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Thread: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

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    Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    Hi there,

    I have recently been thinking about wiring all my computers with flat ethernet cables round the house, as my wireless speeds were a bit slow. However, in my research I came accross lots of information about improving broadband itself (which is massively more of a bottleneck than my wireless connection).

    It appears that I have got two things that are an absolute killer for broadband speeds 1. An old BT Master Socket 2. An extension lead running from the Master Socket to the living room to which I have added my broaband filter and then the router.

    It would therefore seem that I need to ditch the extension lead and have the router plugged directly into the Master Socket and secondly replace the Master Socket itself.

    With regards to the Master Socket, I have read that I should get a faceplate with the filter built in and run the modem directly from the ADSL output. I have also read about the Iplate making a huge difference to Broadband speeds - do I need one of these as well as the filtered faceplate or is the Iplate only for people with a single output on their master Socket?

    Also, has anyone had any experience of actually changing their sockets and not using extension leads?

    I am currently getting 2.1 Megs at the moment, whereas speedchecker websites have prediceted that I should be getting 3.5 where I live - guess it is defeinitely worth ago.

    Would really appreciate your comments

    Thanks

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    Re: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    If you don't need the bell wire (and you don't if all your telephone devices were made in the last ten years) you can disconnect that at the master socket and save the cost of the i-plate./ All the i-plate does is filter this wire which can pivck up noise which interferes with the broadband signal. You can then spend the money on good filters (if you haven't already). Make sure that the filtered faceplate is good quality, (Solwise sell some good ones) and remember that unless you run your extensions from the filtered faceplate, you will still need filters on very other device.

    If you don't have an nte5 (BT) network termination device, you could install the filtered socket adjacent to it and connect the router there, and run cat5 from your router to where the computer is. You could then connect the extensions (minus the bell wire) to the filtered faceplate. Or you could run an extension lead (Cat 5 - but you only need two cores) from the incoming box to a filtered faceplate near where the router is located and run extensions from there.

    Note that unless you have an NTE5 device or similar, it is technically illegal to connect anything directly to BT's network. The first device must be a master socket and again legally only BT staff should fit those.
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    Re: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    Thanks for the reply.

    So in any event, I should remove the bell cable from my master socket?

    So as far as I see I have three options (depending on which type of socket I currently have).

    1. Replace my master socket with a filtered faceplate, plug my router directly into this and run an ethernet cable to my computer in the living room along with a separate extension for the phone in the living room.

    2. Add a separate filtered faceplate next to my existing master socket and wire this in with Cat5 (which I shall have to do if my master socket is the old style single faceplate).

    3. I use the same technique as point two but run the Cat5 cable into the living room instead and then connect the phone and router to the second faceplate in there.

    Is this correct?

    Secondly, would there be any major difference in broadband speed between using the second and third techniques? Sorry this is getting a bit complicated

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    Re: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    Probably no difference in broadband spped with either option - from a technical point of view I think option 2 is neater! Do you already have a master socket installed? Is it one with the detachable faceplate with another socket behind (an NTE5)?
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    Re: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    I have just got in from work and although I thought the socket wast the old type, it is in fact the new type that is split in two. The really weird thing is, the bottom plate comes off when the screws are taken out and it is not connected to anything! The master socket is just connected directly to the plate via the connector.

    I decided to do a few tests, plugging my extension lead directly into the master socket and then with the faceplate and it made almost no difference.

    I then decided to remove the two middle pins from the RJ45 connector on the extension lead and fantastically my speeds shot up from 2128kbps to 2564kbps.

    I then had a go plugging my router directly into the master socket and got speeds of 3064mbps - so it does look like that telephone extension lead has got to go!

    So given I have got the new socket and plugging directly into this gives the best speeds, what are my options now?

    Also, given that removing the two middles pins from the Rj45 connector on the extension lead gave such an impressive increase would it be worth thinking about trying to remove them from the all the connections - i.e. on the ADSL filter and the lead that goes between the router and the BT Socket?

    Thanks again, really getting somewhere with this now.

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    Re: Improving Broadband Speed with Iplate/Filtered Master Socket

    About that last post - I was speaking rubbish about the rj45 connector between the router and the router and the socket, because I have just realised that it is a rj12 to rj12 connector. Out of interest, I changed the rj12 to rj12 connector for a much smaller one and boosted my speed to 30096mbps and then decided to change the filter itself from one that had 4 pins on the rj45 to one I had lying around with only 2 and the speed went up to 3176.

    Appears that cable length and only using the two pins on your connectors is everything in maxing broadband speed.

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