Telephone lines wiring and broadband issues!!

[josh451]

After having slow broadband for ages, i decided to do some investigating. I checked some of the cable runs from each socket and found that one of the sockets in directly wired to the grey box on the outside of the House, not the BT master socket.

Could this be the cause of my measly 256kbps broadband speed?

I must point out that this work wasn't done by me, but by the man who built the extension in 1999. I do have some knowledge about telephones, so could attempt repairs if necessary.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[plugwash]

First things first where are you getting that speed figure from? is it the sync speed of your modem/router which should only be affected by the physical wiring (both inside and outside your property) or is it the result of some kind of online speed test which may be impacted by factors other than your ADSL linlk

Assuming that link speed is the issue. It's possible that poor internal wiring could be having a negative impact on broadband speeds and it's certainly worth having a go at improving it if you are on a rate adaptive package.

The first think I would try is disconnecting EVERYTHING from the incoming BT wire and connecting it to a single master socket with a short peice of cable. If that doesn't fix the problem then it is likely that nothing you can do from your end will.

The only time I've ever seen a speed that low was when tiscali took over the ISP my parents used and migrated us to LLU. I suspect it was a fault at the exchage but we never got a useful response out of tiscali and ended up migrating to IDNET (e.g. back onto BT wholesale) at which point all the problems went away.

 

[josh451]

First things first where are you getting that speed figure from? is it the sync speed of your modem/router which should only be affected by the physical wiring (both inside and outside your property) or is it the result of some kind of online speed test which may be impacted by factors other than your ADSL linlk

Assuming that link speed is the issue. It's possible that poor internal wiring could be having a negative impact on broadband speeds and it's certainly worth having a go at improving it if you are on a rate adaptive package.

The first think I would try is disconnecting EVERYTHING from the incoming BT wire and connecting it to a single master socket with a short peice of cable. If that doesn't fix the problem then it is likely that nothing you can do from your end will.

The only time I've ever seen a speed that low was when tiscali took over the ISP my parents used and migrated us to LLU. I suspect it was a fault at the exchage but we never got a useful response out of tiscali and ended up migrating to IDNET (e.g. back onto BT wholesale) at which point all the problems went away.

The figure is from an online speed checker, but when i download items and the firefox download window opens, it says 32 kbps.

I've done all the master socket stuff and removed the faceplate for the test socket etc, and made no difference. It was just that i have been always told to wire telephones after the bt socket, not before my case. The dodgey socket is wired directly to the box where the cable from the master socket meets the wire coming from the ground.

Suprisingly, we are with Tiscali, now talk talk i believe. We were planning to move, but because we booked holidays with the tiscali e-mail address, we don't want to stop recieving those e-mails until we've been on holiday (april). After that, we'll probably change. Would it be better to get a hotmail or g-mail account, then you're not tied in with your service provider?

Interestingly, i found this on wikipedia:

"In a study carried out by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom in 2009, TalkTalk was found to have the lowest speed of any major broadband ISP in Britain

Now theres a suprise!!

 

[digdilem]

The important speed here is your ADSL sync. You can check that by your modem. Some ISP's report it (Zen do) as well as the BT BRAS profile speed (a little lower than the sync, and the maximum throughput you'll achieve)

Sync speeds are between you and your BT exchange - unless you're unlooped, it doesn't matter which ISP you're with. The sync is HUGELY dependant on your internal wiring.

Find your current sync speed. If it's an external modem it'll be on it's web configuration setting, and if internal or USB it'll be in the software somewhere. Google your modem details to find out how.

Now - visit samknows and punch in your number, you should get an estimate of your speed. These are usually fairly accurate and under-read if anything.

If your sync is FAR below your existing, from my experience the most likely cause IS your internal wiring. (Yes, the BT wiring is often at fault too, but rule out yours before calling them)

Normally you'd find your BT master socket and remove the front plate with two screws. This SHOULD also isolate all internal extensions which are wired into it. You'd then plug your modem directly into the socket in the backplate and reconnect. If your sync speed is magically better, your internal wiring is causing problems.

If you have a second master, or even an extension, coming off the grey box outside, something's awry. If it's just the master being fed off it, no problem. If that dodgy socket is fed seperate from the master, remove it or face a bill when BT discover it. You're right - it's done badly. ALL internal wiring should be after the single BT master socket and connected via it's front plate.

This is a standard BT NTE5 master socket. You'd remove the front plate and plug into the concealed socket behind to test;

If your sync speed is good, consistent, and way better than transfer speeds suggest, you can check your BRAS profile online via a BT site - http://test.speedtester.bt.com/
to ensure it's good (it'll stay low after line noise, but automatically reset).

If that is good, then the most likely result is that your ISP is rubbish.

Talktalk /are/ rubbish, but cheap. If you want good, only two I would recommend are Zen and BEthere. Zen is more expensive but has excellent support. BE cheaper but good technically, but I haven't tested out their support personally.

 

[josh451]

The important speed here is your ADSL sync. You can check that by your modem. Some ISP's report it (Zen do) as well as the BT BRAS profile speed (a little lower than the sync, and the maximum throughput you'll achieve)

Sync speeds are between you and your BT exchange - unless you're unlooped, it doesn't matter which ISP you're with. The sync is HUGELY dependant on your internal wiring.

Find your current sync speed. If it's an external modem it'll be on it's web configuration setting, and if internal or USB it'll be in the software somewhere. Google your modem details to find out how.

Now - visit samknows and punch in your number, you should get an estimate of your speed. These are usually fairly accurate and under-read if anything.

If your sync is FAR below your existing, from my experience the most likely cause IS your internal wiring. (Yes, the BT wiring is often at fault too, but rule out yours before calling them)

Normally you'd find your BT master socket and remove the front plate with two screws. This SHOULD also isolate all internal extensions which are wired into it. You'd then plug your modem directly into the socket in the backplate and reconnect. If your sync speed is magically better, your internal wiring is causing problems.

If you have a second master, or even an extension, coming off the grey box outside, something's awry. If it's just the master being fed off it, no problem. If that dodgy socket is fed seperate from the master, remove it or face a bill when BT discover it. You're right - it's done badly. ALL internal wiring should be after the single BT master socket and connected via it's front plate.

This is a standard BT NTE5 master socket. You'd remove the front plate and plug into the concealed socket behind to test;

If your sync speed is good, consistent, and way better than transfer speeds suggest, you can check your BRAS profile online via a BT site - http://test.speedtester.bt.com/
to ensure it's good (it'll stay low after line noise, but automatically reset).

If that is good, then the most likely result is that your ISP is rubbish.

Talktalk /are/ rubbish, but cheap. If you want good, only two I would recommend are Zen and BEthere. Zen is more expensive but has excellent support. BE cheaper but good technically, but I haven't tested out their support personally.

I did the tests, but got confused with the results. I have attached the results. Its in my photo album

I couldn't do a speed test because it kept saying error.

Now i don't know much about routers, but take a look at the noise level, seems quite high to me.

Just realised you can't see my print screen. The line noise is 59.5bd

 

[digdilem]

That looks like the right page for the adsl status, unfortunately I can't read the contents as the pic is too small

 

[DeadJoe]

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1732787#1732787

I did a major purge on my internal wiring a while ago, and am currently synching at 7MB/s.

If you connect direct to your test socket, note that it can take a while for the speed to begin to climb.