routing through spaghetti junction

I am hopefully getting upgraded to adsl in the next few weeks and would
appreciate some advice please on how close a router ideally needs to be
to the main phone connection point?

We are about 200 yards from the exchange and the phone line appears to
be fine but was very poor (crackly/faint) when we moved into the house
about 18 years ago, I believe due to a "wonky" outside junction box.

We have quite a complicated system which includes a mains socket
"spaghetti junction" ringer amplifier/extender box upstairs with approx
5 lines out of it. One of these lines goes via the loft to the far end
of the house, (about 40 feet) to where I currently have my pcs and a
modem. I want my router next to the machines, but my husband thinks that
there will be too much line noise/interference and says it should be
next to the ringer box, or ideally where the line comes into the house.
Both these options would mean that two 40+ feet of ethernet cables
would need to be used, but he says these are much better suited to data
transfer than the phone wires. I am not very happy about this, but am
willing to go with the best solution.

Alternative options are out as he says a wireless system would cause
interference on his amateur radio & other equipment, and the BT Home
Network 1200 system that networks via the phone lines has been rejected
for similar reasons.

Rosemary

--
Rosemary I H Powell
email: (E-Mail Removed)
web: http://dozyrosy.com

"Rosemary I H Powell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
> I am hopefully getting upgraded to adsl in the next few weeks and would
> appreciate some advice please on how close a router ideally needs to be
> to the main phone connection point?
>
> We are about 200 yards from the exchange and the phone line appears to
> be fine but was very poor (crackly/faint) when we moved into the house
> about 18 years ago, I believe due to a "wonky" outside junction box.
>
> We have quite a complicated system which includes a mains socket
> "spaghetti junction" ringer amplifier/extender box upstairs with approx
> 5 lines out of it. One of these lines goes via the loft to the far end
> of the house, (about 40 feet) to where I currently have my pcs and a
> modem. I want my router next to the machines, but my husband thinks that
> there will be too much line noise/interference and says it should be
> next to the ringer box, or ideally where the line comes into the house.
> Both these options would mean that two 40+ feet of ethernet cables
> would need to be used, but he says these are much better suited to data
> transfer than the phone wires. I am not very happy about this, but am
> willing to go with the best solution.
>
> Alternative options are out as he says a wireless system would cause
> interference on his amateur radio & other equipment, and the BT Home
> Network 1200 system that networks via the phone lines has been rejected
> for similar reasons.

If you're only 200 yards from the exchange, the signal strength and quality
(ie lack of distortion due to line capacitance) should be excellent. When
you talk about the outside junction box, do you mean one of the sage-green
BT boxes in the street? Has the problem been rectified now?

My parents have a very long length of cable with several junction boxes and
splitters between the router and the main BT phone socket. And everything
works perfectly. See http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/ADSL-line.gif - the
total length of the wiring (self-intsalled, rather than BT-installed)
between BT socket and router is probably about 50 feet, including all the
cable that's coiled under my Dad's desk!

I'd suggest that when ADSL is enabled, you try the router near your
computer. Only if there's a problem should you need to try it near the BT
socket and buy long lengths of Ethernet cable.

PS: When you get ADSL, spare a thought for people like me for whom BT has
said that it will never be cost-effective to upgrade my local exchange.
There's no cable TV to the village so I can't use a cable modem. And the
company (Invisible Networks) that was due to install a wireless network to
the village has just gone bust. Looks like I'm stuck with my 56 kbps modem
for a long time yet :-(

"Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) s.com...
> "Rosemary I H Powell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
> > I am hopefully getting upgraded to adsl in the next few weeks and would
> > appreciate some advice please on how close a router ideally needs to be
> > to the main phone connection point?
> >
> > We are about 200 yards from the exchange and the phone line appears to
> > be fine but was very poor (crackly/faint) when we moved into the house
> > about 18 years ago, I believe due to a "wonky" outside junction box.
> >
> > We have quite a complicated system which includes a mains socket
> > "spaghetti junction" ringer amplifier/extender box upstairs with approx
> > 5 lines out of it. One of these lines goes via the loft to the far end
> > of the house, (about 40 feet) to where I currently have my pcs and a
> > modem. I want my router next to the machines, but my husband thinks that
> > there will be too much line noise/interference and says it should be
> > next to the ringer box, or ideally where the line comes into the house.
> > Both these options would mean that two 40+ feet of ethernet cables
> > would need to be used, but he says these are much better suited to data
> > transfer than the phone wires. I am not very happy about this, but am
> > willing to go with the best solution.
> >
> > Alternative options are out as he says a wireless system would cause
> > interference on his amateur radio & other equipment, and the BT Home
> > Network 1200 system that networks via the phone lines has been rejected
> > for similar reasons.
>
> If you're only 200 yards from the exchange, the signal strength and
quality
> (ie lack of distortion due to line capacitance) should be excellent. When
> you talk about the outside junction box, do you mean one of the sage-green
> BT boxes in the street? Has the problem been rectified now?
>
> My parents have a very long length of cable with several junction boxes
and
> splitters between the router and the main BT phone socket. And everything
> works perfectly. See http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/ADSL-line.gif -
the
> total length of the wiring (self-intsalled, rather than BT-installed)
> between BT socket and router is probably about 50 feet, including all the
> cable that's coiled under my Dad's desk!
>
> I'd suggest that when ADSL is enabled, you try the router near your
> computer. Only if there's a problem should you need to try it near the BT
> socket and buy long lengths of Ethernet cable.
>
> PS: When you get ADSL, spare a thought for people like me for whom BT has
> said that it will never be cost-effective to upgrade my local exchange.
> There's no cable TV to the village so I can't use a cable modem. And the
> company (Invisible Networks) that was due to install a wireless network to
> the village has just gone bust. Looks like I'm stuck with my 56 kbps modem
> for a long time yet :-(

I've just had a thought. The ringer amplifier/extender box will probably
only be designed to carry voice frequencies, not the 8 MHz bandwidth of
ADSL. You'll probably need to install a simple phone splitter before the
amplifier and take the line to the router from this, with the other arm of
the splitter going to the ringer amplifier/extender box.

You husband is right about Cat 5 Ethernet cable being much better than
normal phone line, but if ADSL is OK for several kilometres over
bog-standard phone lines, I don't think 40 feet or so will make that much
difference given that you're so close to the exchange.

In article <(E-Mail Removed) m>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> "Rosemary I H Powell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
> > I am hopefully getting upgraded to adsl in the next few weeks and would
> > appreciate some advice please on how close a router ideally needs to be
> > to the main phone connection point?
> >
> > We are about 200 yards from the exchange and the phone line appears to
> > be fine but was very poor (crackly/faint) when we moved into the house
> > about 18 years ago, I believe due to a "wonky" outside junction box.
> >
> > We have quite a complicated system which includes a mains socket
> > "spaghetti junction" ringer amplifier/extender box upstairs with approx
> > 5 lines out of it....

> If you're only 200 yards from the exchange, the signal strength and quality
> (ie lack of distortion due to line capacitance) should be excellent. When
> you talk about the outside junction box, do you mean one of the sage-green
> BT boxes in the street? Has the problem been rectified now?
>
No it's a little black box on the outside wall of the house where the
line comes in - the cover kept falling off, it let in rain, and it is
right by a rampant honeysuckle "triffid" that used to grow into it. I
think my husband did a bit of soldering at one point to secure loose
bits :-)

> My parents have a very long length of cable with several junction boxes and
> splitters between the router and the main BT phone socket. And everything
> works perfectly....
>
> I'd suggest that when ADSL is enabled, you try the router near your
> computer. Only if there's a problem should you need to try it near the BT
> socket and buy long lengths of Ethernet cable.
Yes - this is an obvious solution, thanks, my husband gets me quite
befuddled sometimes when he gets going!

> PS: When you get ADSL, spare a thought for people like me for whom BT has
> said that it will never be cost-effective to upgrade my local exchange.
I do know how you feel, I am in smallish village too, (actually having
seen another post from you, I think you are just up the road a bit from
us) and I have been waiting about three years, and had almost given up
hope. Someone did eventually start a broadband campaign; trigger was
originally set to 500 which I think would have been impossible to reach.
but it was reduced to 150 at some point this year. What really made me
mad is we are in a very high tech area, I had access to JANET at work,
and Vodaphone HQ is almost on our doorstep. I believe that good access
to information resources is vital in this day and age, and if provision
is not made to supply fast internet access to smaller communities
(particularly in outlying areas) they are going to end up as second
class citizens.

Rosemary
--
Rosemary I H Powell
email: (E-Mail Removed)
web: http://dozyrosy.com