Telephone wire fiddling

[Colin]

Hello everybody,

I'm a new O2 user, moved house two weeks ago but only got round to setting up the router last night. These are my stats, using the test socket underneath the master socket:

Uptime: 0 days, 0:43:17
DSL Type: G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,269 / 9,226
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]: 0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 15.5 / 29.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 6.0 / 6.5
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 15,730
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 36 / 0

The reason for my post is I'm looking for some guidance on taking out the orange ringwire. I previously used Be Broadband at a flat and the connection started out at around 7 or 8Mb/s. I did some research and removed the ringwire, installed an ADSL Nation faceplate filter and my speeds nearly trebled to about 22Mb/s. It was a ridiculously simple improvement to make - yank out the orange wire, and push the blue/white and white/blue into the correct terminals of the faceplate.

My new home is more complicated. The first thing is that blue/white and white/blue telephone wires were not connected to the terminals on the back of the BT faceplate. From pictures 9 and 10 below, you can see none of them have an exposed end. How would I get them connected to my ADSL Nation faceplate filter?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3714194/DSC00010.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3714194/DSC00011.JPG

The second thing is that the orange (and green) wires were also disconnected.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3714194/DSC00009.JPG

I guess my query is if there is anything for me to do. The wiring is a little baffling. It is totally different to the flat where the wires were mounted onto the back of the BT master socket. I'd like to get the blue/white and white/blue wires connected to the faceplace filter but am unsure what the effect would be.

Hope someone with a spare Saturday is able to help.

[Saturday]

That wiring looks a right mess

Are you sure that's your master? I can see that it is a master socket (NTE5) but it isn't wired correctly. Is it possible someone has run a spur of the real master and used an NTE5 instead of a normal extension socket?

First thing to check is to follow the BT cable from outside to where it enters your home. Is it going to that socket first? If so, where is the other cable going (there are two visible in your photos)?

Assuming you can correctly identify and access your master then sorting the wiring should be very straightforward though a BT engineer would be able to ensure all is correct. I've known people approach BT engineers working nearby or outside the exchange and asking for a favour in return for a small consideration. Going through official channels will cost £120+.

[Colin]

Thanks for that. I scanned the outside of the house but was unsure what the housing for the BT cable would look like. Any tips?

I fiddled around with the wiring tonight. It turned out that the blue/white and white/blue wires were mounted to the back of the NTE5's top half (the one that is normally not taken off). I took the wires off that, connected them to my faceplate filter and got these new speeds:

Uptime:	0 days, 0:21:02
DSL Type:	G.992.5 annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:	1,261 / 13,515
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [kB/kB]:	0.00 / 0.00
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]:	12.0 / 19.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]:	15.5 / 29.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]:	6.5 / 7.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote):	TMMB / BDCM
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote):	0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote):	0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down):	0 / 485
CRC Errors (Up/Down):	0 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down):	1,135 / 0

An improvement but not as big as I was expecting. It was more than 14,000kbps at one point but I've turned my modem on and off about a dozen times in the past 48 hours so the line is probably a bit borked. I hope that doesn't damage anything permanently.

I noticed my attenuation and SN margin are higher than before, probably due to constantly turning the modem on and off. Will they drop over the next few days as O2 tests my connection? Or can I give them a call and ask them to start over?

Slightly tempted to set my alarm for 5am and restart the modem then to avoid all the electrical interference.

Colin

[Saturday]

Assuming you're in a house and it's not a recent new build, the BT drop wires are normally terminated in a small grey box on an outside wall.

ADSL sync speed is dependent on attenuation and line quality. Your attenuation at 29db limits your speed to a maximum of ~16.5meg. You're getting 13.5meg so the shortfall will be down to line quality, probably your internal wiring but also the BT line.

Your noise margin should always be ~6db immediately after a reboot so it is what you'd expect and nothing to worry about.

Rebooting at 5am may well give you an extra meg or so but at the expense of a lower noise margin at "noisier" times of the day and possible stability issues. Do you really need every last ounce of speed available? If you're keen to try then you need to get the line as clean as possible and then ask O2 to drop you to a 3db profile. Personally, I'm not sure I'd do more than try and get the wiring a bit better.