Phone extension sockets, Digital Voice and broadband speed

[Jo743]

Before I was recently migrated from BT to EE I had my BT Hub plugged in to a phone extension socket rather than the master socket (despite the advice not to do this, I was getting average speeds of 44mbps). Once I switched to EE I plugged the new EE router into the master socket. Speed dropped to 36mbps and continued to drop. An engineer came out and upgraded the master socket, as I had an old one. Speeds returned to around 34 to 36mbps over the next few days, but I don’t understand why the speed has dropped so much. I tried plugging in my old BT hub to the master socket, it worked and speed was also 36mbps; I then tried connecting it to the extension socket I used to use, but it didn’t work. Before I spend a frustrating time (due to cable management lol) moving my EErouter to try the extension socket, I want to know whether it will still work, or whether having digital voice and the new master socket has somehow disabled the extension (the engineer did attach the extension wiring to the new master socket). I’m wondering whether some electrical interference or something is affecting the speed. Or does Digital Voice affect broadband speed? It’s very odd.

[Timbo45]

@Jo743 

Your extensions probably don't work now because of what the engineer did when installing the new master socket.

Digital voice has no effect other than the phone's cord is plugged into the Hub now. Likewise any extensions wired from the master socket will not carry a phone signal.

Speeds can drop when changes are made as DLM detects changes and makes adjustments to the line speed but once everything is stable again it should adjust speeds upwards.

[Matt_124]

What's the name of the EE Broadband plan that you are on?

The repeated mention of 36Mbps leads me to ask, are you sure you're not on a Fibre 36 plan?

[Jo743]

It’s the Fibre 50 plan, and the engineer said the tests he did showed we should be getting speeds of up to 50. But it’s been over 2 weeks now and speeds aren’t going up.

I know that extension sockets won’t carry a phone signal: but should it still be possible to connect to broadband via an extension socket if wired correctly at the master socket?

[XRaySpeX]

Welcome to EE's Home Broadband Forum.

If you would like help with your BB speed or connection issues, please would you carry out the following steps for starters, which will enable us to diagnose the problem and advise you further. Do not restart your router to do these tests:

1. Post your full router stats:

• For a SmartHub: login and go to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information. Obscure your names & any numbers in the BB Username & also the SSIDs. Also post the Home > Status page.
• For a BrightBox: login and go to Advanced Settings > System > DSL Status. Also post 'System Uptime' from top of System Log page.
• For other routers: login to it according to the label on it as the admin user & navigate looking for its router/connection statistics.

Full router stats are key to any speed & connection issues.

2. Try a speedtest, preferably wired using an Ethernet cable supplied with the router, here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html . Click on the "Results Page" button at the bottom of the graph you first see and then copy to here just the "Link to this result:" link that you see below the next main graph.

3. What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker, not the Postcode Checker.

[Jo743]

Thanks for your reply. Here's all the information you requested (I hope!): let me know if there's anything I missed or if I've redacted something I shouldn't!

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1748935397277465555

[JimM11]

@Jo743 What is it that you have a problem with? And what type off master socket do you have, an extension socket even if you have wired it of the AB split correctly will reflect if you have cable issues and trying to also drive the signal further. you need to say what you have done or tried to do regarding wiring. 

[Jo743]

See my first post: I haven't done anything to the wiring. An EE/BT engineer replaced the master socket, which is where the router is plugged in. The problem is that speeds prior to the switch to EE (when the BT Hub was plugged into an extension socket) were around 44Mbps; now they won't go above about 36Mbps, with the EE router plugged into the master socket.

[JimM11]

@Jo743 If when the engineer was with you did he happen to say how far you where from the Green cabinet that you are connected to further away you get lower the speed's are, you are syncing at nearly 40Mb/s down from your EE screen posting, Not sure what your BT would sync at unless you have it, put it back on and show again what the values are.

When you go digital there is zero choice in the matter, your extension wiring and depending on how it is done is completely redundant, there is NO voice on the circuit anymore, even if the Engineer tried to connect up so your Extension was connected which he would NOT do off his own back as it leads to all kinds off trouble.

If you got higher before then you did, there is zero way to tell from what you had previous.

[Jo743]

I don't think you quite get what I'm asking about here or what my problem is. I haven't moved house so I'm the same distance as I was from the cabinet as before. I don't want to use the extension socket for voice calls. My broadband speeds dropped on switching from BT to EE, and the only differences from before were:

1) EE router instead of BT router

2) EE router now plugged into master socket, whereas BT router was plugged into extenstion socket.

Theoretically, being plugged into the master should make speeds FASTER than being plugged into extension. So I want to know why they have dropped and what I can do about it. I'm not planning on fiddling with wiring. 

The engineer looked at the past 28 days' speeds when he was here, and there was a drop on the day I switched to EE.