I didn't include the various electrical heating rings because that would have confused things
I have eight of those

Are they not spurs or radials? You wouldnt have 8 rings for heating and there wouldnt be any point. Rings are used to spread the load.

You are of course correct - they are indeed radials

Mine built in the late 60's doesn't, and I've never heard of it except in flat conversions . I'll take everybody's word for it - at least for more modern buildings .

Well the OR engineer arrived at 8:00 AM this morning and when I asked about powerline adaptors he said that they were not allowed to fit them anymore as there had been too many problems with them due to the way ring mains are set up. Maybe true, maybe he was just making an excuse.
He set the router up, don't see why you need a home visit for that, a self install would only have taken a couple of minutes. So for now I can't use BT TV.
I'll possibly give BT a ring and see if they'll let me have a pair of PAs foc. Failing that you can get the BT ones on Amazon for around £19 a pair so maybe I'll just do that, makes it easy to return them if it doesn't work.
As for the FTTC connection, it's good

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/14002...

In reply to a post by DooGie:

Well the OR engineer arrived at 8:00 AM this morning and when I asked about powerline adaptors he said that they were not allowed to fit them anymore as there had been too many problems with them due to the way ring mains are set up. Maybe true, maybe he was just making an excuse.

The OR Engineer is part of the Wholesale are of BT, effectively act as a sub-contractor to BT Retail. As a sub-contractor, they are ONLY there to set up the Fibre connection.

Since the Powerline adaptors would be supplied direct from BT Retail, I would have been very surprised if OR would have fitted them!

I think your OR Engineer was telling "porkies"!

As a matter of interest I use the Devolo 200 series across 2 different Ring-Mains & I've never had any problems with them & I normally get in excess of 100M speed across my internal network.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are there really two ring mains, or is it just the lighting circuits that are separate?

My house (built in the mid-70s) has 2-off Ring-Mains & 2-off Lighting Circuits.

Bizarrely, whilst the Lighting is split on an upstairs/downstairs basis, the Rings are split on a Front/Back basis!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

My house (built in the mid-70s) has 2-off Ring-Mains & 2-off Lighting Circuits.

Bizarrely, whilst the Lighting is split on an upstairs/downstairs basis, the Rings are split on a Front/Back basis!

Sounds similar to mine (late 80's), except that the rings are (more or less) on a north-south basis

There's a third ring for the kitchen too.

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

My house (built in the mid-70s) has 2-off Ring-Mains & 2-off Lighting Circuits.

Bizarrely, whilst the Lighting is split on an upstairs/downstairs basis, the Rings are split on a Front/Back basis!

Sounds similar to mine (late 80's), except that the rings are (more or less) on a north-south basis

There's a third ring for the kitchen too.

This thread seems to have started to go round in circles...

[/ducks rapidly and exits stage right!]

Just to confirm that the results from these plugs are impressive (I have Devolo) on the same ring but not so wonderful over two IMHA. My router is upstairs and all the bedrooms get >60Mbs (BT Infinity). Downstatairs 30 if I'm lucky, but fast enough I suppose. I found that the Home Hubs perform very differently over wireless depending on the channel you use and it might be worthwhile seeing if your TV responds better with a new wireless channel. You could fit a range booster/amplifier somewhere too.
The reason the engineers won't fit them is apparently because of security/safety issues (I have a friend who works for BT). Something about adjacent houses sharing supply cables which could mean that your internet connection is available/viewable next door.