Router setup causing internet speed loss

Magnumwolf

Magnumwolf

Magnumwolf

Associate
Joined
19 Nov 2005
Posts
56
Hi,
I recently had a BT engineer at my house to investigate a problem with our broadband. The problem has now been fixed but the engineer claimed that we have an 8MB+ line speed coming into the house but that our setup (router, cables, etc) is only giving us 4.5MB.

The engineer recommended that we upgrade to a new router as ours is getting quite old (THOMSON ST585v6sl) but it seems odd to me that the router would to be capped at such a low speed, does this sound viable?

I have also now realised that we are using some quite large cables in our setup, the phone line from the wall socket to the router is probably 20meters or more and on top of that we have some 10+ meter Ethernet cables. Is it possible that these are resulting in a significant performance loss?

Additionally our Ethernet cables are probably 12 or more years old now, is it time to replace these with newer ones? or has the technology remained the same?

If anyone could offer some advise on any of these points it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
I have moved all of the kit over to the wall socket and used some much shorter cables and the results are surprising.

With the shorter cables and router plugged into the standard socket I am getting 6MB
With the router plugged into the test socket I am getting 11MB

This looks like good news but I don't really understand it, what does the test socket do differently and why is the difference so great?
 
Because your internal wiring is either very poor, old and/or suffering from interference.

Try get a BT VDSL Mk2 pre-filtered faceplate. They go for about £8-10 on the bay.
 
I have a small cable plugged in from the wall socket to the router so I can't see a problem with that part, however It looks like 2 cables are going from the wall socket to a home alarm system, I'm not really sure how it works as it was installed when we moved in but could this be causing a problem?
 
Magnumwolf said:
I have a small cable plugged in from the wall socket to the router so I can't see a problem with that part, however It looks like 2 cables are going from the wall socket to a home alarm system, I'm not really sure how it works as it was installed when we moved in but could this be causing a problem?
Click to expand...

It'll be some monitoring system to alert the company/police via the phoneline if there's an alarm set off, company called Custodian does it in my workplace.

If you're not getting monitored or paying for it just rag it out, you'd be surprised what interference and problems can be caused by something so small.

In all honesty though, when I was living in my old house and using ADSL I just used to always use the test socket regardless, as Sky's DLM gave me great levels when using it.
 
Is it likely that I could get an engineer out from the alarm company to resolve this? or is it just something you have to put up with when using this kind of alarm system?

We currently have an active subscription with them as it help to get the home insurance cost down.
 
If you get a filtered NTE5 faceplate you should be able to terminate the alarm cabling so that it's filtered. It shouldn't bother the alarm, but it'd be best to check with the alarm company first.
 
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