Thank you for explaining how the SamKnow box is connected. How much do you learn from it?

The device you've linked isn't a modem. It can't connect to a phone line directly. There is no Cat 6 connection on an NTE - are you talking about an Openreach modem?

The router you've mentioned has no way to connect to the phone inlet of a modem without a weird cable and definitely no way of providing the VDSL signal a regular modem is expecting to see.

The SamKnows box has no way of sending data if it's sitting between an ISP provided router and the phone line. It doesn't know your username and password or how you are connecting to the network, IPoE, PPPoE, etc.

Maybe I'm just misreading this but the scenario you've posted makes no sense. SamKnows kit are routers running SK software. They don't report on customer traffic they monitor for 'quiet periods' when they can run their tests without having other traffic ruining it, and they certainly aren't double-sided modems that take signals from the phone line, do their thing, then repackage the phone line for delivery to the ISP-supplied modem.

My apologies, I got the cable runs confused, bit of a tangle!

The NTE is in fact a very early one, without filters etc.

This has one of the two VDSL "Splitters" delivered with the EE Bright-Box 2 Modem/Router.

The 10 M Cat 6 cable runs from the Splitter's Modem Outlet up to my office, where it connects in to the EE BB 2 Phone Socket.

Then there is a 1 M Cat 6 cable from the BB 2 fourth EtherNet socket to the SK Modem/Router Phone Socket.

Another 1 M Ethernet cable from the SK's first EtherNet socket to the main W 10 PC.

Must label those cables etc - actually purchased suitable labels some months back - but they "disappeared", re-appearing only in the past week.

The use of the word modem when describing the Samknows kit is totally wrong, it is just an Ethernet router

The SamKnows box is designed to sit as a dumb switch between the customers router and their PC LAN, the Wi-Fi side is still handled by the customers router, and presume some air sniffing for Wi-Fi traffic is used to stop testing when then the Wi-Fi is busy, or some clever latency monitoring (NOTE: There are issues with using latency monitoring to decide if a user is doing things, as this may mean tests are not done when there is WAN side congestion)

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

The SamKnows box has no way of sending data if it's sitting between an ISP provided router and the phone line. It doesn't know your username and password or how you are connecting to the network, IPoE, PPPoE, etc.

Maybe I'm just misreading this but the scenario you've posted makes no sense. SamKnows kit are routers running SK software. They don't report on customer traffic they monitor for 'quiet periods' when they can run their tests without having other traffic ruining it, and they certainly aren't double-sided modems that take signals from the phone line, do their thing, then repackage the phone line for delivery to the ISP-supplied modem.

I have mine connected like the following:
ONT -> Router -> SKBox -> LAN
Works like a charm, I have noticed large spikes in my BQM now and then, so I assume its the box doing its tests.

Also the SKBox doesn't monitor connections using Wireless, only wired connections.

Paul

No worries, thought I was going insane for a minute there.

Thanks, Andrew.

Some more information - hopefully benefiting others as well.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

They will and are

People getting excited over trials for their ISP might well be disappointed when it becomes clear they are testing SamKnows on their CPE.

The BT Trials are all opt-in, I used to do them over a couple of years. You get an email about them if BT think it is of interest to you, with full details and an option to opt-in. Not sure on other ISPs, I did Sky testing in 2011, likely changed now.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

The BT Trials are all opt-in, I used to do them over a couple of years. You get an email about them if BT think it is of interest to you, with full details and an option to opt-in. Not sure on other ISPs, I did Sky testing in 2011, likely changed now.

Was that a separate box or additional software on your router?