How to speed up broadband!

[Andymacselespeed]

I live a long way away from my local BT exchange and my neighbourhood has not been cable TV'd. Both of these things mean my broadband speed is pants. At best I used to get 2-2.5Mbps. Today I changed my old fashioned, twin phone socket (of which only one socket actually works) for a spangly new BT i-plate master socket. The speed is now up to 3.5-3.8Mbps. So about a 50% improvement for £7.99. Bit of a bonus that! No changes at all to the rest of the system, same PC, same router etc. My phone line sounds clearer too.

BT reckon that my maximum line speed is 3.5Mbps so I'm quite pleased.

The i-plate screens your line from interference caused by telephone extensions in the house (which I have one of to my computer)

Just thought I'd share

 

[Eklipze3k]

Where'd you get it?

 

[karbineftw]

I'd like to see more results though, not just one guy. Might be luck

 

[Eklipze3k]

I'd like to see more results though, not just one guy. Might be luck

I'm willing to spend £7.99 to find out, my b'band is silly slow too.

 

[karbineftw]

I wish I could afford £7.99 :'(

 

[Andymacselespeed]

It was a flea bay special

Here is the one I bought. Only thing I didn;t do was specificaly ask for the instructions but a quick google found the correct colour cable to use.

i-plate master socket for BT use

Fitting is like this.

Unscrew old master socket, pull out wires, connect wires to new face plate using supplied tool, screw in new face plate. Run speedtest and enjoy results!

Now strictly speaking, the master socket in a house is still the property of BT and shouldn't be changed by anyone except BT, but they charge £100 call out, plus £50 for the part to fit it! It is only two wires, swap like for like.

The new i-plate models have a filter on the bell wire so it reduces in house interference especially on extension runs. I'd probably get even better speed by plugging router directly into the master socket and then running CAT 5e cables to the PC, but I don't want to!

Now, as already suggested, I am but 'one guy' and as such take my word with pinch of salt. I am 3.5km from my exchange. About as far as copper broadband goes, results will vary!

 

[panda1408]

We had one of these fitted a while ago, BT sent out an engineer because we were having broadband problems and he fitted it for free. It increased the speed from 2.5Mbps to 3.5Mbps, so they do work.

 

[Rigby]

Does this differ from just disconneting the bell wire?

 

[colin79666]

Does this differ from just disconneting the bell wire?

It has much the same effect. BT will provide some BT broadband customers with the iplate for free if you ask them for it.

 

[Andymacselespeed]

Problem is that if you just disconnect the bell wire, your phone won't ring!

 

[custard]

you paid more than buying it from BT?

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-iplate---bt-broadband-accelerator-58LT.html?q=iplate

 

[colin79666]

Problem is that if you just disconnect the bell wire, your phone won't ring!

No - only old phones use it. Modern phones don't need it.

 

[ChrisUK]

No - only old phones use it. Modern phones don't need it.

:yeahthat:

And I went from 4.2ish to 5.8mbits Was probably down to two rather long extensions.

It's designed for people who don't know what a bell wire is :devil:

 

[Andymacselespeed]

you paid more than buying it from BT?

http://www.shop.bt.com/products/bt-iplate---bt-broadband-accelerator-58LT.html?q=iplate

I did! I like to help smaller companies by over paying, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling all over - I also buy fruit and veg at not very local farm instead of tesco fir same reason, plus good excuses to go for a drive!

To be honest I thought 7 1/2 quid delivered was fine price to pay! Bt wanted £100 plus to come and fit one as they told me it's illegal to tamper with the bt master socket and as I'm not a bt customer I'd pay full call out plus labour! Hence 7 quid fine!