ring wire / old wiring question

I've just moved into a new house, and have ADSL 2+ currently. However, not without loss issues etc.

The phone wiring appears to be 1) very old and 2) odd.

Also wondering if there is a ring wire to remove somewhere. I remember that used to be a thing.

Firstly, the only socket is downstairs, where as the line enters the house upstairs. I'm therefore woundering if what I'm assuming is a box terminal comes into the equation. Also the wiring (prob due to age) doesn't help when compared to ring wire removal guides!

If anyone can help shed light on this it'd be much appreciated!

Pics below (I hope)!!

http://i.imgur.com/HO94I7L.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DMxHGuY.jpg

The first picture appears to be a completely disassembled NTE5. Is that the downstairs one that you are using? I assume not shown in the picture is the faceplate (NTE5A) that screwed into the front of the part with the wires.

Does what looks like a hole in the front of the one on the skirting-board have a screw in there. A picture of the inside of that would be useful.

The ring wire only exists if there are extensions present. Between the master and an extension there is a pair to carry the phone and broadband circuits, and a ring wire to make certain legacy-design phones ring. All three are attached to the NTE5A that plugs into the test socket that is on the front of the NTE5.

The removal of that ring wire is what you have read about, as nearly all modern phones don't need it, and dangly filters or filtered faceplates provide the ring function anyway, so it is best removed as it often seriously degrades the broadband speed.

The green and red wires both go to the earth terminal - which will link to pin 3 in the socket. Your modem will only connect to pins 2 and 5 so it won't be a problem. It's not the ring wire.

More recent versions of the socket dispensed with the earth terminal completely. There is every chance that your 'earth' doesn't actually connect to anything that's earthed. The red and green wires may just be attached to the earth terminal to keep them tidy.

The box terminal will probably be where the line comes into the property from the outside and it will then have the red/green/orange/blue cable connecting to the master socket.

My phone line comes into the house via an even older connection box - a GPO 20/4 (installed in 1955) seen here - and it doesn't mean I can't get an excellent broadband speed;

>               DS Channel1    DS Channel0    US Channel1	  US Channel0
> Speed (kbps):        0           79999              0                20000

Edited by caffn8me (Sat 16-May-15 03:30:04)

If you drop your ADSL modem stats into http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc it will show if your stats are within an expected range.

Based on pictures nothing wrong with the wiring, often older wiring is thicker copper, thus more surface area and better for ADSL/ADSL2+

That looks like the back of the master socket (and really ought not to be fiddled with as it's Openreach's domain). What really matters is any extensions connected to the faceplate. If there aren't any extensions, then there won't be a ring wire. If there is, then simply detach it but that photo doesn't really show anything helpful.

** edit **

I've just read there is only one socket (which will be the master). In that case, there's nothing to do. It should be as good as it gets.

Edited by deleted (Sat 16-May-15 10:11:19)

If it was my house I would just fit one of these....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221766988892

However you should not really mess yourself wink wink so call BT

The earth terminal is not connected to terminal 3.

If used it is connected to an earth spike and the surge protector should be swapped to an earth type one. This gives additional lightning protection for long overhead lines.

He already seems to have an NTE5 of some sort (one of the photos is of the back of one). That junction box is where the incoming line goes to before it foes off to the NTE5.

The only thing I'd suggest would be to snip off the green/brown wires terminated to the the same screw terminal. These are for an earth contact, and no longer required, but may still be having some minor affect on your DSL.

I should add that you shouldn't be fiddling with with these things, 'cos if you nonce it up, you'll be charged for it's repair.

Thanks for your input all.

I checked the junction box - which is a GPO box, and the earth wasn't connected anyway so I removed it from the faceplate.

Line did seem better after my fiddling, but it has since dropped once or twice / bits of packetloss.

Part of me wounders if the router has anything to do with it as before I moved, it had been having similar issues BUT I didn't blame it on the router then because I know for a fact the old line has SNR noise burst isses / packetloss throughout its life.

I am actually going to be upgrading to fibre in under a month anyway possibly, and have the free plusnet router coming (whenever it gets dispatched) which I could test with.