"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
I think I met a slightly more sensible Openreach engineer, who said that
extending from the master socket to the router would be fine *providing*
it was done in Cat5/6 cable. So I extended the split outputs of the master
socket (phones and internet) via a double wall socket by the BT socket,
about 15M of cat 5e cable, and a patch panel, and thence to the router,
and there is no visible performance difference to having the router right
next to the master socket. It also puts the router in the centre of the
house at ceiling level, which helps with wi-fi coverage.

When we upgraded to VDSL, I originally moved the router to be close to the
master socket, which was very inconvenient as a) the wifi coverage
throughout the house was less strong, and b) I had to use Homeplug to get an
Ethernet feed to my PC upstairs.

So I experimented...

- best sync speed was with the router in the test socket of the master
socket

- sync speed reduced by a couple of Mbps when I connected the house wiring
and put the router in the front plate of the master socket

- with the router upstairs on the end of a long run of BT cable to the
upstairs socket and then another long run of cheap ribbon phone extension
cable (under doorways and along the edge of carpet) from there to the router
in the next room, I lost a further few Mbps

I think the difference between best and worse was 20 Mbps down to 14 Mbps,
which I decided was tolerable if it gave me the router next to the PC and
upstairs for better wifi.

Interestingly, I've just looked at my router now and it's syncing at 20 Mbps
/ 7 Mbps - better than it used to be - so I'm dead chuffed. Actually the
biggest benefit of VDSL for me is the dramatically increased upload speed
(0.5 up to 7 Mbps) when sending emails or ftping files; the increased
download speed isn't normally very noticeable (because even the 8 Mbps of
ADSL was fast enough) for ordinary web access, though it does come in very
useful for downloading large files.