ADSL/Internal Wiring Anomalies

Terrib1e.one

Hi guys, Ive already posted this in the broadband forum but hope its ok to post here too as i reckon it applies to both. Guess ill start by thankin anyone who can help shed any light, much appreciated! I'll try not to make this too long winded or complicated but here goes:

Been a happy enough 7Mb At Home Vodafone customer (I know, right!? :eek: ) since my "early-migration" last November. Due to distance from the exchange (~47dB line attenuation) etc I'm told I can only reach a max of 5Megs or so, thats fine as thats what I've been getting but I'd like to do all i can to improve this if at all possible.
Was ready to pull my hair out the last 2 weeks with the low speeds/weird sync rates I was getting. The rage was fueled in part by coming onto boards and realising what Vodafone were getting upto (not as theraputic as I had imagined! :rolleyes:). Anyway, realised, at least in my case, I may have judged too soon as it transpires a 24Hr Monitored Alarm system was installed in the house without a filter while I was away. Thats OK, going to get it sorted but the question really is what is the best way to get the alarm guy to do it!? The reason I ask is because I've noticed some strange things while tinkering around/monitoring my connection the last two weeks. Maybe its all the alarms fault but I dont think so.

Firstly, I noticed that the Noise Margin on my line goes UP when someone picks up the telephone:
Phone Down: http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/1333/voyager1b.jpg
Phone Off Hook: http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5393/voyager2a.jpg
This led me to figure out that at least for short term purposes if I restart the router with the telephone off the hook I could sync at a better rate. Was only synching at ~1500Kbps, synched at ~4000Kbps with phone off hook. Anyone any ideas what this might be about?
Secondly and on a similar note i noticed that turning on and off the recessed lighting and other lighting in the house had a pretty major effect in LOWERING the noise margin on the line. Can be seen as the two troughs in the SNR Monitor box here: http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/6441/dmttest3.jpg

As to why im on FastTrack and not Interleaved i've no idea :rolleyes: but obviously the dips are due to interference on the internal cabling. What Im wondering is whats the best/most cost effective solution to stop this!? I was thinking if got the alarm guy to set it up so my router was connected with insulated cable downstairs in the hall at the master socket then I could run the rest of the computers in the house wirelessly. Not a great solution as I would like to have wired internet for gaming on the PC/Xbox. Is the only solution after this to rewire the extensions where these devices are connected and is this usually expensive!?
One other question someone might know about is whether it makes much of a difference if I get the guy to install a central splitter/filter for the house or one just for the alarm system? Thanks again to anyone who bothered reading all this and has any help

FusionNet

Ok what I do to sort this problem is quiet easy as where I install in Businesses as you can imagine there could be rakes of lines, DSL, BRI etc etc. so this is the fix.

In your attic, press or where ever your main line omes in do this (if possible)

Take your eaircom main line in, put a DSL Filter on it. Now take the telephone filtered side and conect it via a rj11 lead onto the first pair of a krone strip.

Then take the DSL filtered side and put it onto the first pair of a second krone strip. All this make sense so far?

Right now say if you have an alarm, 2 telephones etc then you punch them down onto the 1st strip. you must loop the first onto the second and so on.

Then take your DSL connection and punch it onto the second krone strip.

Now what your after doing there even though its not and ideal setup is you have created a strip for clean filtered telco and a strip for DSL. The beauty about this is that if and when the DSL filter fails you can just change it in a jiffy...

Terrib1e.one

Hi Fusion...have to say thanks a million for the advice. Not a professional cabler or anythin myself so was a bit confused at first but was able to explain it to the installer and hey presto!...got a nice drop of 5dB attenuation and seems to have sorted all the problems with the telephone and wiring interference Was just wondering if the DSL filter at the main line itself would vary greatly in quality...as in could things be improved further with a good quality filter?..the one yer man installed just seems a bit cheap and generic i suppose but i could be wrong..cheers again though dude!

FusionNet

Ah thats great glad you got sorted.. Hmm as for the filter. All these things are mostly made in Asia so a lot of them are the same. I know when I buy them in rather than using the ones with say the eircom router they cost me about 10 euro, but Ive never been offered one for say like 50 euro thats better. I think there pretty basic electronics and there all pretty cheap and nasty. It is always handy to have a spare though cause they do fail.

Nothing better than getting something like that fixed. Ive a similar problem on my own site the copper is rubbish so Im taking the plunge and going wireless, well microwave... Hope its better!!