ADSL Microfilters and Telephone Extension Cables or Homeplugs ?

neoglow

neoglow

neoglow

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Since having a browse of this forums section, Im rechecking the internet connection in my parents house and just wanted to check something.

internet.jpg


The main telephone socket is downstairs in the hall, under the stairs in a cupboard. The only thing connected to this is a microfilter and a telephone.

Upstairs in one of the bedrooms at the front of the house is a secondary telephone socket. Unfortunately, the computer is in another room on the back of the house. For years now a telephone extension cable has been run through various rooms and walls to where the computer is.

On the end of the cable is a microfilter (the end where the computer is, not at the wall socket end). The microfilter then connects into the router and then into the computer.

Which end should the microfilter be on? Before the extension cable at the wall socket end? Or at the end of the extension cable before the router? Or does it not matter?

The house is quite old, its a pre 1980's house so I dont have a clue what state the electrical wiring is like as I was considering the Homeplugs, if the modem/router was connected upstairs to the secondary socket and I used Homeplugs upstairs, do you think I may get a better connection as I can imagine the very long telephone extension cable currently in place has a negative impact on connection speed/quality.

Any advice, thanks in advance.
 
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dwskillz said:
microfilter should always be connected at the wall socket end
Click to expand...

I had a feeling you were going to say that!

Also, the only reason the modem/router wasnt connected directly to the telephone socket in the front bedroom was because there was no power socket near by. It was easier to extend the telephone line/cable instead of run cat5 cable to the computer room.
 
bremen1874 said:
Microfilters obviously have two output sockets. The voice side is (lowpass) filtered. The ADSL side lets the entire signal through unmolested. This means that you only actually need microfilters where ‘voice’ equipment is plugged in.

If there’s only an ADSL modem/router connected then all a microfilter is doing is converting the BT style socket into the required RJ11 style socket. It isn’t going to make any difference if you connect it at the wall, or at the end of a telephone extension cable.

Fitting a filtered faceplate is a waste of time unless you want to run a dedicated ADSL cable all the way back to the master socket.

Have you tried connecting directly to the master socket to see if there's anything to be gained?

Have you tried connecting directly to upstairs extension socket to see if there's anything to be gained?

If the extension wiring was done correctly then there’s no reason why it should be slowing anything down. The main things to check are:

  • The existing hardwired telephone extension is using twisted pair cable.
  • The telephone extension lead is using twisted pair cable.
  • The ‘ring’ wires are disconnected (Google it).
Click to expand...

Thanks for reply bremen.

Ive updated with a diagram.

Today I will try connecting the router and a laptop directly to the upstairs socket and the main downstairs one and see if there is any difference.

Ive learnt something there about the microfilter, I assumed when most ISP's say you need a microfilter on EVERY used phone socket, that means every used socket even if there is not a phone connected. In our house, the main phone is downstairs and a wireless 2nd phone is upstairs. The only thing the upstairs phone socket is used for is feeding the internet router.

So, would you say remove the ADSL filter from the upstairs socket? I have a number of adaptors and leads etc to convert the extension lead to have an RJ11 end for the router.

If the extension wiring was done correctly then there’s no reason why it should be slowing anything down. The main things to check are:

  • The existing hardwired telephone extension is using twisted pair cable.
  • The telephone extension lead is using twisted pair cable.
  • The ‘ring’ wires are disconnected (Google it).
Click to expand...

The hardwired extension is the original in the house so is there any way of telling if it is a twisted pair cable?
Same for the telephone extension cable, its been there for years and I think it was purchased from a DIY store, ordinary telephone extension cable.

I will google disconnecting ring wires.
 
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