Old BT Wiring/No NTE5 Linebox/Slow BB connection

Dave L

Dave L

Dave L

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Joined
11 Oct 2003
Posts
2,043
Location
Somerset
I don't know if there are any BT engineers on here, but my olds have always had a very slow and laggy broadband connection.

The house is an 1800's house with some very suspect-looking wiring coming into the house via this ancient-looking linebox, with what looks like some fuses inside!!

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Router stats are reporting the following:-

Down - 1376Kbps
Up - 448 Kbps

Downstream Margin - 12db
Upstream Margin - 22db
Downstream Att - 48
Upstream Att - 29

The house has an overhead cable to a pole which goes directly into one of those green boxes.

I realise we are some 3.5km from the exchange but this sort of speed is ridiculous in this age.

I'm going to have to converse with the ISP on behalf of my olds, but do you think a decent NTE5 linebox etc would improve things? I realise this is a BT-only job.

Your thoughts would be appreciated, esp on the above router stats, as I don't really know how to interpret them.

FWIW, I live 200m down the road and my router reports are as follows:-

Down - 3104Kbps
Up - 448 Kbps

Downstream Margin - 9.4db
Upstream Margin - 19db
Downstream Att - 63
Upstream Att - 29

which gives a half-decent service.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Well Dave i think your correct with the problem being the wiring. I would as you have said have a chat to the ISP that your olds are using and ask them to arrange a Open Reach engineer to call. probably take him 20 mins to fit a new master socket and solve the slow laggy connection. Will probably improve the voice calls as well as the pics show a box thats has not been in use by BT and is an old Post Office box from the 50's!!

Cheers and hope you get a good result, if they will not do it for the broadband then report a phone fault sort it that way.
 
Thank you guys, thats confirmed my thoughts. I'll grab a pic of the inside of that small linebox. The line that used to come in there was a shared party line, one that you had to check wasn't in use by next door before making a call yourself!!!!!
 
WOW what a rats nest LoL.

Yes and also the other problem is that the unused wires on connections 3 and 4 are there. You dont need them any more. New phones only uses lines 2 and 5.

Call BT and say you need a new NTE5 as you want to run an extension up stairs but cannot as you have an OLD POST OFFICE junction box in the house. They should come out and fit you a nice shiny NTE5 box free as all wiring IN the HOUSE is yours, wire's TO your home are there's!!

Cheers
 
Looking at the state of the wiring in connection box, you should get the wiring from the pole to house completely replaced as well.

That junction box dates from the 1950's, around 1955 or eariler.:eek:
 
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Can I just hop on this thread too as I recently had to investigate my parents broadband not working.

It turned out to be a wire disconnected in the downstairs (main) phone socket (under the stairs) after mum had disturbed everything in there.

I renewed the phone socket box as it was really worn but I had fun trying to wire it all back up as the line coming INTO the house had the following colour of wires inside the main outer sheath.

Blue
Orange
Brown
Green

Not what a lot of guides describe where the colours are white wire with blue stripe or white wire with orange stripe etc

I found the information here - http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/wiring_info.htm

I managed to get it all wired back up again but considering the telephone wiring is pretty ancient in the house, is it worth getting BT to renew the line/boxes etc as described about. The NTE5 etc.
 
Neoglow,
I am not a BT Engineer but what I have in the house I think is pretty standard wiring. On the "D" side which is from the cab on the street to the customers house. They use a standard 4 wire (2 pair) cable usually with,

White
Orange
Black
Green

One pair is White and Orange which is one phone line the second Black and Green being the second

This I am just assuming is the way it works as I have 2 phone lines coming into my house, one private house phone the other for my business, and that's the wires used in each of the sockets, one pair White/Orange Private phone, Black/Green Business Line.

BT Open Reach will ONLY replace the 'D' side cable from the phone pole IF its absolutely needed but if you call and say that you need a NTE5 fitting as you need to wire in an extension but cannot has you only have an OLD style phone connector where the cable enters the house. Then just hope the Open Reach guy is good and fits a new NTE5 for you free.;)

As for the cable to the house as long as it is in good condition and the Phone test shows good then i think they will just place a Joint Box out side and run a new short length into the house rather than replace the whole run but you wont know unless you get them there.:)
 
Cheers guys....whilst I am confident about being able to install a new NTE5 box myself and probably improve matters no end, I don't want my parents to get a telling off from BT for playing with the master socket.

God knows what number to call to get an engineer visit!
 
That black cable is the one you're concerned with. That's the wire from the pole.

The 2 lengths of white cable effectively connect the "fuse box" to the first phone socket, then from there the second white cable is going to your second phone socket i.e. the rest of the internal extensions etc.

The black cable will go to 2 terminals, A and B. To fit a NTE5 you just have to connect them to A and B on the reverse of the new socket. You may not have enough slack to do this in-situ, but you can use gel-crimps to extend the wires with minimal loss. This might even be what the Openreach engineer will do, depending on how lazy he/she is :o

EDIT: Also worth pointing out, the connection is only half of the story. It looks like your ISP has your parents set to a 12dB margin and you're connected to a 9dB profile. Calling them up and asking them to reset your profile to the default 6dB is one thing I'd do regardless. Although, if you are with BT as an ISP then just go outside and smash your head against a wall - they are useless. Look at moving to an LLU ISP if you want the full speed of your line(s).



EDIT 2: I have those stats and get over 6.5Mb down and roughly 1Mb up.

Ignore the downstream atten. the Billion router I have incorrectly reports it 6dB higher than it is?!
 
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I had that box of mess inside my master socket too! Then my cousin, a BT engineer came around and redid the master socket wiring, also replacing the old PCB and installed the BT ADSL faceplate. Boosted my speed by an extra 2mb, so 3mb to 5mb, and the line was more stable too during peak times (although exchange flooding caused it to drop to 4mb). Definitely worth getting an engineer to sort yours out.
 
Thank you both, I will call BT and get them out but there is currently a backlog due to last week's storms.
 
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