Do they just stop working for some reason? Why would that be?

I think they have capacitors in them. Caps can go pop after a while. (Especially ultra cheap low quality ones)

Swap it for a proper faceplate if you are having to buy something, hate those dangly things. Might squeeze a little more speed too.

Hijack….

I have a bt master socket that’s got a removable faceplate. I have a fixed extension socket in there I just wired in and our router plugs into that via a ISP supplied filter. Tinternet slow the other night, ISP says change filter, filter changed and things seem ok.

What’s the alternative to these cheap nasty filters? Also the cheap nasty extension box kits that places like b&q sell. Would I just be better buying some good cat 5 cable and some sort of good quality socket with a filter already built in?

Yes filters can fail without warning. ISP will often suggest replacement as they’re cheap and easy to swap out.
You can get built in filter faceplates, obviously they cost more than the seperate filters, but they do exactly the same thing.
You can easily wire a fitted extension into the master socket (wire into the back of the faceplate). Pins 2 + 5 only need connecting and you just run the cable where you want it and fit and extension socket.

Same as daniel_owen_uk says basically, swap it for a proper faceplate.

You want one that splits it into Phone and ADSL sockets. Internet goes into the ADSL one and phone into the other and no need for microfilters. Extension wiring should also be automatically filtered so no filters on them either, though check if the faceplate does that. I think proper BT ones do. If you ever get BT out to fix something often they’ll chuck in an ADSL faceplate while they’re at it. Good quality faceplates also snip the bell wire which normally causes interference. Bell wire is not needed these days, it was used to power a bell on old phones.

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/adsl-faceplate

Cat 5… best option is place the router near as possible to the faceplate. Short bit of RJ45 goes from router to ADSL socket, and then you can run Cat 5 from router to whatever PC(s) you like. Or use a wireless router or access point if your devices are wireless, though often the master socket is in the corner of the house and it’s the worst place for a wireless access point.

GrahamS
I think they have capacitors in them. Caps can go pop after a while.

Whilst any component can fail, the signal filter components in an ADSL filter (which are effectively just a high frequency pass filter, that lets the high speed edges of the digital data through to the router, but blocks the phone from getting those edges to avoid harmonic aliasing of the analogue voice signal) are not heavily loaded and as such are actually extremely reliable (electrolytic capacitors at high voltage or high ripple currents can overheat, dry out and fail, but the small, often ceramic capacitors and fixed inductors used in the ADSL filter are very robust at the power level it is passing (mWatts)

More likely the filter has been damaged by getting dropped, stood on, or the wire yanked about etc

Fair enough max. I assumed there were some electrolytic caps in there but I wasn’t interested enough to crack it open and take a look.

Filters do seem to go bad after a while though. I’ve had a couple go that weren’t anywhere they could get bashed or yanked.

I’d blame the guys that soldered up the board.
But that’s probably a bit unfair as they were only six.

loads of problems recently with phone crackling,internet switching off, line tests and more line tests, eventually nice indian bt chappie sent me a new adsl filter, problems stopped straight away

nte2005 is what you want.

Do they just stop working for some reason? Why would that be?

Because they’re cheap crap.