To BB or not to BB, that is the question?

esbo

As the signal has made it all those miles from the telephone exchange, an extra few
metres down an extension cable is neither here nor there.

Leopard

Woby_Tide wrote: »

a telephone extension cable is often a fraction of the size of cat5 cable and thus easier to conceal/route under skirting boards/door frames. Technically the former is better, but on a cost and potentially for aesthetic reasons the latter is better.

Also factor in that not all houses have power sockets located right next to phone socket, nor maybe somewhere to locate the router, and siting a router in the middle of houses gives better all round signal. Without knowing all the details it's impossible to say which is the better solution. One is technically better, one is MSE better. Thats for the OP to decide which suits their situation not us.

Well...

1. It's because the telephone extension cable is often a fraction of the size of Cat5 cable that it's less suitable, technically, to use: it's thinner because it isn't shielded - which is what results in interference to the broadband signal (from things like microwave ovens, cordless 'phones, televisions and other domestic appliances).

2. The last thing you want (anywhere) is a power socket located right next to a telephone socket. The alternating flow of the electricity creates an electronic field that pollutes even the telephone signal, let alone the broadband signal.

3. You seem to be confusing the modem with the router. (Presumably you mean a wireless router?). It's irrelevant how far the router is from the telephone socket: what's important is to keep the broadband modem close to the telephone socket. You then connect the modem to the router by Ethernet cable.

I agree with you that it is for everybody to decide for themselves how to run their own system.

In our house we run an Ethernet lead from the router, housed upstairs, up the wall in the corner of the room and through to the loft, where there is an 8 port Gigabit switch. The Ethernet leads then run from the switch, across the loft and down through to each upstairs room - one of which serves as an office. The Ethernet leads are housed neatly inside white trunking: it gives Gigabit Ethernet network connection to every upstairs room. Our downstairs rooms (currently) receive the signal wirelessly.

esbo wrote: »

As the signal has made it all those miles from the telephone exchange, an extra few metres down an extension cable is neither here nor there.

I don't know what you call "all those miles from the telephone exchange" but if it's any distance much more than one you won't be getting much of a broadband signal, even before it enters the house, let alone when it encounters your domestic wiring.

Marty_J

loaner wrote: »

ADSL routers don't need a separate modem.

You can buy modems that are just modems, and routers that are just routers.

A router that is just a router will need a modem.

Marty_J

Presumably if you already had a modem, you would just buy a router.

Stompa

Marty_J wrote: »

Presumably if you already had a modem, you would just buy a router.

I'm not sure I necessarily would. I doubt that it'd be much cheaper (if at all), and you'd end up with two boxes rather than one.

Leopard

Apple wireless routers (known as "Airport") don't have a broadband modem built-in.

Ours (a round Airport Extreme) runs off a Netgear DG834 wired modem/router.

The Airport Extreme model that we have does contain an analogue 56K modem, though, and we used that before broadband became available at our telephone exchange (and still, now, if there is a broadband outage).

When broadband finally did become available to us, we added the Netgear wired modem/router to it. (That now connects to an 8 port Gigabit switch in the loft which networks all our upstairs rooms on Gigabit Ethernet cables. Downstairs and outdoors we use the wireless signal.)

If we replaced the Airport with a wireless modem/router (from, say, Netgear or O2) we wouldn't then be able to network the Airport Express in the lounge to it - and that feeds iTunes wirelessly to our AV amplifier.

So, it's wrong to make assumptions about other people's kit and the solutions they are obliged to use.

isofa

loaner wrote: »

99% of non-cable customers use an adsl router and Windows.;)

Really that's a sweeping generalisation!

A router is just that, a router - it doesn't contain any ADSL or cable "modem" circuitry. large networks and corporates use many routers, they've been around long before home users started to misuse the terminology. (I could go on about Brouters and all sorts, but that was hideously dull when I studied computer science!)

An ADSL router does contain an ADSL "modem", just in the same way a cable router contains a cable "modem". All routers sold to personal users will be one of the other, (I use quotes around modem, as technically they aren't modems at all).

A wireless router is really a Wireless Access Point to the network. A WAP being a wireless router without a ADSL or cable "modem". There are many reasons why someone would have a wired router + a WAP - from upgrading to wireless, to wanting to separate out the wireless, and be allowing the possibility to totally disabled wi-fi access / switch it off, to extending range, using a WAP as a repeater etc.

loaner, you mention you sync at full speed, that isn't really much information, most connections will, I do, yet my speed is somewhere between 5-6Mbps due to my distance from the exchange. Far more important is what your actual speed throughput is, testing by one of the many speed testers? Good ISPs also show this on technical pages when you log into their portals (Zen does and it is excellent).

Try a proper speed test at the master socket and then at the end of a long extension.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

jings, things are getting too heavy for me.

I think I will just go for my first notion, Plusnet £9.99 deal, I'll footer aboot (technical

term) with cables and see how things go.

Thanks for all you're hints and tips, just youse yins carry on the debate. :rotfl:

Oblivion

chunter wrote: »

I've been using a huge length of a telephone extension which is at least 20 metres long for the last 5 years and my broadband's absolutely fine.

Yes, me too. My computer and BB modem is in a hobbies room on the other side of the house to where my phone master socket is in the lounge. I bought a reel of telephone cable and fitted my own extension from the master socket. It goes from the lounge into the kitchen where it feeds a phone socket, then through storage cupboards, across the hall and finally into the hobbies room where it feeds another phone socket before going half-way round the room to feed the modem. I have filters at every phone socket.

And it works fine for my 2Mbit BB service, even though I am 2.8 kilometres from the telephone exchange. Sometimes you really can get away with what seems like the impossible.

Now if my ISP would just stop throttling the service at peak times, I'd be a really happy bunny ... yes, you've guessed, it's Virgin :mad:

Dave.

Leopard

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

jings, things are getting too heavy for me.

I think I will just go for my first notion, Plusnet £9.99 deal, I'll footer aboot (technical

term) with cables and see how things go.

Thanks for all you're hints and tips, just youse yins carry on the debate. :rotfl:

Frugal,

Don't worry about a thing.

Just go through the steps I explained in the early part of your thread and you'll be fine. The rest is just embellishment, which you could add at a later stage.

Do consider PlusNet's "Option 2" for £15 a month, though, instead of their (effectively PAYG) "Option 1" which you might well find works out more expensive in practice.

And be sure to get an analogue 56K PAYG dial-up service organised with another ISP, for emergency use, before you get shot of the Tesco dial-up service.

PlusNet has very good Customer Support (nowadays) and it's based in England. They'll probably get you easily through any difficulties that occur (which is unlikely) but if you have any problems just get back here and we'll all stop wittering on about more exotic technicalities and sort it out for you.

You're going to love having broadband.