Hmm it can only be the cable really, or interference in the home.

I have used this in the past, and found it gave me a slight boost over the 3M cable supplied with a BT Smarthub, which is the same as the EE Smarthub + 3M cable as far as I know.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Telephone-Extension-Broadba...

Could it not be that the issue isn�t with the RJ11 cable ?

There�s an awful lot of stuff before the cable.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Hmm it can only be the cable really, or interference in the home.

I have used this in the past, and found it gave me a slight boost over the 3M cable supplied with a BT Smarthub, which is the same as the EE Smarthub + 3M cable as far as I know.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Telephone-Extension-Broadba...

Well, I've tried 4 different cables and all gave similar results.. Even one made with Cat5e cable. I'm a little hesitant in ordering yet another one but will give it a try.

Not sure what sort of interference would be so consistent. The socket and router are left in the same place, I just change the bit of wire.

I still have to try using a phone extension cable and a BB splitter with the short RJ11 connection. I'm just holding back on making too many changes at once to prevent the service being restricted.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Could it not be that the issue isn�t with the RJ11 cable ?

There�s an awful lot of stuff before the cable.

Well, that's a possibility. The EE tech person ran a lot of tests and said the line was OK, as was the router as far as they could tell.

I've run a couple of tests using the test socket and got similar results so am still stumped as to why this happens every time I swap the cable up to a 5 metre length.

It's the weirdest issue I have ever seen, to be honest!

Can you take pictures of your setup?

Hi

The most likely cause is signal reflection due to the daisy chaining a long length of a different wire and/or the total length now hits the sweet spot for signal reflection. What is the power output being reported as on the extended cable and as it was? I'm guessing the DSLAM is reducing power when the longer cable is added, this reduces your sync speed.

You may find a longer length is okay, so if you can try 7 metres or 10 metres that might be better. Also if you are testing this with the cable coiled up rather than at the actual location with the cable length run out, that may also be causing issues, as you will be giving yourself cross talk with your own line, this will be arriving back at the DSLAM where it reduces power in order to reduce the amount of cross talk.

Regards

Phil

The vast majority of patch cables are cheap tat and are either untwisted, stranded, CCS/CCA or a combination of all of the above.

I use a 0.5mm solid core copper, twisted pair, and see zero drop in sync over 0.5m or 10m.
CW1308!
I have a 1000m+ run of it from the cabinet to my master socket so a couple metres of Cat5e isn't going to make a huge difference.

I used to recommend people buy patch cables from Vince aka MrTelephone on eBay. He made fantastic cables but is no longer selling these.

I also like these
https://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/adsl-vdsl-patch-leads/
They are Cat5e and have the correct connectors on each end, RJ45 to RJ11. Their delivery is expensive though.

The OpenReach filtered faceplates have an RJ45 port and although RJ11 fits it isn't as sturdy as a proper RJ45 connector.

With what you've probably spent you may have been cheaper buying a crimping tool, plugs and a length of decent cable and making your own.

Edited by j0hn83 (Mon 14-Jan-19 14:14:28)

OK, an update on this... I've not been well and also a bit wary of disconnecting and reconnecting the line too often, so spaced tests a few days apart.

Using a new EE SuperHub I get the following results:

With 5m cable:

46.92 Mbps / 8.19 Mbps

with 5m CAT5e cable:

56.41 Mbps / 8.16 Mbps

using 3m cable that came with router :

60.76 Mbps / 8.28 Mbps

The download speed has improved since using the new Superhub instead of the old Brightbox2 although upload speed has dropped. That is, when using the supplied cable as that gives best download results.

The Brightbox 2 gave me (using the supplied 2m cable)

58.49 Mbps / 9.77 Mbps.

The best I ever got from the Brightbox2 was

60.21 Mbps / 10.86 Mbps

I'm lost when it comes to finding info about power output but I'm not daisy chaining cables, I'm swapping out the supplied RJ11-RJ11 as it's too short to put the hub on a safe shelf. Instead it's sat at the far end of my desk with the wire over the fireplace between it and the Openreach socket.

I'm also confused by the suggestion to use a RJ45 to RJ11 cable? The RJ45 is the phone outlet isn't it? That would need a filter, which then goes to a RJ11 socket. I have such a bit of wire but it does nothing when connected to the hub. I didn't think it would.

CW1308 is mentioned, that is telephone cable - I am talking about the router connection, connected to the RJ11 (filtered) socket of the Openreach 5e.I don't have any extensions. The Openreach socket was a new install in July 2017, I hadn't had a 'BT' line in about 20 years so the line had to be re-provisioned. Lots of tests done at the time, some of the external wire replaced, all OK. The only change was to swap the front plate to the dual outlet, rather than have a splitter dangling.

Again, looking at the four different cables I've tried, I would discount them all being dodgy. One is, as noted, made with CAT5e cable and gives the inbetrween result, but still lowers the download speed.

I think I have previously said that the cables are run over the same route, I don't move the router to a different position, even though that's what I want to do. I don't leave them coiled, I unroll them and do my best to have a straight run without bends. But, for the hell of testing, I tried running the new 5m cable where I wanted it to go, under the carpet edge around the fireplace and up to the shelf where I want the hub to go I lifted the hub up, connected it, and got the same results...

It's got to the point where I don't think I'm going to get this to work. A suggestion to try a longer length has not yet been tried. I will order one and see what happens, but am giving up on this one. Te hub will have to stay where it is. It's got it's own patch in the dust on the end of the desk now...

For those that want to know. Here are the cables I bought:
5m - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5m-RJ11-ASDL-Cable-Black-...
5m CAT5e - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5M-Metre-RJ11-to-RJ11-Hig...
I had bought another 5m RJ11-RJ11 but it's gone off my purchased items list now.
I also used the supplied cabled from the brightbox2 (2m) and the superhub (3m)
All were run the same distance between the hub and the socket. I also tried taking the faceplate off an using a splitter in the test socket, no difference noted.

A long shot � check whether good cable has only two wires, but others have four. If connected via the telephone circuit, extra wires might introduce noise.

I have two 'good' cables, the ones supplied with routers by EE. These have only 2 pins connected, but look to have 4 wires. The other 4 cables I've bought, including the one made with CAT5e, have 4 pins connected.

These are not in the telephone circuit as such, they are connected in the faceplate in the Broadband socket or, in testing, to the test socket behind via a filter. As I've said before, I've tried 4 different 5m cables and all have resulted in a speed drop. The CAT5e to a lesser degree.

If it had been a bad cable then perhaps one of the four would be playing up, but the puzzling issue is that all 4 produce a speed drop. I am awaiting a 10m length to follow someone else's suggestion that 5m was a 'sweet spot' and maybe a longer length may reduce the speed drop. It sounds crazy but I've seen dafter things produce results.

Several people have said that a 5m length should not result in a speed drop. I've done lots of swapping about to get the results I've had. I've been told I need to be reporting the synch speeds, not the speed tests, so when I try again I'll use those.