[SWLUG] Switching to a BT line. Effects?

[Chris King]

On Wed, June 25, 2008 15:54, Dafydd Walters wrote:
> Pete Phillips wrote:
>>
>> I'd love to get up to 2Mb or more!  Any thoughts ?
>>
>
> Your experience sounds similar to mine.
>
> In the end what made a big difference in my case was to connect the ADSL
> modem directly to the BT master socket, instead of to one of the
> satellite sockets. Since doing that I've got a consistently faster and
> more reliable connection. Obviously YMMV :-)

Extension wiring is THE most common cause of ADSL faults, so if you can
take that out of the equation, so much the better.

When setting up ADSL for other folks, I tend to site the router near the
master socket, and use a faceplate rather than microfilters. I normally
use ADSL Nation's XTE2005 if they have a modern "NTE5" master socket:

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

Extension wiring can either be plugged into the phone socket on the front,
or hard-wired into the filtered terminals on the back - if you go for the
latter, use a decent punch-down tool to make a clean connection.

If the router/modem came with a cruddy cable, ditch it and buy a better
one. B&Q had some really good 3m RJ11-to-RJ11 modem cables for not very
much, and they had moulded snag-proof connectors on them.

If you've got a long cable run, don't run the ADSL cable in parallel to
power cables. I've got extension leads running along the back of my desk,
but my modem cable drops down directly to the floor, so it is at a right
angle to the power cables.

Adding a ferrite bead to a modem cable may help in some circumstances.
Maplin/RS do them in various shapes and sizes.

Finally, if your line still seems unstable, just pick up the handset and
listen to your line very carefully - you don't need to do the 17070 tests
to spot the most common faults. Turn off your modem and turn it back on
again - if you can hear a high-pitched whine in the background, your
microfilters might not be working.

If you can hear any buzzing or crackling on the line, treat that as a
normal voice fault and see if that makes any difference to your ADSL
connection once fixed.

Chris

-- 
Chris King
http://www.csking.co.uk/