Slow Broadband through house, Master Socket in Garage

IIDeathCubeKII

IIDeathCubeKII

IIDeathCubeKII

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So me and the girlfriend live on the third floor of a large house. I have my router connected in the front room and get a measly 2MB connection. If I bypass the house and plug the router directly into the master socket I get 7Mb, but the master socket is on the ground floor inside the garage. Running a long Ethernet cable is not an option.

I was considering buying homeplugs and setting the router up in the garage but then I would be out of range of the wifi. How can I set this up so the router is in the garage, connected to a homeplug, then I have the second homeplug on the third floor connected to a pc (wired), xbox 360 (wifi) and two smart phones (wifi)? The homeplugs look like they only have one Ethernet socket?

I haven't got unlimited funds, so cheaper the better really without sacrificing too much on quality. Thanks
 
Best and cheapest route would be to try to sort out the telephone extension cabling so that you get a better sync speed with the router staying in your front room.

I haven't used homeplugs, but have heard that they do not always work between different ring main circuits. If you do use these with the adsl router in the garage, then you'd need a small network switch and a wireless access point (or a wireless AP with a built-in switch).
 
The homeplugs might work but the out building might not be on the same board that the house in which case it wouldn't. I certainly aren't an expert on the subject so I'll stand corrected when someone with more knowledge turns up :)

You can get Wifi repeater homeplug to extend the wireless so maybe that would be an option if it work.

Alternative can you not pay BT to move the master socket to a more suitable location in the apartment ?
 
wonko said:
Best and cheapest route would be to try to sort out the telephone extension cabling so that you get a better sync speed with the router staying in your front room.

I haven't used homeplugs, but have heard that they do not always work between different ring main circuits. If you do use these with the adsl router in the garage, then you'd need a small network switch and a wireless access point (or a wireless AP with a built-in switch).
Click to expand...

Thanks, I don't really want to pay to have the wiring sorted out because it's not my house and it would probably be very expensive. If you could point me in the direction of a good wireless AP with switch that would be great :)
 
IIDeathCubeKII said:
Thanks, I don't really want to pay to have the wiring sorted out because it's not my house and it would probably be very expensive. If you could point me in the direction of a good wireless AP with switch that would be great :)
Click to expand...

It perhaps depends how comfortable you are at looking at the phone extension cabling, but there are some simple things you can try like disconnecting the ring wire or the extension cabling to unused phone sockets that could have a significant effect.

If you are still thinking about the homeplug approach, then as Talon suggested there may be combined homeplug/switch/wireless AP devices that would do what you're after. I'd suggest you make sure you can return any homeplugs if they don't work between the garage and your lounge.

For a combined AP and switch there seem to be a few about, e.g. something like this (no idea if that is a good one): http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-095-EX&groupid=46&catid=1837&subcat=. Once you've added the cost of the bits up it might work out cheaper to sort the phone cabling out ;)!

Edit: Suggest you change the link to the AP which is on a competitor's site!!
That one doesn't have a switch built in; in your lounge you'd want to connect both your pc and the AP to the homeplug. So either the homeplug or AP would need a swich built in, or you'd need a separate one.
 
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For the homeplugs and that AP you linked to it's going to be around £60. A rough estimate of a BT engineer coming out is going to be £120 minimum. I wish I knew an ex bt engineer :(

Don't really want to start messing with the wires myself unless it's easy to do (which I doubt)
 
Ina ll honesty if its down to running an extension, don't bother with telephone cabling its terrible. Just run some ethernet to where its needed tbh.
 
If running an ethernet cable from the garage is not an option, why would an engineer rewiring a phone extension be an option? If it's lack of knowledge on your part, that's curable.

Otherwise, can you get an ethernet cable at least part of the way, and then stick a router on the end of that? The less use of homeplugs the better.
 
I have been quoted prices of between £60-£90

One guy who quoted more due to distance and nicely told me to find someone closer told me his;

"It would not be a case of simply moving the
master socket though. You will need an ADSL
faceplate on your NTE5 master socket which
isolates the adsl at the router, and helps
prevent the internal wiring from slowing it down.
Your wiring will be OK if the sockets are wired
In parallel, it can be done with the sockets
Wired in series, but the end result may not
be as good.
And in some cases a new cable run is required"

Not quite sure I follow him, I am totally ignorant of any of this.
 
Not sure I follow the bit about needing a new ADSL faceplate - if you split the ADSL away from the phone line in the garage then you'd need to run another cable up to the router in the front room, which you said you can't do.

I'd still suggest trying a few fairly simple and almost free things to see if you can get a better sync speed with the router in the front room. First, I'd temporarily disconnect the ring wire at the master socket, reboot the router and see what effect on sync speed that had. Next I'd try to work out how the extension cables run from the master socket to your front room and temporarily disconnect any other/unused extensions and again reboot the router to see what sync speed you get.

If you do fancy having a go (and any landlord is ok with it), then I suggest you have a good read of the page on phone wiring suggested by drsims (including bits about only touching the extension wiring connected to the removable front faceplate of the master socket), and take good notes/photos of how wires are currently connected so you can reverse anything you do. As well as a screwdriver, you'd probably need a punchdown or krone tool to push wires back into the IDC connectors, which I've seen in DIY sheds.
 
As I am reading this the extension in the house gets a bad connection but the master in the garage gets a good connection?

That means it's a wiring fault between the master and the extension.

As an ex NTL engineer I can honestly say anyone with any sense at all can rewire a phone extension.

Just go to B&Q and buy a roll of telephone cable and replace the bad one.

It's only 2 wires at each end and they are color coded just draw yourself a little diagram before you start so you know what to plug back into where. You are obviously not going to have the little click tool to push the wires into the socket but it can easily be done with a little care and a small slot head screwdriver.

You can even just run the cable loose through the house to test before you replace the old cable totally. If it improves pull the old cable and secure the new one if it does not then just plug the original cable back in and look for another solution.

I have the tool here but unfortunately where I am that's not of much use.
 
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Larkspeed said:
You are obviously not going to have the little click tool to push the wires into the socket but it can easily be done with a little care and a small slot head screwdriver.
Click to expand...

Do not use a screwdriver to push the cables into the slots. It damages the contacts. Get a proper IDC punch down tool
 
RobRX-7 said:
Do not use a screwdriver to push the cables into the slots. It damages the contacts. Get a proper IDC punch down tool
Click to expand...

A very thin screwdriver such as a jewellers driver and a little care work just fine.

But if you are not confident you can do it without damaging the contacts then by all means buy the tool.
 
Larkspeed said:
A very thin screwdriver such as a jewellers driver and a little care work just fine.
Click to expand...

Trouble is that you can't really tell if you've bent the contact blades by pushing even a narrow screwdriver blade in. It might make a connection initially but there would be no saying how reliable it would be over time.
 
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