex A started at 25kHz[1], and I think VDSL does too[2].

The broadband modems will happily ignore voice frequencies, but there's no guarantees that the user's random handset also has a sufficient low pass filter to block the DSL carriers. Hence the microfilter drops them before reaching the handset.

Some people can hear 25kHz directly, but also it could cause resonances and other effects in handsets which were never designed to accept it.

That's what can demodulate (or rather downconvert) DSL carriers into the voice band, where the filter won't block it and you can hear it.

It's minimal insertion loss in resistance terms, but if the microfilter is dirty or capacitive then it adds a little reactance, which could degrade the SNR a little.

DSL 'works' even in the presence of an airgap, but it doesn't mean you get the best performance. You want the fewest impedance discontinuities for the best speed. I agree I don't have numbers on that.

Yep.

Theo

There is a an RJ11, which also has direct connections, to incoming pins 2 and 5 (unlike voice, after more investigation). Presumably to allow for different configurations.

Non linear contacts - crude diodes - are what makes DSL cause 'hiss' into the audio band.

But the actual loss of signal is unmeasurable.