ADSLNation faceplate - Faulty?

I have had an ADSLNation faceplate for 9 years. I recently have been having problems with slow speed and dropped connections. I changed ISP from Timico to IDNet, and for the first few weeks I was getting the same speed as before, 5.5Mbps, then I started having lots of RX and TX CRC errors and thought it could be the router so bought a new Draytek 2860. I don't get as many errors but have still be getting dropped connections overnight and the speed is now 3.5Mbps.

IDNet support asked the wholesalers to reset the line to lower the margins and increase the connection speeds which put the line in training mode. This seemed to improve things initially but one weekend the connection kept dropping every few minutes, I rebooted the router and that helped the frequent disconnections but the speed was still slow.

After contacting support they said the SNR margin looked a little high on the line so sent a request to the wholesalers to get this reset to a lower level. This looked good for a few days and then has gradually got worse. We are on a rural exchange - Tomatin - and about 3 miles from it.

I connect via Ethernet and wondered if maybe the faceplate could be faulty, can these suddenly cause these types of issues?

Regards

What happens if you connect your router to the internal BT Test socket using a filter? If you have phone extensions, you may then be able to connect the ADSLNation face plate to the filter, perhaps using a telephone extension lead as a spacer. (To see if your phones are working as a temporary measure)

Reboot the modem/router, then take and save somewhere a reading of the line stats from it. Then disconnect it from the faceplate, remove the faceplate and plug a dangly filter into the test socket that the faceplate plugged into, then reconnect through that. No need to reboot it.

Immediately take the stats again and compare. Preferably post both sets here.

The capacitors may fall out of spec over time, or there was a lightning event enough to damage faceplate but not kill broadband modem.

So yes they can fail

Has yours? Testing at test socket with a microfilter that you don't normally use will show if its the faceplate

Thanks for the replies all.

I haven't tried a filter at the master socket so I will give that a try. The faceplate is connected so that the extensions don't need filters, I assume I will have to put filters on the extensions if I go directly into the master socket.

Only need to test with the test socket long enough to get the data from the modem, and then report back.

So removing the faceplate should disconnect the extensions temporarily

Hi andyfr,

I'm not sure if my comments will help but I myself have used both the Clarity faceplate and the ADSL Nation faceplate at different times, over a period of 5 - 7 years, and I came to the conclusion just a few years ago that the Clarity faceplate filter was more electrically robust than the ADSL Nation one, and so opted to use the Clarity. I've subsequently used the Clarity, which uses a filter design that's quite different to the ADSL Nation, for some years now without a single problem. I started off with it when I was on ADSL Max; it's currently in use on VDSL, and gives truly excellent results.

Way back, I acquired the ADSL Nation first of all. Before ever putting it, or later the Clarity, into use I took it apart to find out what sort of filtering was incorporated and was quite surprised when I found that the ADSL Nation used transistors in amongst the chokes and capacitors. So, as a retired electronics professional, I felt that this was rather risky on the reliability front, given that the line could be subject to voltage surges. Even though the transistors may have been spec'd at over 50v Vce each, this may still not have been good enough to cope with perhaps an odd, very high transient. So, I decided to stop using the ADSL Nation, and I bought and fitted a Clarity instead, which employs a totally passive filter (and therefore no transistors).

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that that's your problem in this instance. As has rightly been stated, capacitors can, in time, become electrically leaky. Indeed, even some might have their working voltage exceeded on occasions, which clearly won't do them much good. Another cause could be a solder joint on the little printed-circuit board that's become dry.

In your shoes, I'd continue looking for the source of the problem elsewhere first. But if that yields no result, I'd recommend you acquire and fit a Clarity faceplate filter instead. It'll give you the same sort of termination options as with the ADSL Nation. The two faceplates differ in external shape; whereas the ADSL Nation has a steep wedge-shaped upper section, the Clarity's is bullnosed. I seem to recall that the Clarity cost much the same as the ADSL Nation but was marketed by just one particular e-retailer here in the UK (curiously, with the URL 'clarity.it' but despatched from Scotland), but I'm not sure whether they're still in business; you'd need to google around for one.

Postscript: I just tried googling for it myself, without success, but have just found this, which looks remarkably like the Clarity one and in all probability is the self same one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/BT-Telephone-Broadband-Filt...

Edited by deleted (Fri 16-Jun-17 11:44:38)

Hi Mediator

Thank you for your reply. I'm in the middle of decorating at the minute so haven't had a chance to do the master socket test to see if the faceplate is at fault.

Regards

Bear in mind also that if, all those years ago, you made use of the IDC-type connections on the back of the faceplate to extend the cable connection further into the house and those IDC connections weren't done by you to a good standard, then oxidation of the connections may have set in over time, or even the connections come loose, and may be causing some odd things to occur. If, in the end, you get yourself a brand new Clarity faceplate do ensure that, if you extend, you use the correct tool for doing so and you also use the correct sort of extension cable with solid pairs of the correct diameter.

Incidentally, regarding my forum name, it's "meditator", not "mediator". (They happen to mean two completely different things).

In reply to a post by meditator:

Way back, I acquired the ADSL Nation first of all. Before ever putting it, or later the Clarity, into use I took it apart to find out what sort of filtering was incorporated and was quite surprised when I found that the ADSL Nation used transistors in amongst the chokes and capacitors. So, as a retired electronics professional, I felt that this was rather risky on the reliability front, given that the line could be subject to voltage surges. Even though the transistors may have been spec'd at over 50v Vce each, this may still not have been good enough to cope with perhaps an odd, very high transient. So, I decided to stop using the ADSL Nation, and I bought and fitted a Clarity instead, which employs a totally passive filter (and therefore no transistors).

Older NTE5A's have surge protection, newer ones don't (apparently it can cause issues with a VDSL2 signal but not the ADSL signals) so its probably good practice not to use an ADSL Nation plate on a newer NTE5A?