BT I-Plate promises to speed up ADSL connections by up to 60%; will it work for you?

penrhyn

tooconfused wrote: »

No just removed them at the master socket as per the instructions in this thread.

I'm sure I posted this link, anyway have a read through:

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php?type=html

ystalyfera

Mozkowitz wrote: »

Huh, there are things im learning about my broadband and landline in this thread that I had no idea about!

me too:D

jem16

Am just about to change from Virgin cable to O2 using my BT line. I do have extensions running off the master socket - currently have 3 extensions going into the master although a total of 6 as one extension runs onto another and then onto another ( I believe this is the normal way rather than all going back to the master as 3 of them do).

I have read all about removing the bell wire to improve speed. However I have one question;

1. My BT line is not currently ADSL enabled. If I remove the bell wire now will my extensions still work or do I need to wait until ADSL is enabled?

kwikbreaks

They should as modern phones in the main do not require the ring wire. If one should fail you can always push the ring wire back in (but use a proper krone tool to do this) or alternately fit an ADSL filter if you have one.

Note that you only need to disconnect at the master socket end so this is a pretty trivial job anyway.

jem16

kwikbreaks wrote: »

They should as modern phones in the main do not require the ring wire. If one should fail you can always push the ring wire back in (but use a proper krone tool to do this) or alternately fit an ADSL filter if you have one.

Main phone is a Panasonic DECT and relatively new - so should be OK?

Back up corded phone is much older so not sure on this one.

Two Sky boxes - presumably wouldn't need the ring wire anyway?

Note that you only need to disconnect at the master socket end so this is a pretty trivial job anyway.

I was wondering about that. One website I had been told to visit said that I needed to do each extension socket too, which was a bit off putting as some are behind awkward to move furniture.

I also use an Orchid dialler - this plugs into the extension and then my DECT phone plugs into it. Do I just need one micro filter for this?

kwikbreaks

The reason that the ring wire causes problems with ADSL is because it acts as an antenna and picks up AM radio signals in the medium waveband (exactly the frequency range used by ADSL) and the ring capacitor inside the master socket passes this picked up interference onto one side of the pair of cables that carry your phone and ADSL signal.

Any equipment connected at the extension end has to be filtered and ADSL filters don't even connect to the ring wire (they have their own inbuilt ring capacitor) so disconnecting at that end is pointless.

You need an ADSL filter at the end of each hard wired extension which has equipment connected to it. Anything thats plugs into something already filtered doesn't need another. Unused extensions can be left unfiltered.

DonnyDave

A friend had a problem where the ADSL suddenly wouldn't synchronise and I discovered that removing the bell wire in the face plate on the master socket did the trick.

It got me wondering if the bell wire on my own circuit could be slowing things down. There is no internal wiring from my master socket, it's just what's plugged in to the face plate.

I haven't taken too much notice of what speed I actually get, but I may do to see if it makes any difference.

My wiring is as follows: Into the faceplate is a double adapter with a 3m extension in each socket. Each extension has a filter at the far end. One filter has the ADSL modem and a telephone and the other has another 3m extension plugged into it and a telephone plugged into that.

The extension leads have the bell wire through, so there is potential for them to be picking up noise.

What if I were to just have one filter plugged straight into the master socket and then plug the double adapter into that? Will the bell wires in the extension leads pick up noise that will affect my ADSL or will the filter filter this out (as they would all be on the voice filtered output of the filter)? I am wondering if I would need to isolate the bell wire coming out of the filter or whether the filter does this for me.

DonnyDave

Having read up on it, I now understand that filters recreate the bell wire. So these extra bell wires act to create noise on the main pair.

The "iPlate" or "BT Broadband Accelerator" (or whatever name the BT marketing department decide to use at the current moment in time) filters noise picked up by the bell wire that originates in the master socket, so surely it would be sensible for all filters to have similar filtering for their own bell wires. Is it the case that filters do have this facility built in?


Also, what's the best way to determine my line speed? I would like to test with and without those extensions leads and see how they affect my internet connection.

I have used https://www.speedtester.bt.com and it says my IP Profile is 6500Kbps and download speed achieved during the test 5219Kbps. The DSL Connection Rate is 8032 upstream and 448 downstream and this concurs with the figures on the ADSL status page of my modem/router. The test will not only be connecting through my line, but beyond the exchange, onto the internet to wherever the test is based.

kwikbreaks

You can filter at the master socket end for phones and indeed that is the best place to do so because it isolates the ring wire in the extension lead.

What you can't do is filter at the master socket end if you plan to run your router on the extension because the filter will block all the ADSL signal so it just won't work.

To check if there is any gain possible (and I'm betting there will be depending on extension lengths and routing)...
Check your router stats with it straight after a resync.
Temporarily remove the faceplate, plug the router into the inner "test" socket (you'll probably need to use a filter to match up connector types) and recheck the stats.

Doing these tests after sunset will reveal the best case as that is when MW radio interference picks up.

If you find a worthwhile improvement is possible you have a couple of options...

• Easiest is to fit an iPlate which filters the bell wire connection to the faceplate socket.
• Move the router to the master socket and filter all phone extensions from that end.

kwikbreaks

DonnyDave wrote: »

Having read up on it, I now understand that filters recreate the bell wire. So these extra bell wires act to create noise on the main pair.

The "iPlate" or "BT Broadband Accelerator" (or whatever name the BT marketing department decide to use at the current moment in time) filters noise picked up by the bell wire that originates in the master socket, so surely it would be sensible for all filters to have similar filtering for their own bell wires. Is it the case that filters do have this facility built in?

Not quite. The bell wire itself acts as an aerial and pick up electrical noise. There is a capacitor in the master socket which joins the ring wire to one side of the signal pair. The iPlate inserts a choke at that point stopping any noise picked up from being passed on the the signal pair. Nothing done at the far end (if that is where your filters are) will help at all and if they are all at the master socket end then the iPlate is superfluous.

DonnyDave wrote: »

Also, what's the best way to determine my line speed? I would like to test with and without those extensions leads and see how they affect my internet connection.

I have used www.speedtester.bt.com and it says my IP Profile is 6500Kbps and download speed achieved during the test 5219Kbps. The DSL Connection Rate is 8032 upstream and 448 downstream and this concurs with the figures on the ADSL status page of my modem/router. The test will not only be connecting through my line, but beyond the exchange, onto the internet to wherever the test is based.

I mentioned above how to test but we we both typing at the same time. You need to get your router stats - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Figures you got from the BT test show that you must have synced a little less than 8032 recently or the IP profile would be 7000 not 6500. They also show that with ADSL you are close to the best you can expect. It isn't worth a huge effort unless you are planning to move to ADSL2+ sometime soon when there may be more to play for.

Max BT system ADSL maximum sync is 8128 with a 7150kbps IP profile but you won't get that if your connection is interleaved - best then is 8096 with 7000 profile and more often 7616 with a 6500 profile (depends on specific equipment types).