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gill79
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 110
Loc: Ayrshire, Scotland
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I've been reading Muttley's post about Broadband help as our speeds are so slow . We moved to this house 18 months ago and we know the previous owner was into computers and networking. There are telephone extension wires running all over the house, up and downstairs. I have been trying to find the master socket to do a test and am having no luck. The socket in our lounge has a "T" in the bottom right corner with a circle around it. But when I opened this up it doesnt sound like the master socket. From the telephone poles outside the cable seem to run into our roof, so I went into the loft. There is a box(not a socket though) with a BT symbol on it, which has a cable running to it which comes from outside and another white extension cable running out of it and away down the stairs to another socket in the hall.
Is this the master socket?
What else does anyone suggest for trying to improve our speed?
We have a wireless network using a Belkin G Mimo Modem/router. One laptop is running Vista and the other XP. Both had Norton 360 installed on but my laptop running XP was driving me mad as I could not get web pages to open on the first try (more like the 4th try!) so I have uninstalled this, it has made a marginal but not great improvement to speed of opening pages but not to download speeds. We are on Orange (up to 8Mb) with a BT telephone line. We are 2.7km (1.7 miles) from the local exchange and according to the website Sam Knows we can get speeds such as below:
BT ADSL broadband availability
You are connected to the Ayr telephone exchange.
ADSL is available in your area
Your exchange is also enabled for ADSL Max services
According to BT Wholesale, your line should be able to support a 4.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max.
Standard ADSL RAG results:
You can receive 2Mbps ADSL
You can receive 1Mbps ADSL
You can receive 512Kbps ADSL
You can receive 256Kbps ADSL
However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection.
However this is the latest speedtest I have done and they are terribly slow:
Any help most appreciated!
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"Inside this body lies that of a skinny lady. But I can usually shut her up with chocolate.".
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17997
Loc: Colchester
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It is possible that you don't have a BT master socket. They are a comparatively new introduction. However, if you do, it should be the very first one in the system between the external BT wires and your own t/p. Probably not the one in the loft which would be an ordinary junction box, but the one immediately following that. Can you undo the screws on the front and withdraw the face plate to reveal what looks like an ordinary telephone socket connection? If you can't, then it's not a master socket.
I think I would be worrying about the multitude of additional extension leads. Do you actually need them all? Can you disconnect them easily or not?
To test your speed properly you need to try and move the router to the first t/p socket, connect it via a filter and then connect any one of your PCs to the router using an ethernet cable. Try to unplug any other telecomms equipment in the house, including all your extension leads. Now run your speed test. Depending on the results you can decide your next course of action.
If the speed is now OK you have eliminated the BT part of the system so you can concentrate on the internal parts.
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Do you know that we're all in line for succession to the throne? Really?
Well, if forty-eight million, two hundred thousand, seven hundred and one people died I'd be Queen.
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gill79
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 110
Loc: Ayrshire, Scotland
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Thanks for your reply greysts. We really don't need all the extensions and sockets (we have sockets in all 3 bedrooms, the hall and the lounge!!) I am a bit wary of disconnected these cables until I know exactly where the main socket is. Most of the cables seem to trace back to this junction box in the loft. I haven't come across a socket like you mention when the faceplate is removed but I am going to keep searching cos I'm on the verge of telling Orange to "shove it" lol. (but then again I need to know if it's our line thats the problem first I guess) I will post again when I find out more. Thanks
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"Inside this body lies that of a skinny lady. But I can usually shut her up with chocolate.".
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17997
Loc: Colchester
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It sounds to me as if someone, presumably the previous owner, has been applying DIY principles to your phone system. I hesitate to suggest this but unless you feel confident with rewiring you may need to get an engineer in. What about removing the lid from the junction box in the loft to see if you can make sense of the wiring. A normal extension lead will have colour coded wires inside it. You'll see, for example, blue with a white tracer, white with a blue tracer and other combinations of green, white and orange. If the individual colours all terminate on the same post then that won't be a master socket but it might suggest that someone other than BT has been playing.
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Do you know that we're all in line for succession to the throne? Really?
Well, if forty-eight million, two hundred thousand, seven hundred and one people died I'd be Queen.
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kitz
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 105
Loc: Lancs
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Sounds like you have the type of phone system that is in many homes throughout the UK.
This type of system is known as spur (or star) system and the master socket is the first one into your home. If you have overhead cables then it was at one point (prior to late 80's) very common for BT to install the master socket in the loft space.
Spur systems dont have an NTE5 faceplate which is what you were probably looking for to identify the master socket.
Since you mention the BT symbol on the faceplate in the lounge then the chances are extremely high that extension has been installed by a BT engineer.
One of the main differences between the spur system and the NTE5 is that many (extension) cables can come out of a spur system (hence why often referred to as a star), where-as the NTE5 runs in a continual line.
Depending on your set-up, having several spurs coming out of the master socket can cause the extension cables to loop and act as a large antenae which can pick up AM frequencies. This can add additional noise to your phone line and whilst it wont affect the lower frequencies of voice - it can affect the higher frequencies used by adsl.
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ADSL info
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gill79
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 110
Loc: Ayrshire, Scotland
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Thanks for your advice guys, most helpful. I am wondering though why we had high speeds when we first moved into our home and they have gradually got worse over time. I will eventually though get around to tracing the source of all these extensions and get rid of them. Thank you.
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"Inside this body lies that of a skinny lady. But I can usually shut her up with chocolate.".
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kitz
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 105
Loc: Lancs
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Those speeds are pretty damn slow compared to what BT say you should be getting.
Sounds like theres a possible problem with low SNR going on somewhere.
Additional noise being introduced on your line will lower your Signal to Noise Ratio, causing your speeds to drop.
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ADSL info
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