There are lots of useful hints and tips around – often relating to fiddling around with your MTU, for instance – few of which I’ve found give any benefit. However, here’s one that even gets the backing of BT.

It would appear that in many people’s master BT socket (the one that all your other extension cables and phones are plugged into) there is a wire still in use that, well, isn’t really needed – the bell wire. And it can often cause interference resulting in slower internet connections.

The DIY answer is to open up this socket and remove the wire. The safer option for those who are terrified of pulling on a limp cable that’s barely held in place by anything, is to buy the iPlate from BT. Yes, BT have created a replacement front for your master box that essentially does this for you. And for less than £6 (inc P&P).

Zen Internet, my ISP, have been quotes as saying…

In a small scale trial we performed… the results [were] varied from no increase up to 1Mb/sec

You may not see immediate improvements because BT automatically limits the speed of your line to match your sync speed to improve connection stability. This is known as your BRAS profile (Zen Internet have an excellent support site for customers where you can check your current BRAS profile) and it can take up to three days for BTs automated equipment to adjust this profile.

Personally, I was disappointed – not by the results but the fact that the wire was already missing from mine when I checked, so I have nothing to try. Drat.