TopBanana

Sharing this as someone else may benefit.

Been having ongoing problems with my ADSL connection. Nothing terrible by most people's standards, but because I work from home it can be very inconvenient. I was originally getting 1.5mbit downstream and a fair few disconnections each day. I changed to a posh microfilter, and my speed increased to 2mbit! Still had a few dropped connections to contend with though.

As a last-ditch effort, I bought a BT ADSL master socket to replace the existing single outlet one. The splitter circuitry is contained inside this, and all the extensions are now also filtered as a result.

Speed is now 4mbit and no dropouts so far (touch wood)

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

How is the socket wired? That can effect speed and reliability also.

DSL ZoneUK - Improve your speed - Extension wiring and Disconnection help

TopBanana

The modem is plugged directly into the master socket's ADSL port. This way, extension wiring won't cause a problem.

Flix

I'm interested in this, we have a slow connection due to being 7km from the exchange and sometimes get disconnected.
Is the socket one of these?
Maplin > ADSL Surface Mount Box

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

Flix check out the link I posted and follow that guide. check your line stats. It will give you a good idea of what you can achieve compared to what you are getting.

Flix

I've checked the wiring and its already as described. According to my provider I cannot get faster than 512 as it becomes unstable. I must admit it is a lot more stable since they altered the settings.
Just wondered if the socket would improve the speed.

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

If you can improve the noise attenuation on the line with one then yes it may help as that tends to be the thing which kills your speed. If you post your line stats from your router people may be able to advise.

StickyMicky

i had vast problems at the carwash with drop outs, and some of them were not staff either

i changed the master socket faceplate for a posh one and it was fine ever since

Flix

Is this whats needed?

System Up Time 90:54:44
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 23603 27386 0 98 287 16:47:39
LAN 10M/100M 14319 0 0 10 0 90:54:40
WLAN 11M/54M 462040 367882 0 1389 229 90:54:30


ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 515 kbps 108 kbps
Line Attenuation 63 db 22 db
Noise Margin 13 db 21 db

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

I'm no expert so sure somebody else can offer better advice but looking at that the noise stats highlighted are the main ones determining what speed you can get. 63 is on the top end as I understand and then you have the area that the adsl work in (best way I can explain it). It may be worth trying a new socket to see if you can up your speeds.

Flix

I'll try one of these sockets.
63db does seem very high, but I know nothing about this subject.
Cheers for the advice.

TopBanana

Don't use the Maplin one, you want a genuine NTE 2000. Search on ebay. I'm surprised how much difference this made to my line.

I've also heard that the Netgear NG834 router is very good on poor quality lines, and makes the most of the signal.

Flix

Thanks for that, I've got a NG834G router already, good stable router.
I'll have a look on Ebay for the socket.

Hanslow

Flix, find where your master socket is in the house. It should have a half face plate, with a clear split across the middle and screws holding it in. Undo the screws and pull the bottom half off. You'll then see a test socket that was hidden behind. Plug your router into that. That will basically be the same as getting a new mastersocket face plate. This way, you can trial what results you will get before doing the actual change.

Have a look here for an example.

Flix

It is already plugged into the test socket. Though I cant tell any difference in performance.
I thought the new soket has a better filter, which could improve performance.

Hanslow

I found there wasn't a great difference between my test socket and a proper BT filtered master socket. The test socket will take out the ring wire loop which can act as an RF antenna and introduce noise onto the line, so the test socket should be giving you a clearer signal and something closer to what you'd get from a filtered master socket. At least it was in my case.

We're about 5km from our exchange and get a connection speed of about 3Mb/s.

Flix

I've ordered a master socket for £11.50, worth a try I guess. When I get it fitted I'll contact my ISP to increase the speed. Maybe the noise is making it unreliable at greater speeds.