Newbie tries and fails

If it's an access point, you can locate it anywhere in the house via ethernet. If you have a router then why not plug it into one of the extensions elsewhere in the house via the microfilter? This is the classic problem of the combined device, better to use a modem and a seperate access point to be honest so that you can put the AP exactly where you want it.

You'd do better wiring a second AP into the router.

You don't need to, see above, try the router in a different phone port/microfilter or wire an additional AP. Job done.

David.

Not necessarily. It's easy to run an ethernet cable between floors, say going outside the building and then into the loft for example. To place a CAT5 outlet into each room is somewhat harder, all you have to do is find somewhere to hide the cable for ethernet. If you think that's a problem, I had a much harder task when I installed our central vacuum system which required running 2 inch pipework! :)

Then change the way you filter. Originally, BT installed ADSL by providing a new faceplate to the master socket and thus all extensions were then filtered by this one change. BT filtering off the ADSL from the voice at the master. When they switched to self install, it required the customer to install microfilters at each extension to keep the adsl off the voice signal. From a legal point of view you're not permitted to provide a replacement faceplate for the master socket other than those that plug into a socket behind the later faceplates.

Essentially what i'm saying is that if you leave all the phone lines plugged straight into the master and then put the microfilters at the telephone end of the extension, that will work fine. I've done that before at my parents house, an old sturdily built house with real brick walls. :)

No somewhere else but try what I've posted above first.

Unfortunately, wireless is a marketing issue. The box says "Range 450 feet" or whatever. Yes in open space that's fine, houses suck basically. You can also make it go a few kilometers within ETSI power regulation too if you change antennas but that's not necessarily going to be best for you here. As I said, this is one of the weak points of having a combined modem/access point. You really want the AP central but nobody seems to place telephone extensions in the airing cupboard either hence the router somewhere and a single ethernet to the airing cupboard is handy. It's not that hard to do either if you think about it. Drill through the outside wall by a phone point, run the cable up the wall, into the loft space and down from the header tank following the water pipe run to the hot water cylinder.

The other way you *could* do it although more expensively, is to use the ethernet powerline extenders where you plug a dongle into a mains socket at each end and they have ethernet ports on them and use that to locate an AP more favourably.

David.

Right, must be too early in the morning because I can't work out your email address from that. cironbinson.com doesn't seem to exist and that's all I can figure out! :)

Ping me an email, I want to send you a piccy of something ;)

David.

Thanks David. But that means running an ethernet cable from the modem or main telephone point to an access point elsewhere in the house. If I could easily run ethernet cables around, I wouldn't need a wireless network?

not sure what you meant by "If you have a router then why not plug it into one of the extensions elsewhere in the house via the microfilter?". If the extension sockets and wiring are filtered, they can't be used for ADSL; but if I don't filter them, ADSL doesn't work. Perhaps I didn't make it clear: the extensions are all filtered by a filter at the point where the extension wiring connects to the main telephone socket.

Again, needing a cable run? or are you suggesting that a second AP in the same room would help?

Many thanks for your help, David.

Chris R

Not as easy as that, unfortunately. There are two roof overhangs to overcome, but the main objection is the cosmetic one of a cable running up the front of the house; unlikely to be acceptable to my wife!

That won't work because of the capacitance problem. The sheer length of cable in the telephone extensions - we have about seven - stops ADSL working even when nothing is plugged into them. That's why I can't fileter at the extension points. All the extensions are filtered just before the BT master socket.

I might well have to try that. Sounds a good solution.

Chris R

Is there such a product in the UK? I've Googled and looked through a couple of likely suppliers with no luck. The Netgear wireless range extender over mains sockets doesn't seem to have a UK version.

Or perhaps I should upgrade to a MIMO AP?

Chris R

Have you considered changing the wife? It could be an easier solution. ;)

Not sure I see the problem? The signal has trundled all the way along from the BT box, potentially a few km and the problem is the extra bit of cabling in your house?! I appreciate it's your house but if you can't get the router to work at any one of the extensions with a microfilter plugged in there then there's something wrong. It shouldn't be your house cabling producing that problem as far as I see it.

See first comment re: wife.

David.

Yes Maplin and PC World sell them for starters as well as plenty others.

Your searching sucks!! :)

David.

Except that there's not much outstanding about the cruddy connections and untechnical wire that runs several km between you and the exchange. BT have always played such a safe card in requiring a high signal to noise ratio such that house wiring length should never be an issue on top of the distance that the signal has already travelled.

I'd think there's something iffy with your wiring certainly.

I'm curious though, all the extensions could either be as a run all effectively in parallel but fed of each one or all in parallel with several cables from the master. How are they wired in your case such that they all arrive as one?

Certainly won't work too well without it but anyway, your other message suggests an alternate resolution. :)

David.

I'm not a techie but it took me a long time to solve and I understand the problem isn't entirely unknown. There could be a minor fault on one of the extensions but most likely it's the sheer length of what is probably low-quality telephone extension cable hanging off the BT socket. The capacitance - if I've got the right terminology - of all that wire was enough to stop the ADSL modem from achieving sync. Short of ripping the wire out of the wall and replacing it, there isn't much I can do - I can't even isolate individual extensions to find the source of the problem, as they all emerge as one cable at the BT socket. Of course I tried unplugging everything from the extension sockets, but that made no difference. With a filter between the BT socket and the extensions, ADSL works; without, it doesn't.

Thanks for your help

Chris R

Thanks again David - those look brilliant. In fact I'm tempted to go entirely ethernet-over-powerline and forget about the wireless!

I think I was Googling "mains" and not "powerline" , but I still can't see that Maplin do them - a strage omission from their range, if true.

Chris R

"Mains ethernet" was what I searched for. I've dealt with Maplin for probably 22 years so have worked out how they categorise stuff by now. :)

David.

You're right, it does! Though in my defence I wouldn't have any idea that a "dLAN Kit" was what I was after. I found the telephone-over-mains kit with no problems, which seemed attractive for a moment until I read that it would not carry ADSL.

Chris R

Could well be, I've reached the limit of my technical knowledge here. But it isn't just a question of the wire the ADSL signal travels over: the modem has always been plugged into the master socket, but with the extensions also connected, the modem doesn't sync.

I think it was the ISP's technical support desk that guided me to the solution, so it does seem to be a known issue.

I don't know. The extensions cable emerges as one from behind the BT master socket. I don't know where they join or how they are connected from there. I suppose I could look behind some sockets for any evidence of a loop but taht won't take me very far.

Yes. I still want to find out about MIMO though.

Chris R