VDSL Copper Wire Maintenance

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squareeyes123

24 posts

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#304460 6-May-2023 09:03

My retired father in law lives on the outskirts of the city, and does not qualify for subsidised fibre install. Even though there is a fibre right on his doorstep for a rural shool next door. We got a quote from Chorus for a non standard install about 5 years ago and it took them 10 months to quote $10K. Ever since he has been limping along trying to watch Netflix and the like on VDSL. Recently the copper/or something network side degraded or failed and we had weeks of intermittent outages. It was finally fixed (network side), but they refused to look at the BT ports in his house, which were also failing (the one out of 4 that was working was literally hanging off the wall). They said we would have to pay a private contractor.

Well... that's going to have to be me. I've done a bit of Ethernet crimping and short runs at my place before. And I noticed the old copper is just a red and white wire. I moved his VDSL modem and useless BT port (for better WiFi coverage mainly). But I re-punched them into the old outlet, which just dangles behind the router.

I ordered a RJ45 jack to get rid of the BT port, and I plan to install that properly as soon as it arrives.

Is there anything else I can do to improve things? He got rid of his land-line so it's just for internet. Cable between the ETP and the jack point is probaly on its last legs anyway... is it true you can rewire cat5 in its place and use a single pair in place of the old white phone line/(red and white) copper?

Any other tips?

squareeyes123

24 posts

Geek

#3072883 6-May-2023 09:19

As a side, we did apply for https://www.crowninfrastructure.govt.nz/rural/rus/ but haven't had a reply. It's been six months.

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toejam316

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#3072885 6-May-2023 09:27

Best bet is to keep chasing the rural fellas and see if they'll chip in.

Next order of business, that old red and white wire is pretty crap for VDSL. Pick up some CAT5e or CAT6 and do a fresh run from the ETP into where the router lives, then terminate that on the RJ45 port. That'll clean up the internal wiring completely. Also move his voice services to VoIP if he has any.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

squareeyes123

24 posts

Geek

#3072887 6-May-2023 09:32

toejam316:

Best bet is to keep chasing the rural fellas and see if they'll chip in.

Next order of business, that old red and white wire is pretty crap for VDSL. Pick up some CAT5e or CAT6 and do a fresh run from the ETP into where the router lives, then terminate that on the RJ45 port. That'll clean up the internal wiring completely. Also move his voice services to VoIP if he has any.

Thanks. Do I just use a single pair? Or punch down a couple of pairs in parallel?

For RUS... what do they likely subsidise? Fibre install or something else like Starlink. It's wasn't clear to me when I looked.

toejam316

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#3072888 6-May-2023 09:43

Actually just had a look at the website, sounds like your father falls within urban fringe so he won't get funding. It's absolutely worth ponying up for the Fibre install if you guys can make it happen, by the by.

As for the RJ45, terminate the cable inside like normal, and terminate the incoming pair from the street to the blue pair of your CAT whatever cable. Scotchloks are by far my preferred connector of choice for this activity. If you just want to pay someone, depending on where you are @coffeebarron might be able to make his way out there and get it done.

Big rules if you're doing it yourself - leave yourself slack in the cable, don't run it just long enough. A little service loop to give yourself some space isn't worth losing sleep over, and make sure you leave as much of the incoming cable as you can. If it's short, use connectors to extend it with a fresh piece of cable. It's a lot easier to extend it in the ETP than to extend the whole cable elsewhere.

It looks like they're really cheap now, so you could grab one of these - Master Hard Wired XDSL In Line Filter For Telephone Splits ADSL-VDSL from Telephone line - Sound Division & Surplustronics.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

Bung

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#3072891 6-May-2023 10:15

It doesn't matter what type of jack it is if it's just hanging loose it won't be reliable. If it's not punched down with the correct tool it won't be reliable. If it is in a damp location it won't be reliable. Changing to RJ45 won't make any difference unless the BT jack is faulty.

squareeyes123

24 posts

Geek

#3072990 6-May-2023 10:57

Bung: It doesn't matter what type of jack it is if it's just hanging loose it won't be reliable. If it's not punched down with the correct tool it won't be reliable. If it is in a damp location it won't be reliable. Changing to RJ45 won't make any difference unless the BT jack is faulty.

Sorry I think you may have misunderstood. I'm making it more reliable by mounting the jack properly. I just happen to have ordered a RJ45 for the replacement. ANd mostly my line of questioning is around replacing the run from the external box with cat5e, which looks to be worthwhile.

I wonder if a master filter is needed since the house doesn't have a landline?

BMarquis

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#3072993 6-May-2023 11:10

squareeyes123:
I wonder if a master filter is needed since the house doesn't have a landline?

Unless you are creating an ETP direct to the single, new, RJ45 jack and all other jacks are being disconnected, then yes you need a master filter.
If all other wiring is being eliminated, then you can skip the filter.

squareeyes123

24 posts

Geek

#3072995 6-May-2023 11:13

Yep. That's what I'm doing. None of the other BT outlets work anyway, they don't have a phone, and no point rewiring ethernet for networking purposes. It's just a single copper connection used to supply WiFi to the house via VDSL.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3073261 7-May-2023 02:45

Yup, no need for a filter if there's no phone and no other sockets.

The ETP is the 'demarcation' point - the line between what they're responsible for, and what you're responsible for.

Use one pair only, and consider relocating the modem closer to the demarc if you can.