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

matt83uk

There is no need to spend money to do this and it may not even work. Those of you using Vista will have your speed determined by Windows. This limits you to having more than two or three connections at one time. Vista will also try to balance your download speeds. There is a patch to increase the number of connections to up to 200 this works very well with peer to peer such as limewire and emule. Another FREE progra that will double your speed is TCP optimizer which adjusts your settings automatically. Also try reget pro, free to try and $10 dollars for a lifetime licence, well worth the money.

There is a command you can run to adjust or rather disable the automatic optimization of the tcp/ip stack that vista performs. Generally though the settings are fine and you'll see only minor increases with this and the likes of TCPTweak etc.. Don't patch anything lowlevel like tcpip.sys/dll with unauthorized patches - this is just asking for trouble - and can you guarantee the authenticity and trust of such patches?

Use these to squeeze an extra few percent, not as a solution to connectivity issues.

The 2 connections per host limitation is guided by an RFC, in firefox you can override it in about:config or with FasterFox and I believe you can do for IE (and programs that use the same abstraction to the network interface - i.e. any .Net program etc..) using the registry, careful though.


So in conclusion... Don't bother unless everything is already bloody good and you know what you're doing - don't swallow everyone else's placebo. Seriously I don't bother anymore, unless you got a VPN with a strange MTU don't mess with your TCP/IP settings it's not worth it.. If you're using Limewire you've got bigger problems and a look in the mirror will point you to source of your dog slow experience

Chef1980uk

lol, i've just read back page 1 and 2 properly to see the orange wire test.

Regarding the wire, i've removed the faceplate and tested using the test socket and took a speed test. I'll stick it back on and do another test to see if the results are the same.

EDIT::

LOL i get better results with the normal plate ON



PLATE OFF, USING TEST SOCKET



Not much difference though. So am i right in that the orange wire isn't causing me any problems then if the test socket gives the same speeds within 2%?

harryhound

There is a computer at the exchange that tests your connection and caps your speed so that you get a reasonably reliable service without drop outs.

It can take 3 - 4 days for the computer to convince itself that you now have a "low noise" line, so don't expect to see an immediate improvement in speed. Your router should give you a "sync speed". It is this that indicates that you have the potential to be upgraded to the next step (or two) up in speed by the exchange.
If you regularly monitor your speeds using "thinkbroadband", the resulting graph will show the speed steps involved.

timbo1234

I've installed 2 two of these at home. Had them running about 1 month.

Line 1: No real change, download speed dropped ~1/4Mb
Line 2: Download speed dropped ~1/4Mb as with the other line but upload speed doubled from ~450Kb to almost 900Kb.

newsgroup_monkey

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Broadband Buyer are now selling these for £9.99 + £1.80 postage to the UK Mainland.
Order 2 and the postage is only £1.99.

SwissToni_2

Anyone doing DIY phone wiring I'd suggest buying a cheap Krone/IDC insertion tool. This will make pushing the wires back on the socket blades that much easier and professional, much more importantly without damaging the thin wires. Most places stock this, Maplins or just google shop for one.
http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=idc+wire+tool&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=p
http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=krone+tool&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd&scoring=p
Many years ago I wired the whole house up with phone sockets using the tool and it made things so much quicker and easier, even put right what the cable company later totally screwed up.

Oh, if you're going to do a lot of wiring buy a metal one, if it's just the odd socket a cheap plastic one will last, otherwise buy a few spares.

Step by step pictorial bell wire removal instructions here:
http://www.jarviser.co.uk/jarviser/bellwirenutshell.html
More socket info here:
http://www.jarviser.co.uk/jarviser/broadbandspeed.html#type5

espresso

newsgroup_monkey wrote: »

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Broadband Buyer are now selling these for £9.99 + £1.80 postage to the UK Mainland.
Order 2 and the postage is only £1.99.

But no real MSEer would order one!

:rolleyes:

shammyjack

Another problem to look out for is if you have a small lozenge shaped box on your incoming drop wire before the BT main box.

If you have take off the faceplate and look on the circuit board inside, If it says RF2 then you have a major problem .

This Radio Frequency filter is pre ADSL and adds around 30Db attenuation to an ADSL line, dramaticaly dropping the speed you sync at .

It should be replaced with a RF3 filter which allows full pass through of the ADSL signal or removed and allow a good quality filter like the ADSL Nation face plate to filter out any Radio Frequency noise .

shammy

John_LG

shammyjack wrote: »

Another problem to look out for is if you have a small lozenge shaped box on your incoming drop wire before the BT main box.

If you have take off the faceplate and look on the circuit board inside, If it says RF2 then you have a major problem .

This Radio Frequency filter is pre ADSL and adds around 30Db attenuation to an ADSL line, dramaticaly dropping the speed you sync at .

It should be replaced with a RF3 filter which allows full pass through of the ADSL signal or removed and allow a good quality filter like the ADSL Nation face plate to filter out any Radio Frequency noise .

shammy

This is an interesting point - we live in a 1930's house, with a very old 'lozenge' that has so much fluff in, and very brittle wires, that it must be poor. However, I'm only reading this thread out of greed - I don't have any speed issues, and get quite close to the 8mb quoted speed. In saying that I'm wireless at the moment, from a 54mbps router, and getting 5739kb/s download and 235 upload. Obviously much more if I was wired. I guess I'm lucky, and may be close to my exchange? Still the idea of squeezing a bit more is tempting...

sassi

my dad is sorting mine for me - his mate works for bt