Broadband Magic with the I-Plate
Well today I was amazed.
I bought, on the suggestion of my colleague Alan Bell, the I-Plate for BT’s master socket. It costs about a tenner including postage and there are lots of happy people who saw their broadband speeds increase when they used it.
Well, it arrived at lunchtime today and after puzzling a bit because of some strange extension wiring, we managed to work out how to plug it in.
Here’s what my cheap and old ADSL router said before I plugged in the I-Plate:
Downstream | Upstream | ||
SNR Margin | 7.1 | 12.0 | dB |
Line Attenuation | 42.4 | 31.0 | dB |
Data Rate | 1888 | 832 | kbps |
And here is what it said in the time it took us to walk back downstairs to my office:
Downstream | Upstream | ||
SNR Margin | 6.5 | 13.0 | dB |
Line Attenuation | 50.1 | 30.0 | dB |
Data Rate | 4160 | 832 | kbps |
Note the Downstream speed!
I’d say that was a tenner well spent. Of course YMMV but it seems worth a try.
Cheating. You wrote that the night before 🙂
@ferg, this was no April Fool joke. It is really what happened.
I see you tell the truth! Sorry for doubting you there. Apparently it disconnects the bell wire. When I last had ADSL I did this (illegally) in a vain attempt to mitigate the ancient copper wire between me and the exchange (that was so old I’m sure it was covered in verdigris). It did make a difference. Nowehere near as much as you got. Nice!
[…] He we go then seeing as everyone else is at it. My speed would have been at least half this before I installed the i-plate: […]