Broadband filters

Quick and free way to test if a filtered faceplate will improve your broadband

11 October 2012

Before spending any money, here is a quick, painless and completely free method to determine if a filtered faceplate will improve your broadband connection.

First, you should baseline your broadband connection, and determine the connection speed of your link. This is not the same as the speed shown by online speed tests. Read your modem manual on how to get this information. The reason why an online speed test is of no value is that it can take the exchange several hours or days to react to an improved line and increase actual throughput speeds. However, any line improvement should be reflected in the connection speed immediately. Please read our Increase Broadband Speed Guide, which explains the difference between connection speeds and throughputs.

BT master socketOnce you have determined your connection speed, find your BT mastersocket, which is where the cable from the BT exchange enters your property. It is a white box, as shown in the photo, with a BT or Openreach logo on it.

Closer examination will reveal that there is a faceplate screwed to the front bottom part of the box. You should remove the two front screws in order to detach the faceplate. Once unscrewed, the faceplate pulls off.

With the faceplate removed, the so-called ‘test socket’ should now visible. This just looks like the socket at the front of the faceplate. The only difference is that internal wiring in your property (for example, connecting extension phones) is actually connected to the faceplate. This internal wiring throughout your property can pick up interference, degrading your broadband signal.

With all your internal wiring disconnected, the test socket provides a clean connection to test the optimum performance of your broadband line.

All you need to do is to plug your modem directly into the test socket. Once the modem has reconnected to the exchange, make a note of the connection speed. If this has increased, then a filtered faceplate will definitely make a difference for you!

Our ADSL faceplate page gives links to where you can buy a high-quality filtered faceplate.

500,000 homes lose 4Mbps of speed due to poor set-up

26 June 2012

According to research carried out by TalkTalk, millions of UK homes are missing out from achieving the best possible speeds due to poor set up, which is what we have been saying for a long time!

TalkTalk engineers have performed 25,000 home visits and have identified many problems associated with set up.  TalkTalk claims that over half a million homes lose about 4Mbps of download speed due to poor set-up, and believes that a further 2.5m homes could increase their broadband speeds by making a few changes.

According to TalkTalk, the average home has a broadband speed of 7.6Mbps, so a loss of 4Mbps is a significant amount.

TalkTalk believes that most of the issues that they have identified can be solved quickly by broadband users themselves. We wholeheartedly agree, which is why we have produced our independent Increase Broadband Speed Guide.

The most common issues found by the TalkTalk engineers were:

  • poor wiring (31%)
  • router not set up correctly (20%)
  • phone socket not set up properly (17%)
  • a new ADSL broadband filter was required (14%)
  • other problems, such as customers not connecting the router to the mastersocket directly (13%).

Interestingly, TalkTalk wants to encourage people to think of broadband in the same way as water and electricity, in that it is a resource that can go to waste if broadband users are not careful.

For our comprehensive guide on how to maximise your broadband speed, click on the following link:

Increase Broadband Speed Guide

Speed up broadband: five top tips

18 April 2012

When you want to speed up your broadband, it can be somewhat depressing reading information about new superfast broadband services if they are currently not available in many areas. All is not lost! We present five tips on how to get the very best speeds from your Internet connection if you’re not lucky enough to be able to subscribe to superfast broadband services.

With recent announcements from Virgin Media and BT, you could be forgiven for thinking that almost everyone is able to access superfast broadband speeds. Early this year, Virgin Media announced plans to double the speeds for most of its four million broadband customers, offering download speeds up to 120Mbps. This month, BT announced that the maximum download speed of its Infinity superfast broadband service would be increased to 76Mbps (with upload speeds increased to 19Mbps).

Despite these impressive headline speeds, it’s important to realise that superfast broadband services are not available in many areas of the UK, so average broadband speeds are much lower. In its latest assessment of broadband speeds (published in February 2012), Ofcom found that the average broadband speed in the UK as a whole was 7.6Mbps. 

Even with significant Government funding, superfast broadband services will still not be available to at least 10% of the UK population even by early 2015, and this percentage could be much higher. Many of us will be ‘stuck’ with ADSL services, so we’ll have to make the most of them! In its February 2012 report, Ofcom found that ADSL-based connections continue to deliver average download speeds much lower than the headline ‘up to’ speeds (which are often used to advertise broadband services). ‘Up to’ 8Mbit/s and ‘up to’ 20/24Mbit/s ADSL connections delivered just 41% and 31% of headline speeds.

Here are five tips proven to speed up broadband:

Tip 1: Connect your modem/router to the BT mastersocket rather than using long extensions. Long extensions can increase noise and interference to your broadband signal, which can have a detrimental impact on broadband speed.

Tip 2: Fit a filtered ADSL faceplate. This can make a dramatic difference to broadband speeds and costs less than £10. The purpose of the filtered faceplate it to separate your broadband signal from the rest of the telephone wiring throughout your house. A filtered faceplate is very easy to fit. For more information, view our ADSL Faceplate page.

Tip 3: Select an ISP that doesn’t ‘traffic shape’. Many ISPs apply so-called ‘traffic shaping’ at peak times, intentionally reducing broadband speeds to avoid having to invest in broadband infrastructure (to cope with the peaks in traffic demand).  High-quality ISPs that do not traffic shape include Xilo. For more information, view our Which ISP? page.

Tip 4: Purchase a high-quality router/modem. There are significant differences in the extent to which broadband modems can maintain a connection, particularly with challenging or long lines. Routers such as the Billion 7800N have gained an excellent reputation among broadband users for extracting the best performance possible. For more information, visit our Which Broadband Router/Modem? page.

Tip 5: Tweak the target SNR margin. Some modems (including the Billion 7800N) allow you to tweak the target SNR margin, to significantly increase broadband speed. For example, changing the SNR target margin from 18dB to 1dB could increase download speeds by over 100%. For further information, read our SNR Tweak page.

If you are able to apply all five tips, you are likely to experience dramatic improvements in broadband performance. Good luck!

Introduction to the Increase Broadband Speed website and blog

by unwiredinsight February 1, 2012

If you’re struggling with your broadband connection, or you would simply like to get the very best speeds and reliability from your broadband line, then the Increase Broadband Speed website and blog are for you. We bring together, in one place, proven techniques that can substantially increase your broadband speeds,  and we provide recommendations for [...]

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