Speed remote from master socket

I have measured the speed in out church at the master socket, with both the internal church wiring not connected and with it connected. There was a small drop with the wiring connected, but a massive drop (over 50%) when measured at the other end of the church. There is a burglar alarm and a fire alarm with red care on th eline as well as the router.

Speeds in Mbps

Crypt – Master socket No church wiring connected Download 68 Upload 15.67 – 17.1
Crypt – Master socket Church wiring connected Download 65 Upload 13.65 – 14.88
Verger’s Office Church wiring connected Download 54 Upload 6.45 – 6.93

Any ideas as to the reason for the drop from one end of the church?

What filters do you have?

What cables run from Crypt to office?


The reasons could be: additional attenuation, which would account for some, bad wiring/incorrect cable type, additional noise being picked up.

A full description of the wiring layout and additional stats to include SNRs and attenuation in all three cases will give a better view.

I agree with your logic, but asuming it's FTTC not FTTP the wireless speed looks to be more than adequate. Rather than messing about, especially if the wiring needs to be replaced, I suggest they just leave it alone.

The verger's office simply using whichever method is the better.

Your questioning of the wiring is of course spot on. I suspect ordinary "burglar alarm" type is in place. Not even CW1308.

The only snag I can imagination could be if they are, and will be after lockdown ends, streaming services for a remote congregation.

The wiring after the master socket is all burglar alarm wiring. It goes about 10m into a junction box and then goes into about 4 star connected lines. These can be up to about 50 or 60 m long.

No wireless was used for the tests - all were an ethernet cable between the router and the laptop.

There is a fire alarm and an intruder alarm on two of the cables. The monitoring station tells me that these have RedCare on them.

The master socket is about 7ft from the ground in the crypt and we need an extension lead to get power, so getting readings is quite a big exercise. I may get a chance to get SNRs etc in a few days time.

You have given the exact reasons - burglar alarm cable and then a massive star connected network which will be picking up noise from everywhere. Who installed that "mess"?

How critical is it to get an improved connection to the office? If it is, then maybe some rewiring would be beneficial.

So what was all the stuff about church wiring connected and not connected?

Burglar alarm wiring is always a No-No for broadband. You're lucky you get as good as you do.

Re your tests using ethernet to the router, what did you do? Move the router to the different locations and just use a short ethernet cable to test the speeds?

Where is the router normally placed in this mess? Where are the burglar alarm and fire alarm connected on the end of a couple of these cables from the junction box, or burglar alarm wire into the back of the master socket?

I think we might need a sketch of the whole setup uploaded somewhere to look at.

(I've just checked to see if any posts have been made while I drafted this. I see MHC has responded with the same basic assessment, it's a mess).

I can't understand how he is seeing 68Mbps anywhere! Or even 65.

Edit: I've just reread the OP now we know a bit more, and see he was testing speeds actually at the master socket. We don't in fact have any elsewhere.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 05-May-21 12:54:33)

I think the easiest and by far the cheapest and quickest solution is simply to use wireless throughout the church. Including the verger's office which needs its wiring disconnected as near to the master as possible.

That still leaves the two alarms on dodgy wires but those could be expensive to sort out. Their speed should not be critical.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 05-May-21 12:59:17)

Until we see the Attenuation and SNR - difficult to tell.

It may be a line capable of 100/30, especially as a lot of Churches have cabinets close by. As they would be in the centre of a village/town, when the GPO started to put cabinets in, they too would be close to a town centre resulting in short lines. Next time you are out have look close to Churches and see if you can locate a close cabinet.

That's why I asked about FTTC or FTTP in my first post .

If it was G.Fast, which on reflection it might be, then they must be on an above 80Mbps line. If it is FTTP they shouldn't be using the original master socket anyway. Except maybe for the phone. Which also raises the questions of how many phones, where, how wired in, and appropriate filtering.