US Telco Support → AT&T → AT&T U-verse > 45 meg tier available in CHICAGO...AFTER INSTALL NOTES, etc

Re: 45 meg tier available in CHICAGO...AFTER INSTALL NOTES, etc

well... my IP block stopped routing again...

it seems that I'm getting traffic in... but I can't reply back...

Question Paralel ...how should my NID be grounded inside? It is hooked to the copper water piping now.
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

I could see traffic coming in (requested information from my DNS server that uses one of the IP's) but the traffic was being dropped on the way out, so it seemed that I wasn't responding or down.

I just got off the phone with Tier 2 (yay direct line and code) and he just redid my whole provision, as apparently the system didn't like the modem hotswap for some reason after a day and a half. IPs are working again, but I'm keeping an eye on them...

I have 4 tv's going, all on different multicasted channels....
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

OK, no...I though u were talking about the earth ground bar...but the panel is 45 feet away, and would be impossible for me to run a cable to because of the drywall. NID is in unfinished back basement, breaker is in finished basement portion...
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

not to interrupt, but,

My NID is grounded to the same ground rod as the meter outside...

IMHO if the cold pipes are grounded to an earth ground, then the cold pipes should be enough as long as they are copper and you clean the pipe with some emery paper before you put the clamp on

unfortunately they aren't ground, I had an electrician out here today adding a breaker to split 1 breaker into two to help the load going to my area of house. I have too many electronics running, and when I turn the bathroom fan on the breaker goes...I shoulda asked him to run a new ground for me...
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

Your situation is quite unusual. Usually NIDs are right near the earth ground, either outside, or by the breaker panel. Worst comes to work, you can bond the NID to a well grounded, unused, electrical socket, that should provide continuity to the earth ground. Less than ideal, but it should do what you need.

Actually, I'm pretty sure you have to install the rod yourself, they just come and hook it to the rod, or at least that used to be the rule a few years ago for UVerse.

While he's there, make sure your Ped is grounded properly as well. I'm betting it isn't. You can also have him tie that 3rd pair in your aircore to ground, that should help with interference as well. Without being tied to ground that 3rd pair acts like a damn antenna for interference then brings it to the other pairs through crosstalk.

If your Ped is anything like mine, it should be on the back, right hand side. You'll also want to make sure your 25-pair bundle is grounded at the Ped with a bullet bond if it has a shield, and also that the drop from the Ped to your NID, if it has a shield, is also grounded at your Ped. If your Ped is like mine, it uses a clamp style bond to ground the drop. You can use that, or you can just use another bullet bond. Either or, same difference.

Remember, you always only ground one end of any given line's shield, otherwise you risk a ground loop, and you always ground at the source, not the destination. So the drop from Ped to NID is grounded at the Ped, and never the NID. Just like the homerun from the NID to the RG, if it is shielded, is grounded at the NID and never at the jack right before the patch cable that does to the RG.

Unfortunately, the RG's them selves are no longer grounded. The 3800 was, but AT&T ran into trouble with people not having grounded outlets, so they dropped the grounding pin from the 3801 on up. Stupid idea, but I guess it makes their lives easier...

I've started running a syslog, using my laptop as server, getting very interesting info...
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

If the drop is shielded but not grounded at the Ped then it's a floating shield, it probably works okay, but not nearly as well as a shield tied to a ground at one end.

Bullet Bond:



Grounding strap. Hooks the bullet bond to the ground:

Then my drop is DEFINITELY not grounded, nor is any other drop to any of the other customers using my ped....
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

Not surprising. Most aren't bonded/grounded properly.

This is another type of bond that can providing grounding at a Ped, a clamp bond:

So I found out just now that my drop has been grounded at the NID...is that bad?
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

I also just ran a 2 pair shielded home run for the DSL ONLY. I'm gonna keep that CAT 5 I have run for the voice service, but I have run the shielded 22 AWG cable from the NID to the RG, i'm just gonna have the line tech install it for me today...I found out just now that my drop has been grounded at the NID...is that bad?
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

No, not necessarily. You want it grounded at one end, that's the important part. It's standard practice to ground at the source, and not the destination, but functionally, there should be no difference. The only problem you have at the moment is that your drop is essentially ungrounded since your NID is currently ungrounded. Once they get that resolved, it should be functionally equivalent to having it grounded at the Ped. Although you can see how it makes sense to have the interference flowing to ground away from where you are sending a signal, rather than towards it.

Although your drop will be grounded at the NID, you may want to ask him to check if the 25 pair bundle that brings your two pairs has a shield and if it does, if it is grounded properly at the source. It most likely isn't, so you'll want him to bond it with a bullet bond at the Ped. If the 25 pair shield isn't bonded at one point to ground it will be a floating shield, which, as I said before, isn't as bad as not having a shield, but generally significantly degrades the performance of the shield.

A shield traps interference, which is electromagnetic energy, by channeling it, and like a bucket that has water in it with no outlet, it stays in the shield and leads to a certain amount of signal induction in the copper wires, although much less than if the EM energy can interfere with the wires directly. If you bond a shield to ground, the energy has somewhere to go, to ground. It's like poking a hole in the bucket, the water leaves through the path of least resistance. The less energy in the shield the less inducution it can generate.

Now bonding to ground at one or both ends is somewhat controversial when it comes to Mhz signaling rates like Ethernet & VDSL. Normally one bonds to ground at one end to prevent a ground loop. A ground loop occurs when there is a difference in potential between two ground points. However, over short distances, the two ground points should be physically close enough that the location where they are grounded is practically identical, so there should be no potential difference. But, that is not necessarily true. A ground loop can cause tremendous trouble if it exists on high speed data line shields, so, in order to avoid it, most people only ground at one point on a shield. However, at higher signaling rates, the performance of the shield is significantly better when it is grounded at both ends. As mentioned, one solution is single point grounding, but, you accept degraded shield performance at higher signaling rates. It's a compromise. The other thing you can do, which requires a little more work, is to ground both ends and then check for the presence of a ground loop, which will present itself as a very low power signal that is detectable at both ground points but is absent if one of the grounding points is removed. However, you generally need a very sensitive meter to detect the presence of small ground loops as they are very low power. If you have the equipment, it is best to ground both ends and check for the ground loop, if it is not present, you are in the best situation. If you are unable to do so, you are better off just grounding at one end and accepting the compromise.

Crash course 101 on bonding & grounding in telecom and high speed signaling applications.

Add something about this with pics to the U-Verse FAQ...
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Hinsdale, IL - »www.billhamel.net

Finally got it corrected today--9/19; d*** shame the whole issue was due to an error in the order mgmt system that could've been corrected without dispatching a tech back to the site today.

Seems like everyone has been able to get their situation squared away, except for me...

Re: 45 meg tier available in CHICAGO...JUST ORDERED!

Then have them waive the install fee.