Rock Solid DSL Connection ... but flakey physical connection

[CyberDrac]

At the moment I have a rock steady connection through O2, but in order to achieve that I am having to jury rig my connection to the socket.

The story ... I noticed that whenever anyone put anything in the magazine rack next to the socket the connection would drop, so I thought dodgy DSL Filter, which I swapped, but the same thing used to happen. My next thought was dodgy faceplate and off it came and I plugged it directly into the master socket, but the same thing continued to happen.

I currently have to prop up the ADSL filter vertically so that it doesn't physically drop within the socket and in turn drop the line. I occasionally have to reposition it and I can listen to the phone and tell immediately when it is correctly positions because I get an immediate clear dial tone when I've got it right.

The question ... would fitting a new filtered face plate make any difference or is my master socket basically so screwed that it wouldn't make any difference?

Thanks in advance

Rob 'CyberDrac' King

[Isitme]

It sounds like the socket in your faceplate is badly worn or the filter plug is worn. Fitting a new faceplate, preferably a filtered one should fix it.

[CyberDrac]

So the faceplates which you can purchase will replace the master socket rather than just plug into it?

[RUNITDIRECT]

Do you have an NTE5 type socket? If you do then it could be either the front plate OR the middle plate at fault. Would recommend replacing the NTE5 AND fitting a filtered faceplate.

[CyberDrac]

Yes, it is a NTE5 type socket, and since the symptom is identical (as described previously) in both the outer socket (faceplate?) and inner socket (middle/master?) I'll probably be taking your recommendation.

Question 1 ... how hard is it to replace the NTE5 box yourself?
Question 2 ... should I just as Sky/BT to sort out the back part while I sort out the filtered faceplate?

[RUNITDIRECT]

(1) VERY easy, there is a fitting guide in our support forums. If you look at the back of the current socket you will see two connections marked A & B, these need to be removed & then replaced on the new socket. On the front lower half you will see connections 2, 3 & 5(there may be more but these can be IGNORED). Again remove these and then replicate on the new ADSL faceplate.

You will need an IDC tool to do this, two verions, PRO & cheap throw away. For just one job like this the cheap tool will be fine.
(2) I guess you could but for the price of the socket i would DIY, much less hassle.

[CyberDrac]

So if I order an IDCTP (it'll be useful for work), a BTADSLFP6W, and a SMBTNTE5, then I should be sorted, unless you can think of a better combination.

[RUNITDIRECT]

Yes that should be it, is your router on an extension or do you normally plug into the master? If on an extension then these can improve speed pretty well(obviously depends on quality of original cable/installation) :-

NTE2000 ADSL Extension Kit, 10M

10 & 30 metre versions available. Basically a dedicated extension for the modem/router using good quality CAT5 spec. cable.

[CyberDrac]

I'm currently plugging in directly to the main socket using a longer version (I think 5m) of an ADSL cable (RJ11 at both ends?), when I did this I did do a comparison with the 2m cable provided and there was no difference in statistics from the Router and so I'm hoping that is as good as I'm likely to get.

OK, I've queued up the purchase in PayPal, did I correctly hear mention of a site member discount in one of the articles I read?

[RUNITDIRECT]

5m patch cable will be fine. I'll PM you the dicount code now.