Ring wire disconnected increased DL speed 35%

[#1]

Having read how removing the bell wire improves the SNR, this begs another question:
Is there a risk that this unterminated wire will act as an aerial and induce some noise into the 'live' cores? Has any-one tried earthing the unused cores to see if it makes any difference? I would have a play but as I'm syncronising at 8128kbps with a 10dB+ SNR (please don't drool those of you on the end of a long length of dodgy wet string), I'm leaving things well alone!

[#2]

I got rid of my ring wire a while ago and it did wonders for my connection.
I went from having regular disconnects during bad weather and slow down speeds to a flawless line which never drops.
Its very simple to do and completely reversable so anyone with bad line attenuation and noise should give it a go.

[#3]

Same here.  Unless you have one of the latest Openreach master sockets with the special bell wire filter it makes sense to disconnect the bell wire.
I have disconnected mine from all sockets (although just the master socket is needed) and earthed it on one end.

[#4]

Quote from: Santiago

Apparently if you short the wires in the BT cable bad things will happen

No problem shorting the wires, in fact the frames engineers short the wires to prove that they are on the correct equipment.

[#5]

OK that's good to know for future reference.
I had read the comment in one of the help guides for improving the internal wiring, (can't find it now)

[#6]

Quote

No problem shorting the wires, in fact the frames engineers short the wires to prove that they are on the correct equipment.

I thought the BT wires had 50 V on them?

[#7]

They have but it's the open circuit voltage. When the phone is picked up it completes the circuit and then the voltage measured between the wires will be less than 10V. Can't remember the exact figure. But they will tolerate being shorted.

[#8]

'A' leg is earth, 'B' leg is -ve 50V with respect to earth. Shorting will do no harm - it occurs sometimes if slack open wires touch in the wind.
If you touch both legs simultaneously you'll probably feel a slight tingle, a bit more if if you hold the B leg and, say, an earthed radiator. And a bit more than that if there's ringing on the line.
The line circuit is regulated at the exchange so that anything from a phone through to a dead short will only draw something in the order of 40mA.