|
|||||||||||||||||||
| HOME \ ADSL INSTALLATION \ ADSL ADAPTOR | |||||||||||||||||||
 BT
ADSL Adaptor Front Plate for NTE5 (UK
only)The genuine BT article as used by BT engineers on fully-fitted professional ADSL installations. Using top quality filtering components and design, consumer-installable. Here's our off-the-cuff and often flippant guide to the mighty BT ADSL faceplate adaptor which we uniquely sell retail. As with all such articles here, this isn't intended to instruct people with absolutely no technicaly savvy whatsoever - we'd respectfully suggest that if this subject is all gibberish, pay for a professional installation. On this page... PART I - What does this product actually do? PART II - NTE5 EDUCATION PART III - FITTING THE NEW ADSL FACEPLATE PART I - What does this product actually do?  In
summary;It replaces the standard faceplate on "NTE5" style master telephone line boxes, and gives you separate Voice and ADSL access sockets. It also filters all your extensions on the line so that you can keep all your standard telephone equipment plugged in as normal. The job it does is the same as a microfilter, except that this negates the need for multiple dangly microfilters at all the phone points in your house/office, and also happens to be the best available quality of filtering/splitting. If you want to know more about WHY ADSL filters are necessary at all, read THIS article So, instead of just a single standard telephone socket on the front as per the standard fitted Voice-only faceplate on BT NTE5 master line boxes, the BT ADSL Adaptor gives you two sockets...  One
socket is a standard "BT-style" telephone
socket which is now filtered so that the noise of ADSL is removed
from it. Phones, faxes, SKY boxes, 56k modems - ALL these things need
to work via an ADSL filter to keep them isolated from the ADSL signal
on the line.On the BACK of the NTE5 faceplate (both standard and this ADSL adaptor version) there's a small connector block for extensions to be neatly hardwired onto, so that all your extensions are once again safe for voice equipment use, having had the ADSL signal stripped off. The other socket is an RJ45 socket. IMPORTANTLY, an RJ-45 socket can happily accept an RJ-11 plug, so either is fine there. MOST modem patch cables supplied with ADSL modems and routers have an RJ-11 plug on each end, so that's handy. This is the ADSL socket. It's the ONLY access point for clean, unfiltered ADSL signal. It's quite possible, indeed likely, that your computer or router isn't in the same place as your BT master socket. You're not alone of course, most of us are the same. In this case, you'll need to use an ADSL extension cable (as used in these circumstances by your BT engineer during a paid-for fully-wired ADSL installation) which will plug into the ADSL socket on the ADSL Adaptor OR if you have a modicum of technical ability you can investigate the use of one of our modified versions of the BT faceplate which allow you to hard-wire extension cabling for ADSL extension points onto the rear of the faceplate for neatness. If you want to know more about our MODIFIED version, read THIS article PART II - NTE5 EDUCATION What's this "NTE5" you're on about, and how can I tell if my master's an NTE5 or what? Pretty much every BT Master linebox installed for yeeeeears (since the mid-late 80's) has been this kind: (in a very small percentage of cases a non-NTE5 master may have been used for some reason though) 
This is an NTE5. Actually if you want to be exact it's an NTE5-A, but we just call it an NTE5, OK? Good. Now, notice if you will, that the lower half is separate from the rest of the body. The whole body is the "backplate" and the separate lower panel is the "faceplate". *NOTE If your BT master isn't this type, then our BT NTE5 adaptor faceplate is NO USE to you. If you'd like to acquire and fit your own NTE5 line box, all is not lost - you can still legally do so. We sell NTE5's HERE, to connect up yourself, but PLEASE don't be a smart-ass and replace your existing BT master box with it. Think long and hard before completely replacing the BT master socket with it. It's a clear and definite breach of BT regulations to do so, not to mention actually ILLEGAL. You can be severely stung for doing it. Importantly, ONLY BT-installed NTE5's have the little BT "Piper" in relief on the top left of the face. NOBODY ANYWHERE sells those legally, they're only EVER fitted by a BT engineer. If you fit your own NTE5 as the master access point on your line, it'll be immediately obvious as a home-job and you're open to prosecution, so don't. If you want to know more about adding your own NTE5 legally, read THIS article PART III - FITTING THE NEW ADSL FACEPLATE Right, you're with us so far? Good. Let's now attack our NTE5 with an appropriate screwdriver and get in about the guts. We think you'll be able to find a screwdriver OK on your own.   How
to attack your NTE5 and get the faceplate off it etc.All you have to do is undo the two handy screws on the front, and pull off the faceplate. Here's a dinky little picture of an NTE5 here in Clarity Towers being dismembered yesterday. Yours will very probably have some of those wires that you see there attached to the IDC connector on the back of the faceplate. Those wires run off to your extensions, wherever they are in the building. You can release them from the faceplate with a good solid yank away from the faceplate, or of course if you're feeble (or they're stuck fast), you can nip them off with wire cutters. If you have extensions to other telephone outlets in your scenario, then you may want to have a read of our Extensions Guide too. By now it'll make sense if I tell you that the faceplate is the part which YOU, the SUBSCRIBER, are allowed to work with to wire extensions in and so forth. The BT Master is the demarkation point between BT's network and your scruffy mess of a home telephone system. Everything on THEIR side of the box, i.e. the BACK of the NTE5, is BT's. No fiddling, leave well alone. "Nicht Fur Touchen Auf Dem Fingerdabben" as they say in Germany. Everything on YOUR side of the BT Master is YOUR domain. That means telephones plugged into the master, extensions whether plugged in or hardwired onto the back of the faceplate, all these things are yours to play with. See how the detachable consumer faceplate principle lets you do things without actually tinkering with the wires which come in off the street, i.e. BT's side of the Master? An excellent concept. Now let's get a better look at this great BT ADSL Adaptor faceplate. As you can see, the back is more or less the same stuff as was on the one you just removed. You can see the IDC connector block where you'll connect the wires that run to your extensions for example. And that's all there is to it.  If you recall at the top of the page, we said that this is a direct plug-in replacement for the original voice-only faceplate. So as you probably guessed, all you do is, er, plug it in and put the screws in. A Note About The Screws Because the ADSL adaptor needs longer screws, the short ones you've just removed are replaced by two longer screws, provided in the packet. BUT... Originally the backboxes for the NTE5's installed by BT had little brass inserts in the screwholes. They take machine screws (electrical screws), thread M3. Not all that long ago, they started fitting cheaper (typical!) ones which don't have those brass inserts to guide the screws, and instead of nice neat machine-screws, you have to horse a pair of self-tapping screws into bare plastic instead. Now, this ADSL faceplate is the genuine BT article, and it comes with what BT now consider the standard screw for their NTE5's - self-tapping screws - only. If you find yourself with an older type of NTE5 with the brass inserts, you have two choices. You can check around some ironmongers in the hope of finding at least 25mm M3 machine screws (rare), or you can horse those self-tappers in. The latter is in fact what a BT engineer will usually do. Of course the brass inserts are then forever ruined for using machine screws again. UPDATE: We've only ever found the right size available in large quantities and very expensive as measly screws go. Recently we've relented and shelled out for a wheelbarrow full of the bloody things, so you can now order a couple for a few token pence extra when you're ordering your ADSL adaptor. They're an orderable item just below the adaptors on their catalog page. We should make the cost back in a few years... 
Moving on again, pop it onto your
NTE5 backbox, screw it into place, and you'll be all set and ready
to surf. All your voice extensions are now filtered, and the ADSL
socket on the front can either accept your modem cable directly (either
RJ11 OR RJ45 - usually RJ11 plugs on ADSL modem cables) or one of
our handy BT ADSL extension kits!On the right there, is a shot of another couple of NTE5's at Clarity Towers. The ones in my office as it turns out.  As an interesting point of note actually, the NTE5 on the left is in a recessed mounting box put in by the builders so the NTE5 is flush with the wall, while the one on the right was a recent addition and used a surface mount wall box. By lucky chance both units now sit pretty much level! COMPLETE FLUKE!  Now
that you know exactly what you're doing, let's see the colour
of your money. Click the orders button here to take
you to the ordering page for these gadgets, whereupon we hope you'll
order one, and probably an extension kit too, cos I bet like the rest
of us your BT Master socket's at the opposite end of the house from
the computer! .Come on, spend the cash, you know you want to. any questions about using this, EMAIL US AND ASK! we reserve the right to sarcastically jibe you if you just haven't bothered reading the stuff above and elsewhere on the site which would've given you the answers! |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Home | About
Us | Contact
| Terms and Conditions/Privacy/Disclaimers © Clarity. All Trademarks acknowledged E&OE |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
