BT i-plate Claims Potential 100% DSL Speed Boost Comments

*heavenly choir*

Woohoo! Finally something that may be able to help me :) I've just switched to Be from Pipex and even though comparatively Be is a hell of a lot faster due to living where I do I'm limited to something like 1Mbps, so maybe, just maybe this can help! It may not, but for £15 I might as well give it a try!

So is this just for rural areas? Will this in cities benefit?

Cheers,
Eddy

I can see the marketing spiel now: "get UP TO 100% speed increase!" ;-)

I thought that these things only benefit people with internal wiring/extensions that are causing excess noise on the line? Not a general noisy-line catch-all. Please could someone check with BT?

It'll work for anyone with poor quality wiring, although obviously if you're already getting 4mbps+ you won't see a 100% speed improvement.

It will only work if you've got an master socket that's the same style as the one depicted with the removable lower part.

The latest (since 2007) NTE5 BT master sockets which cost just £7.99 online, already include the bell wire filter and in fact the iPlate is not compaptible with the latest BT sockets. Furthermore the new sockest are a lot less bulky than the older NTE5 with the iPlate fitted

From PC Pro Mag review "... BT automatically chokes the speed of your line to match your synch speed to improve connection stability – something which is known as your BRAS profile ... It can take up to three days for BT’s automated equipment to adjust your BRAS profile once your synch speed improves ..."

Dos this mean that it will only work with BT Broadband? I have Bulldog/Pipex and was hoping this would improve things somewhat - but I guess it depends where `BT's automated equipment` sits in the supply chain?

if i plug this baby into mai cable broadband, will it make virgin media see sense and remove their download caps?

Quote from broadbandbuyer.co.uk - "
The iPlate really only comes into its own for people who have their router plugged into an extension socket, rather than the NTE5 master socket."

So which way round is it TR? Do we benefit if our router is on an extension or master socket??

Looks like this is a prime candidate for a thrash test at TR. Will need to:
1) Check various ADSL broadband suppliers
2) Check various configurations (i.e. NTE5/iPlate/Modem/PC, NTE5/iPlate/Router/PC, NTE5/iPlate/WirelessRouter/PC, NTE5/iPlate/Extension(10m, 20m)/Router/PC etc, etc!)

Ideally would be good if tested in an older property too, where wiring is often poor - like my 100 year old (small) pile.

Even though this is only a £15 (ish, delivered) gadget it is potentially so important that I for one would love to see an in-depth review (not that you have anything else to do ;^)).

Cheers
Matt

Looks like a good solution, but it's a bit of a pain to only be able to use the master socket for your DSL?

I dissconnected the bell/ring wire from my master socket and got 500-600KB/s increase in speed taking me up to 1.36MB/s on Be*!

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/kb_vigor_linefaults.html

Would I be right in thinking that this BT thing is similar to this:

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

If so, I'm on Be and my speeds went up from 3meg to 4. I considered that £12 well spent!

No that looks like an (albeit snazzy) ADSL filter (unless of course it does do what the iPlate does in addition to professional filtering, but just isn't advertising it?); you still need to use and ADSL filter with the iPlate to split out phone/ADSL. I wonder if you could use both of these together and get even better improvements?

I have O2 premium (so, "up to 16 meg") but never got better than 8.5. The BT wiring in this house looks a bit Heath-Robinsonish, so I thought I'd try this device after seeing reviews. Took 2 minutes to fit and immediately my speed went up to 14 meg. Whatever noise was causing the problem has disappeared and I have the speed I expect from the service. Best £10 ever spent improving broadband speed. This huge jump in speed may not work for everyone, but whatever was causing the speed problem for me has now been solved. Totally satisfied with this little gadget.

I bought one of these after reading the news item. Best £12 I've ever spent. I live in rural Buckinghamshire, and quite a distance from the exchange. Consequently my usual speed is 1,100 kb/s download. Although it can be worse. Installation took two minutes, and my download speed immediately increased to 3,200 kb/s - a 200%-ish increase and well worth having considering my low base speed!!! For information, my router is plugged in to my master socket.

wow.. the preview two comments look just like talking ads for BT.
Certainly worth trying or at least I can hav a refund within 28days right?
p.s. envy Geoff Richards with his 200mbps super broadband.......... hope it's not a typo~

 just remember the BT underground cabling more than 65% is aluminum In UK and the rest Is copper!
This means the extra filter will help if your line is old one, but the best way is get in touch with BT and tell them to change the cabling :D and good luck with that.

It's worked for me. The i-plate has boosted my speed from 1.5 to 4 meg, although i am using the BT home hub direct from my NTE5. £11 well spent though!

Quite sceptical, but I bought one after being plagued by drop off in speed( as low as 125kb/s) for lengthy periods and having to " listen" to time wasting suggestions supplied by ISP. My best speed of 1.4 Mb/s went up to 1.8 Mb/sec within 24hrs. Ten days later its showing 2.9 Mb/s. My line is "supposed" to be capable of 4Mb/s. But I was frankly amazed that this easily fitted piece of kit produced the increased speeds. More of the ISP providers should suggest using this device.