Where is my cabinet

How do I find out where my cabinet is? There seem to be two sets of cabinets in my street: 4 together at the very end. And one standalone half way down. Is there a map?

Put your telephone number in to http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome That will tell you your cabinet number which is painted on the cabinet.

I doubt they are all phone cabinets. POTS and FTTC cabs come in pairs quite close together. The FTTC one will have a 240v sticker on it. You may also be looking at VM cable cabinets or even traffic light control cabinets etc.

As the earlier poster said - look for cabinet with the number on it the checker site says you are connected to (that will be the POTS cabinet).

Edited by kwikbreaks (Sun 23-Mar-14 11:14:35)

Various cabinet pictures.

In reply to a post by jelv:

That will tell you your cabinet number which is painted on the cabinet.

There is no number painted on my cabinet, not even an old one that is well worn.

In reply to a post by brightd:

There is no number painted on my cabinet, not even an old one that is well worn.

Think of a number, take a pot of white paint & brush - sorted

No numbers painted on the cabinets, but here are some pics.

The standalone cabinet:
http://imgur.com/XG6fW2E

The four cabinets together:
One and two...
http://imgur.com/kZNLaCw

Three and four...
http://imgur.com/eyarWQM

What exchange are you on, and what cabinet number is listed on https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html when you search by telephone number

I believe they all are likely to be cable company cabinets

Exchange KENTON ROAD, Cabinet 6

Standalone - I have my doubts about it being a BT PCP. A picture of the doors might help. It has a stencilled number on it which is definitely non-BT.

1 & 2 - the one in the middle may be BT. The other two are not. The label on the nearest one looks like the one on the standalone, but could be fly-posting.

3 & 4 - the near one is not BT. (Just realised it is the same one as the far one in the trio). The far one may be.

What do the manhole covers in front of each say?

The small label on the side of the standalone, and on the first one - they're both minicab stickers.

The first one also has a yellow label on the front, that's a 240V warning.

As ribble said none look like phone cabinets. The one with a power sticker looks like a VM optical node and the other two with pent tops look like standard VM distribution cabinets. I have no idea what the big cabinet with an oversized square shaped top may be.

The clincher is likely to be the lettering on the manhole covers in front of them. CATV means they are cable cabinets for sure.

The number on mine is painted on the inside.

urban4691 - I can see your cab should be showing as enabled, but I've no data on where it is, a few were put underground and it looks like your cab was done 2 1/2 years after the rest at your exchange if I'm reading the data right so could be they've had to do something creative to get it installed and that may mean it's not visible or obvious where it is.

PCP6 and Fibre Cab

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Mar-14 19:30:31)

The first link doesn't work, I'm afraid, and I am hopeless at navigating google street view from the FTTC one to find and correct it.

That's really interesting, thanks Dave. Are you able to share the data? Can you see exactly what date it was enabled?

Hi Roberto,

The standalone says CATV, the group of four: the first and second say CATV and the third and fourth say Cable and Wiresless.

Ah, THAT'S cabinet 6? Wow. That's so much further from home than I thought it would be...that would explain why it's only predicting 50.7Mbps down. It's almost outside the exchange!

Cab 6 was done 8th March 2014, looks like it had been planned to be part of the original deployment in phase 5B but was delayed.

First cabs were 23 and 24 done July 2011 with the rest of the original deployment completing June 2012.

Cab 5 is the only cab currently on the deployment list that's not ready yet.

They've fixed the link now

The BT wholesale checker gives no location or number for a cab. does that indicate that I am fed direct from the exchange and not likely to get fibre ?

It suggests an Exchange only line yes.

Possibility of FTTC is reduced greatly and depends a lot on the targets for the project operating in your area. If there are 200 properties like yours, then it may prove cheaper to give you FTTC via a new cabinet, than deploy four cabinets to service four groups of 50 properties elsewhere.

Dave, thanks so much for that info. If only PlusNet customer support via the ticket system were as helpful (wait and see is their favourite line).

I was the first one to get fibre on my cabinet! Cabinet activated 8 March, ordered 17 March, installed 25 March.

Fibre installed today, throughput of 34.8Mbps.

I'm about 600m from the cabinet and 800m from the exchange. So on ADSL, I was getting an excellent 17Mbps, but on VDSL only 34.8Mbps.

Is that it for me? No way to increase that speed at all?

Edited by deleted (Tue 25-Mar-14 16:14:38)

Please can you run the Further diagnostics at the bottom of the initial results page of the BT Performance Test, and copy and paste the full contents of both the down and up results boxes .

How is the 600m measured?

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/guide/fibre-broadband.... Your speed is only 0.2 Mbps outside our expectation for the distance. Yes FTTC speeds do drop off that much over distance.

Hi Andrew � Google maps routing (i.e. not as the crow flies) shows it's 0.4 miles = 643m.

So once you allow for tie pair to the FTTC itself from street cab and a bit of wiggle room maybe 700m and the speed is looking better.

What did the checkers suggest you might get?

They predicted 35Mpbs! So it was spot on.

Is your chart up-to-date?

My straight line distance to thecabinet is 280m and the cable must cross the road twice as the pole I'm fed from is over the road and the cabinet is the same side. My Plusnet line rate is shown as 77.4 Mbps and SamKnows tests show a maximum daily average of 73/18. 300m on that chart is estimating 45/17

Yes it is profile 17a but takes into account a fairly pessimistic level of cross talk
You may be blessed with thicker copper and low levels of cross talk

You think we estimate slow, there are those convinced that VDSL2 ends at 350m

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
35.61 Mbps

0 Mbps 38.72 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 35.61 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 20 Mbps-38.72 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 38.72 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
9.07 Mbps

0 Mbps 10 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 9.07Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10 Mbps


We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly.
If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.

You've been provisioned on 40/10 (unlimited allowance) because of your low estimate. If you contact them, I suggest through the Community Forums, they will move you onto 80/20.

I'm 600m from the cabinet as well. See the connections speeds in my sig. Speedtest results are a bit lower course.

Thanks Roberto! I just spoke to PlusNet and he told me he's just changed the provisioning. I ran another BTW test while he was on the line and...

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
35.52 Mbps

0 Mbps 38.72 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 35.52 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 20 Mbps-38.72 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 38.72 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
8.95 Mbps

0 Mbps 10 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 8.95Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 10 Mbps

I told him and he said that maybe the exchange can't handle 80/20. So he put a request in with BT Openreach to change my provisioning at the exchange, apparently.

Yes, it takes up to a couple of days I believe.

It will be a setting from somebody's control panel in Openreach I expect. Nowhere near the exchange Just a job queue.

Great, thanks Roberto

It seems to have been done. But not much improvement...

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
36.35 Mbps

0 Mbps 69.72 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 36.35 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 55.78 Mbps-69.72 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 69.72 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
16.51 Mbps

0 Mbps 20 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 16.51Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps

That looks like it's still being limited by your Plusnet line speed - check here. Give them a nudge.

Here's what it says on that page:

Estimated line speed:
35Mb (Download speed could vary depending on line conditions. Estimates are the maximum speeds that your phone line can support. These speeds are dependent on the package you choose.) - Checked on 2014-03-17 15:39:37
Current line speed:
38.6 Mb

Yep, still limited by Plusnet,

Once they remove their limits it should be twice the speed you currently get!


This really annoys me with PlusNet - how many people have been assigned the lower speed profile when really they could have the high speed profile.

They really need to re-think their policy on this..

Apparently, they've just done it https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?topic=125...

I'll have a look as soon as I get home.

Is it PlusNet that limits it, rather than BT Openreach? I had the same thing when I signed up for their ADSL: my upload speed was limited to about 0.2Mbps. No idea why. It made uploading impossible for the first 9 months, until I came on here and found out why.

One question: I'm getting 16Mbps upload � are download speeds generally proportional to upload? (i.e. upload x4 = download)?

In reply to a post by urban4691:

One question: I'm getting 16Mbps upload � are download speeds generally proportional to upload? (i.e. upload x4 = download)?

Not something I've ever noticed, but on your particular line seem to be the case. You should get over 65Mbps on a speed test - so long as you run it wired.

At these speeds even "n" wireless can lose a lot.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

You may be blessed with thicker copper and low levels of cross talk

Maybe. The cabinet has been live over a year now but this is VM area so it may be that takeup hasn't been high.

So PlusNet say they've sorted it out. Here are my new results:

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
59.64 Mbps

0 Mbps 69.51 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 59.64 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 55.61 Mbps-69.51 Mbps .
Additional Information:
IP Profile for your line is - 69.51 Mbps

2. Upstream Test: -provides background information.

Upload Speed
15.83 Mbps

0 Mbps 20 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 15.83Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps

and

Estimated line speed:
35Mb (Download speed could vary depending on line conditions. Estimates are the maximum speeds that your phone line can support. These speeds are dependent on the package you choose.) - Checked on 2014-03-17 15:39:37
Current line speed:
78 Mb

I'm getting a max of 62.5Mbps on the speedtest, which is so much better than yesterday's 34!

But why is the IP profile (69.51) quite a bit lower than the line speed (78)?

At setup time on 80/20 the line speed is defaulted to 78Mbps. You'll probably find it drops to 69.4Mbps by the morning.

Amazing! Better than I expected. Thanks so much for your help.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3400220117

And that was on wireless!

It may have helped that I just changed the channel from auto to fixed.

Is there any benefit to be gained by taking off the faceplate of the master socket and going straight into the test socket?

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Mar-14 19:46:59)

Is there any benefit to be gained by taking off the faceplate of the master socket and going straight into the test socket?

No. Unless things go wrong, as the filter in the VDSL plate can fail, just like any electronic kit.

The test socket is behind that anyway. Removing the faceplate and leaving that that in place doesn't give you the test socket. It gives you a phone-only socket, though the VDSL2 one at the top still works.