How to get faster broadband.....

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.

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.)

Speeding up your Broadband

I got interested in how I could increase the speed of my current broadband after having a new phone extension fitted as part of some building work, when the builder told me he's only wired up two of the wires of the possible six......... "why?" I asked him...... well he said "One of the others is a bell wire - not needed by modern phones and the others unused.....". Fair enough I thought and left it at that!

About the same time, I was reading an article about a device you can install in your master socket, with the claims it could for many people improve their broadband speed....

Being of the inquisitive type, I got "Googling" and it appears much of what this device does is simply restricts the so called bell wire. The bell wire is no longer needed on modern extensions - it was used for power with the old fashioned ringing phones, and guess what, the two wire extension my builders fitted is working just fine - for phone calls and broadband. Infact normally to your house there are just two wires.

Phone wires are designed as twisted pairs, pairs of wires are loosely twisted together along their length, this helps them cancel out any interference. The bell wire however is not in a pair, and ends up acting as a long atennee throughout the phone wire, which in turns reduces your broadband speed.

So what does this mean. Well firstly if your ADSL Router or Modem is plugged into the master socket (the suppliers socket) then unfortunately nothing - you're at the maximum speed most likely. However if you're using extensions, simply removing the bell wire at or near the master socket will reduce your line interference, leading to increased broadband speed as the number of errors the exchange sees reduces.....

It's very easy to fix, and if you haven't worked it out already, fear not in my next blog entry I'll describe the few steps you need to go through for free quicker internet at home, afterall everyone wants to surf faster! And bellwire removal is a quick way of achieving this! Until then, thanks.