Sorting out the wiring at home...!

[Sumanji]

EPIC BUMP - please see post #9

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Hey,

I need some help sorting out the phone wiring at my parents' house! This is the current state of affairs:

I've tidied it up immensely in that diagram, but in reality it's a total MESS.

1) The BT master socket is some rustic remnant from the 70's. It has one hard-wired socket which goes upstairs to a fax machine (3), and a land phone connected directly to it.

2) A DIY plug-in extension goes up stairs to the DSL router.

4) Another DIY extension goes into the lounge where it hooks up to a cordless phone base station and a Sky box.

Now the line itself is amazing for DSL, as even with the wiring in an absolute state it connects at 7MB. The SNR is 15dB and Attenuation is 28dB, but I want to try and improve this and tidy the wiring up at the same time. For reasons only my parents can explain (and due to computer and power socket placement) none of the items connected to the lines can be moved.

I want to do the following:

• Get an NTE5 master socket fitted
• Get all the extensions hard-wired into the back of the master socket (I think there is space for both filtered and unfiltered extensions?)
• Remove the bell ring wire

Will this be enough to ensure the best possible DSL signal?

Cheers,

Suman

 

[tolien]

There won't be space for filtered and unfiltered extensions if you have the old-style master socket. It doesn't have a filter in the first place.

 

[Phemo]

Personally what I would do is firstly arrange for an NTE5 socket to be fitted, then I would buy an ADSL filtered faceplate. I would then wire up the fax extension to the back of this, as a filtered line, then just simply plug the existing plug-in extension into the BT socket on the front.

I would then either axe the cable running to the ADSL router and replace it with a decent quality cable with RJ11 at both ends, or if possible, cut the connectors off and put RJ11 plugs on.

This would give you the best possible scenario for ADSL. Only problem is, you're not legally allowed to fit an NTE5 yourself and BT will probably charge silly money for this. You can however wire an NTE5 up to your existing master socket as an extension, then simply plug/wire everything else into that. The bottom of this page gives some info: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

 

[Sumanji]

There won't be space for filtered and unfiltered extensions if you have the old-style master socket. It doesn't have a filter in the first place.

That's why I want to get an NTE5 fitted from BT, then put a filtered faceplate on...

Personally what I would do is firstly arrange for an NTE5 socket to be fitted...

Yeah, we were going to get BT to fit the new NTE5 socket (will come from company funds so price is not an issue). How many extensions can a filtered face plate support? I was under the impression I could just chop the connectors off the DIY extensions and hardwire them all into the back of the filtered faceplate. Then just have one land phone coming out of the new master socket. Is this not possible?

The cable running to the DSL router is bog standard phone cabling. The problem is that it runs under hardwood flooring, so replacing the cable is not an option.

Cheers,

Suman

 

[swinnie]

I could just chop the connectors off the DIY extensions and hardwire them all into the back of the filtered faceplate.

Providing the cable is of a reasonable quality then do that, if not, look at getting some proper phone cable or use CAT5 cable as phone cable to go socket to socket, and use the existing phone cable as a draw wire to pull the new cable through.

 

[Phemo]

How many extensions can a filtered face plate support? I was under the impression I could just chop the connectors off the DIY extensions and hardwire them all into the back of the filtered faceplate. Then just have one land phone coming out of the new master socket. Is this not possible?

The cable running to the DSL router is bog standard phone cabling. The problem is that it runs under hardwood flooring, so replacing the cable is not an option.

You can do that yes, it wouldn't be a problem. Not sure on the exact max amount of extensions you can wire up, but 2 or 3 won't be a problem. I personally had 4 wired into a filtered faceplate when I was living at my parents years ago.

 

[Sumanji]

You can do that yes, it wouldn't be a problem. Not sure on the exact max amount of extensions you can wire up, but 2 or 3 won't be a problem. I personally had 4 wired into a filtered faceplate when I was living at my parents years ago.

Are there connections on the back of a filtered face plate to connect both unfiltered and filtered extensions though? And is any particular brand/model of faceplate better than others?

Thanks

Suman

 

[Phemo]

If you get an XTE2005 faceplate (can't tell you where to get one from as they'd be regarded as a competitor, but you'll find it easily enough on Google) then there'll be IDC terminals on the back so you can wire up both filtered and unfiltered extensions.

 

[Sumanji]

Hey,

So, umm, epic bump?

It's been almost four years and I haven't sorted this out yet

Noticed a lot more disconnects in the past couple of months (since moving to 21CN). Sync speeds are good, at about 16-17Mbps, but the line is dropping up to 50 times a day - not cool

Assuming the internal wiring has at least some part in this; either way, it still needs a bloody tidy up, and will help the signal a wee bit!

Current plan is to get BT to fit a new NTE-5 socket, and then get an XTE2005 socket (thanks Phemo ) into which I can directly wire the extensions and the "DSL extension".

Is there anything else I should be looking in to?

Cheers dude

Su

 

[PistolPete]

Looks like your plan is a good one.

 

[Tealc]

Poor extensions can add noise to your line and this noise can cause errors and loss of signal. Either remove or replace extensions with proper twisted pair cable, such as BT spec or maybe Cat5e at a push. Flat DIY extension s from Argos or the pound store will work with the telephone but the interference they add to the high frequency ADSL signal will reduce your sync and cause problems.

Ideally you'd have all devices attached directly to the master socket so there's only a few feet of cable between socket and device.

 

[Sumanji]

Hey,

I think the main problem we have is that the extension which the DSL line is attached to is one of those cheapo Argos jobbies not really much I can do about that, as it runs under carpet and some wooden flooring.

Hoping that filtering it directly at the socket does the trick!

Cheers,

Su

 

[a1ex2001]

move your dsl router downstairs right next to the master socket to get it off the crappy extension cable and then use a pair of homeplugs to get the Network connection to your current broad band location. Any half decent set of homeplugs will easily match you connection speed.