BT Smart Hub accessories...

Is it just me or are BT really skimping on what they send out with the new smart hubs?
My parents are upgrading to FTTC and they just received their new router, I went to set it up expecting to change the old modem cable that's been trodden on 842 times (I counted ) but the box only contains the router and power supply...no network cable, no modem cable, no filters! (I at least expected better quality filters going up from ADSL) :|

Anyways yeah, bit miffed there's no new shiny replacements...is that the norm?

I paid for the smart hub in order to replace my failing router and I got the same as you - I thought at the time it must be because it was an upgrade and therefore would be expected to already have the other cables. I wonder if people having a brand new install get the same - if so then they wouldn't already have the phone cable.

I must have been lucky as I got a filter and two cables. I paid for my Smarthub and as a new user with BT maybe get sent a different kit.

I have some recollection of previous mention on the forums that those upgrading from previous BT Hubs only receive the hub and power supply. Presumably this is to save waste, as almost everyone who is upgrading will already have suitable cables and filters.

Saving on waste and keeping costs down - customers want everything as cheap as possible.

I don't know how many RJ11/RJ11 leads I have or how many dangly filters. At one time they would supply a 2m bright yellow Ethernet lead - I have plenty of those too, however most are cut down and re-terminated to use as patch leads where they cannot e seen.

New BT customers get the leads/filter, existing customers don't

No difference between a good ADSL2+ filter and one for a FTTC service

I surprisingly have no spares. I hate keeping clutter. They would just get binned from me if supplied.

What about the modem cables, same flat cables you get with the hub 4 and huawei modems?

Yeah still flat DSL one

I've never had an issue with these flat cables personally. I use one myself, the supplied one by BT which is very long (at least 2 metres I would say).

I had it initially plugged in my living room, with the cabling tangled amongst an 8 socket lead. Had the TV, sky box, dvd player, a couple of lamps, ps4 and phone chargers literally touching the wiring. I would still get 14 days of solid uptime without a drop out and remained on fast path.

I then had it at my computer desk, here I had the desktop, router, printer, a couple of switches, toothbrush charger (random I know), a lamp, shredder, again all the wires tangled together behind the desk. Again, I had a full 14 days uptime without a drop out and remained on fast path.

I now have my router plugged into it's own plug socket, somewhat out of the way, with nothing around - but I see no difference worth noting in performance. Certainly my RJ11 cable never picked up enough interference that was noticeable to me in these "bad" locations.

I think often the gains of switching are overplayed, but in my view if something is generating so much interference it is causing issues the device should probably be replaced.

Yeah my own Huawei modem has its modem cable router underneath a pair of mains sockets and above/on 2x8 way extension then over the router...space limited so it's the only way I can

The new smarthub has an NBK fitted cat5e* extension run around the top of the skirting board...past a PC, above an 8 way power strip, underneath mains sockets to where it lives...but again needs must :| (although that'll be shortened a couple of feet when i get a different 2 gang wall socket and telephone module!)

On ADSLx, on a fairly new master > 8 metre wire to gable junction > new drop wire to pole, I bought an ADSL Nation XTE-5 and one of their better quality ADSL cables hoping to improve my ~5Mbps connection to O2 LLU.

At the time I was using a dangly filter, one of 8 or 10 from many router supplies, and one of the associated DSL cables. I was able to test exhaustively as on O2 LLU DLM was not enabled after the initial few days.

By exhaustively I mean methodically changing the filters with the same DSL cable, then with the top one changing the DSL cable.

I then compared this result with the XTE-5 plus posh DSL cable, and XTE-5 with all DSL cables.

I did this twice on different days.

The XTE-5 and posh cable have been in their received packaging in a drawer ever since. It wasn't worth the hassle and possible cost of returning them for a refund. I used the best cable/dangly combo until I got the VDSL2 interstitial filter for FTTC and IIRC used the HG612 DSL cable. I consistently got 170-200kbps better on most combos. A few were below the ADSL Nation variants.

In particular the posh DSL cable was a liability.

Very near by is the DECT phone base station. the power for that is from a 4-way socket on something like a 10m lead from the mains socket, and the modem is plugged into another 4-way fed from the first. Printer and shredder permanently lugged into the first, router into the second. Local laptop occasionally also into the second.

(Hmmm - what else is plugged in? IIRC I have two spare sockets, but that gives three).

wait so the posh cat5/6 cable had worse performance than the standard grey cable?

I guess by posh you mean ethernet? Ethernet cable performs differently to telephone cable on a telephone connection - figures.

I said "posh DSL cable". Not Cat5/6. I can't remember the ADSL Nation blurb, but it was supposed to be better than the ones normally received with modems and modem/routers.

i said cat5 because the current ADSLnation ones say it's to that standard

It's still surprising it would perform worse...strange

doesn't really figure when there's more twists to reduce crosstalk with decent solid copper wire...you'd expect less noise, the only thing I can think of why that shouldnt be the case is poor termination otherwise it doesnt make much sense

The twists aren't to reduce crosstalk, they are to enhance common mode rejection.

Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs.

That's basically what I was taught when I was being trained for data cabling

There's only one pair for a telephone

except when there's 2 lines on a drop?

I thought we were talking about the cable from the phone socket to the modem. I didn't see you move the goalposts.

oh yeah...i've been out walking so forgot what the conversation was actually about :|