So I have TOT Internet, not really much choice. Up to recently it has been OK and it had sometimes been on for several days…downloading from ‘thebox.bz’ etc without dropping off.

They offered me 6Mbps, I was on 3Mbps but getting nearly 4MBs frequently. So I accepted, then the problems started..dropping off several times a day and not always that fast…I know that my line is limited to less than 5Mbps anyway.

Eventually the ‘engineer’ comes, explains that I may be better back on 4MB/sec as less people are on that so agree and I’m getting like 3.6MB/sec quite often…wish I hadn’t changed!

Now I have four phone extensions, one downstairs and one in each of the three bedrooms. The downstairs one has a ‘splitter’ and is attached to a Phone/Fax m/c. One of the upstairs is attached to the burglar alarm system (it will dial my mobile if initiated). Another upstairs is for the modem/wireless router and the last line is not in use.

Now this guy says that I should have a ‘splitter’ on the incoming line to the house before where the lines divide to the four places. I guess that he means that I should plug the line to the room which I use for the modem into the ‘modem outlet’ of the ‘splitter’ and the phone lines to the other three areas into the ‘phone outlet’ of the ‘splitter’. Is this guy correct please? Will things be much better if I do this? In the past the service has been OK.

I have just checked to totisp.net and got 4.38Mbps down and 0.49Mbps up..maybe they are fiddling about with the system, it was off for a couple of hours this morning!

As you have other extensions on the line you really should use a central splitter unit. Extra lines cause severe problems especially if no phone is plugged in to them....ie they are left open.

Very few techs here will understand about central splitters but this will give you a start

http://www.c10.com.au/products/adsl-filters

Yup ^^^.

As an absolute minimum each phone should have an ADSL splitter (it's actually a filter on the phone side, the ADSL outlet goes straight through). It stops nasty noises in the phone when the ADSL is working and it also stops the phone interfering with the internet.

If your phone wiring will allow it one splitter will do the job just fine, remember, the modem can go straight into the incoming line.

Yup ^^^.

As an absolute minimum each phone should have an ADSL splitter (it's actually a filter on the phone side, the ADSL outlet goes straight through). It stops nasty noises in the phone when the ADSL is working and it also stops the phone interfering with the internet.

If your phone wiring will allow it one splitter will do the job just fine.

As I understand it the main problem with open sockets is standing waves which can really mess up the bandwidth.

Yup ^^^.

As an absolute minimum each phone should have an ADSL splitter (it's actually a filter on the phone side, the ADSL outlet goes straight through). It stops nasty noises in the phone when the ADSL is working and it also stops the phone interfering with the internet.

If your phone wiring will allow it one splitter will do the job just fine.

As I understand it the main problem with open sockets is standing waves which can really mess up the bandwidth.

Thanks Harry and David. So the guy was correct then. He did say that if I was still having trouble then he would probably have to fit one..probably best to play dumb..not too hard... But could you possibly recommend what I need that is available here and the approximate price. I attach a picture of the junction box..note the Thai style connections...thanks

I would also like to have the option of changing the the room in which I keep the modem.

If you want to move the modem around get a splitter / filter for each phone (and the alarm) and just leave the ADSL port empty.

At the frequencies used by ADSL I doubt standing-waves would be an issue except (maybe) on a really long run with an open end (but an on-hook phone is pretty close to an open circuit anyway).

Now this guy says that I should have a 'splitter' on the incoming line to the house before where the lines divide to the four places. I guess that he means that I should plug the line to the room which I use for the modem into the 'modem outlet' of the 'splitter' and the phone lines to the other three areas into the 'phone outlet' of the 'splitter'. Is this guy correct please? Will things be much better if I do this? In the past the service has been OK.

Yeap. That's the way the TOT hooked me up when I was on their 2Mb plan. You just need one splitter to filter out the ADSL signal which will cause noise on your phone/fax. Worked fine. The more splitters you have just provides more changes of failure/interference/load mismatches/reflections. Of course if your "one" splitter would ever fail it could affect all your phones, but you would notice the noise or no signal and just need to quickly swap it out. Now I've always heard the more lines you have branching out from the one incoming ADSL line (which is usually carrying you phone and ADSL signals) just offerers more changes for the ADSL performance to be degraded due to reflections, load mismatches, etc.

When I upgraded to the 4Mb plan a couple years back, I couldn't get the 4Mb performance on the line, primarily due to VCT electrical 1mm wire (kind you can directly bury in the ground) being used to run underground from the telephone pole to the inside of my home. Once inside the home it hooked up again to regular home phone wiring running in the walls. This VCT wire was run/protected by PVC conduit. No AC voltage on this line; they just used this rubber coated/protected type wire since it would be underground. That 20 meters or so of regular electrical wire just messed up the 4Mb performance...maybe because it was multistrand....maybe XYZ. The phone lines worked fine and my 2Mb DSL worked fine but the wire just couldn't deal with a 4Mb DSL signal. On the day of installation the TOT tech using his electronic DSL testing meter could get 4Mb DSL performance at the point outside the home where the phone/DSL connected to the underground conduit/wire leading to my house; but 20 meters away on the inside of the house and hooked to the electrical wire carrying the phone/DSL signal, he could only get 3.2Mb. So, we ended up running a second phone line and this line ran directly to the modem/phone connection box, none of that tiny internal home phone wiring. Being getting the 6Mb sync speed ever since....and I also use this second line as my fax line/number. The phones in the rest of the house are still connected to the 1st/original line that no longer has a DSL signal running on it, but we left the DSL splitter installed anyway. Afterward I also did some ohmmeter test looking for resistance problems/shorts on that underground telephone wiring just to satisfy my curiosity but found nothing....for whatever reason that multi-stranded 1mm did not like carrying the higher frequency used in ADSL signals.

Interesting observations on the wiring.

I had a problem back in the dialup days.

The line would dropped as soon as it connected.

The problem was the wiring in the house.

The electrician who rewired for me had skimped and chosen cheap, thin cable.

Once I replaced the wire with the grade recommended by the TOT engineer

the problem was cured.