Is this my Demarc Point

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chevrolux

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#869192 31-Jul-2013 11:44

Zeon: Is it worth testing your modem at the outside mushroom to see if there will be any advantage?

His 'mushroom' will be 5m up a pole so maybe not so easy.

cruxis

481 posts

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#869242 31-Jul-2013 12:46

Hmm that an Idea. It does look tempting to have ago. I went outside and took some pics, Just need a ladder. Maybe run a cat5 from house to the pole, all up guessing 30 meters will do.

Heres photo my Leadin run. As you see I am right on a cabinet. I could Use the Old black trurip cable as support for a cat5e cable and wire into the box on the pole, or go further and down into the cabinet.

I think i get in to Poo if i did something wrong or got caught, That side of things I not allowed to mess with right ?

DarthKermit

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#869278 31-Jul-2013 13:27

^^^

I think you can ask Chorus to replace that 1950's era cable with a modern one, provided you have a wiring maintenance contract with them. Right guys?

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

nickb800

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#869282 31-Jul-2013 13:32

DarthKermit: ^^^

I think you can ask Chorus to replace that 1950's era cable with a modern one, provided you have a wiring maintenance contract with them. Right guys?

If you are referring to wiring & maintenance insurance (an optional ~$2 per month charge) then no, it only covers the wiring in your house past the Demarc. The logic being that wiring from the exchange to the Demarc is already Chorus's responsibility as part of the basic service of providing voice/dsl.

In any case it will come down to their interpretation, and one could argue that as there is no fault, there is no need to fix anything

coffeebaron

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#869293 31-Jul-2013 13:48

I think that tree needs some pruning; opps I just cut through the cable, twice, and lost the bit in the middle so there is no way to rejoin. Of course there will probably be a charge, but at least it will get replaced :)

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chevrolux

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#869303 31-Jul-2013 14:04

Do not try to work on the Chorus network yourself. It isn't yours to muck around with.

Just ask Chorus to come and replace the cable. It may be tricky as there is no fault present but the standard fee is only like $110 or something so probably worth it.
Or is Coffeearon says, oops I slipped when pruning the tree. Just don't actually cut the cable until the day you know they are coming around hahaha.

kiwirock

685 posts

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#869314 31-Jul-2013 14:22

Oh so close!

I'd be out with a spade digging a trench to the cabinet straight away lol.

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bener

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#869323 31-Jul-2013 14:45

Is it safe to bypass the lightning arrestor? I would have thought it was there for a reason?

kiwirock

685 posts

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#869380 31-Jul-2013 16:06

bener: Is it safe to bypass the lightning arrestor? I would have thought it was there for a reason?

When communications weren't as picky as DSL it might have served a purpose.

I don't see a grounding point to stop flash over if the fuse blew so I doubt it was highly effective at stopping lightning. A good surge will still get past before the fuse blows.

Maybe another solar flare like in the 1800's in the USA might make them re-think one day?

I'd remove it if I was refreshing the installation.

I can't actually say I've ever come across one of them and I've seen some interesting old party lines with earth wires here and there and one that picked up radio interference along with old type of wire. But not one of those.

kiwirock

685 posts

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#869381 31-Jul-2013 16:11

I'm not suggesting to do this, but if it were my line, I'd run cat5 as far back to outside as possible by the entry of the house. I'd then solder the lines, put a weather resistant gel on it and heat shrink wrap it until the lead in got replaced one day. But that's because I have those materials more handy that the right size scotch locks or junction box.

If those scotch locks increased line attenuation, I would do what someone else suggested: Screw the wire coming from the jack to the top of the fuse terminal where the incoming line is and just pull the fuses. Basically using it as a screw terminal junction box. That should help a little.

Bung

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#869465 31-Jul-2013 18:37

kiwirock:
bener: Is it safe to bypass the lightning arrestor? I would have thought it was there for a reason?

I don't see a grounding point to stop flash over if the fuse blew so I doubt it was highly effective at stopping lightning. A good surge will still get past before the fuse blows.

As previously mentioned all of the arrestor components have already been removed. The fuses are also obsolete and could be removed without any problem. Years ago the aerial spans were much longer and there was more chance of accidental electrical contact. IIRC even in exchanges fuses have been done away with as just another point of failure.

There is a point where any further improvement isn't noticeable/worth the effort.

bener

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#869594 31-Jul-2013 21:52

kiwirock - cheers for the info, I was interested as I saw one the other day at a customer's home, and it was a similar situation - close to cabinet, but having connection issues.
I am replacing their old modem in the next few days so I will try bypassing the unit using the screw terminals, and see if that helps things.

I will report back, as it will be interesting to see what happens.

kiwirock

685 posts

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#869660 1-Aug-2013 00:32

That and 3-wire jacks carrying the ringer wire elsewhere, can rob up to Mbits. It creates an unbalance on the line and picks up interference easier.

If the customer can't afford new jacks (I'm talking about older folks who have $30 to pay me when I would charge much more and replace the lot), I pull the old ringer wire between jacks making them a blank 2-wire extension jack, chop any caps and resistors on the extensions and just replace the master with a 2 wire. I can hear the DIY police roar over that :o) But it's far and few between and a cheap fix. One went from 900Kbps on a long line to 2Mbps. For them it was heaven with nothing to pay for a proper job.

richms

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#869664 1-Aug-2013 01:00

Chorus should just replace that lead in cable if you get the ISP to ask them. Friend had one like that and no demarc and chorus just threw the white box on the side of the house and a new aierial leadin and terminated to his new cat 6 internal wire that he poked out the side of the house from the roofspace etc no charge to him. He just said to the ISP that he had replaced all the internal wiring and it was still giving issues and his sparky said there wasnt a proper external demarc and the cable was old, job was booked, tech visited and the cable was done in about an hour or so.

Richard rich.ms

bener

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#870255 1-Aug-2013 19:33

Update: bypassed lightning arrestor, no improvement. Customer has clean line, <5m to demarc, new modem (probably overdue to replace the RTA1320 anyway), new filter/cables etc. less than 200m to cabinet, ~7Db attenuation, no other lines in the house, and still a very slow connection. (speedtest.net says 1.8Mbps down, ISP's speedtest says ~7Mbps down, but they cannot stream most video so it seems a bit off)
They have had a chorus tech, he says line is clean, and he checked the cabinet. I am hoping it is issues at the exchange, they want 3 days of am/noon/pm speedtest stats before they will send someone out. I know, it's a bit silly considering we have eliminated other issues.
Still has that black single pair cable to the pole, maybe that's the issue.

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