cable that connects to fibre modem and fibre install help

Hi all,

Thanks to the BDUK funding my cabinet has been enabled for fibre and so now I can order fibre but i'm wondering if you can help with deciding on the location of everything.

At the moment the faceplate/test socket is at the bottom of our stairs and the nearest power socket to it is in the hallway 3 or 4 metres away and someone in the house doesn't like wires showing and so likes them out of sight.... because of this I currently run a RJ11 cable from the faceplate underneath the carpet upstairs and into the spare bedroom where my main computer/console/router etc currently are.

Now my first question is can i just use this cable to plug it into the new faceplate when fitted and then plug the other end into the fibre modem upstairs? (which would then be connected to my Billion 7800n), or does it connect to the faceplate via a cat5/6 cable or something?.

Ideally I'd like to leave it as it is and just use the 10m RJ11 cable I currently do but as I said I'm not sure if that's even the right cable between the fibre modem and the face plate, at the moment using this lead on ADSL2 I dont get any difference in speed if I use this 10m RJ11 cable or if I plug it directly into the faceplate/test socket, then again I only get 2.5meg ish at the moment so realise that I could experience a drop in speed if I did use it, although if it works and I don't lose too much speed I'd be happy to use it.

I guess if I cant do that (or i lose too much speed) is that I can either

1) Run a extension lead from the power socket 3+ metres away to the faceplate and then run a cat5/6 cable from the modem upstairs to my Billion 7800n

or

2) Get the home wiring solution and get the entry point moved upstairs (both of these are far from ideal though as I'm guessing the HWS would be stapled along the skirting board and over 2 door frames before it even gets to the spare room, (even I would probably notice this a fair bit). The cat 5/6 cable I could probably end up running under the carpet again although that would be a pain in the rear it wouldn't be showing (although I couldn't hide the power extension lead required for the fibre modem downstairs).

Or is there another option I could be missing?, I really don't want to move the Billion downstairs as well as like I've said I've got my computer/console wired upstairs and don't want to use wireless with them as wireless can be a little flaky sometimes and so then I'd have to run 3 or 4 cables upstairs to them.

Any help greatly appreciated

Mike

Can I just clarify a couple of points please. It's clear none of those solutions are ideal.

Your description suggests there is no built-in extension in the spare room. Is that so, and if it is are there any extensions anywhere that are used/needed? Do you use DECT phones nowadays?

Is the supply to the house from a pole, or underground?

The reason I'm asking is that, for other reasons, I managed to get the entry point from the pole moved to the spare room for free where I was doing the same as you on ADSL2+.

The ideal solution for you would be to get the same entry-point move, which may be possible within the FTTC installion rules if you get a cooperative engineer.

RJ11 cables can be good, bad or horrendous! You need to minimise the in-house cable run to teh modem if you can so that any chance of picking up extraneous noise is minimised.

My suggestion would be:

Install the Modem close to the power socket - say within a metre so te power block plugs in directly. Get a good quality twisted pair RJ11 cable - possibly one using 2 pair Cat5e and hide that under teh edge of the carpet.

Install a standard backbbox and RJ45 socket close to teh modem location and run Cat5e from their to your upstairs location - use teh same route as you currently do. At the upstairs location terminate the cable in another backbox and RJ45. The usie two short patch leads to connect from Modem to Socket and second Socket to Router.

Thanks for your replys,

So am i right in thinking that it would work if I just plugged in the RJ11 cable into the faceplate and then plug it in upstairs like I currently have?, if that's correct what I may do is put an power extension lead to the bottom of the stairs and see what speeds I get and then ask to plug in the RJ11 cable and see what I get, if it's close I will prob just leave it.

RobertoS

There are indeed NO built-in extensions in the spare room, we have a 2nd DECT phone in the main bedroom and we have the main DECT answerphone unit on a longer extension line (not a built in one) in the front room downstairs.

The supply is from a pole and I didn't think about seeing if I could get the entry point moved but is worth looking into, I'm not sure they will do it here TBH as the spare room is on the other side of the house, but I will ask about it for sure.

MHC

Thanks I'll look into that some more.

Only an engineer can suggest their best course of action. Either move the incoming cable, (unlikely but in my case that was the simplest solution to the job in hand), or use an externally cabled "Home Wiring Solution" aka "Data Extension Kit". That is ordered by default in case needed by BT Retail and a couple of other ISPs I think, but with most you need to make sure it is ordered. Often an option in the online system. Currently it is free.

But if you get a Kelly's or Quinn's engineer instead of a real Openreach one, your chances of anything are small.