[TelstraClear] Telstra InHome on the Terrace.

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3nvy

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#20822 7-Apr-2008 09:34

Hi everyone,

I've managed to score myself a really nice apartment up on the Terrace. I looked into getting Telstra connected this morning, only to be told that The Terrace was part of the CBD and as such Telstra couldn't service it. I find it kind of odd that Telstra can't service The Terrace.

The person I spoke to on the phone, whilst very friendly and helpful, hadn't even heard of the Terrace, so I thought I'd check with the learned scholars on here.

And if I really can't get cable, does anyone know the distance to the exchange? As for my location on the Terrace, I'm in Montreaux towers, across the road from Vic Central/James Cook Hotel.

Thanks guys!

sbiddle

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#121708 7-Apr-2008 09:39

Unfortunately service is not available in most apartments due to the lack of any cabling to support this. It's also right on the fringe of the HFC network so probably isn't available at the street anyway.

It's one of the downsides of living in an apartment, TCL can't just run an overhead drop from a pole or dig a trench from the street to the side of your house!

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3nvy

104 posts

Master Geek

#121711 7-Apr-2008 09:50

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the HFC network?

The apartment is apparently only 3 years old and I can see F Type connectors in the wall, common to Telstra connections. It could be Sky TV though I guess?

iistudio

79 posts

Master Geek

#121712 7-Apr-2008 09:52

Even in Newlands Wellington, our home and neighbours house (total 6 houses) are like 25 meters off the main road, and telstra says they have the area covered, we still couldn't get the inHome service, the reason given by the Telstra helpdesk person was it is too much time and money to get us connected, need city council consents, dig holes on the drive way etc etc,

So yeah, it is definitely not 100% covered and check testra with the house line or call them to make sure your new house can be connected to inHome.

doppleganger

33 posts

Geek

#121714 7-Apr-2008 10:06

3nvy: Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the HFC network?

Hybrid Fiber Coax.

It's the physical delivery method to get the RF from the cable headend out to the cable modem.

Basically it's coax out the back of the CMTS (cable modem termination system), that signal passes through a bunch of splitters and combiners to mux it in with cable tv and send it out to a bunch of different areas. That rf signal hits an rf transmitter that coverts it to light and some lasers pump it out to the street. On the curb, when the light hits the OTN (optical termination node) for your area (think big green cabinet on side of street) there's another rf transmitter that converts it back to rf and that runs around the street either underground through little green boxes called "peds" (short for pedastal) or overhead on power polls. In each ped there are taps with a number of ports on them, it varies alot but 2 port 4p ort and 8 port taps are the most common, a coax cable is run from one of those taps to the little grey box on the side of your house, that has an rf splitter in it, either 2 or 3 way depending on the services you have, and then a final coax cable is run from that to your cable modem.

And there you go, probably more than you ever wanted to know about the physical layout of cable. :)

3nvy

104 posts

Master Geek

#121722 7-Apr-2008 10:20

Very very helpful post though.

Thanks!

cyril7

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#121729 7-Apr-2008 11:04

Its standard practice in modern appartment buildings to reticulate duplexed V/UHF and LBand (satellite) signals to Fconnectors in appartments. From these F connectors you will get offair V/UHF reception for your TV and also LBand for either Sky or FTA/FreeView DTH(Satellite), use a diplexer and get both from one jack. But be assured there will be no TCL HFC on it.

Only in the last few days I have installed a power monitoring system in Atrium appartments (2doors along from Montreaux) I have had a DSL connection added, to uplink the system to our servers, I havent been back to install the modem and check the sync rate, but as its less than a km to Wellington central exchange and I suspect cable runs may infact be less than that you should get good rates, will post back if I go there in the next day or two.

Cyril

eeb41039

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#121730 7-Apr-2008 11:04

I'm right at the end of The Terrace (the Aro Valley end) and I got InHome installed a month ago (cabling infrastructure was already there I believe)

After a discussion with a support tech yesterday tho I wouldn't be worried too much - apparently I'm on a 'black node' and Telstra can't provision any new users on this 'cos it's at capacity... probably why I get less than 10% of there purported 10 megabit speeds but I digress...

3nvy

104 posts

Master Geek

#121731 7-Apr-2008 11:11

Atrium IS pretty close.

I'd love to hear what sort of speeds you're getting.

cyril7

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#122812 11-Apr-2008 12:00

Hi, finally got round to popping back to install the modem, sending from it now, the modem I was given is only a adsl1 modem, however states its connected at fullspeed 7600kbs, 21.5dB attenuation and 18dB S/N. This would indicate around 1.5km cable length, a good S/N so should be pretty stable and able to run without interleave.

Based on that with adsl2+ you theoretically should be able to achieve 18-20Mb/s, purhaps a dash more.

I am here for the next couple of hours.

Cyril

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#122849 11-Apr-2008 13:26

I had a friend who used to live in "serviced apartments" on the upperside of The Terrace just above boulcott street who used to have TCL Cable Internet & TV, I think that is as far "down" the terrace that the HFC / Coax is run from TCL. I doubt they have gone over the bridge, so any further twoards parliament you will be out of luck. From the looks of Cyrils post, sounds like Unbundled ADSL 2+ would be the way to go, (once someone offers it from Wgtn Central Exchange) you could always turn up to the exchange on Whitmore St and say "I am here for an install" and see if they notice anything :)

3nvy

104 posts

Master Geek

#123432 14-Apr-2008 16:45

Aw, thats a shame! I'm on the exact other side of Boulcott street!

Cyril7, is ADSL2 actually available in the area? I wasn't aware of this.

As it stands, I get around 4.5 - 5mbps on my connection (moved in yesterday, Telecom had the line switched over from my old residence with 3 hours notice, very nice Telecom!) in case anyone is interested.

And, I know next to nothing about ADSL2. Will there be pricing increases etc? I realise we need new hardware that will support it. Approx. how much will a low end, wireless router cost us?

If anyone is willing to post me a quick rundown on the basics of ADSL2 that'd be great (20mbps? I DO want that haha.)

Thanks alot guys!

cyril7

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#123441 14-Apr-2008 17:08

Hi, you say you get 4.5-5Mb/s, is that what your modem supports or what speedtest gives you. As I say 2doors along I had a modem connection speed of 7.6Mb/s which is full chat for ADSL1, and the attenuation and S/N showed a good line. What does you modem report on these details.

If the exchange is ADSL2+ enabled then with an ADSL2+ modem you should get a connection at a higher ADSL2+ rate assuming your within that 1.5-2km region (which you should). As far as I know all the exchanges in the central city have been upgraded. Some ISPs limit you speed regardless of the fact that your connection is capable of higher, however most will go as fast as the connection allows, ie upto 24Mb/s, many folk are reporting 16-18Mb/s speedtest throughput, however you have to have a full uplink speed account to let speeds much over 4.5Mb/s occur as a 128k uplink will limit TCP throughput, ie you cannot ack fast enough. This is the only extra cost assuming your line connects at higher than 5-6Mb/s, ie you must be on a FS/FS plan to realise connection speeds over 5-6Mb/s.

As for modems, avoid D-Link, although the GenII modems are meant to have full ADSL2+ capablity so were the GenI modems, but they still did not go over 8Mb/s eventhough reporting ADSL2+ connection.

I have had amazingly good results with the DSE XH9948/XH9949 modems (which appear to be a TP-Link), TP-LInk also has good reports. Others recommend Dynalink RTA1025W. this as with the DSE and TP-Link modems use the Broadcom chipset that is well respected.

Here is a link for various modems and a good supplier.

Cyril

Edit: I see WN central was due to be upgraded in Jan08 and fully migrated in Feb08, however this was only an estimate, its possible this is still behind, maybe others on WN central can say what the ADSL2+ status is.

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#123450 14-Apr-2008 17:32

cyril7: I see WN central was due to be upgraded in Jan08 and fully migrated in Feb08, however this was only an estimate, its possible this is still behind, maybe others on WN central can say what the ADSL2+ status is.

Perhaps you could move it to the Telecom forum, perhaps some Telecom staffer may know, or be able to find out

cyril7

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#123565 15-Apr-2008 05:51

Yes its definetly a Telstra not at home on the Terrace.

Cyril

3nvy

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Master Geek

#123592 15-Apr-2008 08:52

Cyril, you're a genious!

I'll make a new post in the Telecom forums, sorry for straying a bit off topic everyone. This has been very informative!