Do I *have* to plug my new router into my master telephone socket?

I’ve just been upgraded to Sky Fibre (woo, it’s fast 🙂 ). In their bumpf, they say that the router should be plugged into the master socket. Only problem being that the master socket is in our bedroom on the front wall of the house, meaning that anywhere downstairs towards the back of the house is a struggle to pick up the router signal.

We have another socket (slave?) downstairs in the middle of the house and from here, the wireless signal can be picked up pretty much anywhere in the house, even the bit of the garden close to the house.

Do I lose performance by using a socket other than the master?

(Apologies if this is a stupid question.)

Our router isn’t – not even sure where our master socket is – it might be in the hallway. I think for elimination of problems, though, it’s often devised to try the master socket in case there’s dodgy cabling for the rest of the house (that is your responsibility – the master socket IIRC is the provider’s limit).

Hmmm…. Our BT master socket was changed to a special one when fibre was installed – suspect you may need to use it.

kcal are you talking about fibre or normal BB?

Well, there’s no change to the master socket. I suspect someone’s just plugged something in at a box down the road or something… 😕

So you’ve got FTTC. The last leg is still copper.

You should use the master socket for best results. You don’t have to, but you could easily introduce problems.

Master socket + home plugs will possibly be your best option.

Well, whatever it is, it’s bleedin faster than what was there before. 🙂

Sky recommend practice is master socket. Mines not though fibre works fine in extensions.

Was it a self install, or engineer? If the latter, they usually move the master socket if you ask them nicely.

Router in a box in the post with a book with nice big clear pictures of what to do. They obviously know me better than I thought.

Oh please use the new filter provided.

My router is upstairs on an extension. It’s fine.

I’ve compared the line stats (Signal to Noise and Line Attenuation, as reported by the router) and the difference was pretty marginal, even when compared with plugging directly into the test socket.

Do the same comparison on yours. If your wiring is decent there should be very little difference.

(I’m on ADSL not FTTC right enough, but the principal should be the same I think)

Router in a box in the post with a book with nice big clear pictures of what to do.

Interesting….. why do BT change the master socket on a fibre install?

The new sky hubs work off any old socket no need for 2 hubs (one sky and one openreach) as was the norm a few years ago

Why not try it?

I don’t want to break the internet al.

FFS! 🙄

Having checked the speeds on both sockets, it appears to be faster on the downstairs one. 😀

Thanks again al, your post was the inspiration to be brave enough to give it a go.