Can someone answer questions from a broadband ignoramous?

[NewsreadeR]

did you connect any of the wires on the back of it?

From what you have described its highly unlikely the faceplate, unless it is faulty

[Muppet13]

Yes, connected wires from old face plate to sockets 2, 3 and 5 leaving sockets A and B clear. Interestingly, I connected the router to the test socket without the test socket and my router stats were unchanged from stats when ADSL filter socket was fitted but download speeds on www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk were still poor (about 700kbps). Before I even purchased the filter socket my router stats were even better still (unfortunately I can't remember my download speeds at this point though)

[NewsreadeR]

are the wires blue and white, white and blue, and orange?

If so try disconnecting the orange one