Whole-house (NID) splitter versus plug-in splitter

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
5 posts Page 1 of 1
by rcoaster » Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:20 am
Hello-

I got my Fusion service installed and working with a temporary wiring setup and modem, and now I am planning the long-term details. Here are a few questions about the splitter and/or filter(s) I will need:

-Can I use an RJ-11 plug-in splitter in my NID box to feed the whole house, or do I need a "real" splitter/filter intended for NID installation? If so, what is the reason?

-Do I need to use the data/DSL output of the splitter/filter, or is that no different from connecting the DSL modem to the input side of the filter? (In other words, do the splitters "protect" the DSL signal from anything in the voice signal, or only the other way around?)

I have had DSL and then U-verse data since 1999, so I have always had a whole-house splitter in use (first, the one installed by Pac Bell with the early DSL setups, then a different one for U-verse installed by AT&T two years ago). Today, I tried the U-verse one (marked for VDSL 8.5 MHz) on my Sonic line and got really poor results, so I know that one is not suitable, and then I tried a plug-in one from standard AT&T DSL and data speed was no different with or without it. I have two separate Cat 5 cables from my NID to where my phone wires and Ethernet cables terminate in the house, one each for voice and data.

Thanks for any advice.
by rcoaster » Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:16 pm
Well, I answered one of my own questions, at least with the plug-in splitter/filter. The "Data" output jack is indeed simply a pass-through of the input wires. The circuit in this device is identical to what is in one of the phone-only filters. I will soon find out whether one of these filters can handle the load of a house full of phones (four in my case, one of which is an old Western Electric wall phone with a real bell ringer).
by wa2ibm » Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:26 pm
One of the plug-in splitters should be able to handle your entire house. I've done it many times for friends and it works just fine. I believe the reason you may not want to put it inside the NID is that, even with the NID cover closed, there will be moisture that will get inside. Notice that the test jack inside the NID has a rubber gasket around it to help with this.

What I typically do is run a piece of CAT5 cable from the NID to a close location inside, terminate the blue-white pair to an RJ-11 jack (or an RJ-14 jack with orange-white for bonded Fusion), then terminate the green-white pair (plus brown-white for dual line) with an RJ-11/14 plug. Plug the filter into the jack and the plug into the voice port of the filter. At the NID, connect the blue-white pair to the incoming line, and the green-white pair to the IW (Inside Wire) for the house phones. As you have discovered, you can run another CAT5 directly from the incoming line to your modem or to the data jack on the plug-in filter on the side.

The alternative is to get one of the DSL filters that fit into one of the service bays inside the NID that includes sealed terminations. Something like this one:

http://www.hometech.com/hts/products/wi ... lmdsl.html

Bill
by rcoaster » Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:02 pm
Bill-

Thank you for your detailed notes and confirmation. I ordered a whole-house splitter/filter similar to the one you posted, and I will use a modified inline one temporarily. My NID is old enough (1989 or earlier) that it does not have the snap-in locations that newer ones apparently have, so I will mount the filter inside it or in another outdoor-ready phone box I have.
by rcoaster » Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:58 pm
I received and installed my new splitter, a Tii 95S-1-09 that was on Ebay, and it fits inside my old Siecor network interface fine (but loosely).
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