My father in law has broadband through BT. The problem is he is right on the limit of the distance from the exchange. This gives him about .5mb speed which keeps dropping out.

What are the options for a decent broadband service?

Whatever happens you’d still be miles away from the exchange, and susceptible to the same issues (I imagine). 3G dongle thingy? Usually shyte mind, but might be better than nowt

+1 for what Woody says.

Any internal wiring that could be improved?
Decent microfilters in use?
Ring wire disconnected?

Been through the wiring issue. He’s already got decent wiring and i-plates installed.

What would you say is a decent microfilter?

The only 3G in the area is orange, but he wants PAYG not sure if they do it.

Is he near a cable network?

Unless he’s got cable in his area then he’s stuffed tbh.

Remove the iPlate and replace it with an Adslnation faceplate.

Go to http://www.samknows.com, plumb in your details and pick a LLU provider.

If you’re miles away from the exchange, consider cable rather than ADSL.

(iPlates are a waste of money, ask me why)

No cable in the area either.

Why are iplates a waste of money?

Could try this, but not cheap.
http://www.avonlinebroadband.co.uk/?_kk=satellite%20broadband&_kt=69bb2097-b4a9-48c2-97da-e579fad2bb31&gclid=CJOks9HaqaQCFd_-2Aod5gHO5A

Tell him to wait for the rollout of fibre broadband. BT already have it available (but remember, their fibre netork is sh*te). TalkTalk should have it out next year.

If he isn’t too far from the PCP, the FTTC should help loads. Will cost more (think BT’s is c£25), but good download speeds.

Cougar – Member

(iPlates are a waste of money, ask me why)
If you have no fitted extensions and you connect into the main NTE then I’d agree.
What say you Cougar?

richmars – Member

Could try this, but not cheap.
http://www.avonlinebroadband.co.uk/?_kk=satellite%20broadband&_kt=69bb2097-b4a9-48c2-97da-e579fad2bb31&gclid=CJOks9HaqaQCFd_-2Aod5gHO5A
Have you seen the install costs???? And the download allowance. Pish!

All this ‘improving internal wiring’ stuff is mostly bullshit. It’s very rarely that.

The real issue is that BT are greedy scum who stick too many people onto each ADSL line from their exchanges, leading to very high contention ratios and subsequently lower speeds for everyone. They will never admit this. The ratio is sposed to be something like 20:1 on each line, in reality is very often far more than this.

If BT had invested some of their enormous profits into fibre optic cable years ago, like the French did, then we’d be getting proper fast braawdbaaynd, instead of paying some of the highest costs in the Western World for relatively ‘slow’ internets.

I blame her:

If BT had invested some of their enormous profits into fibre optic cable years ago, like the French did, then we’d be getting proper fast braawdbaaynd

This is true. Funnily enough, though everyone hates them, TalkTalk do have the largest next gen network in the UK. BT are way behind the pace on this.

But, sadly, even companies like that still need to use the BT exchanges to access customers.

FTTP/FTTH will be the best way forward, and effectively cut BT out (other than routing the fibre through the BT ducts and going via the CP’s hardware in the exchanges). Meantime, FTTC will be a good compromise, and hugely cut down the problems of the last mile.

What’s FTTP/FTTH and FTTC?

I’m in the same situation: very far from the exchange, no cable option in the area, download speeds 0.4mbps max, upload 0.2mbps. Very poor 3G signal too so not an option.

Solution? Move house…?

FTTP/H: Fibre to the premises/home
FTTC: Fibre to the cabinet

stick too many people onto each ADSL line from their exchanges, leading to very high contention ratios and subsequently lower speeds for everyone. They will never admit this. The ratio is sposed to be something like 20:1 on each line, in reality is very often far more than this.

While BT do use contention ratios, that won’t make your line sync at 0.5mb, that’s purely down to the copper wiring.

All this ‘improving internal wiring’ stuff is mostly bullshit. It’s very rarely that.

Hmm.

Frequent disconnects and uber-poor sync – line length or line / wiring problems

Dire download speeds with a good sync’ rate and line stability – most likely the ISP.

BT Wholesale stopped quoting specific contention ratios when ADSL Max was launched.

i’ve had two years of b’band issues (slow, frequent drops etc) and constantly blamed the supplier.

now with plus net, they did a load of testing and told me that the fault was with my wiring. yeah right i thought… so a bit of googling and read about ring wires.

long and short is that when the electricians rewired my house they put the master socket directly under the fuse box. so by bodging an old socket rather than putting on a new one and the placement caused my probs. so ring wires disconnected and my b’band doubled within 24hrs.

i have a comprehensive guide to adsl issues, sockets and wiring that a seller on ebay mailed me last week. it makes interesting reading and no he was not pushing me to buy stuff off him. if you want email me and i will fire it over, it may help.

Sorry, was away most of today.

Why are iplates a waste of money?

Two things.

1) they do one thing and one thing only – disconnect the bell wire. You can do this yourself for free in about 30 seconds by pulling the wire connected to pin 3 (usually orange) out of the punch-down at the back of your faceplate.

2) the AdslNation faceplate does the same thing for the same money, and additionally provides a top quality microfilter which fixes a lot of problems and means you don’t have unsightly little boxes dangling about the place.

All this ‘improving internal wiring’ stuff is mostly bullshit. It’s very rarely that.

I don’t say this very often but, well, you’re wrong. Er, sorry.

Cheers guys.

Some useful info.