Phone Wiring Question / i-plate suitability

Hi,

Just wanted to get some advice on my broadband line, and see if there's anything I could do to improve it (inside my house).

I have ADSL up to 8mb on my second BT line, and this line only has one socket in the house. The socket has 2 ports on it, one for the second line number, and one for the other main line number which is socketed throughout the house. This is how it looks:

Socket Internal: Pic 1
Socket External: Pic 2

Note this isn't and ADSL faceplate, it was fitted about 15 years ago just for the purpose of a second line (which just runs a fax machine and DSL router). I'm guessing the BT engineer just split the existing wire pairs into two lines and use the appropriate face plate.

Is there anyway I can use a BT I-plate on this socket layout (would it help?), or is there anything else I could do to improve speeds?


Basically I now struggle to get 1-1.5mb on the line, but have had 3mb on it in the past. My line stats are very inconsistent. This is them after being connected for 30 minutes. I also get connection drops many times during the day, no issue at night. I get ~ 170kbps downstream on these stats:

Us Rate (Kbps) 448
Ds Rate (Kbps) 3904
US Margin 17
DS Margin 6
Trained Modulation GDMT
DS Line Attenuation 57
US Line Attenuation 31
Peak Cell Rate 1056 cells per sec
Path Mode Interleaved


Is there anything I can do to improve the situation? I'm a fair distance from the exchange living in the sticks, but its been better in the past.

Thanks for any help.

Try unplugging the fax machine. They are known to cause problems.

You cannot use an i-plate with that.

I can see one capacitor, I presume there is a second along with two surge arrestors (spark gaps) and OoS resistors. Are your other phones run from an adapter plugged into the front?

Some thoughts:

If it was me, I would get that faceplate removed and new separate faceplates installed (BT must do it for you though). You could install a dual flush back box in the wall and mount the two NTE5s on that.

They may take up more room but it will allow you to fit a filtered faceplate to the ADSL line and then add an extra filter to run the fax through. You would also be able to then run the other house phones to a rear connector too.

How close to the socket is the fax machine? Some have a reputation for causing problems and their internal power supplies can be very (electrically) noisy causing degradation of your SNR and sync drop outs.

Also, that cable is "internal" which means there must be a junction somewhere else where the external and internal cables are joined. It that in a nice dry location? or on an outside wall?



edit to add

Is that a power socket just to the left? If so what is plugged in to it? I wonder if there is a lot of local electrical noise.

Edited by MHC (Thu 24-Jun-10 19:55:11)

As you have no extensions on the ADSL line, I can't see an I-Plate doing anything. It is only effective when you have extensions AND the bell wire is connected.

You Sync Speed is good. It could just be congestion on the BT IPStream network or you need to wait till your IP Profile recovers.

Thanks, the socket to the left is a TV co-axial socket, not power.

I don't run any phones off the main line port on the faceplate, it isn't actually used. There is just the fax on the DSL line so I will try removing that and see if it helps, or using 2 filters in series as some have suggested. The fax is maybe 4 feet away from the socket so I will have a test week with it turned off and removed and see if that improves things I think.

The main junction box is inside my house in a cupboard, and as far as I know is in good condition.

Thanks a lot for the socket suggestions, that sounds well worth doing. I will speak to BT about getting them fitted, no doubt they will charge a small fortune for the job though

Where do the main phones actually run from?

I have numerous sockets throughout the house for the main phone line, they all have the phones on. In this particular room, only the second line is used for fax/internet.

So where are they all wired to ? The should be connected to the master in some way.

You wont get any better than that as you have no extensions. Don't waste your money

In reply to a post by RandomJointer:

You wont get any better than that as you have no extensions. Don't waste your money

He does have extensions - reputedly off the non-DSL line but where are they connected ? Not at the master but obviously somewhere else, so is one attached to the DSL line?