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#170627 11/07/07 12:48 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
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pauluk Offline OP
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Yep, I've finally managed to get DSL out here! smile

Being right out at the edge of the exchange area we've had something of a shortage of pairs in the little estate of houses where I live. Demand for new telephone lines has been high in recent years as many places have been converted from holiday homes to permanent residences, and DACS (pair-gain units) have popped up like mushrooms all over the place.

I finally got my own pair, but wouldn't you know it, my existing ISP refused to provide DSL service out here, so I had to change providers.

Anyway, being 5 miles from the C.O. I'm not getting blazingly fast DSL speeds, but at 576kbps it's still a vast improvement on dialup. I'm happy! smile



Joined: Oct 2006
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Paul, ain't technology grand? Welcome to the real world. My guess is that we'll be hearing a lot more from you now.

I'm only about three miles from a Verizon remote (the Stonewall remote from Chancellor's DSO that I told you about). Even at that distance (only about 16,000 feet) we couldn't get reliable DSL service. This, despite the fact that there is an optical DSLAM located in the remote office. Most of our buried copper in this area is less than 20 years old, but still chock full of problems. Out here in the country, open pedestals and shotguns make for big problems.

I've been forced to endure the luxury of cable modem service here. When it works, it's great. The key is when it actually "works". When it gets especially hot or cold, the thermal compensation in the LE's (line extenders or amplifiers) must be changed to allow the coax to compensate for temperature extremes. I can't wait until FIOS comes to our area, although it is likely ten years away for my area.

By the way, what's dial up? Just kidding!


---Ed---

"But the guy at Home Depot said it would work."
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pauluk Offline OP
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DSL has only been available at all from the Stalham RCU since September 2004. The little Hickling remote a few miles away (serves about 800 lines) only got it about a year later, so it's still relatively new out here.

Ed, you've seen the pictures of the two multipairs which run out to Eccles on Sea. We actually had one of them replaced a few weeks ago. I had to wait for the bucket-truck to move on the way out, so I chatted with one of guys. I jokingly asked if we were actually getting more pairs out here, but he laughed and just told me they were replacing one of the cables from the DP in Lessingham (next village on the way to Stalham, about a mile away). I guess they finally got so many bad pairs in there that with demand as it is they had to replace one. That and one of the main distro poles on the estate just doesn't have room for any more DACS (Digital Access Carrier System) units!

On which point, a lot of people here who are still waiting for DSL don't understand about our equivalent of SLCs.

"But I've had a phone line for 5 years. I already have the line, surely?"

Some grasp the principle when I tell them that you need your own dedicated pair for DSL, but I'm sure others don't follow it. I think they're still thinking about a "shared" line as being along the lines of an old party line, and think that they can't be sharing a pair of wires because they never hear anyone else.

Quote
By the way, what's dial up? Just kidding!


I still have a Hayes SmartModem 2400 in the cupboard. I guess in a few more years it will be a museum piece! smile

Joined: Nov 2002
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A couple years ago they upgraded from a 25 pair cable (originally installed 1980 or so, with portions replaced in 1988 or so when our road was redone) to a 50 or 75 pair cable. It improved dial-up a bit (on a 33.6 modem). A 56K modem I got summer 2003 worked well. I got "high speed" phone line based broadband internet, not DSL, but some technology called Etherloop, which isn't blazingly fast (1Mmps tops, maybe 600K in reality), and a bit dated gear (I must rent). It is akin to running a 14.4 modem when everybody else is using a 56K modem.

Joined: May 2004
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If you have wifi, don't forget to put on the protection, and when you did, let me know how to do it.
(Mike, how do you add smilies?)


The world is full of beauty if the heart is full of love
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With WiFi make sure you turn the encryption and make a strong password. I would still put my LAN connected machines behind a firewall.


Greg Fretwell
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pauluk Offline OP
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Originally Posted by classicsat
It improved dial-up a bit (on a 33.6 modem).


Speaking of which, that's about the top speed attainable here with a V.90 modem on a DACS line. A lot of people using dialup in more remote areas have no idea why they've been connecting just fine at 44 - 48kbps ever since they got their modem, then they go to use it one day and find they're down to 33k or less from then on, because they've been "DACSed" due to pair shortages.

BT will re-arrange the lines to restore the plain loop upon request if it's possible, but is under no obligation to do so. Of course, a lot of the people affected don't even realize that their sudden loss of speed is due to being switched to a carrier system and frantically go off trying to find faults with their own equipment because "it was working fine before."

Quote
If you have wifi, don't forget to put on the protection


I'm using the Voyager ADSL modem/router which came with the package, which doesn't have wireless.

It does have an integral ATA though, and I got a VoIP phone number with free evening & weekend calls to anywhere in the U.K. as part of the package. Being from a traditional telephone background, I've never really thought much of VoIP, but as it was no extra cost I thought I'd take the option to give it a try.

I've really only played with it a little so far, but the quality doesn't seem too bad -- After I reconfigured the ATA settings for a higher audio rate. The default quality was attrocious.

Oh, and I have to criticize the ring-voltage generator in the Voyager modem/router/ATA. Maybe it's fine for somebody using a modern electronic phone, but it can't manage to get a decent ring with a 2500 set connected.

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The problem with VIOP is when your internet is down you are in the stone age, shooting messages tied to arrows.

That 33k thing on a V.9x is because you can't exploit the digital trick that lets you use a whole T1 channel.
V.34 was about all you can squeeze out of 2400baud with compression and modulation tricks. (a POTS connection).


Greg Fretwell
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pauluk Offline OP
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Originally Posted by gfretwell
The problem with VIOP is when your internet is down you are in the stone age, shooting messages tied to arrows.


Yep! grin

One of my regular clients in town had some telephone salesman pushing VoIP as the solution to all their (non existent) problems a few weeks ago. I called in to "have a chat" and asked some questions which I'm sure he would rather have not been asked. I'm not sure he even understood them. I ended up telling him that there's no way I'm going to recommend that the business goes to VoIP as its sole telephone service.


Joined: May 2004
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Actually if you have phone thru cable, the situation is the same. If the cable tv is down, etcetc. same with landline. And almost all of us has a mobile phone.

Otherwise if the internet is down, that is breaking of the contract. All service providers has to agree for a period of time, after which you don't pay for the period. But in this case you have to report immediately that the net is down otherwise the time is not registered.
I have net with wifi for more than 6 years and had no problems with it.



The world is full of beauty if the heart is full of love
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