Check the wiring at your house!

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cisconz
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#628166 21-May-2012 08:13

I don't pay that much, but I asked when i was there what the non discounted price is.

Hmmmm

neb

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#628465 21-May-2012 17:23

cyril7: Hi, no you dont need a gas arrestor, there is one at the exchange if its needed. The best connection to use is scotch locs these are water resiliant, ie the connection is an IDC one (thats insulation displacement so you dont remove the insulation to make the connection the loc will puncture it where needed) and the whole joint is bathed in water resistant gel.

Ah, thanks for that. I was planning to use Scotchlok butt splices, but after years of master wall sockets and the like felt like there needed to be something between the street and the ADSL router, it just felt... naked :-).

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#628466 21-May-2012 17:24

Hi, nah just run it straight to the socket.

Cyril

neb

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#631268 27-May-2012 23:53

Rewired it this weekend with a straight connection from the street to the ADSL wall socket with the crimps enclosed in a junction box, replacing the pile of spaghetti that was there originally. Downstream speed went from 12 to 15Mbps, and it actually looks properly done rather than a million-monkeys wiring job. Woohoo!

coffeebaron

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#637901 8-Jun-2012 16:23

Checked wiring at JohnR's friends house. A nice twist up of wires:

Install master splitter and proper connectors:

Sync speed gone from 5'ish Mbps to 7Mbps. Alas this is where next issues come to play. Speed seems very much like maxed out ADSL1, so suspect JohnR's friend has a locked to ADSL1 profile setting.

Looks like I will also need to go back and doing some WiFi troubleshooting, as this seems to be an issue too :(
to be continued...

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LookingUp

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#637927 8-Jun-2012 17:07

I installed a master splitter at home on Saturday, but only noticed a small increase in speed - from ~4 to 4.5~5Mbs download. Apparently we're a marginal distance from the exchange (were originally told it'd be a no-go) so I guess it's not a major surprise.

Anyway, on Tues/Wed our phone line went down. It may be coincidence, but it would be a biggie. Prior to that it had been working fine as far as we could tell, although had one caller saying they had problems with an engaged signal or not getting through on Monday. I'd checked from work on Wed morning and it seemed OK (ie. it rang and the answerphone picked up), but at Thurs 3am our monitored alarm started beeping 'cos it had failed to phone in.

The symptom is no dial tone, but an ADSL connection almost as good as it was on Saturday. Phone reports as engaged if you try to call it from another line.

Last night I pulled the wiring apart, and went back to basics - no filter, no extensions - just one phone. Still no dial tone. Have called TelstraClear and await news - still getting an engaged signal when I call from work so assume it's not fixed.

The TC helpdesk person I spoke to last night said it sounded like an external problem (ie. not in the house), and having eliminated pretty much everything I can only agree it looks that way.

There is a chance it's related to the snow, but it appears to have died before the snow arrived.

Any ideas?

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sbiddle

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#637934 8-Jun-2012 17:11

It's entirely probable you've got a damaged cable pair with the DSL still working on a single leg.

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coffeebaron

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#637945 8-Jun-2012 17:25

LookingUp: I installed a master splitter at home on Saturday, but only noticed a small increase in speed - from ~4 to 4.5~5Mbs download. Apparently we're a marginal distance from the exchange (were originally told it'd be a no-go) so I guess it's not a major surprise.

If youe wiring is in good condition, then a master filter may not always appear to do that much, but in all of the installs I've done, at least one or more of the following has been the result:
- 10-50% increase in sync speed
- worst cases 100-800% increase in sync speed
- a more stable connection
- higher actual throughput (i.e. reduce packet loss)
- more consistent connection (i.e. less variation in speeds).

So pretty much if you have an ADSL2+ connection, then a master splitter will make a difference 95%+ of the time, and I think 100% of the time is worth doing.

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LookingUp

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#638161 9-Jun-2012 10:47

sbiddle: It's entirely probable you've got a damaged cable pair with the DSL still working on a single leg.

... which is looking more and more likely, as it did confuse the hell out of me when I started disconnecting things and still had internet with only one of the incoming line conductors connected!

Any idea what sort of voltage I should see across the incoming line conductors? I understand it'll jump to 50VDC on a ring, but at the moment I only have 1.6VDC across the pair, which doesn't seem enough, and may even be induced from something else.

Things are LookingUp.... A photo from my back yard :-)

LookingUp

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#638168 9-Jun-2012 10:57

The plot thickens. I just tried disconnecting each of the incoming conductors in turn, and still had a slow DSL connection when only one of the conductors was connected. That to me suggests that it's not a broken wire at my end, as either of the conductors provided a connection on it's own.

Both conductors connected = 4~5Mbps download, only one conductor (either) = ~0.5Mbps.

Interesting.

Things are LookingUp.... A photo from my back yard :-)

Bung

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#638193 9-Jun-2012 11:33

LookingUp:

Any idea what sort of voltage I should see across the incoming line conductors? I understand it'll jump to 50VDC on a ring, but at the moment I only have 1.6VDC across the pair, which doesn't seem enough, and may even be induced from something else.

If you've got no dial tone and the line is always busy you probably have something shorting the line.

LookingUp

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#638374 9-Jun-2012 23:06

The plot thickens...

I spoke to a neighbour who says that their phone is out as well - since Wednesday. Interestingly, Orion have just installed new street lights in our area, and the cabinet they're getting power from is right next to our phone termination point (one of those grey plastic pipe things). The Orion guy was there yesterday and our neighbour asked about the phones, and he said that she was the 5th to ask that question of him, but it was nothing to do with them.

Apparently someone was supposed to be due to visit to fix the problem last night, but they didn't turn up.

From where I sit, I'm still waiting for an update from TelstraClear, having been promised action within 24hrs two days ago. Out neighbour is also waiting for an update from her Telco.

Not sure if this is related, but I was out doing some shopping today and went past a nearby intersection where there was at least 4 if not 5 Chorus vans parked. Maybe it's not a small problem?

Not to worry - we've just spent the last couple of weekends packing the house away as it's our turn to have earthquake repairs, which are hopefully due to start Monday. It's actually a bit of a challenge to clear the house but retain enough infrastructure to ensure that important TV stuff is recorded and that Internet access is retained, while trying to live out of one room, but being ready to move rooms when it's that room's turn.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the phone back though.

Things are LookingUp.... A photo from my back yard :-)

antoniosk

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#638400 10-Jun-2012 08:56

Where do you live Rod?

________

Antoniosk

shermanp

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#642317 18-Jun-2012 07:24

I'd just like to say that we've just done a complete overhaul on cabling here in the house (structured cabling, and a dsl splitter installed), and our ADSL performance has increased hugely.

Our sync rate went from ~5500kbps to around 10,000kbps, and real world speeds from ~4-5Mbps to ~8-9Mbps,

Still not quite as high as I was hoping considering our 31dB attenuation, but much much better than it was.

LookingUp

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#642370 18-Jun-2012 09:38

antoniosk: Where do you live Rod?

Hi Antonios,

Thanks for your help last week. Once escalated, our problem was sorted pretty quickly, which I REALLY appreciate.

Interestingly, our neighbours on either side were also without phone, and at least one of them is STILL without a phone connection after almost two weeks. They're with Telecom (I have their phone number if that's any help?) - given that there was a group of us out, I would have expected it to be a major cable or exchange issue, and therefore an all or nothing fix. Odd. They raised a ticket in the Telecom system, and apparently it shows no action for over a week now. Not such a good look for Telecom...

Once again - big thanks for your help

Things are LookingUp.... A photo from my back yard :-)

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