NTE5 Master sockets & Plus Net tech staff's lack of understanding of what they do

[#1]

For my sins I spend the occasional afternoon helping friends to get a better internet conenction. They are usually after better speed, and in some cases such as yesterday,  they have no decent sync at all.

My neighbour has ADSL but it is very hit and miss and very  slow.

She's got an NTE5 Mk2 Openreach double filtered Socket that looks like this .

If she plugs her router into the top ADSL socket the router fails to sync - no connection, no broadband.

If she plugs her phone into the bottom socket she gets a dial tone. The line is quiet - although no quiet line test was available when I was there - number busy or engaged!

The only way we can get  the router to sync is to remove the faceplate and plug a microfilter into the test socket, and the router into the microfilter. Bingo! - 0.58 mbs, but it is 4 miles to the telephone exchange , so understadable to some degree. All the same, my thoughts are the Openreach Mk II faceplate probably has a fault and should be replaced with a newer version.

After a discussion my neighbour decided to order upgrade to FTTC  (there is a mile of copper from the cabinet to our homes and my connection next door is 12Mbs via FTTC)  . Helpfully, the Plus Net salesman we speak to agrees the faceplate may also be an issue and may affect the chances of a successful fibre connection.

We then speak to a technical support person who says the socket and faceplate are not the responsibility of Plus Net and furthermore the dual socket is purely a neat cosmetic cover, that splits the phone wire to take the two different sized plugs for the phone and router and it contains exactly the same parts as a typical microfilter. He informs me that as long as the system works in the test socket with a microfilter Plus Net & Openreach are not interested in doing anything to improve things.

Essentially he is saying :  it does not matter how well - or how fast a connection works, if it works in the test socket then that's all we are intesterted in . 

Is this correct company policy?

Would a new Mk IV or even Mk V faceplace improve matters?  I know that the Mk V is completely redesigned internally compared to previous faceplates supplied by Openreach.  Has anyone else tried the MkV and is it any better?

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.

[#2]

Sadly, the demarcation point of responsibility is the test socket, which means that any equipment to the internal side of the test socket wouldn't be our suppliers responsibility to maintain.

I wouldn't say that our suppliers wouldn't investigate a fault as long as it worked in the test socket.

If the sync speed is below the estimates of their line then we can raise a fault to our suppliers to investigate.

[#3]

Must admit that i have the 5c master socket , and it did cure some intermittent problems on my line

[#4]

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@Gandalf wrote:

Sadly, the demarcation point of responsibility is the test socket, which means that any equipment to the internal side of the test socket wouldn't be our suppliers responsibility to maintain.

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Hi @Gandalf 

but OR supply the whole unit , the backplate with test socket , filtered faceplate and cover. They don't charge for them when they fit them. So whose owns the entire master socket unit ? 

i don't think your adviser was correct in saying  to me the components in the filtered faceplate are identical to those in a micro filter  and that the faceplate is cosmetic.  They are meant to provide an improvement on the normal unfiltered NTE5 and micrfilter set up . I have seen many instances where without a working filtered faceplate a broadband connection is all but useless. 

[#5]

With a filtered faceplate the broadband signal is no longer carried by the telephone extension wiring (so microfilters no longer needed on extension sockets). This eliminates interference to the broadband signal that can otherwise be picked up on the extension wiring, giving improvement to speed and stability of connection - that's my experience anyway.

For anyone needing more details there are some excellent short videos by 'mr telephone' aka 'my mate vince' - well worth watching

[#6]

I am not aware of any "Mk V" existing. I think the Mk 4 has the same internal components as the Mk 3, the Mk 4 re-design is to fit the new shape of the NTE5C and for tool free wiring.

The Mk 2/3/4 won't have exactly the same internal components as a typical plug-in microfilter, because they also contain an interference filter, but I don't think this makes a big difference, especially for ADSL connections. The main benefit of a centralised filter is for FTTC connections, the problem of unfiltered extension wiring is reflected VDSL2 signal rather than picking up external interference. The typical lengths of extension wiring mean this is not such a big problem for ADSL frequencies.

Personally I found getting a modern master socket and filtered faceplate made no difference to my long ADSL line.

There are a few things originally supplied by Openreach for FTTC, like a modems or a data extension, which are no longer maintained by Openreach.

[#7]

Yes , it's the Mk4 , (not Mk5) faceplate , that I have seen mentioned as having a total internal revamp with enhanced components for Vdsl. 

In the real customer situation I explain at the opening of this thread there is no extension wiring or additional sockets attached to the master socket. In fact no one ever uses the landline phone service. It's purely used for broadband. 

[#8]

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@runhare wrote:

Yes , it's the Mk4 , (not Mk5) faceplate , that I have seen mentioned as having a total internal revamp with enhanced components for Vdsl.

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Where have you seen this? If it's on an ebay listing, or from anyone else selling the things, I suspect it's rubbish. Perhaps compare:

https://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/adsl-vdsl-faceplates/btvdslfaceplate/ (note that the internal photo is of a Mk2, the Mk3 had a stronger interference filter than the Mk2)

https://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/adsl-vdsl-faceplates/mk4btopenreachvdslsocket/