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[kitzcurly]

There seems to be conflicting info on this topic but it appears that keeping a short distance between master socket and modem is preferable to a longer distance. Can anyone confirm this please?

The distances in question are 20-30 cm vs 10 metres. My modem is connected to master socket with an RJ11 cable.

My requirement is I want to move my router into a different room from where the master socket is located. I don't want to pay to relocate the master socket. So it seems to me that I can either move the modem and router, or move just the router.

The cable run would be around 10 metres. You can get cables with both RJ11 and RJ45 plugs at this length, hence the question.

Thanks in advance
Paul

[johnson]

So you have separate modem and router currently, and the question is whether to relocate both and run RJ11 phone cable or keep the modem where it is and run ethernet cable?

If so then run the ethernet cable no contest.

[kitzcurly]

So you have separate modem and router currently, and the question is whether to relocate both and run RJ11 phone cable or keep the modem where it is and run ethernet cable?

If so then run the ethernet cable no contest.

Exactly right, that's the decision I'm looking at. Thanks, will do!

[johnson]

Yeah, it may not seem like much to add another 10m onto a 100+(1000+ in some cases)m line, but in your house you have noisy mains wiring through all the walls and an abundance of switching power supplies attached to them, some of which may not have *perfect* designs. All right next to your 10m inside run that in the worst case acts as an antenna. The shortest (twisted) link you can have from the drop wire to the modem the better.

As you are running cable from the master socket to the new location anyway, an ethernet connection from the modem to the router is the best choice.

[Weaver]

What johnson said.

Paying Openreach to move the master socket would be a good thing if (but only if) it means reducing the sum total amount of cable leading from the outside world to your modem. Given the choice, you always always go for more Ethernet cable as Ethernet cable has effectively zero downside associated with it, provided that it is of top quality and has not been kinked, sharply bent or crushed.

[jelv]

An extra 1M of cable from master to modem could make a significant difference.

A longer Cat 5e of up to 100M from modem to router is 99.99% certain to make no difference.

[Weaver]

Jelv and I are in complete agreement, are we not?

[jelv]

We are all in agreement!

[burakkucat]

And so say all of us! 

[Weaver]

:-)

[dee.jay]

I went from a 1m to a 20cm RJ11 cable and it gave me an extra 1Mb sync, IIRC.

[Weaver]

I agree with Dee.jay - I once got a startling improvement when I went from a nasty cable many years ago to a good quality ADSL Nation short one.

[Ronski]

I don't totally agree 

I do agree a shorter cable is better, but he is or was on the 3rd March syncing at 80/20, the post doesn't show his attainable though so no idea how much headroom there is, but probably not much as he appears to be on a 5dB SNR. So if he wanted a more tidy setup and used CAT5e to create a data extension from the master socket to the new location he may well find there is no impact on his sync speed, and could see how much impact there has been on his attainable.

If at a later date his line did sync lower due to cross talk, he could convert the data extension to a network cable and switch back if he so desired.

Just my thoughts.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Another downside is, with a long ethernet cable between modem and router, he’s got to use two separate boxes, losing the option of a combined modem/router.   I’m not really arguing that a single combined device would be any better than separates, or any worse, but it seems a pity to lose the option if there’s no benefit.

That “no benefit” only applies of course, if the connection is so incredibly good that the longer modem cable will not be detrimental.   From what Ronski says, that might be the case?

[Weaver]

A longer modem cable will very likely not make any difference at all, I should have stressed that as my earlier post might well be misleading, with the possibility of its being thought of as implying something that was not intended at all.

Decent modem cables are likely to be pretty much of a muchness imho regardless of length, within reason, where short cables are concerned. An important consideration is also presumably the matter of how many signal volts you have coming out of your dsl line. Since I have 64dB downstream attenuation, that’s a whole different world compared to those if you who are lucky enough to live in civilisation and have short copper, or even something called FTTC [!] which I have heard of but never seen.

And also there is the consideration of how much interference you have around your cable - is the modem cable touching a mains cable, hopefully not. If for some reason you can’t put some spacing between a mains cable and your modem cable, not even a small amount of spacing [!] (why not?), then having the two crossing at right angles is making the best out of a very bad situation and running them parallel is a horrible idea, especially if they are parallel and literally touching.

So all those factors - of cable positioning, dsl signal voltage and kinds of sources of in-house interference - all matter a lot, and affect whether details of modem cables’ length and quality will be important or not.