Realist
17/01/2007, 18:29
Found this post on another forum, may come in handy for someone here:
How far are you from the BT telephone exchange. not just as the crow flies, but cable distance? If you are more than 3.2Km (2 miles) from the exchange, it is likely that the "free" modems supplied by most ISPs won't work too well. The speed and reliability of your connection is primarily dependent on distance and the quality of BT's external cabling. Better quality modems can be more sensitive and provide higher speed/reliablity.
What modem are you using?
Do you have any background noise on the line? Lift the handset and dial 0 to clear the dial tone, is there any hum or crackle? This could indicate a BT line fault.
If you have a modern BT Master socket, known as an NTE5, there is a lower section which you can remove to reveal a socket behind. All internal wiring should be connected to the front plate and will therefore be disconnected when you remove it. Plug your microfilter into the revealed socket.
Check to make sure you only have one Master socket, this should either be an NTE5 or in older installations all sockets will look the same externally. To check whether a socket is a Master or Secondary, remove the face plate and look at the PCB (Printed Circuit Board). Don't worry about getting an electric shock, phone lines use low voltage and unless your hands are wet and someone rings you number when you touch the wires you're unlikely to feel anything. If the PCB is blank with just white markings, then it's a secondary. If there are two or three components (a capacitor, a resistor and sometimes a spark arrestor) then it's a Master. If you have more than one Master, either replace the socket or remove the components from all except one, it's best that the single Master socket is located where the line enters the building.
If the ADSL modem works directly on the line with internal wiring disconnected, check the type of wiring used. Many cheap DIY extension kits and extension cables use "flat" cable which is OK for phone connections, but can cause problems with the high frequency ADSL signal. Good quality internal cable has the wires twisted in pairs, known as "twisted pair" cable!! Genuine BT phone cables that are older than about 20 years maybe also be unsuitable, old 4 wire cables are usually configured as a quad rather than twisted pair, they can be identified by the wiring colours, Blue, Orange, Green and Brown.
Some houses that used to have the old style round BT plug and socket system installed before the mid 1980s may still be cabled with 8 wire cable, these are twisted pair with a solid colour of Blue, Orange, Green and Brown each paired with its own White wire. The problem occurs when the White wires get disassociated from their correct colour or where only the solid colours have been used.
Another common error is to use burglar alarm cabling for phone extensions, this can usually be identified by the colours used for the individual wires in the cable.
Modern (since mid 1980s) twisted pair phone wiring and CAT5 networking cable have individual wires as follows:-
The first colour is the dominant colour.
Pair 1 - Blue/White & White/Blue
Pair 2 - Orange/White & White Orange
Pair 3 - Green/White & White/Green
Pair 4 - Brown/White & White/Brown
The wiring of the phone sockets with modern phone or CAT5/6 cabling should be:-
Pin 2 - Blue/White
Pin 3 - Orange/White
Pin 5 - White/Blue
Pins 1, 4 & 6 are not normally required.
Burglar alarm cable is usually more flexible as the wires are usually multistranded rather than single stranded for phone and CAT5/6 and the wires are generally not paired, the colours are often, Black, White, Red & Yellow.
If you identify that the internal wiring is the problem and don't want to go to the trouble of replacing it, consider using HomePlug technology. This is a method where computer networking signals (Ethernet) can be passed over your Mains Electric wiring. You can either purchase a specialised ADSL router with HomePlug builtin and a remote HomePlug adapter or if your existing ADSL modem has an Ethernet port, just purchase two HomePlug adapters. HomePlug comes in two variants 14Mbit/s & 85Mbit/s, if you only want to use ADSL, then 14Mbit/s is sufficient, but if you want to network two or more computers and share data/printers between them then the 85Mbit/s units might be more appropriate. Note that the specialised ADSL routers only work at 14Mbit/s over HomePlug. These products can be purchased from Solwise www.solwise.co.uk (http://www.solwise.co.uk/).
Regards,
How far are you from the BT telephone exchange. not just as the crow flies, but cable distance? If you are more than 3.2Km (2 miles) from the exchange, it is likely that the "free" modems supplied by most ISPs won't work too well. The speed and reliability of your connection is primarily dependent on distance and the quality of BT's external cabling. Better quality modems can be more sensitive and provide higher speed/reliablity.
What modem are you using?
Do you have any background noise on the line? Lift the handset and dial 0 to clear the dial tone, is there any hum or crackle? This could indicate a BT line fault.
If you have a modern BT Master socket, known as an NTE5, there is a lower section which you can remove to reveal a socket behind. All internal wiring should be connected to the front plate and will therefore be disconnected when you remove it. Plug your microfilter into the revealed socket.
Check to make sure you only have one Master socket, this should either be an NTE5 or in older installations all sockets will look the same externally. To check whether a socket is a Master or Secondary, remove the face plate and look at the PCB (Printed Circuit Board). Don't worry about getting an electric shock, phone lines use low voltage and unless your hands are wet and someone rings you number when you touch the wires you're unlikely to feel anything. If the PCB is blank with just white markings, then it's a secondary. If there are two or three components (a capacitor, a resistor and sometimes a spark arrestor) then it's a Master. If you have more than one Master, either replace the socket or remove the components from all except one, it's best that the single Master socket is located where the line enters the building.
If the ADSL modem works directly on the line with internal wiring disconnected, check the type of wiring used. Many cheap DIY extension kits and extension cables use "flat" cable which is OK for phone connections, but can cause problems with the high frequency ADSL signal. Good quality internal cable has the wires twisted in pairs, known as "twisted pair" cable!! Genuine BT phone cables that are older than about 20 years maybe also be unsuitable, old 4 wire cables are usually configured as a quad rather than twisted pair, they can be identified by the wiring colours, Blue, Orange, Green and Brown.
Some houses that used to have the old style round BT plug and socket system installed before the mid 1980s may still be cabled with 8 wire cable, these are twisted pair with a solid colour of Blue, Orange, Green and Brown each paired with its own White wire. The problem occurs when the White wires get disassociated from their correct colour or where only the solid colours have been used.
Another common error is to use burglar alarm cabling for phone extensions, this can usually be identified by the colours used for the individual wires in the cable.
Modern (since mid 1980s) twisted pair phone wiring and CAT5 networking cable have individual wires as follows:-
The first colour is the dominant colour.
Pair 1 - Blue/White & White/Blue
Pair 2 - Orange/White & White Orange
Pair 3 - Green/White & White/Green
Pair 4 - Brown/White & White/Brown
The wiring of the phone sockets with modern phone or CAT5/6 cabling should be:-
Pin 2 - Blue/White
Pin 3 - Orange/White
Pin 5 - White/Blue
Pins 1, 4 & 6 are not normally required.
Burglar alarm cable is usually more flexible as the wires are usually multistranded rather than single stranded for phone and CAT5/6 and the wires are generally not paired, the colours are often, Black, White, Red & Yellow.
If you identify that the internal wiring is the problem and don't want to go to the trouble of replacing it, consider using HomePlug technology. This is a method where computer networking signals (Ethernet) can be passed over your Mains Electric wiring. You can either purchase a specialised ADSL router with HomePlug builtin and a remote HomePlug adapter or if your existing ADSL modem has an Ethernet port, just purchase two HomePlug adapters. HomePlug comes in two variants 14Mbit/s & 85Mbit/s, if you only want to use ADSL, then 14Mbit/s is sufficient, but if you want to network two or more computers and share data/printers between them then the 85Mbit/s units might be more appropriate. Note that the specialised ADSL routers only work at 14Mbit/s over HomePlug. These products can be purchased from Solwise www.solwise.co.uk (http://www.solwise.co.uk/).
Regards,