That is a lot of good information and advice from all of you. Thank you very much. I'll talk to the Openreach engineer tomorrow. I'm quite happy for there just to be a single master without data extension located downstairs on the ground floor closest to where the line enters the house. If he won't do that, then he can have the wretched job of running what will probably be very close to a 30m data extension from the current master which will be a lot more work. Frankly, with DECT phones and mobiles, I don't really care where the phone socket is - and the only person who uses the landline is calls from/to grandparents by children.
The reason I was asking the questions was that I want to get the installation right first time, future proof the install as much as possible, maximise speed and minimize hassle for Openreach installer.
I'm using a Western Digital My Net N750 router, which is gigabit on all ports, has two USB and cost less than £60 on Amazon. So far I am very impressed. I'll provide more feedback after I've used it for a couple of weeks. I also managed to sell the Simpler Networks boxes BT kindly supplied for more than the router cost, so very happy with that.
Youview - I really don't think I'd ever pay anything like two or three hundred pounds for that user experience and content. With US Netflix and a Plex server we don't record stuff any longer - and that is the way the world is moving. Can't see YouView working, but I suppose if BT and Talk Talk install thousands and thousands of boxes it might. I am surprised how clunky it is - and not being able to suppress the Sky content is a real pain. What is YouView about if not the user interface? An Xbox for £99 from Asda is a much better investment. I nearly sold the YouView box too, but bottled at the contractual requirement to have it connected for 12 months though I doubt very much they will enforce it. The boxes are selling for just over £200 on Ebay.
So, if you sell all the stuff BT supplies you with - YouView box, SImpler Networks adapters and HH3, you'll make about £290, which reduces the price of the broadband subscription by about sixteen pounds per month over the course of the eighteen month contract. Which takes me back to a tenner a month, which is where I started a long time ago with Demon Internet in North Finchley.
I'm leaving Sky, which has been great, but I don't want to unbundle my phone too for FTTC.
Thanks once again for all the advice.
Edited by musical_uk (Mon 07-Jan-13 13:17:53)