DSL Issues: (Was: Best DSL Modem?)

Mon Jun 2 00:46:29 UTC 2014

For those who are interested in my adventures getting DSL functional again:

I inspected the phone wiring at the point where it enters the house, and
in my previous installations of phone lines, I had used plastic ties on
one of the phone lines to tie it to a cold water pipe. That pipe is
sweating copiously in the warm weather, so it could be that the
combination of water and being close to a metallic surface would attenuate
the DSL signal. In any case, I insulated the pipe and moved the wire away
from the pipe.

I moved the modem to a second floor phone outlet where it seems to work
semi-reliably. I have a temporary ethernet cable up to the third floor to
my working computer, and that functions reliably..at least for the moment.

My existing system does not split the line where it enters the house.
There are filters on all the phone outlets, an arrangement which used to
work properly.

There are several suggestions on the internet (including Len's comment,
below) that it is better to split the POTS and ADSL lines close to the
demarcation point - ie, where the phone line enters the building. That
makes sense, since the added capacitance of the other phone lines would
tend to attenuate the ADSL signal. So the idea is to split the signal at
the demarc, and then use the second set of wires in the phone cable
(yellow and black) up to a separate phone outlet that is used only as an
ADSL connection.

Tomorrow I'll contact Wilcom and see if I can order a suitable splitter:

http://www.wilcominc.com/item.cfm?ProdID=35&result=1&stockalert=No#skus

(Their webpage suggests using UPS for delivery. I will attempt to use USPS
instead, since UPS charge atrocious border clearance fees.)

Any other suggestions, such as a local source for the splitter, would be
welcome.

(The 8-Port Ethernet switch also appears to be acting up, but one
technical challenge at a time..).

What do people do who do not have a resident electrical engineer to sort
out this stuff?

Peter

> On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 06:42:43PM -0400, phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>> Something recently changed with our Teksavvy DSL connection (they
>> 'optimized it, apparently) and now the modem (Sagecom 2864) works close
>> to
>> the demarkation point in the basement and at phone outlets on the first
>> and second floor, but not on the third floor, which is a little bit
>> further. I suspect the signal has gone down a bit in strength and it's
>> not
>> enough for the modem.
>>
>> Unplugging phones has no effect.
>>
>> This is highly inconvenient since everything is cabled back to that
>> modem.
>> Changing over to wireless or some other solution is a major disruption.
>>
>> The phone still works fine at the third floor outlet, so the connection
>> is
>> basically OK.
>
> Working at 64kbit isn't the same as working at 25Mbit.
>
>> Anyone have any thoughts about a good DSL modem to try in this
>> situation?
>>
>> Any advice appreciated.
>
> For which kind of DSL?
>
> After all VDSL2 needs different modems than ADSL2 or ADSL.
>
> Looking it up, it seems the 2864 is in fact a VDSL2 modem.  When I had
> mine installed they ran a dedicated line from the demarc point for the
> modem, and put the splitter/filter by the demarc point (which means I
> don't need filters anywhere in the house which otherwise I would have).
> It also means there are no splits on the line going to the modem which
> tends to help the signal quality a lot.
>
> Of course I got my VDSL2 link early enough that I have a cellpipe.
> I should probably talk to teksavvy about switching to a sagemcom that
> I buy instead of paying $8 rental each month.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists