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10 rules of broadband

Jon Hickman

• 1 min read
⚠️
Not being aware of these rules means that a 5 minute job will take you 7 hours.
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Having tools doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing. Just cutting the wires is bad.
  1. When offering to help family members set up broadband, don’t assume that the previous owner of their new house had a normal telephone set up.
  2. Consider the fact that they may have multiple sockets around the house, properly wired by a BT engineer, not just running out of adapters like the way normal people have it.
  3. Be aware that they may have some weird ISDN box and be ready for that to be a problem.
  4. You need more ADSL filters.
  5. If you’re unsure what wire to cut, don’t cut it. If you were in bomb disposal you’d now be dead. Instead you have killed the phones.
  6. Don’t tell mum.
  7. Just because one of you is an electronics engineer and another one is a web designer, you are not qualified to install broadband.
  8. But it helps that one of you is an electronics engineer and has half a clue how to wire things and do electronics.
  9. Cutting the phones and living in a mobile single blackspot means you’re on your own and can’t call BT for help.
  10. Wine and beer help.