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[JamesK]

I ordered my Mk2 faceplate from the seller mentioned earlier in the thread. I'd say I got about an extra 1mbps downstream and 0.2 mbps upstream. Nothing earth shattering, but still an improvement.

From speedtest.net I get about 36.8mbps on a 950m line to the cabinet.

The biggest speed improvement for me was moving from the HG612 modem over to the ECI, and I'm on an ECI DSLAM. I got about a 4 mbps increase by doing that.

[Darren]

Did anything come of this?  Was it nonsense?  True, and now fixed? or ?

He hasn't updated the thread and I've not been on the forum since posting that so don't know if he's posted info elsewhere in the forum. Not seen anyone else report the same as him either. So I suppose it's take with a pinch of salt.

I bought one and it didn't have any adverse effects but then the claimed issue wouldn't.

[sheddyian]

My MK2 purchase arrived yesterday, and I fitted it with much glee.

Some before/after stats on my ADSL2+ line, using a BT HG612 - with a big caveat after

Code: [Select]

Item                           Attainable  Actual   Attainable  Actual  Attenuation  S/N Margin
                                 UP          UP       DOWN      DOWN     UP   DOWN     UP   DOWN
before reboot                   1252        1020     21480      20412   10.1  20.5    14     5.5
After reboot                    1268        1020     21492      19952   10.1  20.5    14.7   6.1
With MK2                        1224        1020     21484      19967   10.1  20.5    12.6   6.1
2nd reboot with MK2             1220        1020     21492      19944   10.1  20.5    12.5   6.1

So, swapping from a Mk1 to a MK2 VDSL plate did not affect attenuation or synch speeds in my case.

The drop in UP S/N margin is odd, and puzzled me.  It corresponded to me seeing about 30 "UP" bitswaps per second, which I'd never seen before.  This continued after rebooting the modem.

I wondered if I'd done something wrong, and disconnected it all then reassembled, but the problem remained.

However, about 2 hours later the UP S/N margin returned to previous levels, and currently it's at 15.8 .  Rogue bit of interference?  Something settling in?  Who knows 

Finally, 3 QLN plots : the first from the day before, the 2nd after a reboot and finally the 3rd following the swap to the MK2 VDSL.

Seems to be almost no difference!

So, for me it has so far not made anything better, nor worse, although possibly I'm seeing fewer bitswaps and errors (now that it's settled down) but I need to monitor a bit longer for that.

Hope that's of some interest 

Ian

[burakkucat]

I just wish my line was as quiet as that! 

[NewtronStar]

Installed MK2 faceplate yesterday it was a bit fiddly to get the data extension wires into IDC sockets using punchdown tool had to strip off some of the plastic covering to get it to punchdown.

Unfortunately the RFI is still coming in during the evenings yet there is a very very slight improvement on missing tones in the evening but this could be down to daily fluctuations the attenuation has gone up from 24.6 dB to 25.0 dB but don't know if this is down to the faceplate or the extension IDC connections I made.

So to sum it all up I was hopeing to see a big impact on RFI but no luck there and never expected any increase in speeds, so stick with the MK1 and save yourself a tenner   

EDIT: the attenuation has recovered to 24.7 dB after a HG612 reboot this evening don't why but thats good.

[sacco]

Hi all,

I'm hoping one of you experts can answer two (hopefully) easy questions for me. 

I'm fixing up the wiring in a house with currently dismal ADSL speeds, and this new Mk2 VDSL Interstitial Plate looks like exactly what I need; but I don't know exactly what's inside it, so I have two specific questions: 

1)  I know that the original iPlate was not supposed to be used with the latest NTE5As as they are already fitted with filtering (though I haven't looked carefully enough to be sure whether fitting the two together actually caused any problems, or whether it was simply completely unnecessary).  The NTE5A already in the house is actually pretty recent --- it has a bell-wire filter --- so can anybody tell me whether this will cause any problem if I add in the Mk2 VDSL Interstitial Plate? 

runITdirect seem to suggest that the Mk2 works with any of the following NTE5As, so I'm guessing there should be no conflict, but it would be nice to be certain:
http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/btbroadbandacceleratoralternative.html
http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/nte5-nte5a-bt-openreach-socket.html
http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/openreach-branded-nte5-master-socket.html

I can probably dig out an older NTE5 if there is a problem...


2)  The line drop comes in through an RF3 junction box (radio repeater mast on the hill behind the house --- as far as I can tell it previously had an RF2).  I know that the Mk2 VDSL Interstitial Plate also contains filtering: will having both degrade the signal, or will the Mk2 Plate work well with the RF3? 
In the worst case I can just crimp out the component, but it's easier to ask an expert than work out what it's doing myself (especially as I don't know exactly what's inside the Mk2). 

Thanks for any light you can shed!

[JGO]

Sympathise with you because hard information on devices seems hard to get - doing it by numbers doesn't work for interference ! You do need to sort out what you are trying to do before selecting hardware.

The Filtered Faceplate MK2 is aimed at VDSL so it covers a bandwidth up to 17 MHz and can't be expected to do as good a job on ADSL as a Mk1 assuming MK1 is wired to make ADSL available only at the master socket. This stops the extension wiring acting as an interference aerial, so you probably won't need a RF3 unless the pickup is strong enough to affect phones too.

You say "radio repeater " - any idea of frequency ? RF2 was aimed at Long & Medium wave BC stations ( and can clobber ADSL !)

[burakkucat]

1)  I know that the original iPlate was not supposed to be used with the latest NTE5As as they are already fitted with filtering <snip>

   That is incorrect.

The NTE5A already in the house is actually pretty recent --- it has a bell-wire filter --- so can anybody tell me whether this will cause any problem if I add in the Mk2 VDSL Interstitial Plate?

The SSFP (Service Specific Face Plate, to give it its full name) is designed for use with any revision of NTE5/A. So the answer to your question is there will be no problem. 

2)  The line drop comes in through an RF3 junction box (radio repeater mast on the hill behind the house --- as far as I can tell it previously had an RF2).  I know that the Mk2 VDSL Interstitial Plate also contains filtering: will having both degrade the signal, or will the Mk2 Plate work well with the RF3?

The original SSFP (retrospectively referred to as the Mk1) was designed for VDSL2 usage and is fully backwards compatible. I.e. Compatible with any xDSL service. The Mk2 SSFP is just an enhancement of the Mk1 and, again, is fully compatible with any xDSL service (G.Dmt, ADSL2, ADSL2+, VDSL2). 

In essence, I can see nothing "wrong" with a circuit that has a BT80-RF3, NTE5/A and SSFP installed. It doesn't matter whether the circuit is operating in G.Dmt mode or VDSL2 mode . . .

[les-70]

   I would not recommend using an RF3 on a vdsl2 connection that used any tones above about 2000.  I tried one as test on my connection see:  http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?topic=13420.msg259441#msg259441 . Using it on vdsl2 exposes the rf3's frequency response for differential mode signals.

 The RF3 generally gives a  smooth roll off, but the attenuation produced seems different either side of tone 512    There looks to be a bit more attenuation added at the end of the adsl2 range than at the start of the the vdsl2 range.

I tried an RF3 on adsl2 a while ago and it caused an attainable drop of about 1 mb/s on a 16 mb/s connection.  I expect it would have less negative impact if the attainable was less.

[Chrysalis]

even on adsl1 it caused me a lower sync speed (years ago), I probably had a slight boost of stability but wasnt significant.

[burakkucat]

b*cat waits for Black Sheep (when time permits) to remind us of the advise issued to Openreach technicians, as a result of extensive research carried out by the Wizards of Grimbledon Down . . .

[Black Sheep]

Mr Cat (as always) is correct.

Our 'Bible' (ISIS Library) states that ....... 'It has been found that the SSFP RF3 filtering functionality has some limitations and will not prevent REIN faults in all cases.
The existing stand-alone RF3 may still be required to assist in solving Rein Faults, and can be fitted even when the Mk2 VDSL SSFP is in situ'.

There has been a component change agreed with the supplier that will bring the performance of the RF3 element of the SSFP up to the standard of the existing RF3. It will then of course, need to undergo tests. 

[burakkucat]

b*cat purrs "Thank you" in the direction of the sheep-pen. 

I now have a vision of all the "watchers" looking out for the first appearance of Mk3 VDSL SSFPs "in the wild". 

[les-70]

 

that will bring the performance of the RF3 element of the SSFP up to the standard of the existing RF3.)

   

I hope the MK3 designers try to achieve the current RF3 common mode rejection without its current differential mode performance.    Judging by the current RF3 impact on vdls2 (see my post above) the differential mode frequency response needs to be moved up by a factor of 10 to only produce only a small negative impact on vdsl2 comparable with the current RF3's impact on asdl2.

[JGO]

even on adsl1 it caused me a lower sync speed (years ago), I probably had a slight boost of stability but wasn't significant.

I also had a marginal speed drop on ADSL1;  even though more tones came out of the noise at the high frequency end,  there was a drop in the bits/tone lower down.

I wonder - how well is the input capacitance of modems controlled ? Extra capacitance effectively across the RF3 output could make a mess of a flat response !