Which of these Fibre setups is preferable?

I'm seriously considering Fibre at the moment following the o2/Sky announcement and weighing up the jump to Plusnet against staying on and taking o2's current new contract freebies.

I live in a bungalow where the master is in a decidedly inconvenient place under the living room window, next to a large granite fireplace, so I'm looking at the best solution around this for a Fibre setup. My existing connection is running from an extension socket in a back room office/studio off a bedroom, just about as far away from the master as you can get. This arrangement has suited me fine for many years.

As I'm a little concerned about unpredictable element of getting a good Openreach engineer on the day, I'm thinking about taking cabling responsibility at my end. FYI - I've had curious issues with interference and weird SNR Margin jumps in the past (nothing to do with the internal wiring). Despite BT not providing/finding a solution these have broadly sorted themselves out over the years. However because of the history and the potentially long cable runs I do have concerns. Therefore which of the options below is preferable in terms of connection speed and robustness? i.e. Are either them likely to produce a lower connection speed than having everything two feet away from the master socket?

1) To have the modem as near as possible to the master and then run a cat5 or 6 cable through the wall, up into the loft and then across/down 30-35m into the required room.

2) Run a cable (suggestions welcome) from the master along the same route as above to the modem in the required room and then the network connection to the router.

Or should I just offer tea, biscuits or 'a drink' to the Openreach guy?

Thanks.

The 1st option is preferable.
You are right that the contractors that Openreach usually send out wont want to get involved in complicated or difficult internal wiring, so if you want it done to your satisfaction then your best off doing as much of it yourself as possible

The first option.

Get the modem on the line as soon as you can. Going up and across the loft will mean the cable passes light fittings which could include various fluorescents, CFLs, LED, 12v halogens and transformers &c all of which can generate noise. Ethernet will not normally be affected but VDSL (FTTC) will be.

You may want to try and get the OR Tech to move the master slightly within the room if it will make it neater.

Install a standard backbox with two RJ45 sockets on the face plate close to where the modem will be. Run two (2) Cat5e cables to where you want the Router and install another pair of sockets there.

When FTTC is installed, use a short patch lead from Modem to socket then at the other end another patch lead to the router's WAN input.

Add another patch lead from a LAN port to the second socket - that will then give you an active network port in the living where you could plug in a lap top or a SMART Television.

the "Home wiring solution" approach should allow you to get the master socket relocated and put where you want the router if it's on an external wall.

If your line is fed by an overhead cable, which then comes down the outside of the property then it's possible to get the engineer to move the master socket to anywhere the existing cable will reach.

My brother got his moved into the loft, although the engineer wouldn't go in the loft he was quite happy for my brother to go in the loft and pull the cable in so it was by the loft hatch, the engineer then fitted the master socket from the loft ladder.

It's fed underground. The extension wiring goes back outside and up into the loft.

That's a possibility, how would the other extensions in house fit into the wiring equation?

Ok, I take it the 2nd socket is just for increased functionality? Wireless has been a slight issue in my existing set-up, as it just about creeps into the living room. I frequently use a laptop in the dining room meaning I usually trail a long ethernet cable (I've yet to try Homeplugs). A LAN port in the living room could be helpful as a cable could easily be hidden under a heavyweight rug avoiding any tripping calamities.

I'm thinking of spending a few extra quid and getting an independent engineer to set this up properly.

Yes, that is the idea - to provide additional functionality/access. You could also do something similar to the dining room.

By runninng two at once you increase the time to install be a few minutes, but if you had to do it again later it would double the time.


Be careful about who you get in - there are some real cowboys out there. Maybe give your general location here and someone may know of a suitable person.

Any chance you might run decent grade telephone wire between the current master socket and the room where you want the modem to be ? Leave slack at either end, and I'm sure the installer will be happy to shift the NTE, they can then use the existing wiring to bring back the dial tone to the other sockets in the run.