BT Sockets - what a mess!

spudbynight

spudbynight

spudbynight

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I moved into a flat about 4 years ago. When I moved in I noticed the phone wiring was all over the place.

There is a BT socket in every room. Not all of them are connected to our phone line. There was also this bad boy just outside our front door. (In the communal stairwell)

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I have BE broadband and I am connecting at about 14mbps. I am about 30-50m from my cabinet so I would have expected to get more. I have tried changing the profile on my connection and I can get 17mbps but I get frequent dropouts.

I was wondering if my dodgy local wiring might be at fault.

I don't have a BT master socket anywhere. During diagnostics with Be they seemed to believe that the socket I connect to is the master socket as I had better stats from it. This is the socket :

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Can I replace that with one of these high spec sockets people like ADSL Nation sell? If I can am I likely to gain anything? I was also wondering about getting someone to come along and rewire my phone points. Who would do that? As I understand it BT won't let anyone touch anything until it enters my property. I would love to get rid of that birds nest underneath the DACS box.
 
Firstly, what are your requirements? Do you still require multiple phone sockets?
 
dLockers said:
Firstly, what are your requirements? Do you still require multiple phone sockets?
Click to expand...

I require a single socket in my home office and a single socket in the bedroom. That is it.

I would like to remove a lot of the sockets as they are unsightly. In one room there seems to be 3 sockets - well a single socket AND a dual socket.
 
Utter mess, DACS2 was back in the 90's, for party lines,Line Sharing Device,etc. didn't think it was still used I would get BT to sort it out.
 
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My understanding was that xDSL didn't work over a DACS line so it's unlikely to be doing anything.

Post some line stats, Attenuation, Noise Margin. These values help determine if the line is just poor or is near the limit of what you can get.

The proximity of the cabinet is irrelevant to ADSL, it's the overall distance to the exchange that's important. The cabinet comes into play with VDSL/Fibre connections.
 
spudbynight said:
I require a single socket in my home office and a single socket in the bedroom. That is it.

I would like to remove a lot of the sockets as they are unsightly. In one room there seems to be 3 sockets - well a single socket AND a dual socket.
Click to expand...

Why do you need two sockets? I ask because it seriously simplifies everything if you just use cordless phones that share the same base station.

Then you can completely rip out all wiring, and get BT to fit a master socket (or buy your own) and be nice and fresh with no extensions or ball bags.
 
dacs2_und.jpg


Tealc said:
My understanding was that xDSL didn't work over a DACS line so it's unlikely to be doing anything.
Click to expand...

Most likely is dead, but the one I had in my last place wasn't used, but served as a junction box for every socket in the house.:(, it was wired like a star, one wire leading to every socket..
I also would connect a new NTE5 socket where the BT cable enters the house.

And i didn't realise it pack such a punch at 140v to 180v DC.:eek:
 
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Nightglow said:
Utter mess, DACS2 was back in the 80's/ 90's, for party lines,Line Sharing Device,etc. didn't think it was still used I would get BT to sort it out.
Click to expand...

Tealc said:
My understanding was that xDSL didn't work over a DACS line so it's unlikely to be doing anything.
Click to expand...

The DACS splitter won't be active - it isn't compatible with xDSL. What I am more concerned with is a general dogs dinner of wiring. Check out the birds nest underneath.


Tealc said:
Post some line stats, Attenuation, Noise Margin. These values help determine if the line is just poor or is near the limit of what you can get.

The proximity of the cabinet is irrelevant to ADSL, it's the overall distance to the exchange that's important. The cabinet comes into play with VDSL/Fibre connections.
Click to expand...

Operational Mode ADSL2+ AnnexM EU-56
Upstream 1957
Downstream 15536
SNR Margin(Upstream) 4.9
SNR Margin(Downstream) 8.4
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 16.0
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 23.5
 
dLockers said:
Why do you need two sockets? I ask because it seriously simplifies everything if you just use cordless phones that share the same base station.

Then you can completely rip out all wiring, and get BT to fit a master socket (or buy your own) and be nice and fresh with no extensions or ball bags.
Click to expand...

I suppose that could work.

As Nightglow has suggested a NTE5 socket is kind of what I was thinking. Would BT fit one?

Who could I pay to sort out all the wiring in here? How would I get the DACS splitter removed from outside my front door. It is unsightly as much as anything.

There are two physical wires that enter my property.
 
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BT, I got mine removed after a row with BT, complained to Ofcom, they got BT to remove it.
I get BT to just fit a new NTE5, your ISP can arrange this I think & have that DACS removed, then you can fit you own extensions.
 
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The problem I have is that there are so many wires in that area I don't know what is going on with it. I don't know if the DACS is connected to anything, if it is connected to anything on my circuit.

It really is just a complete mess.
 
Operational Mode ADSL2+ AnnexM EU-56
Upstream 1957
Downstream 15536
SNR Margin(Upstream) 4.9
SNR Margin(Downstream) 8.4
Line Attenuation(Upstream) 16.0
Line Attenuation(Downstream) 23.5
Click to expand...

Should be kicking into 20Mbit territory with 23 attenuation. But I notice that it's Annex M, which means that you are sacrificing some of your download frequencies for increased upload, which could account for the drop in downstream speed.

Not quite sure what to make of that mess under the DACS box but it's probably mostly extensions.

As for the internal wiring I'm not sure if anyone will come and sort that out. I know BT might do it if you ask but they'll charge you handsomely for it, although they might be responsible for the removal of that DACS box.

180V DC, that would give a nasty nip if you got involved with that. It's more than likely not going to be that much though.
 
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With AnnexM I was expecting about 17Mbps on my downstream judging by what other people on the Be forums get.

I can change the profile with Be to get that but I get a lot of dropouts which I guess are caused by noise on the line.

I spoke with BE and they are going to call me back today to discuss.

I am happy to remove internal wiring myself if someone can confirm what is actually in use. I have asked Be about getting BT to fit a new master socket. If they fit a single master socket then I can just dispose of everything else myself.
 
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