Faceplate change?

When I moved over from ADSL to 76mbps fibre several years ago BT had an OpenReach engineer fit a new faceplate on the master socket. At the time they told me it was needed for fibre to work, but I could then happily ditch the micro-filters.

My father is just about to move from Sky ADSL to Vodafone 38mbps fibre and his master socket must be at least 12 years old now. The current faceplate has a slightly Heath Robinson setup with a cable underneath that stretches around the skirting board and into the lounge where a micro-filter then attaches to the router.

I've asked Vodafone about this, but they insist it should all just work normally. I'm wondering if I should put a new faceplate in the hall where the master socket is and rely on wifi for his new freesat box, while ditching the micro-filters in use between the router and also the phone. Any thoughts on the best way of doing this? I'm also struggling to find a local shop that sells these faceplates and they only seem to be available online.

One important question is whether or not there are any other extensions in the house. Whether used or not!

Is the existing master socket (an NTE5A) with the split faceplate?

What is the speed estimate for the address? (His phone number is better if it is recognised but it probably won't be). Don't use the pure postcode option.

I ask that as if the "Impacted VDSL" line is up near 80Mbps the wiring probably won't matter. If it is below 50Mbps then it would be best to get this wiring sorted. We could also do with seeing the "Clean" figures.

What speed does he get on his Sky connection?

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 31-Mar-18 12:50:13)

I'll be going there on Monday to check things, prior to activation on Tuesday, but I know he only has one phone, which is there in the hallway and connected via a micro-filter. The router is then connected via a second micro-filter in the lounge over an extended distance.

I asked him to send me an image of the faceplate and I've outlined the wire that leads from under the faceplate to the lounge. This was fitted by an electrician apparently.

His line test speeds are excellent and I believe the nearest box is about 20 meters from his house. I fished out the screenshot from when we placed the order and it suggested anywhere between 75.82 - 76mpbs. I haven't checked his Sky connection for a while, however I think he was getting around 13mbps.

I�d say, yes, fit a face plate filter (like you have at yours) on your fathers NTE ....

The current set up, as described will not prove reliable for VDSL, and you want it to �just work� don�t you.

I just wrote a long reply to the OP, Zarjaz, agreeing with you and also making other points and suggestions.

Just as I was about to post however I realised that the second biggest question is the quality/spec of that cable from the hall to the lounge. The third biggest being the "extended distance" in the lounge, which may be a simple phone extension cable.

I'm worried about the possibility of star wiring as well, and will make a short reply to the OP on that.

See my reply to Zarjaz about that cable between the two rooms. Two extracts from my longer version:-

That cable to the lounge may be ordinary electrical wire or simple telephone wire. Neither is to be recommended. They will work but could be adding noise even now. VDSL2 (FTTC) is much more sensitive to that than ADSLx.

When you say "over an extended distance" in the lounge, do you mean there is a further length of extension cable in there? That is not good. Particularly if it is telephone wire.

The most important question isn't there however. It is as I asked you previously.

Please can you check on Monday if there are any other sockets anywhere in the house. And!

That pictured socket may or may not actually be the master, in my opinion. Please carefully remove that faceplate, which may have wires attached, and see what those attached wires are if any. (Colours and terminal numbers for each).

Importantly, take a look at this page. (There used to be a far better one but this will do for now). Scroll down to "Making the connections", where there are some pictures. The right hand two are an LJ2/1A. The cylindrical capacitor at the top is what tells the layman like us that it is a master socket, not an extension.

Your Dad's may or may not have the same layout, but if it is a master there will be such a capacitor somewhere there. If there isn't, it is an extension.

Don't worry too much, as Vodafone said, it will work. But I don't like the look of things for the stability, and you don't have a socket in that picture which will take any suitable faceplate.

I just realised Zarjaz, as just posted to the OP, that pictured socket is not an NTE5A.

In reply to a post by charlestown:

I asked him to send me an image of the faceplate

Is that the hall socket, or the lounge socket? (Wallpaper a clue?)

If the VDSL activation is very soon and you don't have chance to fit a filtered faceplate etc. then check that the bell wire is disconnected at the extension terminals (master NTE5 and phone extension socket) and that any other extensions, if any, are disconnected from the master NTE5.

Good luck.

Very much so. We have a Mk4 OpenReach faceplate here that works well and I've heard there are some called Solwise that are OK. I just went into B&Q and found a strange looking thing that would split the phone from the ADSL, under the Tristar brand but it looked very cheaply made and didn't mention anything about BT compatibility, so I decided to pass on that one. I'm surprised how difficulty it is to find in shops.