Master Socket Issue

noiseboy72

ADSL filters are not great with VDSL connections. I would replace the face plate on the master socket with one with built in filtering.

It's normally best to ensure that the modem is plugged directly into the master socket whenever possible. Household telephone extensions were not really designed for broadband and the cable characteristics might not be great. You could consider re-wiring the extension with some Cat5e cable, as this will improve things.

outoftheknow

VDSL and back to base alarms relying on POTS/PSTN phone lines don’t tend to work together at all IME.

If the phone socket is providing FTTC there is no old fashioned phone line and the back to base alarms don’t work unless they are clearly made to be compatible. Over here where nearly all our internet if FTTN (mode/cabinet same thing), we were basically told to change alarms to add a unit to use 3G or 4G for back to base. An alarm from 2006 is unlikely to be capable.

Are you sure the back to base alarm function. Is working? I would have thought you need it connected to a normal phone line and not your FTTC copper line personally.

Note I am not familiar with BT/Openreach delivery of FTTC but the technology says once your copper phone line is connected to a VDSL DSLAM (node) in the cabinet, old fashioned POTs/PSTN telephony is not connected the other side - only fibre hence VOIP only for calls.

The ADSL DSLAMs at the telephone exchange have the copper telephone network connected as well - that is where filters are required at the house end as well.

noiseboy72

The majority of phone lines will still have ordinary telephony capabilities, so the alarm will continue to work. The issue is more likely to be poor filtering or general line capabilities due to the cable characteristics.

sep8001

Spoke to the alarm man and he will pop round in the next few days to add a filter.

I will update the thread once done, I just hope it is not the extension going to the upstairs room.

Thank you all for the suggestion and help.

outoftheknow

Yes I think we are unique in the national deployment of internet. A new company bought all the telephone copper with the plan being to connect internet to every home using a variety of technologies and disconnect the telephone copper 18 months after the national broadband connection is available in your area. Coexistence is 18 months whereas I believe over there VDSL is being mostly being added to coexist.

Personally due to the differences between V and A DSL as noted in this thread, I would be trying to remove POTS from my line. Filtering is more difficult and less effective and even coexistence slows VDSL. BT still aren’t using vectoring I believe. That also means lower speeds from the get go (compared to vectoring). Internal wiring to other sockets often mucks up the speed of VDSL too.

If you have FTTC it is best IMO to embrace it and get the other technology disconnected. Disconnect all extensions and plug the modem in to the master socket. Use VOIP and wired or wireless network around the home. Cordless phones either analogue you already be have with an ATA, or IP phones. Either way one base unit and as many handsets as you need using one ethernet port. Change the alarm to one that uses GSM - at least one that doesn’t use POTS telephony.

Your VDSL speed and stability will be the best you will get.

Somebody said they were getting FTTP with a copper core so the phone is still there. That’s perfect and I would take that if available. Otherwise embrace FTTC and get rid of the historical phone infrastructure

EndlessWaves

That solution may be mainstream in Australia, but it's not so in the UK and they'd be going through the early adopter experience if they went down that road which isn't for everyone.

VDSL in the UK is limited to 80Mbps so if he gets 60-70Mbps there's only limited speed improvement available. It's unlikely to be worth the expense of ATAs and routing new ethernet cables through the house (the majority of UK homes are plaster on brick, so running cables internally is a messy job even when there's no wallpaper or fittings in the way).

The FTTP rollout has only reached around a million of the 30 million UK premises so while it's accelerating, it's still quite a niche option. Tom2000 was very lucky to get it in a rural location this early on.

outoftheknow

No worries I am aware of the differences of course. The science is the same though and if you have FTTC, VDSL2 speeds are affected by the same things there as they are here.

The alarm is pulling his speed down significantly and filtering VDSL isn’t as easy as ADSL. For the OPs issue the alarm is almost certain to be the problem and they are re sorting that it seems.

Moving forward though the phone service over copper can be replaced by VOIP or mobiles. Once you have an FTTC connection you will get the best possible performance from it by removing the coexisting phone service and all internal copper leaving only the master socket.

The  internal stuff is how you do home networking regardless of connection technology  so I wasn’t intending to link that to his issue - very few use ethernet cables but wifi is fine providing you go decent equipment and use repeaters appropriately.

Extension sockets for the phone used for the VDSL modem work - but that internal wiring can cause issues with the internet and lead to people buying new modems and blaming their ISP.

Anyway the OP seems to be on the right track -  I was merely providing general advice about getting the best out of your FTTC connection and being confident when it turns to crap it is a fault that can be fixed outside of the master socket.

sep8001

Update

Alarm man has been and put in a filter near the alarm, speed has gone up to around 40mbps when connected to the master socket and to the extension up stairs.

When I plug into to the test socket the speed is higher, I have also tried disconnecting the phone which is connected to the up stairs but still no change.

Anything else to try?

Thank you

noiseboy72

So it's something in your household wiring that's slowing down your network.

It could be either the alarm wiring, the extension or most likely, a combination of both.

I would suggest that you run a new Cat5e cable to upstairs and use a filtered master socket - which will reduce but not remove the effects of the extension cables. Run the modem / VDSL connection via a pair on the Cat5 to the VDSL output on the master socket and make sure the alarm and extension are on the filtered phone output. This is the type of face plate I think you will need. Solwise ADSL-VDSLFACE-SOL VDSL Faceplate Splitter, White

This will give you the best separation possible without getting a new alarm. IT all depends on whether you can easily run a new cable for the router.

You could of course site your modem next to the master socket, but that may not be practical.

Trollslayer

Or plug a DECT phone base into a socket by the faceplate above and have the DECT phone(s) where you want with power supply cradles.