Extending a Telephone Line for Broadband

[Spinney]

I live in an old house with very thick walls, and am successfully using the powerline thingies (you can get them with wifi, so you can have several wifi broadcasting points in the house).
My broadband speed is not great, but I have not investigated how much of this is due to a low speed availablility in the village (which is complained about by many residents) and/or if my powerlines are also responsible for slowing it down a bit. But it was far easier than running new wires around the house.

 

[Ciar]

I use a netgear extender in our house, hada the router moved into the loft from our bedroom, mainly because at night it looked like we had a mini amusement park in the corner of the room it seems to work pretty well, my apple tv 2 on the ground floor connects to the extender and streams movies/netflix without issue.

 

[mchunt]

I've tried to do something similar to you and run into problems. For many months I was able to run the router from the extension socket, but at some point the quality of the connection deteriorated and the ADSL signal kept dropping out.

My ISP and BT both refuse to take any responsibility for for problems with the ADSL connection if the router is plugged into an extension, rather than the master socket, so I ended up having to move the router back to the master socket and run CAT 5 cable instead.

More recently I had problems with the connection in the master socket, and was told to remove the front plate and plug my router into the internal test socket of the master socket. According to my ISP BT is responsible for everything up to the test socket, but the front plate is the customer's responsibility. I am not sure if entirely believe this, but haven't had time to look into it.

Anyway, based on my experience I would suggest you either get the master socket moved to where you want it, which will cost £120, or run CAT 5 cable instead.

I work for an ISP and everything that is beyond the internal test socket on the master socket is the responsibility of the end user, using the test socket isolates any other extensions and other telephone equipment (including sky boxes which can be particularly problematic with the dodgy extension cabling some of their installers put in)

Most broadband speed problems can be solved by connecting an ethernet cable to the router rather than using wireless and ensuring the router is in the master socket (or better still the test socket). Always always extend using Ethernet rather than using a phone extension cable. I use homeplugs at home to supply the net over the power circuitry and it works really well, but it can cause interference with some radio frequencies so if you have a radio nerd nearby you may get moaned at!

 

[ufkacbln]

I simply got an extension lead!

 

[Tanis8472]

Those powerline adapters are also not legal if you look into them a bit more closely.
I wont go into details, but they emit radio signals many, many, many times stronger than is allowed.
It turns the house into a HUGE aerial.

 

[Broadside]

Those powerline adapters are also not legal if you look into them a bit more closely.
I wont go into details, but they emit radio signals many, many, many times stronger than is allowed.
It turns the house into a HUGE aerial.

So BT are deploying products that are illegal. Interesting.

 

[Octet]

Thanks for all the replies, I hadn't realised the thread was still be posted in... for some reason I didn't get the usual alerts.

Anyway, after consideration of all the views, I think I might just stick with a PDSL and a CAT cable. Should some hassle, if worst comes to worst I might setup an old router as a repeater.

Those powerline adapters are also not legal if you look into them a bit more closely.
I wont go into details, but they emit radio signals many, many, many times stronger than is allowed.
It turns the house into a HUGE aerial.

Hmm, something I might look into as a bit of bed time reading.

 

[PaulSB]

There was a previous discussion on power line adapters and one person posted a link to a large and quite technical document explaining the how and why of their being illegal.

I don't have the knowledge to discuss that aspect but it does seem odd a company of BT's size and standing would widely offer an illegal product.

 

[Tanis8472]

Because of the profit thy can make

Probably this one

 

[Octet]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that article.

 

[Octet]

The website seems to be focusing on the extremes....

The world trade centre terrorist attacks, global communications coming to a halt etc.

Equally, from what I gather (correct me if I'm wrong), it is only really affecting older and in many ways obsolete technology

 

[Tanis8472]

I wouldn't call DAB or FM radio obsolete
I cant get DAB here atm because of a LOT of interference.
It also will have implications for ILS that the airports use for our convenient flights

That's only one of several sites that all say the same issues.
You need to dig considerably to get to the way that they have been sold without passing emission tests etc.

 

[Octet]

I shall give an engineer a call and see how much it is to have them extend the line. If it isn't too much then I might go down that route.

 

[Owen135]

http://www.devolo.co.uk/consumer/77..._starter-kit_product-presentation_1.html?l=en
Works as a booster, plug into one socket, plug adapter into any other socket in your house and puts out a wifi signal. I use one and it is brilliant!

(Sorry if I misread your question/if this is too late.)

 

[Owen135]

Never used this but looks the same but cheaper:http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/netwo...Bid=t&ef_id=US-ARAAAAbrXzYDT:20130714144228:s