Long driveway == no broadband?

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Criggie

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#29796 19-Jan-2009 20:12

Hey all - I've got a friend who lives in Hoon Hay, Christchurch.

His DSL is poor - returning 2.5~3 Mbit with frequent dropouts. It never returns above 150 kbytes/sec downloads from anywhere. We've even tried a cisco 857 which didn't make it any more reliable. So DSL is not really a solution for him. His area has already been cabinetised.

Therefore no DSL ISP will be any better.

He has Telstraclear cable in the street which would be perfect, but his driveway is ~100 metres long and TCL cannot service rear properties.

Scorch wireless is expensive, Farmside satellite is slow and expensive.
Cellular is overkill and not practical.
Compass wireless seems like a contender, but they're still a lot more expensive than DSL and Cable.

I'm almost tempted to suggest doorknocking the neighbours, and offer "free internet" if they will let him run some cat5 down the fence.

Any suggestions? Recommendations for other connections?

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#190606 19-Jan-2009 20:21

a previous flat of mine in wadestown wellington had an issue with Cable where the cable running from the pole (on the other side of the road) down to the house was pretty long (maybe 30-40m at a guess?), we had an issue with signal loss which resulted in the cable modem loosing connection now and then, Telstraclear ended up replacing the cable from the pole to the house with shielded stuff I think which limited the signal loss. I know they won't install where they need to expand their network.

Has he tried basic tests with his DSL? (like unplugging devices, etc), also can have a look at www.telecomwholesale.co.nz/maps to find out if he is going onto a cabinet anytime soon.

Criggie

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#190626 19-Jan-2009 21:12

According to Chorus docs, he was cabinetised in November 2008.

As for the ongoing track - we've been talking with Callplus (his current DSL ISP) since August. They've got telecom to tweak line levels, change to a new port, connect him to a different copper pair. We've also done the replace all phone wiring in the house to the demark, tried three different DSL routers, provided speedtest results from here to Africa, changed password, defragged hard drive, and all the other crap ISP helpdesks think might assist.

If only I could POE power the cablemodem in a small waterproof box at the end of the drive...

Seems so backward to need satellite or wireless, from the middle of suburban Christchurch.

sbiddle

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#190628 19-Jan-2009 21:13

TCL run the same quad shielded RG6 for all installs.

Running cat5e down the fence wouldn't help as the modem is connected to the network via coax - the cat5e would be no use.

cyril7

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#190632 19-Jan-2009 21:18

Siting the cable modem at the letterbox in a weather proof cabinet and running cat5 to the house down the drive has been done and works well when TCL refuse to otherwise connect due to cable length. Only down side is you wont get any TCL TV services as that needs coax to the house, and needs some talking to them to do it.

Cyril

Criggie

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#190638 19-Jan-2009 21:33

cyril7: Siting the cable modem at the letterbox in a weather proof cabinet and running cat5 to the house down the drive has been done and works well when TCL refuse to otherwise connect due to cable length. Only down side is you wont get any TCL TV services as that needs coax to the house, and needs some talking to them to do it.
Cyril

TV is not an issue. How did you get power down there?

DjShadow

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#190640 19-Jan-2009 21:43

Criggie: According to Chorus docs, he was cabinetised in November 2008.

As for the ongoing track - we've been talking with Callplus (his current DSL ISP) since August. They've got telecom to tweak line levels, change to a new port, connect him to a different copper pair. We've also done the replace all phone wiring in the house to the demark, tried three different DSL routers, provided speedtest results from here to Africa, changed password, defragged hard drive, and all the other crap ISP helpdesks think might assist.

If only I could POE power the cablemodem in a small waterproof box at the end of the drive...

Seems so backward to need satellite or wireless, from the middle of suburban Christchurch.

Thats very odd as the idea with the Cabinet is to give you a connection above 10megabit (telecom/chours's aim)

Really stupid question, he hasn't got the router plugged into a filter has he?
I've seen that done before, a connection of around 300k was gained

cyril7

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#190642 19-Jan-2009 21:46

Home made POE is not hard.

Cyril

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Ragnor

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#190667 19-Jan-2009 23:45

Criggie: .... They've got telecom to tweak line levels, change to a new port, connect him to a different copper pair. We've also done the replace all phone wiring in the house to the demark, tried three different DSL routers, provided speedtest results from here to Africa, changed password, defragged hard drive, and all the other crap ISP helpdesks think might assist.....

So basically there is some kind of fault in the copper between the demark and the power/telephone pole? Isn't this sort of thing what we pay Telecom wiring maintenace for (telecom to fix)...

I presume the phone line is under ground concreted over?

nate

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#190678 20-Jan-2009 01:04

cyril7: Home made POE is not hard.

Agreed. Before the most common VoIP phones we sold had PoE come as standard (back when we used to do phone systems) we sourced some PoE adapters (such as this) from China. Basically plug in Ethernet on one side, and it has a jack on the other, and a small power adapter.

Be careful as I'm sure the limit of data (before it starts to degrade) over Cat5 is 100m.

richms

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#190684 20-Jan-2009 01:40

The standard says 90m of solid and 2 5m flexible patch cables is the limit - however I have opened up a box of cat-5e, pulled out the inner end and put a plug on that, one on the loose end and had a 305m cable work ok on 100 meg ethernet. never tried gigabit.

Also a friend has gigabit over 110 or so meters of cable out to a seperate building on their property and it appears to work fine, but the only thing on the switch at the end is a ethernet to serial port for the building automation, a 100 megabit nic in a PC and a wireless accesspoint. Why their IT guy specced a gigabit switch there, I have no idea but it gets a gig link and passes enough to max out a 100 meg nic.

Richard rich.ms

Criggie

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#190691 20-Jan-2009 08:02

cyril7: Home made POE is not hard.

Cyril

You're right - 5 or 12V POE is easy. 240V is a bit harder... and the cable modem is not owned, so can't crack it open and bypass the internal PSU.

Criggie

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#190692 20-Jan-2009 08:06

DjShadow: Really stupid question, he hasn't got the router plugged into a filter has he?
I've seen that done before, a connection of around 300k was gained

Nope - we've done all those tests and swaps. The cisco shows an attenuation of ~50dB so its never going to be good.

Criggie

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#190693 20-Jan-2009 08:08

sbiddle: TCL run the same quad shielded RG6 for all installs.

Running cat5e down the fence wouldn't help as the modem is connected to the network via coax - the cat5e would be no use.

The coax won't run all the way up the drive - there's some distance limitation between the PED and the cablemodem.

This suggestion was about locating the cablemodem down the drive and then running a length of ethernet UTP the rest of the way.

Criggie

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#190694 20-Jan-2009 08:13

Ragnor:
Criggie: .... They've got telecom to tweak line levels, change to a new port, connect him to a different copper pair. We've also done the replace all phone wiring in the house to the demark, tried three different DSL routers, provided speedtest results from here to Africa, changed password, defragged hard drive, and all the other crap ISP helpdesks think might assist.....

So basically there is some kind of fault in the copper between the demark and the power/telephone pole? Isn't this sort of thing what we pay Telecom wiring maintenace for (telecom to fix)...

I presume the phone line is under ground concreted over?

The guy has had two different techs sent out from telecom, a downers guy and a transfield guy. They've done what they can, but you can't make a purse from a sow's ear.

He's looking for another technology other than DSL. And cable works very damn well normally. But because he's in a back back section it gets all awkward.

Hence why I'm picking your collective brains.

Criggie

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#190696 20-Jan-2009 08:15

nate: ...we sourced some PoE adapters (such as this) from China. Basically plug in Ethernet on one side, and it has a jack on the other, and a small power adapter.

Be careful as I'm sure the limit of data (before it starts to degrade) over Cat5 is 100m.

Those are injectors - some obey POE standards, some don't. The problem is a cablemodem is 240V not 12V.

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