would still say yes as a face plate will work better than most standard filters

It looks better than a dangly filter if you actually have a phone. Without a phone I believe the ADSL cable will fit the normal socket.

The filter is to prevent ADSL noises being heard on the phone, and stop feedback in the other direction.

I have an ADSL Nation XTE-2005 wrapped up in its original packaging as I found it decreased my sync a hundred or so kbps (consistently over several tests) compared to a my best few with-router danglies. As I used to get over 7Mbps connection at 6dB margin and now get about 5700kbps at 6dB, due to pair changes and cross-talk, I'm a bit sensitive about things like that. I usually tweak to get 6500-6700kbps connection fairly stable.

It looks better than a dangly filter if you actually have a phone. Without a phone I believe the ADSL cable will fit the normal socket

Not true
You will still need a filter for the adsl cable to fit

Thanks guys,
This morning I took out the splitter faceplate and put in a Speedtouch filter with just the two gold contacts,my sync rate remained at 6629 but the noise margin increased from 5.1 to 8.4,I did a quiet line test and could notice the difference,I also did a ring back and all was OK.
So fingers crossed etc. that it was a dodgy faceplate splitter.
If all remains OK the question is - how long do I keep connected via the test socket before making the main unit good again somehow ?

Dan.

You can either buy a standard ordinary faceplate if yours has been binned, and use the dangly, or get a BT filtered replacement one, probably either is available from places like Maplin, or get a "high-quality" one from ADSL Nation or Clarity. Though see my earlier comment about the XTE-2005.

Before I got the XTE-2005 I tried a surge-protected one from Maplin. That was dreadful and went straight back.

It's odd the sync stayed the same but the noise margin went up. Keep an eye on things.

Replying to the OP

In reply to a post by b4dger:

...You say you're plugged into a BT face plate - to make sure you need to use the BT TEST socket behind the removable faceplate!

Glad to read that using the TEST socket seems to have highlighted the problem!

As for 'how long' - If you are sure that the problem is with your old faceplate then I would just go ahead and get a replacement.
But make sure it was really the cause and not just because of the weather, time of day/week, etc. etc.

My similar issue was worse when is rained to perhaps you should run as you are for a while to see how things go as there's no hurry now you you are doing better...?

Edited by b4dger (Sun 06-Feb-11 17:06:14)

In reply to a post by iwish:

Not true
You will still need a filter for the adsl cable to fit

My faceplate filter (from ADSLNation) has a filtered BT phone socket and an unfiltered RJ11 for the router - so for me, it is true!

Thanks again.
Yea, So long as it's ok to leave it, I think I will leave it as it is for a week or so just to make sure.
I've actually found the original faceplate that the engineer took off ,complete with screws as well,so I guess I might just put that one back on when I'm sure all is well, just worries me a bit that the splitter faceplate that the engineer fitted last May has failed already - if that's wht it is .
I've just checked my noise margin and because it's getting dark it's dropped now to 7.6.

Dan.