How To Move Your Broadband Router

There are several reasons why you may want to move your broadband router. It may be because the WIFI coverage around your home or where you use it most isn’t as good as you would have liked or that you would like it near your TV equipment so that you can hard-wire your Smart TV’s, games console & satellite TV receiver. A few years ago it was common to install the telephone line & master socket in the hallway of a house, where people used to often make their phone calls. Often with a nearby chair, phone book and notepad and pen. But with the delivery of broadband internet to your home down the phone line this doesn’t always make sense in today's world. In this blog I discuss some different techniques which can be used to re-site your broadband router in your home to a preferable position.

Move Your Telephone Master Socket

Of all the ways to move your broadband router or broadband hub I would suggest that this would probably be the best way of doing things and this is what your telephone/ internet provider will recommend. This is because for optimum internet speed & reliability it is best that your router/ modem is connected direct to your telephone master socket. Ideally with a filter ADSL/ VDSL face-plate that will remove the need for an external ADSL filter. Although this is less of a problem with the newer telephone master sockets which have an integrated filter to remove interference from extension cabling it is still the recommended method as less cable length can only be a good thing.

The downside of having to move your telephone master socket is that you may require BT or one of their subsidiaries to do this for you. You may also find an independent telephone engineer that will do this for you. I really wouldn’t recommend messing about with the incoming telephone line if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s one thing to have about with your internal telephone extension cabling and a complete different thing altogether to mess about with the incoming line. Contrary to common belief it is not illegal for you to move your master socket yourself. You absolutely mustn’t go and play around with your local telegraph pole or data cabinet but what’s on your property is your business. There will be somewhere in your agreement with your telephone company that you are not to touch your incoming line and it remains their property but if you do in fact touch it and mess things up. The worst that would happen is that you would have to foot the bill if you can’t get things working again which is why I don’t advise doing this yourself. Just to clarify do not touch anything that isn’t on your property, this includes cabling in flats and I accept no responsibility for whatever happens should you choose to do so.

That being said, I do often move master sockets. One thing I commonly do is to run and cable from the existing master socket location to the new location and instead of terminating the cable as a standard telephone extension I join the incoming pair that comes in from the telephone line with some jelly crimps. This can then be terminated into the new master socket location and on the same cable I will use the other pairs to make the original master socket position a telephone slave socket. This way the master socket can always be moved back to its original location. Alternatively if the cable is long enough you could just re-route the cable to the preferred location.

The big downside of doing it this way is if you are getting BT to do this for you their call out last time I checked was in the region of £150 so it could cost a fair amount of money.

Telephone Extension Socket Installation

You could just have a standard telephone extension socket installed that would allow you plug your router into a new location. This would require a cable between your existing master socket location and your new location where you can install a telephone slave socket. As you are not touching your incoming telephone line or going into the top part of the telephone master socket you can try this yourself if you feel confident. If not you could employ a local telephone engineer to your which will cost substantially less that getting BT to do this for you. If you can’t find a telephone engineer in your area most aerial & satellite installers also have the skill set to do this for you as it used to be commonly to have to connect Sky boxes to a telephone line. Once you have installed your telephone socket all you will need to do is plug an ADSL filter in if the plate you have fitted doesn’t already do this for you which will allow you to connect your broadband modem. I recommend an active ADSL filter as opposed to a passive one if you have the choice when buying.

A problem you could run into when installing a telephone extension socket which you instead to connect a broadband router into is if the master socket you have is a filtered ADSL/ VDSL version as the broadband and voice signals will already be separated at the master socket. This means that if you’re to connect your internet router into the telephone extension it will not connect to the internet. There are a couple of things that you can do in this situation. 1, you could remove the filtered face plate on the master socket and install a standard one with the telephone extension cabled into this. This means that the broadband router can be installed at either location and both will need ADSL filters. Alternatively you could keep your filtered face plate on your master socket and instead of connecting into terminals 2,3 & 5 for your telephone extension. Connect a pair into pins A & B. This will allow a RJ11 socket at the telephone extension side which will allow a internet modem to be connected direct, no need for a plug in ADSL filter. The obvious downside of doing this is that you will not be able to connect a landline telephone in at the slave position which may not be of great importance. If you wanted to be really clever you would use one cable to connect a telephone extension and RJ11 socket as a slave. You would need a at least 3 pair telephone cable to do this however.

To help you with this I have a DIY video that shows you how to install a telephone extension so I recommend to watch this to help you.

Long ADSL Modem Cable

Another option which may be perfect for what you need is just to purchase a longer ADSL/ Modem cable. This are the cables which have RJ11 connectors on both ends. One goes into your telephone wall plate or filter and the other connects to your modem. This will allow you to move your broadband router without having to mess about with awkward telephone connections. ADSL modem cables can be purchased in a variety or lengths and are relatively inexpensive. The big downside of using these is if you need to route the cable through things like walls etc as the size of the hole you would need to drill to fit the plug through will be quite big. You could alternatively purchase yourself some telephone cabling, 2 pair cabling will be fine and a couple of RJ11 plugs and fit these yourself. Obviously, this will be a bit trickier and you will need a crimp tool to fit the plugs which may remove the benefit of using this method. When completed you will still have a direct connection your master telephone socket. To help you again this video shows you how to install RJ11 plugs.

Move Internet Without Moving Internet Router

There are a few ways of moving your internet or providing an internet connection to a different part of your home without having to move your broadband router. These are:

Ethernet Cables 

An Ethernet cable connects to the rear of your internet router and provides a wired internet connection. Most routers and hubs have 2 or 4 RJ45 Ethernet connections on the rear for this purpose. A cable could be installed between your existing broadband router position and where you require the internet connection. If you needed more wired connections at the new position a Network switch can be installed to provide these so often there is no need to actually move your broadband router. Especially if it is already in a good place in terms of WIFI coverage in your home.

Powerline Connections 

I’m not going to go into great detail here as I already have a blog on all about Powerline Adapters. I recommend that you read this. To summarise however Powerline Adpaters will allow you to send internet signals down your existing mains electrical cabling. This is perfect for those who don’t want to mess around with the installation of cables. Powerline Connections are not as good as a wired internet connection but can provide a usable internet connection out of the box with no complicated configuration.

Access Points 

If you wanted to move your broadband internet router for better WIFI coverage, you may find that a similar or better result can be achieved with the installation of a WIFI access point. Again I’m not going to go into great detail here as we have another blog all about WIFI access points so I recommend that you read that too. To summarise a WIFI access point will act as a secondary wireless internet connection which allows you to connect all of your wireless devices. These are then wired back to your broadband hub via an Ethernet data cable or a Powerline kit could be used.

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Questions About Moving Your Internet Hub

If you have any questions regarding how to move your internet router please do post them in the blog comment section below and I will answer them as soon as possible. I appreciate your patience when doing so as I don't always have to the time to get back to them as fast I would like. Please also DO NOT CALL OUR TELEPHONE LINES as we do not offer technical support over the phone. These are reserved for customers only. Please also do not e-mail us or fill out our contact forms, again these are reserved for customers. It's not always easy my end to see what blog you are quoting when you do so so it can be difficult to answer questions. If you do fill out a contact form or e-mail you will either not receive a reply or will receive a reply asking you to post your question in the blog comments section. By doing this also everyone reading the blog will get the benefit of the question asked and the answer given.