In other words, the Hub transfers the signal to the powerlines........? So, that being the case, I assume the other one just plugs in anywhere rather than having to use something like a series of BT discs to move the signal from one to the next??? Give me 12V DC any day......
Yes I am still interested please. Time is my enemy, hopefully I will get to come and get them some day. Do you want to pm me your address and I will send the internet over mains boxes to you ? May be worth a try.
Think of powerline network adaptors as virtual Cat5e cable - the ones than Alan has are one of the 2nd generation AV200 - they are rated based on their potential max throughput but this is all theoretical - when tested they never reach the stated speed in real world conditions. The ones in the first link I posted are the latest generation - AV2000 but also have the additional feature that one of them also contains a Wireless access point - this is the simplest plug and play solution you will find. Based on your current internet speed the ones that Alan has should be fast enough but if you do get a faster connection then they may become a bottleneck. As previously described in order to use your spare TP-Link router as an access point you will need to change it’s settings - if you let me know the model number I can provide you with instructions. It’s always a good idea to make sure your master socket is wired properly as @Topolino described but the real limiting factor is the distance from the exchange and the quality of every wire and connection in between. BT won’t go end to end making sure every single connection is perfect to give you a better internet connection as it simply cost too much in man hours. Fibre to the cabinet is much better as it places the DSLAM in the cabinet closer to your house and uses fibre to get back to your local exchange. This enables much higher speeds due to the shorter distance and reduced number of joins required on your copper wires. If your local cabinet has already been FTTC enabled it should simply a case of changing your BT broadband product.
The cabinet is actually 1.52km from my house with the exchange at 1 mile away from the house. All the joints between the JB23 in my back garden to the BT entry point were done by me, so I know they are good. The jointing over the road in a huge concrete manhole is inside a ski-boot cover.....but as the manhole fills with water, it drains across the road in the copper wire ducting into the JB23....!! The copper wire across the road is probably 15 years old, but the main copper wire back to the cabinet is so old; laid in 1962, about 6" below the verge; has been damaged, cut, joined so many times by farm vehicles; grip cutting etc; that it gets water in it.....the chances are all those joints are now green with corrosion. So I guess you are probably right that FTTC would be logical solution which is why I will chat to BT about it. However, I am not particularly interested in improving the broadband speed unless that will improve the wifi area of coverage which is all I need to do so I can get a wifi signal for my phone in the workshop. I no longer work so I don't need to be sending or receiving huge files by email / internet anymore, thus I am no longer a slave to my powerful PC (XP Pro SP3) or phone. (If technology worked by using petrol or cordite I would be a lot better at it). I guess I shall be unscrewing the phone sockets to see what I have and take some photos for you to see.......can't do it at the moment though because I have another PC (W10) which is updating.....going to use that instead of the big one. I want to reduce my electricity consumption but it seems that whatever I do to reduce it, something else has to be plugged in.....!!!!
Ahh - 1.52 KM to the cab and with all of that old cable and joins - I’m doubtful that FTTC is going to be an option for you and even if it was you wouldn’t see any real gains. The EE 4G option would definitely give you a better speed - but at a cost. If that’s not your priority then it won’t have any effect on your WiFi coverage - for that see previous options. LED lighting everywhere for electricity reduction!
I think the fibre running past the house is actually from the cabinet. I know it is in the verge opposite but if you look back to my house photo you can see why it is underground. At the top of the hill (at the right side of the photo) fibre is overhead on the poles. Those 400,000 volt overhead cables cross the road at the very right hand end of my plot. That is why the basic mobile phone signal is bad here, plus the house sits low down in a valley. If I go to the horizon behind the house I can get all manner of Wifi networks on my mobile. Yep, LED everywhere as near as dammit (but if not LED, several bulbs are only 25w so in a group lampholder maximum 100w), but my big PC is a heavy user as well. Security lights are all seconds only ON.
I see what you are getting at. Unless your contact at BT has an awful lot of clout you won’t get them to splice into the fibre outside your home and give you a FTTP circuit - maybe if you were a business and would pay the installation charge and a hefty 3 year contract, but for home users FTTP is an expensive dream in most areas. For FTTC they would actually have to install a new CAB outside your house and install a DSLAM in there just for you - still not really a viable option - and only then if they laid enough fibre in the first place to allow it and could get an electricity supply to it.
I wonder where would they get an electricity supply from. Mine comes through my neighbour's property (where the trees are next to mine, and it doesn't serve his house!!) and then behind my house on my land.........all overhead. Is the DSLAM the big green cabinet that are usually roadside? I am going to PM you a google map shot to give you an idea of what we have here. I will do it later.
The DSLAM is the equipment they install inside the big green Cabs when they convert them to FTTC capable - it’s basically the same as you currently connect to at the exchange but using a different flavour of ADSL technology optimised for high speed over short distance. The DSLAM’s carry line cards and the copper connects into them - they then multiplex DSL traffic from the customer lines over the fibre connection back to the Exchange. (Not always, but you get the idea)
OK....Update, My contact phoned me today and understood my query. I was put through to a Tech guy allied to BT Sales. He understood the query. He told me I can upgrade to fibre at a minimal extra cost, but it is likely any increase in current speed would be marginal. They can only guarantee speeds up to 20mb in this area, the average being around 15. Personally I don't really comprehend that as other people on the same BT route in my immediate area have upgraded to fibre. However, I don't know what speeds they are getting.
There is a maximum distance for FTTC to work - your CAB is almost as far away from you as your exchange - therefore switching from ADSL2+ which is the product you are currently on to FTTC will make little difference as the same ADSL technology is being used. The benefits of FTTC come from the fact that the DSLAM in the cabinet is closer to you than it would be in the exchange - you aren’t really gaining anything as the CAB isn’t really that close to you. In fact if it was any further away they probably wouldn’t allow you to have it as you would reach the distance that that particular version of ADSL ceases to function reliably. On the internet speed increase front you have reached the limit of your options, unless as I suggested above you look at EE and an external antenna on your roof.
Seems like the best option is to send letters.........even that method is quicker than in some areas, but it can be a problem when the postman's horse is ill. It does seem a bit odd, though........because when I walk the dawg around the area, I see new green cabinets cropping up in rural locations which are more than a few miles from any conurbations. All have got a big sticker across on them saying 'Superfast broadband is here'
Our house is not huge but we had issues getting WiFi throughout. When I was looking into it, there were basically two options: range extenders, which received the signal over your WiFi, then repeated it. These were basically crap. We went for the other option, which is to send the signal through the ring main via plug in modules. The sender end is connected to the main hub via an Ethernet cable. This is located by our pc. The other module is plugged in by our tv and broadcasts a second network and phones etc automatically connect to whichever is the stronger signal. The unit by the tv also connects to the tv via another ethernet cable, thus providing the internet tv with s nice strong signal. It works a treat and came from pc world for 80 quid or so. You can have as many secondary plug in modules as you like.
Yep those are the cabs that have been FTTC enabled - check which one you are connected to and all of the services available using this https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ if your house is old then it may not be connected to the closest Cab to you
Been following the thread out of idle curiosity to see if there’s anything I can learn. There always is. Our house is large & sprawling with very thick stone walls in many places and the internet connection entry point was at one side of the house, ‘miles’ away from our youngest daughter’s bedroom and the living room where the TV was. I bought 100m of Cat6 Ethernet cable designed for outside runs and ran a few lines discreetly around the house and back in through the respective window frames. Plugged a WiFi router in on each of the 3 extension points and job done. Super fast WiFi & internet access throughout the house.
Checked with four neighbours that would be on the same broadband route in this area. They have all paying for fibre broadband; whereas I am on wired broadband. They have confirmed the best speeds they get are 18-20mb max download as opposed to the 15-ish that I am getting (I have just found out another one on fibre is getting speeds half of what mine are, but it transpires there is a fault on his line or in the road). Seems like the Tech guy at BT Sales isn't bullshitting me when he says it wouldn't be that much of an improvement if I switched to fibre.
I used that dsl checker......it says FTTP on demand is available in the resulting chart ; but in the text immediately under the chart the first line is: ........FTTP not available....... It also says VDSL Range A Clean Low range has the same speeds I get. It also says for this range WBC and FTTC are available at those speeds (probably in the Range A Clean High Range) All ADSL WBC are nowhere near my speeds....all lower. Not worth changing to fibre yet IMO from what I have learned.
