Basic things that could improve your ADSL / VDSL connection.

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This is a post about improvements you can make, that could improve your ADSL or VDSL connection. It's possible doing these things will make no difference, however you'll give yourself the best chance for good connection. I'm sure many of you already know about these things, I'm also writing in note form to rush over them.

1) The BT / Openreach VDSL faceplate, the contacts can sometimes get dirt or even oxidation on the plugs. You need to undo the 2 screws, pull the front part of the faceplate away and clean the plug with electronic cleaner. Servisol Aero-Kelene 50 is good.

2) The RJ11 cable that comes bungled with your router is of basic quality. Tandy On-line make some twisted pair RJ11 cables that are very cheap and good quality. The twisted RJ11 cable will help counter interference.

3) Double filtering. This works best if your analogue phone lines are all filtered in one localised place, however you can double filter from the VDSL panel. Double filtering is a second ADSL / VDSL filter in series, if you have a problem phone or fax machine this can sometimes make a difference.

4) Mains conditioning the router. Mains spikes and interference can enter the router from the mains causing the modem to sync at lower speeds, or even occasionally drop connection. I use a Tacima CS947 to filter mains to my router.

5) Use contact enhancer, this one is from the audiophile play book. Even better then electrical cleaner is contact enhancer, basically you apply it over all DSL / phone connections, the contact enhancer also resists oxidation and keeps connections better maintained. Good ones are 801C-super contact cleaner, also Deoxit Gold.

6) Final point. The most simple you can make your phone wiring the better, in a perfect world you don't want any phone extensions running in your home. Personally I use Siemens Gigaset DECT phones that are connected near the BT VDSL faceplate, the Gigaset DECT phones also have ECO DECT that reduces radiation and lowers power usage.

In addition I plug the Gigaset DECT phones into the same Tacima mains conditioner the Router / Modem is using. The reason for this is a mains spike could enter the DECT phone via it's transformer, travel down the phone line, pass the ADSL/VDSL filter, and still enter the router via this route.

After any of the above do a quiet line test by dialling 17070 and make sure your analogue phone side is still working.
 
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This is going back a bit (everywhere in Oxfordshire now has fttp that i am aware of) but the main massive difference back in the VDSL days was to cut off all internal wiring inside the property. My drop wire came into a junction box on the top corner of the property, i intercepted it there as there was a ton of old wiring spanning out from this all over the house (ripped all of that out as wasnt interested in the phone service). I then fed it from the external DP through to a new VDSL master faceplate using cat5e cable. Also used a Cisco fairly thick TP RJ11 cable into the modem.

Worked well, and was a very solid 80/20 3db margin line for years despite being a reasonably long loop.
 
Jez, thanks for posting your experience also. Your correct the property's internal wiring can cause issues, the best approach is having everything localised around the BT box. If people do need internal property wiring then it's best to filter at the main BT socket / VDSL filter, and at least only carry the filtered voice / phone signal around the property, plus this way you only have to filter once.

Your Cisco TP RJ11 would have been very good quality, and similar to the Tandy RJ11 cable I use.
 
Sceptical on mains conditioning - do you have any evidence to back that up?

Also, I would assume this is more important for the Modem, not the Router, so if you have separate units, bear that in mind.

I have had one case of interference issues, which was when my Hive Hub (Zigbee based I think) was sat near my Modem and it was causing the signal to degrade and the line to sync low. Nothing else I've done (including changing master socket, filtering etc.) has improved my sync speed.

When working in IT support in a past life, the biggest issues I saw where where there was some local interference on the phone line, either a 'bad' device or something not properly filtered as well as problems with internal wiring, particularly people who ran the modem/router on massive extensions far away from the master socket.

So, based on experience my additional advice for ADSL/VDSL would be this:

1. Plug your modem/router into the master socket with the best/shortest cabling you have.
2. If you can, eliminate any phone extensions and extra wiring and/or replace it with ethernet/wireless.
3. Keep you modem/router at least a short distance away from other hardware, especially wireless devices.
4. Move house into a FTTP or cable area, or just closer to the green box. :-)
 
Sceptical on mains conditioning - do you have any evidence to back that up?

The first picture is the speed of a TP-Link ethernet of power adapter just plugged into mains, you can see 409Mbps.

The second picture is JUST ONE of the same TP-Links adapters plugged into a Tacima CS947, the speed drops to 52Mbps.

AM-JKLXDpOVKTdKlVwNavaSmXJ3fWZo9PPN0uOmSYrp3mfgk1ueI_kAJ-PktA5fiGSa8l4vW8ZZPkoQLexaCc_bUXlyOxm_bzDkLjCToEwlh1hqP2x4Jx8e0yQGQpbJk5WNFMWZfxq7RBBoP9aJMxnR3aVW5=w367-h499-no


AM-JKLUSh-iXjS1pKkb5sh6dPX8Lbdxl-qnE8u4UYSpSBADbPMO3IhlCluflTGHCIpUCm2UWpL0MQlrn6XIW9x-tORKDuLVqQtS1Nk3vHhFlwv8mB69x43f26fmsLyhlu45PoKcAMkmmr7AooTP1ka8M88sx=w136-h499-no
 
The first picture is the speed of a TP-Link ethernet of power adapter just plugged into mains, you can see 409Mbps.

The second picture is JUST ONE of the same TP-Links adapters plugged into a Tacima CS947, the speed drops to 52Mbps.

Other than it blocking some of the 1.8-86mhz band that Homeplug AV2 uses, what is that proving?
 
Other than it blocking some of the 1.8-86mhz band that Homeplug AV2 uses, what is that proving?

VDSL and ethernet over mains have overlapping frequencies.

I don't have to prove the Tamica, if your that interested go and buy one.

Otherwise just read the numerous other reviews on the internet about them.
 
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No thanks, I don't tend to buy anything that doesn't have a quantifiable spec sheet - which even my <£10 masterplug surge protector manages
https://www.masterplug.com/downloads/technical_data/surge/SRG4xN.pdf


Nope because they are all full of audiophile nonsense

If I remember correctly, you once posted a photo of your desk with speakers sitting directly on the desk, no stands and no isolation foam.

If that was your desk, then it's understandable you think the above.
 
The audiophile world is absolutely *rife* with snake oil and emperors new clothing. "Reviews" of things from people within those communities are utterly worthless - as proven by the number of them who will swear blind that a particular HDMI cable improve picture sharpness and/or colour.
 
I saw that but again it contains nothing of substance

The Tacima's are safer then than budget surge protectors as they use gas discharge tube.

MOV's in typical $10 surge protectors are know to overheat and can be a fire risk. The masterplug you listed has reviews where people are reporting the strip burning out. Also that maserplug has no mains conditioning and possibly even detrimental to any audio or visual equipment connected to it.

I also own some of the budget £10 surge protector strips that I purchased maybe 15 years ago, I've since understood the fire risk and won't use them.
 
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