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Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Wammer
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

I placed an order today for Plusnet Fibre Unlimited. I currently have Sky's standard (ADSL) Broadband. I have been informed that the Engineer will be visiting in two weeks to install Fibre, and after doing a bit of research I am now wondering if I may have a problem.

I have a distributed telephone and Ethernet network that uses the infrastructure of the house to run the cables  from room to room. The master telephone socket is in the hall, but the wall socket with separate telephone and ADSL sockets is in the study, effectively - as I understand it - via a hidden extension cable that runs through the walls of the house. 

 

My potential problem is that I cannot have the router situated by the master socket in the hall, for two reasons. Firstly, there is no power socket nearby. Secondly, all the Ethernet connections into the router feed from other rooms into the study where the router is currently situated.  I therefore need to plug the fibre router into the "extension" wall socket in the study (the one that has separate telephone and ADSL sockets). Is this likely to prove a problem?

22 REPLIES 22
etdsaunders
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Hello,

If it's currently working fine on adsl it shouldn't be an issue with fibre. It's also very unlikely that a BT engineer will be attending the premises as fibre is a self install now. That time is more than likely for them to carry out work at the cabinet.

I have same situation as you with my master socket and run it via an extension. I am connected at 79mb and it's very stable
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adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Hi there wammer,

 

Rather than running an extension from the master socket towards power for the router I'd recommend extending either ethernet or a power extension to the master socket.

 

The reason I mention this is that extending from the phone socket is likely to cause some issues for your fibre connection.

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etdsaunders
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Wouldn't this depend on length of extension though? My extension is what sky fitted when we had sky broadband and tv (ran it to the tv)

As suggested maybe use ethernet should it cause any problems? If it works fine and get speeds expected I'd leave it.
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Wammer
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Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Thanks for getting back to me, Adam.

 

Can you be more specific about what problems it might cause for my fibre connection?  Are you saying that it will not work if I plug it into the ADSL plug on the extension, or simply that there may be some reduction in download speeds?  Using ADSL I have never seen any appreciable difference in download speeds when the router is plugged into the extension socket compared to plugging it directly into the test socket behind the master socket.  Is there something different about fibre?

adamwalker
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

A reduction in speeds.

 

Experience in seeing results most customers get leads me to advise that but as etdsaunders you may on the other hand not see anything detrimental so you might want to give it a try.

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Wammer
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Do "most customers" get very significant reductions in speed?  I have consistently got 7mbps from my Sky ADSL (your ADSL estimate is 4-8) and you are forecasting 15-21 mbps for Fibre.  So a 10% reduction would still give me much faster speeds but any significantly higher degradation would make moving to Fibre not worthwhile. 

 

Unfortunately installing a power socket or running Ethernet cables is not viable given that my study is the hub of my network and the router simply has to be there.

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Do "most customers" get very significant reductions in speed? 

There's no way we could know that, I've seen it affect some but not others and I'd generally advise against using extensions. The best advise I could give is to use the highest quality cable you can get your hands on and to see how you get on.

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MisterW
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

I have a distributed telephone and Ethernet network that uses the infrastructure of the house to run the cables  from room to room. The master telephone socket is in the hall, but the wall socket with separate telephone and ADSL sockets is in the study, effectively - as I understand it - via a hidden extension cable that runs through the walls of the house. 

@adam,  I think wammer already has the cabling installed.

@Wammer, as adam says , in general extensions are best avoided. However, if they are properly wired and with good quality cable then they will have mimimal effect. Lets face it, with your Fibre speed estimate you are probably >1km from the cabinet, an extra 20m ( a guess ) is unlikely to make a lot of difference!. Bad quality cable i.e not twisted pair and connection of the 'ring wire' ( see here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm ) can make a big difference though.

I would suggest that, if possible, you check your wiring, particularly for the ring wire being connected.

The main problem with being connected via an extension will be that if your speed is low or you report a fault, then PN will require you to eliminate any internal wiring by connecting to the master socket.

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Wammer
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Plugging the router into the master socket for a short while to eliminate internal wiring as a possible cause of slow speeds would not be a problem.  I have done it on more than one occasion with my ADSL service, using a power extension lead and connecting my laptop to the router.

The telephone cable extension was installed in 2007 as part of a larger job, and it was carried out by our regular electrician whom I trust to use high quality materials.  From the master socket the telephone cable runs initially to a socket in the lounge (with a filtered wall pate) into which our telephone is plugged; then on to the socket in the study (again with filtered wall plate) to which I have my router attached.  Whenever I have tested it there has never been a noticeable difference in speed on my ADSL connection when the router is plugged into the extension socket compared to the test socket behind the master socket, so I assume the wiring is OK and imagine the same should apply to a Fibre connection.  My principal concern when I first posted - being a fibre newbie and not really understanding the technology - was that I couldn't use a fibre router plugged into a telephone extension cable between the router and the master.  Since you have all confirmed that I can do so, my fears on that point have been allayed.

 

Presumably the worst-case scenario if it all goes pear-shaped is that I swallow the contract termination fee from PlusNet and ask Sky to reconnect my ADSL service? or is reverting to ADSL from Fibre difficult?

MisterW
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

From what you say, it sounds like you may well be ok. The fact that filtered faceplates have been used does infer that the electrician knew something about telecoms, a lot don't!. I'd still be inclined to check that the ring wire hasn't been connected since that will reduce speed and getting speed back by removing the ring wire later will take some time!. Checking the wiring behind the lounge faceplate would give the definitive answer, there should only be 2 pairs of wires connected, one from the master and one going off to the study. If the correct wire has been used then each pair should have a blue(with white tracer) and white(with blue tracer). If you are unsure of anything then just take a photo of the wiring and post it and we'll be able to give an opinion.   

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Wammer
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Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Will do.  Thanks.

Wammer
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Here's a photo of the back of my master socket. I'll add the lounge faceplate later.
MisterW
Superuser
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Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

That's not good I'm afraid.Sad The cable looks ok, but you do have the ring wire connected. It's the orange wire on pin 3. That definitely needs removing. You should be able to gently ease it out of the IDC connector with a screwdriver, being careful not to disturb the other cables. Let's wait until you've looked at the lounge socket before doing anything though.

As an aside, try and leave an hour or so between any disturbing of sockets which may cause the ADSL to drop, to avoid it being seen by the exchange as instability and therefore dropping your speed. Better still do a controlled disconnect on the router ( from it's GUI ) before disturbing any connections.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Wammer
Dabbler
Posts: 13
Registered: ‎30-04-2016

Re: Potential Fibre Installation Problem?

Here's the lounge faceplate.