# The BT Broadband Accelerator



## Puntoboy

Is it worth getting?

I live in a village and our Exchange is about as old as the telephone so we can only get 1.5mb broadband. 

Is it worth me getting one of these to boost the speed or are they just a con?

Thanks.


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## Guest

Get a filtered ADSL faceplate (XTE-2005) instead from ADSLnation.

Reason: BT accelerator only seperates ringwire, faceplate filters broadband and telephone signal completely.

Before wasting money on both of the items above ensure that if you run extension cabling from your master socket to the router, that it is in good condition, testable by moving router next to master socket and using a <1m RJ11 cable and see if you get line stats improvement. "Round" type (twisted pair + shielded) RJ11 cabling can also be bought from ADSLnation.


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## Puntoboy

Yep router plugs in directly to main socket.

I can get the BT accelerator for £1.20 as it happens so is it worth a punt? I hate BT but unfortunately they are the only broadband provider we can go with.


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## Guest

For £1.20 you may as well buy one. Do you want to elaborate why BT is the only broadband providor you can go with?


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## Puntoboy

Our Exhange isn't unbundled. We are stuck with BT.


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## Guest

You don't have to go with BT as the ISP though, even if it is just their IPStream product which is resold with another ISP.

I assume you have verified your slow speeds are due to the sync rate and not elsewhere.


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## Puntoboy

I've just checked and out main socket is one of these:










Apparently this means it's already filtered to some extent and a BT Accelerator might not change a thing.


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## Puntoboy

G220 said:


> You don't have to go with BT as the ISP though, even if it is just their IPStream product which is resold with another ISP.
> 
> I assume you have verified your slow speeds are due to the sync rate and not elsewhere.


Really? So who else could I go with?

I checked on the BT website and it says that for my phoneline maximum I can get is 1.5mb which according to Speedtest.net is what we are getting.


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## Guest

Only if it says "OPENREACH" does what you have read apply, if it does not it is the older NTE-5 and issue is present.


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## Guest

Puntoboy said:


> Really? So who else could I go with?
> 
> I checked on the BT website and it says that for my phoneline maximum I can get is 1.5mb which according to Speedtest.net is what we are getting.


Pipex, Tiscali, Wanadoo, BT, Zen....... They all offer IPStream services. Still uses the BT line.


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## Puntoboy

G220 said:


> Only if it says "OPENREACH" does what you have read apply, if it does not it is the older NTE-5 and issue is present.


It is as pictured. (hence why I used that picture)


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## Puntoboy

G220 said:


> Pipex, Tiscali, Wanadoo, BT, Zen....... They all offer IPStream services. Still uses the BT line.


Right ok. I didn't know that. I assumed that because our exchange isn't unbundled we can't go with anyone else.

What about Sky?


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## Guest

for £1.40 just buy one and flog on eBay, make £3 profit 

Back to the original suggestion is get a filtered faceplate and shielded RJ11 cable (very marginal, but worth ruling out) if you want to squeeze best performance out of the connection.


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## Guest

Puntoboy said:


> Right ok. I didn't know that. I assumed that because our exchange isn't unbundled we can't go with anyone else.
> 
> What about Sky?


Sky offer 1 BT-line based package, it isn't as attractive as their 3 LLU-based ones but not bad nevertheless!


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## Puntoboy

I see... the reason I hate BT so much is the price. I feel like I'm paying a lot of a slow rubbish service. If I can find another ISP doing the same for cheaper, fair enough although I would like to boost my speed as much as possible.

Before I moved here I had 20MB Virgin cable broadband. So the step down to less than 2mb is quite a steep one.

Thanks :thumb:


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## dundeered

Puntoboy said:


> I see... the reason I hate BT so much is the price. I feel like I'm paying a lot of a slow rubbish service. If I can find another ISP doing the same for cheaper, fair enough although I would like to boost my speed as much as possible.
> 
> Before I moved here I had 20MB Virgin cable broadband. So the step down to less than 2mb is quite a steep one.
> 
> Thanks :thumb:


what you mean no other company has spent money putting service into your area. Thats terrible.
I mean bad BT, it pisses me off people moaning that they can Only go with BT. Thats because all the companies that charge less for the monthly rental do so because they have never neaded to create the infrastructure to support the products in the first place. They pick and choose where they want to provide.


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## Puntoboy

I've never been overly keen on BT's service either. Remeber there was a time when BT were the only provider.

It can **** you off as much as you like, BT are ****, I've never been a great fan of theirs but until now I thought they were the only company I could go with.


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## icenutter

Exchanges that aren't llu have the hardware in the exchange supplied by BT. So they can't offer the ultimate low prices you see advertised. But almost every supplier will do you broadband.

I can recommend plus.net for service (but not really price).


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## Puntoboy

icenutter said:


> Exchanges that aren't llu have the hardware in the exchange supplied by BT. So they can't offer the ultimate low prices you see advertised. But almost every supplier will do you broadband.
> 
> I can recommend plus.net for service (but not really price).


We use plus.net at work and are a reseller for it as well. I must admit it's very good.


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## Guest

dundeered said:


> what you mean no other company has spent money putting service into your area. Thats terrible.
> I mean bad BT, it pisses me off people moaning that they can Only go with BT. Thats because all the companies that charge less for the monthly rental do so because they have never neaded to create the infrastructure to support the products in the first place. They pick and choose where they want to provide.


Haha you are very wrong with your assumptions, have you seen BTs costs for another ISP to unbundle the exchange !?

BT did perhaps put the lines in a few decades ago, when they were a monopoly... I don't think that is a reason to be loyal.


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## Guest

Plus.net uses traffic shaping quite heavily so you should check out what they throttle and when, for example if you do a fair bit, but sporadic downloading during the day, and expect good download speeds, think again..


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## Puntoboy

G220 said:


> Plus.net uses traffic shaping quite heavily so you should check out what they throttle and when, for example if you do a fair bit, but sporadic downloading during the day, and expect good download speeds, think again..


I don't do ANY downloading at my current address as the connection is so slow. I only using it for surfing and Xbox Live. Sometime it can barely cope with that!

I have my PC at my parents house using the 8mb O2 broadband line for downloading  Oh and for [email protected]


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## Ducky

You could always just disconnect the ring wire from your socket and see if that makes a difference, did that with mine. :thumb:


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## Serkie

Just on a general note BT aren't legally allowed to undersell competitors as they pretty much own the PSTN infrastructure giving them an unfair advantage as deemed by the competitions watchdog.

This is why BT Broadband and their Vision packages aren't exactly competitively priced.


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## Russ_C

icenutter said:


> Exchanges that aren't llu have the hardware in the exchange supplied by BT. So they can't offer the ultimate low prices you see advertised. But almost every supplier will do you broadband.
> 
> I can recommend plus.net for service (but not really price).


. 
I went with plusnet back in 2002 and used them for 5 years without fault, I made a stupid mistake and went over to Sky (full of false promises) and boy was that a mistake. When I moved house shortly after, everything they did was a complete mare. As I work in IT AND based at home, ADSL is extremely important to me. I spent a lot of time talking to many a muppet who were the cause of some of the grey hairs I now have. I was told it would take 10 working days for them to shift my account from my old address to the new one. In this time I was using 3g. After the 10 days still no luck and when I called them they had no record of me moving house so had to re-initiate my move. Then another 10 days passed and I was then told that there had been a problem on their system with my account so they would have to set me up a new one which would take 15 days... I lost it at that point! I called PlusNet and they said as long as no-one had 'tagged' my line with their service they would be able to get me up and running within 5 days, which they did.

After many a call back to Sky I got them to agree to close my account down without any penalties.

Lesson learned! PlusNet are very good, they are based in Sheffield and have 'proper' technicians who you can have a conversation with. They have live updates on their website saying how the service is, what updates they are doing along with BT exchange work. You know where you are with them.

Same old saying of 'You get what you pay for'


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## Guest

Plusnet are far from perfect, they have made some serious ****ups in the past, one memorable one was the accidental deletion of a load of customers mail and email accounts during the christmas period when one of the engineers accidentally deleted the disk partition where the mail was being held.

Have got much better since being bought by BT though, in my opinion.


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## Russ_C

That is an almighty c0ckup - It never affected me nor I have I heard of it but it may have been whilst I was on the dark side. I am sure they will have learned from that, you have to pity the guy who was doing the work - most engnieers have been in similar positions in their lives - however, most people would have a decent backup and or some kind of resiliency if a server was being worked on! I'm sure they'll have it replicated.


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## Guest

I do feel sorry for the guy yes, he must have had a horrendous sinking feeling. Ultimately he should not have been let loose on the system if he was not properly trained, so he shouldn't be fully to blame. It was a proprietary filesystem and he tried the usual recreate the partition of the same size after he deleted it, this actually made any data recovery impossible, so he must have felt twice as bad!


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## Silver R26

I am with BT and on an unbundled exchange although I do get 4.5meg. This speed wont change whoever I go with BT are more expensive than other but will offer unadvertised deals to keep you business when you are out of contract. I have found there tech helpline which is free and run from India to be be very good, they have always fixed any issues very quickly.

I have heard that the 'free' skyrouters could be better, guy i know moved from BT to sky now he cant seem to get signal from the router in certain places in the house whereas he could with the BT homehub. Although he might not have it set up correctly.


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## jontymo

If you can only get up to 1.5meg that is to do with the exchange if you go to another provider your line speed will not change.

we are in the same boat 1.5 meg as live at the end of the line in a small village, the exchange is not due to be upgraded for a few years!!!!!! we still manage to run 3 laptops at the same time and also play on the ps3 online.

I decided to stay with bt as was offered £5 a month discount to stay with them and i do like the mcafee that is included.

Jon


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## Puntoboy

I'm paying £17 to stay with BT for a service that isn't great. The speed can sometime be a lot worse than 1.5mb. The Homehub 2.0 isn't that great either tbh. I'm on my second one in 18 months and this new one isn't that good.


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## spursfan

Puntoboy said:


> I've just checked and out main socket is one of these:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Apparently this means it's already filtered to some extent and a BT Accelerator might not change a thing.


Hi, yeah, that is a filtered NTE5A and has the gubbins inside for increasing broadband speed. i got roughly a 1 meg increase when i got one off an engineer that works in the field for Openreach, which i also work for but in the Office. For that price you cant really grumble:thumb:


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## Guest

All routers will have different sync and throughput speeds depending on (amongst other things) mainly the chipset they use. 

Wireless signal is nothing to do with your broadband connection and is totally dependant upon your router.


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## Puntoboy

Very true.


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## spursfan

Puntoboy said:


> Our Exhange isn't unbundled. We are stuck with BT.


Maybe thats because the other companies dont want to have to spend money on laying miles of duct and cable to your village, they can just cherry pick the places where they can get a good return, namely towns where they are near to exchanges!!
Only BT have to provide a line to far off distant villages as part of their contract called the Universal Service Obligation.......

The USO is an agreement by which BT must provide landlines to the public. It has been a bone of contention for some time with the company, which claims that it is unfair as other firms can use the infrastructure without having to repair or look after it

Read more: http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002438-bt-landline-responsibility-to-be-removed.htm#ixzz0cWobJTAt

I guess when this comes into effect, you will see a radical change in pricing from all companies, and BT will finally be able to compete on a level playing field, something it has never ben allowed to do..:thumb:


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## Puntoboy

I couldn't care less about BT as long as it gets sorted.

Apparently there is another option for broadband in the village I've just found out about. Looking into it now.


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## Guest

spursfan said:


> The USO is an agreement by which BT must provide landlines to the public. It has been a bone of contention for some time with the company, which claims that it is unfair as other firms can use the infrastructure without having to repair or look after it
> 
> Read more: http://www.money.co.uk/article/1002438-bt-landline-responsibility-to-be-removed.htm#ixzz0cWobJTAt
> 
> I guess when this comes into effect, you will see a radical change in pricing from all companies, and BT will finally be able to compete on a level playing field, something it has never ben allowed to do..:thumb:


Thing is though, BT were not complaining when they were (effectively) given rights to become a monopoloy were they? Now they are complaining that they have to provide a few lines to unprofitable areas.

As I said above, go and look at the costs to unbundle an exchange, and how outrageous some of them are, the reason the exchanges aren't unbundled is because BT do not make it viable for them to...

Remember -- the BT line rental is there to cover the expense to BT of putting the line in, making it difficult for ISPs to enter the market by demanding high costs is not really acceptable.


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## parish

Puntoboy said:


> Yep router plugs in directly to main socket.


Directly into the faceplate on the main socket? So your internal extension wiring is still connected. Try removing the faceplate and plugging the router directly into the test socket behind it that way your extension wiring is disconnected (the faceplate has a plug on the back that goes into this and the extension wiring comes off the faceplate).

I've done this and it doubled my speed (honestly). The reason is that in my house all the extension sockets are next to mains sockets so I assume the telephone wiring runs alongside the mains cables causing massive amount of noise (you should always try to make signalling cables cross mains cables at 90 degrees to prevent this).

The downside is that none of your extensions will work, which isn't a problem for me as I've got a cordless phone.



Puntoboy said:


> G220 said:
> 
> 
> 
> For £1.20 you may as well buy one. Do you want to elaborate why BT is the only broadband providor you can go with?
> 
> 
> 
> Our Exhange isn't unbundled. We are stuck with BT.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't make any difference if it was. LLU exchanges still use the BT phone line to the house.


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## Puntoboy

I'LL gave that a try. We use the phone that comes with the homehub. Thanks.


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## Guest

parish said:


> Wouldn't make any difference if it was. LLU exchanges still use the BT phone line to the house.


It would as LLU is often ADSL2/2+ which can sustain higher sync rate on same line stats.


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## spursfan

G220 said:


> Thing is though, BT were not complaining when they were (effectively) given rights to become a monopoloy were they? Now they are complaining that they have to provide a few lines to unprofitable areas.
> 
> As I said above, go and look at the costs to unbundle an exchange, and how outrageous some of them are, the reason the exchanges aren't unbundled is because BT do not make it viable for them to...
> 
> Remember -- the BT line rental is there to cover the expense to BT of putting the line in, making it difficult for ISPs to enter the market by demanding high costs is not really acceptable.


The clue is in the word...GIVEN:thumb:


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