Tuesday 19 January 2010

How to get faster broadband.....

bell wire removal
If you can use a screwdriver you can increase your broadband speed at no cost.
I must first stress - I take no responsibility what so ever for any losses, damage, or anything else as result of you reading this blog or following my instructions (or if after your broadband is slow).
Before starting test the speed of your current broadband connection: CLICK HERE now, for a recommended Speed Check Gadget. It'll open safely in a new window/tab. Note this down this speed down, and be sure to feedback your speed increase when you're finished!
Let us press on with speeding up your internet connection!
1) Identify your master phone socket, this is the first socket in your house fitted by the telecoms provider, normally bearing their logo, if it has a two part front, like in this photo it's very likely an NTE5, if it has a solid front then it's against the law for you to touch it, and possibly fix poor Internet speed. Assuming you have an NTE5 split face master socket carry on...
2) Remove the lower part of the face plate by undoing the two short screws. Note you must not tamper with the piece left on the wall.
3) You're going to remove the bell wire. The bell wire (or Ring Wire) is a hang over from when extra current was needed to ring the bells on old fashioned phones, this wire is no longer needed and it creates a lot of RF reducing your broadband speed. Bell wire removal should not effect any of your other phone services.
The bell wire (or ring wire as it maybe known) is located in the number "3" slot - normally Orange and White, give it a tug (pliers help) out of the slot.
You should as in this photo, leave behind two wires connected to slots 2 and 5.
quicker internet
4) Tidy away the spare wires and replace the front part of the socket.
5) Restart your router - and when it's up and running, check your new sync speed! Hopefully it's improved!!
Also check your phones work - if there is an issue it's easy enough to slot the bell wire back in, you can buy for a pound or so a tool known as an IDC to push the wire down, or carefully push it in with the back of a stanley knife. Bell Wire removal (or ring wire removal) may even improve the quality of your voice calls.
6) Important, now leave your router on for 3 Days, the local phone exchange will automatically improve your IP profiling after seeing a higher router speed for at least 3 days. This is called IP Profiling. It's only after this wait will you see a real improvement in speed when surfing the internet. Then test again using the same speed test as before (to minimise other effects).
There you go the Bell Wire Fix hopefully you now have a Quicker Internet Connection.

Be sure to bookmark this page now (Click here to add this page to your favorites), so you can come back in 3 days time, re-test your speed and please leave a comment - thanks. If it works spread the word to remove bell wire.
(if your internet performance doesn't improve that may indicate an issue elsewhere in your wiring. You can test for this my removing the front panel of the master socket, and connecting via a ADSL filter your router into the master test socket ("m" on the 2nd photo), this bypasses all extension wiring and connects you to the best possible connection to the exchange. Restart your router and check the speed.)

96 comments:

  1. I tested my connection speed before and after with http://broadband-speedcamera.blogspot.com/ and noticed a 570K improvement in speed straight away! Great!!

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  2. Works just fine - I'd suggest this should be recommended new houses are wired up, my house is only a year old, my internet felt slow, but a week after disconnecting the wire I'm much happier. Thanks for taking the time to publish that trick.

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  3. I did this when I lived in a new block of appartments and it worked wonders. I was getting 1.5Mbps on BT and after this it increased the speed to 4Mbps!

    I was alos getting issues with poor quality phone calls too - like an echo, tinny sound, hissing noise - the bell wire fix also improved the quality to normal - this should be noted!

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  4. Thanks for the feedback!

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  5. I've recently moved to a new flat and have had the worst crackly line for making calls. Broadband just got connected today and has been shockingly poor. I decided to take your advice and was horrified to find that there are absolutely no wires inside the little BT box! What the?? I'm guessing this is not good!

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  6. Sounds very strange, I can only guess that you've got a line coming into Flat else where - or somebody has had a good tamper with your wiring :( you might be able to seek broadband help at http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/f6.html?

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  7. I kid you not but I was getting a download speed of about 900kbps max before disconnecting the bell wire and I now get 2.7mps - a threefold increase! I disconnected the wires in both the master and extension sockets and got the speed increase straight away. My connection was probably adversely impacted because I have two lines that have been extended and there are a jumble of wires in an outside wall box - all no doubt adding to the interference. Anyway, thanks for the advice!

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  8. Good stuff PB - hopefully you'll notice an even bigger increase in speed once your modem has sync'ed with the exchange - be sure to leave it on for at least 36hours.

    Cheers for the feedback.

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  9. I tested my internet speed before taking the wire out and honestly, with a broadband connection, the maximum it downloaded at was 120kbps! Uploading at 340kbps. Admittedly I haven't waited 3 days to test it again (in fact I only just took out the wire) But the speed has not improved at all, in fact, it's decreased slightly! Should I wait 3 more days or is there definitely something wrong with my connection!?

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  10. My initial result is a marginal decrease in speed, but am happy to test again in 3 days - it's still pretty fast.
    One question though - rather than just an orange/white wire in slot 3, I also had a white/orange in slot 4 - the other half of 3's twisted pair.
    Was that just there for completeness, or did it once have a use too?

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  11. Hi John, the other wire was just connected for completeness I'm guessing. In fact running your to your house from exchange is just two wires. A capacitor in the main socket helps charge the ring wire.

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  12. Interesting . . . . . my line speed remains lower - approx 5.8 Mbps originally, 5.3 immediately after removing bell and the unused orange/white, 5.2 the following morning gradually falling to 3.9, and still only 4.9 this morning.
    But . . . . . . that extra wire is apparently an earth for certain attached equipment - I can only assume that it was doing more good than the bell wire harm!
    Latest . . . . following a different tack - splitter plugged into test socket inside the master box, 10m high speed adsl line to modem, and phones via the splitter too.
    Immediate result ? ? ? ? ? ? - almost 6.9 Mbps. An over 18% improvement immediately.
    Thank you so much for giving me the information and impetus to start experimenting.

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  13. John Lee finally19 August 2009 at 08:02

    Satisfied at last.
    For the above, I had just the phone plugged into the phone side of that ADSL filter plugged into the master socked, with my internal socket network (that cable which attaches to the back of the NTE5's front plate) disconnected so the bell wire couldn't possibly have any effect.
    Two days later, having noted line speed regularly, I attached a phone plug to that disconnected socket network, plugged it (with bell wire etc reinstated) into the filter, and the phone further down that network.
    Result? No reduction in speed! With the bell wire only beyond the microfilter it could have no effect any longer. Eureka.
    Have therefore ordered one of those microfilter front plates for the NTE5 (but the modified one with internal terminals for unfiltered ADSL as well as filtered phone), 15m of ADSL line to install permanently, and a double 'slave' outlet ADSL/phone front plate next to my computer for that new ASDL cable and the old phone extension cable to attach to.
    Functionally identical to my trial setup with 10m of ADSL line stretching across my hall and round my banisters, but just as discreet as before.
    Again, thanks to everyone who added ideas for me to mull over.

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  14. Thanks for your help. My main socket was split type with BT torch logo, but when I removed it there were no wires attached or visible in the exposed hole. It is not the i-plate but it looks like it has parts sealed into it. I turned my extensions into 2 wire when I changed to electronic/tone phones sometime ago; do you think an i-plate would help - I'm not on BT total Broadband but their info hints it might.

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  15. Paul - if you've only got 2 wire extensions then an Iplate probably won't help .... though I'm very confused why you'd have no wires in you're master socket as that's where the extension should start. By only guess is you've got your extension coming from a junction box before the master socket or they're connected behind the master socket - which BT might not be in approval off.

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  16. JW - Thanks for reply; the Master socket replaced the original old type by BT, right next to my extension junction box which plugs into the Master socket via a straight splitter - one to the house extension network and other to cordless phone and Burglar Alarm via microfilter and splitter. Phones and router on the house extensions have individual microfilters.
    The master socket faceplate is one unit and has a built-in plug which plugs into the socket in the master socket. [I hope thats clear...]
    I used to have a Tandys phone booster, but I've dis'd it with no apparent ill effect - I think it was for ringing bells.
    When I had my Broadband I had LOADS of speed problems and when the BT/Openreach guy checked at the main socket he got 3.3MB, but that was without contention and ISP routing etc. Connecting directly (via microfilter) shows no improvement.
    Cheers

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  17. is it work with different socket type..
    my phone socket has 4 wires..

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  18. yep no problem

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  19. Great guide! I have removed the bell wire but my router is connected through a n extension from the NTE5a master socket. I don't really want to do anymore work on the wiring but I was wondering if anyone knows if removing the bell wire from the extension will help? I have been researching for a while but haven't yet come up with a definitive answer. Since buying an Iplate (which I no longer use) I haven't stopped trying to get that extra bit of Broadband!! Everyone should do this thanks again for the guide.

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  20. I installed an I-Plate and got some improvement, went from about 700k to 1000k. However, if I plug straight into the test socket (i.e. take the faceplate off the master socket and plug into the socket behind it) I get nearly 3.5Mbps!! Any idea how I could replicate that speed with the faceplate back on? I have extensions and I don't think my wife will be willing to give them up just to get a better internet connection!

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  21. Mike, that's a massive difference that I can only guess is down to a fault in your extensions. I'd very carefully check your wiring to all the extensions (even unused ones) removing the ring wires from all as well (won't hurt). It only takes one loose wire to cause an issue.

    It may worth checking nothing near or along the phone extensions could cause interfernce - large electrical items.

    Did you use your normal ADSL filter (splitter) when testing - these can be troublesome.

    One final idea - it could be another phone plugged in causing the interfence - given nothing else would be plugged in when testing from your master socket - unplug all other phones and see what happens.

    Let us know how you get on!

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  22. JW Thanks for the response. I did use the same ADSL filter when testing.

    I have been surfing and looking a little closer at the back of my Master socket. I have been a bit confused as I seem to have lots of extra wires connected to slots 1 & 6 green/white and white/green. Not sure whether they could be causing the problem or whether the I-Plate would/should filter them as well? I don't really know why they are there, but my guess would be that it is linked to the fact that I had Home Highway installed years ago. This was in the days when BT were telling me that I couldn't have Broadband as I was too far away from the exchange and HH was the only alternative. When things moved on and it was removed later they may have left all the wiring in place.

    I also noticed that I have more than the recommended maximum of two wires attached to each slot. I seem to have 3 in most cases and in just taking the front plate off and on one has become dislodged disabling the extension in my study.

    However, I thought it was simple and easy to try your suggestion of unplugging everything and trying again. Result was I connected at 2074Kbps! Started re-connecting and first up was the Sky Box. Noise Margin went from 6.8 to 0.1! Disconnected Sky box and it went back to 6.8. Tried all the other bits of equipment and all seemed OK. Of course Sky would not be very happy for me to permanently disconnect their box, so I thought I would try a different filter. Re-connected Sky box and margin went to 6.2! Old filter seemed fine for a phone but not the Sky box.

    So I am now considering purchase of all new more expensive filters in case I can get a further improvement from that. I am also considering buying a filtered faceplate and IDC tool to see whether that will help but I am not the most confident DIYer so I will probably wait and see. Will let you know how it goes.

    Cheers all

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  23. Well i had absouloutley no help i didnt undertsnad all this computer talk can some one please translate lol....

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  24. You are a star - thanks so much for making this information available. Saves me another few hours talking to idiots at talk talk or even worse, them sending someone out to do what i just did and charging me for the privilege! Still convinced I can get it faster but at least they can't blame my household circuit for the problem now as I'm getting the exact same results as test socket now

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  27. The lower part of my face plate has no wires on it. Is there a work around still ?

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  28. Bong-Master, the only thing you could do is place a small piece of tape over the matching connection pin on any plug in extension.

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  29. Hi there, my broadband with bt is slow, and I'd like to try to remove the ring wire to see if it's any help. After locating the master socket near the junction box, I found no screw to secure the faceplate, and upon removing it, I notice there are no wires attached to the faceplate. What does this mean? There are several extension sockets around the house, and the ADSL filter is attached to one of them (not the master socket). Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

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  30. If you remove the bell/ring wire do you need adsl filters ?

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  31. I have no extensions by the way.

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  32. I cannot believe this - something that is so basic to do could have such a dramatic effect! After struggling for months not getting decent speed, and having Plusnet and BT do all sort of line checks, I tried the bellwire technique here, and got an instant and dramatic upgrade from 2Mbps to 5Mbps. Even somtimes, it gets up to 6. Amazing...many thanks for the great tip

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  34. Thanks for the info, was running a 3.7 now 6.3 after disconnecting the ring wire in all the outlets.

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    Replies
    1. That's a great speed increase in your Internet, enjoy!

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  36. Hi. I was getting around 6.91 Mbps. Took front plate off....no wires. New socket I believe. Taped over number 3 socket and replaced it. At the mo I am getting around 6.92 Mbps but that's not unusual as I can get that sometimes a anyway. Will report back in 3 days.
    Only thing confusing was that the 2 3 and 5 sockets did not seem to connect to anything at all!!!

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  39. I've removed the bell wires but now incomming phone calls seems to kill my internet. Any advice?

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