Boost your broadband speed by 7Mbps for £30.00

[DeadJoe]

Not going to work for everyone, but I'll share my experiences with you. When we moved into our new house a few years ago, the Broadband was disappointingly slow. As the months passed, it seemed to get slower and slower until finally we were getting just over 0.5Mbps on an 'up tp' 8Mbps package. It was like living in 1990...

According to BT, the maximum our line could support was about 1Mbps - Still maddeningly slow. But the exchange is no further away than it was at our previous place, and we were getting 5Mbps there.

I tried plugging straight into the Master Socket, but it's a pain not being able to use the phones in the house whilst the Broadband settles - it proved too much of a nuisance to wait...

I made an executive decision and cut the internal phone line, rewiring using cat5 ethernet cable on 2 and 5 only, and using nice new boxes with fewer extensions. I also, illegally, got rid of the old 1970s GPO box between the outside line coming in and the master socket.

Result? Now connecting at 7.5Mbps, and actual download speed is about 5 - 6 Mbps... I'm a happy bunny.

Now, if only I can figure out why the router sometimes loses connection for 2 or 3 minutes in the evening every so often, I'd be completely sorted...

 

[plugwash]

While yours is an extreme case it shows how internal wiring can and does make a difference to ADSL performance especially with the higher speed packages.

In general you want the unfiltered part of the wiring to be a straight run of good quality cable (prefferablly CW1208 so it's as similar as possible to the wiring outside your property) from the incoming wire to the ADSL modem or router.

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

Interesting read that shows a great improvement in performance. I wonder if I might be able to carry out something like this at my parents home, Joe? They currently have a Tiscali/Talk Talk broadband connection which is utterly p*sspoor as it repeatedly cuts out. We are going to change as soon as is possible but I am rather concerned that the existing cabling (bungalow built in 1982) should be upgraded as well. The problem is that using the Samknows website shows their potential broadband speeds as a mere 0.5mbps – 1 mbps so upgrading the cabling may prove pointless. Did you use Samknows to ascertain this info prior to your upgrade or just rely on the BT info?

In addition I have a few questions that might prove helpful in getting this issue resolved:

1. Were you able to trace where exactly your telephone cable enters your property? This may sound odd but this is very difficult to establish at Chez Folks. There is certainly no visible cable passing through a wall or anything. Is it likely to enter with the electricity cables?

2. How do you find the GPO box? Sorry, a bit dumb, this, but what does it look like?

Thanks a lot for any help.

 

[DeadJoe]

Hi chainsaw_masochist...

My line comes in through the window of a bedroom from a pole outside the house, so it was pretty obvious what was going on. I don't know what to advise you about finding where the line comes into your parent's home.

The GPO box looks like this:

Mine was beige, and was the first thing to be found on the end of the incoming line, by the window where the line came in, which then went on to the Master-socket, just a few inches away. I just removed it, and put the Master-socket in its place. Apparently it's illegal to do this, but I didn't want to spend £120 for BT to do it for me.

I did visit Samknows, but for the life of me I can't remember what it said my speed should have been. I am definate the BT ADSL test was telling me only 1Mbps, though. Interestingly, since doing the work, the BT site now tells me at least 6.5Mbps is possible...

I found these sites really useful for getting an overview on how it all works...

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

http://www.rob-r.co.uk/other/UKphonecatwiring.htm

If you are IT literate enough to be able to access your router administration page, that would be useful because you can check how any changes you make are affecting your noise ratios and attenuation.

I'd suggest starting by checking for these figures as is, and then recheck with the router plugged into the test socket on your master-socket. If there are significant differences, that might suggest an improvement can be made...

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

Sorry for the late rsponse, Joe, but I have been away for a couple of weeks. The Kitz site is very good; I have checked it out before and thanks alot for the rob-r link, this looks just what the doctor ordered. I will be getting them to change ISPs first and then try to get some substantial upgrade going with the help of these links. I keep you informed of the progress. Thanks, again.

 

[Merikiito]

Regarding your router i would check to see if there is a firmware upgrade available for it on the manufacturers website. Usually solves these sort of problems.