BT main phone line face plate and other broadband speed increase tips

[Brand86]

So currently with our BT broadband we're getting less than 1mb dl speeds - mainly due to the distance from the exchange.

Sky recommended trying a new faceplate - but can I just buy one via Amazon or eBay and install one myself, or is it tricky?

Also, any other things I could try to boost performance? I can't get fibre optic yet in my area so just looking for any other little tricks I could try to get up to even just 2 or 3 mb?

Thanks!
Tom

 

[Krispwee]

If it's the i-Plate they are talking about then yep, easiest thing to install ever. You can buy them from Maplins as well:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/bt-iplate-adsl-speed-enhancer-a86jt

Certainly helped at my parents house, increased from around 1.5mb to 3mb. IIRC the filter just cuts off the bell ringing cable that isn't used anymore and some have had success just by removing that, personally I didn't but the new faceplate did make the difference.

 

[Brand86]

Cheers for the advice. Can you still use a phone from the same socket then, or does this mean it's broadband only?

 

[Adam D]

Do you have extensions running through the house from the main socket?

If so, open every socket and just remove the orange and white wires, only leave the blue and white(2) and white and blue(3) connected to 2 & 5 pin.

If you don't use any of your other sockets at all but have them, try a little test to see if you are getting interference. Remove the faceplate and plug your filter straight into the test socket along with your phone into the filter as usual. Give it a few days and see if anything has changed.

 

[Craig Ed]

It's unfortunate that some homes are so far away from exchanges and as it's over BT infrastructure it'll more than likely be old and jelly crimped in a few places causing it too attenuate the signal.

Re crimping the cables to face plate and also checking the box at front of house unless if it's run from the telegraph pole is one too check as water ingress may be applicable.

As above the blue pair to 2-5.

Those iplates are nothing more than a band pass so as to take the unwanted noise away to provide a cleaner signal. Generally if the signal is weak. It's weak.

But 1M on asymmetric digital is not unheard off.

 

[rctempire]

I love my double dial up.
Everyone around the estate has fttc. Apart from my street. Damn if.

 

[DannyR]

The best thing you can do it to buy a filtered socket. This means any secondary lines around the house will not be effected or carry data to the other points. Don't bodge by taking the orange pair off. Most standard phones need the Orange pair to ring, so don't disconnect that as you'll never get a phone call.

You can always try a new filter, but it's also worth trying a new router. I've seen speed increase from 1mb/s to 3mb/s by changing only the router.

 

[eon172]

I used to work on development of the sky routers, and it's simply all about the noise, which you need to minimise. So all the above above advice is good, if wired to spec, remove the additional pair may help, check the remaining connections are good, disconnect extensions not being used at the master socket, if possible connect the router to your master socket.

I used an active filter face plate prior to going to infinity (~£13), more efficient than a passive band pass filter. That iplate is not all that, I'll dig out the name of the plate I used.

If you push BT hard enough, they might up the gain on your line, put after you've made your changes, they'll routinely and automatically reassess your line and determine the best profile for you. Thing is, they'll always prioritise line stability over the best performance profile. You can always ask them to kick this off rather than wait for next automatic routine. Rebooting the router/disconnecting the line allot may also cause BTs system to back off to a safer profile thinking there are problems with your line.

(The above is from memory, ...it's been a while

 

[eon172]

I think it was this one....

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

 

[DannyR]

Just call Sky and ask for a filtered plate. I did and they sent a BT engineer out to fit one, test line to exchange, not cabinet and all free of charge.

They wouldn't let me fit it though!

 

[eon172]

Just call Sky and ask for a filtered plate. I did and they sent a BT engineer out to fit one, test line to exchange, not cabinet and all free of charge.

They wouldn't let me fit it though!

Result, sounds like they're upping their customer service then, or you got lucky.

 

[DannyR]

Sky customer service is brilliant, BT is shocking.

It was an openreach engineer too not BT.

 

[Brand86]

Oh really - I just bought a BT broadband accelerator (iPlate?) from Amazon for £5 and was told I could easily fit myself. Worth it?

The router is brand new so don't think it's the issue, my connection has actually been surprisingly smooth and for some reason speed is up to 1.3 to 1.4 dl speed last few times I've tried. Hardly lightning but my Xbox is working fine.

 

[Addicted]

BT tend to use Openreach anyway don't they? The whole system is a shambles when they outsource, I constantly had to wait "24 hours" for the system to update, before anything further could be done after an action was done that day, utterly retarded.

 

[DannyR]

Oh really - I just bought a BT broadband accelerator (iPlate?) from Amazon for £5 and was told I could easily fit myself. Worth it?

The router is brand new so don't think it's the issue, my connection has actually been surprisingly smooth and for some reason speed is up to 1.3 to 1.4 dl speed last few times I've tried. Hardly lightning but my Xbox is working fine.

That will fit inline of the test plate and secondary socket. But that I believe is just an attenuator. The filtered plate also fits inline but has a VDSL socket in the top part.

BT tend to use Openreach anyway don't they? The whole system is a shambles when they outsource, I constantly had to wait "24 hours" for the system to update, before anything further could be done after an action was done that day, utterly retarded.

Openreach maintain all the lines in the ground. BT are who you deal with, they are useless and all in India.

Sky used to have to go through BT then them to Openreach. Sky now go direct to Openreach as they have their own LLU's in the cabinets now, and Sky are based in the UK, well Scotland, so you can just about understand them

 

[Brand86]

It just arrived anyway, so will give it a try and see if it improves things at all. Can't get any worse! Last night was really lagging whilst playing Destiny.

Didn't realise that about Openreach, assumed it was a BT sub-brand. I guess not!

 

[Brand86]

Well the so called 'accelerator' seems to make the DL speed slower (although my ping decreased with it on!)

So that idea was no good.

Would someone be as kind to post a link to the filtered plate which was mentioned please? That's my next port of call...

 

[DannyR]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GMORGIC/?tag=cliospnet01-21

 

[Brand86]

Thanks Danny - this looks identical to the accelerator which I've already bought and tried though, is it definitely a different product?

Cheers mate

 

[DannyR]

Does your accelerator have the VDSL socket in it in the top part?

 

[Brand86]

Erm sorry to be a dunce, which bit is that in relation to the product on Amazon you linked to mate, the bit on the top left? Cheers

 

[DannyR]

Centre in the top part, above the phone socket