Broadband/Fibre speeds useful info/feedback

[armalites]

Altough we are rural we are only 250m from the exchange. Our broadband was ok we were getting around 6meg and for the most part that was fine but there were times when the kids were watching Youtube we would get some buffering. I had bit of a battle with Openreach/Fastershire/BT over fibre as our exchange had it.

So we finally got fibre ordered and I had decided to update the cabling in the house once it was up and running as I'd read fibre can be sensitive to wiring issues

When the fibre went live we were getting up 45meg and our contract said 52 minimum but at time during the day speed tests showed as low 20meg. This meant things were still fine for us but it was quite a variation.

There were a few different extensions in the house that weren't used and multiple links/joins.

I plugged the router into the test socket I was still getting around 45meg.

I ordered the latest NTE5 Mk4 2017 face plate, some CW1724 which is BT two pair Cat5e speed cable and some dedicated broadband-phone split faceplate for where the router sits.

So the results......... quite remarkable given our connection had always been very stable if varied.

I am now getting a solid 61-62meg and in the tests I've run it's been below that a couple of time in the last 24hrs and it only dropped to 48meg.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6659665045

So the old faceplate and wiring was robbing me almost 20meg, amazing thing is the incoming cable comes to a BT junction box with screw terminal probably from the era before plug in phones. The BT faceplate was only about 1.2m from that junction box and even that part was losing me speed even though everything was working fine.

So if you are somewhere where your broadband is marginal it may well be worth checking replacing cabling/faceplate, on ADSL it may not gain much but if you have low speeds then it could help

 

[rockweasel]

We're rural as well, but about a mile from the exchange. Just copper. I'm tempted to try your suggestion once BT gets their bums in gear and fixes the pudding joint in the multicore at the end of our road! Thanks for the info though, I'll put it on my To Do list.

 

[Johnseat]

@armalites did you go back to the exterior connection box at the top of your house or did you go back to the first face plate.
I've want to replace the whole lot in my house and also move the router downstairs so I was going to fit some new cat 5 cable from the exterior box to a new latest face plate in the front room.

 

[armalites]

I went to the junction box just inside the front door, we don't have any boxes outside, cable goes directly to the pole. You can buy outdoor cable, the beauty of the BT CW1724 and the CW1308 is they are small diameter because they only have 2 pairs which is all you need for phone and broadband.The CW1724 is supposed to be slightly better than the CW1308, I think it has tighter twists on the pairs but as it came as a cut length I have no way to be 100% The new face plate allows you filter at source so you don't need microfilters. I was doing mine yesterday and some issues so I've still got a microfilter by the router as I had to go to work and didn't want to walk out and leave no broadband in the house.

 

[julianf]

Ive read your post a couple of times, and am still unsure -

When you plugged into the test socket, the speed was still poor?

...but,

I thought the test socket was the very first entry point - ie where BTs responsibility stopped, and the home owner's started. So anything prior to the test socket was BTs call (and, i think, technically, not 'owned' by the home owner - or something?)

...so im wondering what you changed?

(this is an engineering question, not a legal one!)

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I went to the junction box just inside the front door, we don't have any boxes outside, cable goes directly to the pole. You can buy outdoor cable, the beauty of the BT CW1724 and the CW1308 is they are small diameter because they only have 2 pairs which is all you need for phone and broadband.The CW1724 is supposed to be slightly better than the CW1308, I think it has tighter twists on the pairs but as it came as a cut length I have no way to be 100% The new face plate allows you filter at source so you don't need microfilters. I was doing mine yesterday and some issues so I've still got a microfilter by the router as I had to go to work and didn't want to walk out and leave no broadband in the house.

You only need 1 pair of wires for your phone line/broadband, if you have slave (extension) sockets with old phones you need 3 wires (the extra wire is the bell wire), if you have a 'phone system' with Earth Recalling you also need 3 wires, the 3rd wire when earthed briefly gives you the transfer tone.
The reason why we fit 3 or 4 pair is for redundancy/expansion/damage repair.
Each pair has a slightly different twist count which stops crossover between the pairs, the same with Cat5 cable.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I can't see changing the cable to a different type would speed up your VDSL as it's a tiny length.
What most probably improved your speed was remaking the connections, a slightly corroded joint would have caused high resistance which would drop your speed.

 

[armalites]

Ive read your post a couple of times, and am still unsure -

When you plugged into the test socket, the speed was still poor?

...but,

I thought the test socket was the very first entry point - ie where BTs responsibility stopped, and the home owner's started. So anything prior to the test socket was BTs call (and, i think, technically, not 'owned' by the home owner - or something?)

...so im wondering what you changed?

(this is an engineering question, not a legal one!)

I replaced everything from the junction box and used a genuine Openreach Master Socket backplate and cable.

@Wendelspanswick
Yes for me is was the old box and multiple connections that was adding up. Sure the new cable is better than the old but wouldn't make that much difference except the new stuff is proper BT stuff which is pure copper. That said the cable to the router is 20m.

I've just checked the speed again and I'm solid still at 62meg

The point was my old broadband was rock solid, and even with fibre we had no issues it was just that speed tests were way off where they should have been.

My dealings with Plusnet have been very good, quick response times and speak to someone who you can understand.

I know from experience if I had raised the speed issue with Openreach they would have check the line and said it was fine. They would have sent someone who would said the line was within spec.

For less then £15 I have the same latest stuff that Openreach would "maybe" have installed.