Q: first '10 days' after install - any tips ?

After a bit of a battle with BT & Orange, I've finally got my broadband order in, and I'm expecting the livebox to arrive soon-ish. I've only just moved house and this is going to be my first ever taste of ADSL (previously I was on NTL cable), and regarding the line speed, I've read that the 'actual rate will be determined during the first 10 days of use'.

All I want to know is - is there anything I can do do optimise the speed that gets 'determined' in the first 10 days, or is it literally a case of 'just leave it all alone, you have no influence over it' ? I'm talking about the negotiation between the modem and the exchange kit now, nothing to do with my home LAN.

Just thought I'd ask in case there were little tips like "turn it off every night" or something oddball - you never know ! ....and seeing as this is probably the only "first 10 days of use" I get a shot at, I thought I'd check in here just in case ! :-)

What about connecting the modem directly to the master socket rather than it's final intended location (only a few metres away though) - does stuff like this help ? If so, would this cause problems later on when it was moved to, technically, a slightly higher attenuated socket (the extension) ?

sort out your wiring for the final destination. Disconnect the ring wire from terminal 3 of the master socket if its a hard wired extension, use a twisted pair extension cable etc.

What's the 'ring wire' on terminal 3 do anyway ? - and why does disconnecting it make any difference ? I may actually keep the modem on the master socket as it's wireless, so doesn't really matter where it is in the house.

the ring wire provides a ringing signal for the bell or ringer on some phones. Unfortunately is makes the twisted pair a less twisted triple and feeds interference into the ADSL.

Don't worry too much about the "10 days" thing. It only establishes the MSR (Minimum Stable Rate) for your line, and BT won't accept that there's a fault unless the line sync drops to 70% of the MSR. Your line still continues to rate-adapt after the 10 days is up.