Phone extension socket slow Broadband speed!

[RichD1]

We switched to Sky fibre last year to get a better broadband speed. Originally we only got about 2M down & 0.7 up on ADSL, this increased to about 5M down and 2M up on fibre which was an improvement but nowhere near to what we were expecting, but as we are approx 3.6km from the exchange we accepted these figures.

Over the period the up gradually reduce to under 1M so we rang Sky who sent out a BT Engineer to check out the line. He found there was a problem with their junction box at the top of our road.

The BT guy was very helpful and tested our house installation and found that we could get 40M down and 9M up when he plugged into the test socket on the master socket.

But around the house we were only getting about 5M to 10M down and 3M to 3M up. He recommended that we rewire using CAT5 cable as we had old standard telephone cables and some junction boxes in the line.

We have now rewired in CAT6 cable & positioned the master socket in the upstairs bedroom. There is then a short CAT6 extension from the master to a socket where the router is located in the adjacent bedroom.

We tested after this first install and got 38M down and 8M up. A result we thought!!

We then added a spur extension in CAT6 from the master socket to an extension socket in the hall for the phone. We then tested again and the figures were around 26M down and 2M/3M up.

Why the difference??

We then tried several different configurations, even replacing the CAT6 to the extension socket. The only thing that worked was bypassing the CAT to the downstairs extension with a standard flat cable phone extension lead plugged into the front of the master socket via a microfilter.

Can anyone help with advice on to what's going on?

Richard

 

[SimonH2]

You've made no mention of what filters you have.
When you got the (non)fibre*, they would normally have come and installed a new filter plate between the master socket and the plug in bit. You can now get "wires only" (non)fibre which does not involve an engineer visit, but that's fairly new.

In any case, you must filter at the master socket, and connect extensions to only the filtered port.
The standard filter looks like this. You can either plug the router into the RJ11 socket at the top, or into an extension wired to 2 terminals on the back of it. All your extensions sockets connect to the plug in front section as normal and are filtered from the line to prevent interference with the VDSL2 signals.


* It's not "fibre" as it's still connected to your house over a copper pair, so it's no different to ADSL except that they've moved the xDSL equipment a bit closer to your house.
I wonder what they'll call real fibre when they eventually get to provide it

 

[RichD1]

Hi Simon, thanks for your response.

The BT Engineer didn't make any comment regarding the master socket and replacing it with a filtered version. All our extension sockets have an external microfilter fitted between socket and equipment.

Richard

 

[ibruceuk]

The problem is that you're introducing a lot of potential for interference with your internal extensions.

Your extensions should run from the filtered side of the faceplate (in fact maybe they do and that's the problem in that you're trying to connect a modem to a filtered extension.

Your modem/router ideally will be connected to the master socket. Extensions should be run from the filtered side of the NTE5 using CW1308 cabling (although Cat6 should be fine). That way there is a reduced potential for echos and faults on the DSL signal to your modem.

I would disconnect everything and start again making sure you use filtered/unfiltered as appropriate.

 

[TTOS]

Like everyone said make sure you're wiring your phone extensions off of the removable faceplate on the master socket and not the 2 pin connector on the VDSL plate (that is used to extend the unfiltered VDSL signal to your modem via CAT5). Only connect to pins 2 and 5 (White/blue to 5 and Blue/white to 2) Regardless of whatever instructions say. Do not connect to pin 3 (bell wire usually orange/white) as this creates a loop that brings interference onto the circuit. All modernish phones do not need a bell circuit to ring. Don't connect pin (white/orange) as this is for earth break which is definitely not needed.

 

[RichD1]

So are you Guys saying that using microfilters at the point of connection, i.e. at the end of phone extension downstairs and at the router end in the bedroom adjacent is a problem?

If I fit a filter plate to the NTE5 socket this will be better?

Just to clarify, we have the unfiltered master NTE5 at the front of the house, coming off this master socket are two CAT6 cables. One for the router in the adjacent bedroom and one for the phone in the hall below. Both sockets have microfilters fitted to them before any equipment is plugged into them.

Richard

 

[RichD1]

Hi TTOS, the CAT6 extension cables are taken from pins 2 & 5 on the NTE socket.

Richard

 

[SimonH2]

So are you Guys saying that using microfilters at the point of connection, i.e. at the end of phone extension downstairs and at the router end in the bedroom adjacent is a problem?

YES

Filter at the master socket only - and that's always been the advice for best results with ADSL as well. With ADSL, it's just been that it's generally worked well enough using multiple filters and most users don't want the hassle of rewiring.

So filter at the master socket, using a filtered faceplate. Wire your phones to the filtered side, connect the router to the unfiltered router port.

If you don't want to have your router at the master socket then that's OK - use a spare pair (eg the green/white pair) to extend from the unfiltered terminals to where you do want the router. But just be aware that all the extra cabling, and especially any joints, will all degrade the signal slightly.

 

[RichD1]

Thanks Simon, I'll order up the filter add-on for the NTE5 and see if that works.

Richard

 

[SimonH2]

Before they were readily available, I managed with a standard ADSL filter

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• SimonH2
• 23 Jun 2013
• 2

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• SimonH2
• 23 Jun 2013
• 2

That's a standard plugin filter, with the extension phone cabling (which runs through the JB next to the master socket) plugged into it with a short lead cut off something. Not ideal as the cores in that cable are stranded and it's not ideal (can cause reliability issues) mixing solid and stranded cores in the punchdown terminals.

As it worked, I left it like that for years ...

Then a colleague at work upgraded and had a spare filtered front plate and I blagged it off him. When I went FTTC it got replaced with the OpenReach filter plate - though now they do self install, I believe they say that a good ADSL filter plate will do just as well.

 

[ahuman1]

If you're in fibre you need an "ssfp" service specific face plate. It needs to go on the "master" socket.