just moved to max and idnet

[wrtpeeps]

its a round wire, but its far far too long for whats required. I have a big coil of it i had to tape up to make it tidy. Whats the max distance of rj11 before signal degrades? Also upon inspection, a few places have small chips out of the insulation.

As for the bell wire, i have no idea what that is. 

[Rik]

I've no idea what the maximum distance is, but the ideal distance is as short as possible. Better to have a long ethernet cable and the router parked next to the socket. Every joint will introduce some attenuation and any degradation of the cable is likely to add to your problems. The difficulty with Max is that it is so much more sensitive to these things than fixed-rate ADSL.

The bell wire is connected to terminal three of the sockets, often it's orange/white, but go by the terminal number. It unbalances the line, the twisted pair that carry the exchange signal are balanced and, to an extent, 'reject' noise. The ring wire, totally unnecessary these days, acts like a great big antenna and attracts noise from MW radio signals and general electrical interference. Getting rid of it is usually worth a few db, depending on your wiring topography.

[wrtpeeps]

so just to clarify, get rid of what wire, the orange/white?

[wrtpeeps]

ok, router is now plugged into master socket, and i am still at 52dB. This is very strange, why would my line increase from 37-52dB outside my house? Any ideas?

[jaydub]

ok, router is now plugged into master socket, and i am still at 52dB. This is very strange, why would my line increase from 37-52dB outside my house? Any ideas?

If you have one of the split type master sockets, unscrew the screws and plug your router directly into the test socked behind.  This removes the extension wiring from the ADSL circuit and can have a marked effect in reducing your attenuation.

If this happens, the best solution is to fit a filtered faceplate and if necessary run some cat 5 from that to wherever your router is located.

[Rik]

Hi Peeps

Just to amplify slightly on what Jaydub has told you (excellent advice), if you are unaware, when you use the test socket, you connect directly to the exchange pair, all your internal wiring is disconnected. If your figures improve dramatically, then you need to sort your wiring.

OTOH, if your attenuation stays the same, it suggests some corrosion or cable damage between you and the exchange. I doubt you will get BT to do anything about it, though, as your line is performing within spec.

[wrtpeeps]

still the same, 52dB in the test socket. Oh well. However, when i moved the router back, i got my highest ever sync:

6560/448 Kbps

[Rik]

Noise levels are probably low right now, or it may just be the frequencies you picked up are less prone to noise.

From what you say, there's nothing more you can do. If you're not happy with your speed, get IDNet to get a BT engineer out, and he can look at the line from the exchange to you.

[wrtpeeps]

Last Result:
Download Speed: 4530 kbps (566.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 361 kbps (45.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

getting better!

noise is currently    Noise Margin    5.8 dB    21.0 dB

[Rik]

Time to sit out the 10 days, I suspect.