BT I-Plates

[Kryten]

Anyone got one?

Think I've a faulty one (ordered it for my mother's line with BT's current offer of a free one for BT broadband customers) - doesn't work on her line so tried it on mine. No line out whatsoever, however I've got a brand new phoneline system with a built in filterplate anyway - so wondered if anyone here can confirm if these i-Plates work on modern Openreach installed phonelines?

 

[Edmond]

sorry for sounding dumb, but whats an i-plate as i'm on BT broadband, should i get one/it/them???

 

[Kryten]

It acts as a filter - especially useful if you're not using your router on your master socket. If you've a master phone socket with a split in the middle (i.e. you can take 2 screws out and the bottom half comes off), you slip this gadget over the cables without disconnecting anything and it fits between the socket and the original front plate. It can make quite a bit of difference to your connection speed, especially when using extensions or have iffy internal cabling in the property.

Beforehand I've mentioned disconnecting the bell wire in the phone line and extensions (the orange cable) which has the same effect as it carries interference. This stops you having to chop up/remove any cables. Plus as it's free aside from £1.20 postage, it's worth getting for BT Broadband users.

Go see BT Broadband Accelerator – Order yours now

 

[Starman]

Personally I've got one of these. But from what I understand the BT I-Plate just blocks the interference from the bell wire.

 

[Munkey]

Interesting, never knew about these. Just ordered one now, so shall see what results I get when it arrives.

 

[Kryten]

The wirings a little different to that - it adds a choke to one of the data cables too, which apparently helps more than just snipping the bellwire alone.

How true that is I've yet to see - not got a working iPlate here. Im assuming you should be able to plug it inbetween an extension and phone to prove its working but get nothing doing that either. Personally I've just had to go round all 5 sockets in the flat and snip 3 cables out of each and I've still got a fucking noisy line :/ Test socket is fine. Suspect it's all the cabling routed in the walls near the mains and TV sockets.

 

[old.user4556]

Plugging straight into the master socket with me extension ring unplugged makes a big difference to my speed. I'm paying for 8 megabits, and getting flat out 8 megabits. When I plug the rest of the sockets in, it drops to around 5 to 6 megabits.

Will check this out.

 

[Bahumat]

what's the extension ring do please? is it where if another phone is plugged in, they all ring together?

 

[Kryten]

Aka the bell wire. It does nothing - it used to make telephones on extensions ring going back to the old pulse telephones. On modern tone telephones it has no real purpose.

 

[Munkey]

Received it and installed it, very very simple.

Shall see if it makes a difference!

 

[Kryten]

Slight addition to this thread in case it helps anyone.

After succesfully increasing the broadband speed at my mums house from around 760k to 5mbit with a combination of the iPlate and re-wiring it all with cat6 cable (albeit bright purple cat6 which looks a bit odd around the ceiling) I've had a couple of similar requests for help from family members.

Cousins place. Recently built property, cabled by a load of monkeys. Decent cable was used but they had left too much slack in the cable in the sockets - so you could pull the sockets 2 feet away from the wall without disconnecting anything! And more importantly, the cables were untwisted back to the wall, eradicating the usefulness of twister pair cable in the first place. Shortened it to 2 inches of slack and twisting the cables back in 1. eliminated an annoying buzz he was getting on all his phones and 2. raised his broadband connection rate from 6mbit to 7.5 out of the 8 he should be getting.

Small things that make a hell of a lot of difference.

 

[Bahumat]

Slight addition to this thread in case it helps anyone.

After succesfully increasing the broadband speed at my mums house from around 760k to 5mbit with a combination of the iPlate and re-wiring it all with cat6 cable (albeit bright purple cat6 which looks a bit odd around the ceiling) I've had a couple of similar requests for help from family members.

Cousins place. Recently built property, cabled by a load of monkeys. Decent cable was used but they had left too much slack in the cable in the sockets - so you could pull the sockets 2 feet away from the wall without disconnecting anything! And more importantly, the cables were untwisted back to the wall, eradicating the usefulness of twister pair cable in the first place. Shortened it to 2 inches of slack and twisting the cables back in 1. eliminated an annoying buzz he was getting on all his phones and 2. raised his broadband connection rate from 6mbit to 7.5 out of the 8 he should be getting.

Small things that make a hell of a lot of difference.

Hehe nice work Kryten

I noticed you said you'd been helping family members. I checked our family tree and you're my long lost cousin so that means you have to come fix all the wires in our home!

 

[Kryten]

Same rate as my cousin - I'll do a complete rewire for £50 and as many pints are drinkable in that timescale

 

[Bahumat]

Same rate as my cousin - I'll do a complete rewire for £50 and as many pints are drinkable in that timescale

Haha