some guidance around home wiring

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joff_nz

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

#115199 17-Mar-2013 20:59

Hi all, I appreciate I'm asking for a bit of spoon feeding here but,

I recently moved into a new house, we get somewhat frequent internet dropouts and some background noise on the phone. The house 5 jackpoints (completely unnecessary for us) and a monitored alarm which is not currently monitored and unlikely to be in the near future.

I've looked under the house and some of the joins seem a bit... diy

Recently, we had underfloor insulation installed and 2 of the jacks stopped working altogether (4&5 pictured below) as we had existing issues with the connection I wasn't prepared to take this up with the installers, especially as we had no need for those jacks.

We have telecoms wiring maintenance service however this does not cover if the installation is not up to spec, nor if the connection is damaged by builders etc, and so I am considering if its worth getting someone out to check it out when I could end up having to pay anyway.

The end result I'm after is a solid connection on 2 or even 1 jackpoint, whilst spending little to no money.

I'm keen to get in there and have a go myself assuming it's appropriate to do so, and I have access to the correct tools.

The etp is at roof height and I haven't looked closely at it, the cable comes from there down to ground and into the Saturn box (s) from a previous installation. Only 1 pair is connected at this point to the cable going into the house,

Q1: I understand this to mean there cannot be a master splitter, is this correct?

Q2: if connect a new cable at the etp, and run this straight to my chosen socket, thus isolating all other sockets and the alarm, will this cause any problems with my alarm or anything else??

Q3: is there anything I should know or is it as easy as it looks?
Q3b: is there a good day home wiring FAQ somewhere that relates to nz?

Thanks for reading my rambling

antoniosk

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#783115 17-Mar-2013 21:31

You mention the old Saturn box. Are you using TelstraClear cable, or an adsl connection via another ISP?

There are home wiring suggestions around the place - google search for tcf home wiring or look at the chorus website - but these aren't much use for existing installs, and offer a pretty intensive way of building a solid home network distribution system, with ports and wires all over the place.

But a little lateral thinking can also be effective, depending on what you want to do.

Personally I would always take cable over dsl - and I live close to a chorus exchange. The telecom nz wiring leading to my place is just appalling, and nothing in the house would overcome the 40year old wires swaying in the wind....

Anyway, a master filter for dsl can be useful. But the usual questions are
: where do you live
: how close are you to the exchange
: how old does the house wiring appear to be
: what does the street wiring look like

All play a factor when dsl is involved....

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sbiddle

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#783145 17-Mar-2013 22:15

If you have an alarm hooked to a line (regardless of whether you're paying for monitoring) a master filter is mandatory. Simple reality is you need somebody to sort your wiring - and unfortunately nobody is going to do this for free since it's the property of the homeowner.

joff_nz

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

#783273 18-Mar-2013 09:33

Thank you for your replies, I knew there'd be stuff I forgot to mention:

Connection is DSL with Telecom, and will stay that way.

There was a previous Saturn connection however best I can tell it has been removed from the equation, none of the cables within the box are actually connected to anything in use

I live in Pinehaven, Upper Hutt When I put in mya ddress i don't get a distance from the exchange but get the following:Network capability:

Broadband > 20 Mbps (with the right modem and plan)
Broadband > 10 Mbps

(happy to give my address to appropriate trusted users.)

The wiring within the house appears to be newish in that it is still a brightish colour and in good condition, however some of the joins appear pretty shoddy.

The wiring from the street is unknown as it only comes as far as the ETP which is at roof height, and I havent yet had a chance to climb up to it and check inside.

Regarding the master Splitter, I was hoping to avoid this for now at least as I have no intention of using the monitored alarm and have no need for more than one jackpoint. Is simply removing it from the ciruit not an option?

Also, I was surpried that it didn't already have one, however i am basing the assumption that it doesnt have one on the fact that the cable coming from the ETP down to the house only has 1 pair connected to the wiring enetering the house. Is this a reasonable assumption?

Goosey

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#783292 18-Mar-2013 09:58

Your alarm will most likley be dialling out for a few seconds everyday and also whenyou arm/disarm regardless if you pay for monitoring...it will be still calling its last known monitoring station and they will be ignoring these signals until you pay on contract. You can disable this at the panel if you know the installer codes and know what your doing.

If your ISP/Teleco provides you with online access to your call history you can eaisly (with help of google and some assumptions), find out who your alarm panel is dialling.

Goosey

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#783297 18-Mar-2013 10:02

Are the phones in your house connected to the jackpoints using those horrible line filters?
Is your DSL modem connected to the jackpoint using those horrible line filters?
If you dont have a master splitter (small black thing usually fits inside the main jackpoint) then you defiantly need the line filters.

When you say your connection drops... is this using Wi-fi or are you plugged directly into your DSL modem?
Have you considered Wi-Fi channel interference?

Post your modem stats.

Edit: I had a similar issue recently and Chrous found that the port in the exchange was shot and also changed the cable pairs and checked everything in between. This was after I had to prove my DSL modem wasnt faulty.

trig42

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#783306 18-Mar-2013 10:19

The way to tell if you have a master filter is to connct your modem to another phone jack - if you get DSL sync on that, then you have no filter.

Installing a filter is pretty simple, but I'd want to bypass the Saturn box if you aren't using it. Put the filter anywhere you like, and reconnect the jackpoints you want POTS on (and the alarm) to the Phone side of the filer, and run a new cable to the jackpoint you want DSL on.

joff_nz

446 posts

Ultimate Geek

#783377 18-Mar-2013 12:19

Thanks all, will put in a funding request to SWMBO and just get it done then.