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twelvechars
join:2014-10-06
Salt Lake City, UT

1 edit

twelvechars

Member

[Qwest] Solving low speeds on a specific phone jack

Just recently moved our computers (and router and modem) to our new basement office - and our internet is much, much slower!

We're paying for either 12 or 20 Mbps down (can't remember), 896k up.
Speedtest.net shows pretty close to that on one phone jack in the house, a bit slower on two others, and really bad when connected in the new office - 3-4M down, ~300k up.

All the existing jacks are ??? with regards to wiring - 1970s home. For the jack in the office, I took the line that was running to the security system (again, ???), and extended it using my best (ie. not very good) western union splice + solder.

Here's the stats I get from my modem (Zoom 5615):
»lh5.googleusercontent.co ··· adsl.PNG
I don't know enough to interpret the SNR or attenuation numbers, whether they're good or bad. I do know that one of the other phone jacks showed a number closer to the paid speed on the modem, but didn't note the other numbers.

I'm thinking pretty seriously about just doing a new home run on the outside of the house. We don't do a landline phone, so it seems like I can just unhook all the old wiring, and run a new wire, soup.

Anything I'm missing? Easier solutions?

Our demarc is currently an old carbon block - we actually couldn't find it when we first had service set up. I'll definitely wire a jack directly to it and test before I run any wire, that's for sure. Thinking I'll get this wired up and then see if I can get CenturyLink to install a NID - any reason I shouldn't go that route?

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

billaustin

MVM

Run a new cable from the modem location to the demarc location. You should be able to get CL to come out and install a new NID. Have them put in a whole-home filter. Connect the new run to the Data side, and the existing phone wiring to the Voice side. That should clear up your speed problems, and leave the phone jacks intact for future use.

As for SNR, higher is better, and for Attenuation, lower is better. Connect a test jack to the carbon block and compare the Sync Speed, Attenuation, and SNR readings to those from the other jack locations. Having other devices connected to the line without a DSL filter causes interference with the DSL signal on the line.
twelvechars
join:2014-10-06
Salt Lake City, UT

twelvechars

Member

2 questions on the new home run:

1) What sort of cable to use? I've seen suggestions to use Cat 5, I see I can get enough of that easily, cheaply enough, but is there a better option?

2) I've seen several mentions of not running parallel to conduits etc. If I run mine at the bottom edge of the siding, I'll be right alongside some AC lines inside PVC/other-non-metallic-conduit for the majority of the run, 30' or so. Will this be a problem?
»lh6.googleusercontent.co ··· 3620.jpg

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

1 recommendation

billaustin

MVM

Cat3 is the minimum recommended. Cat5 is more than sufficient. Cat6 is a good choice, since it is 1 gauge larger, but is also more expensive. You can run telephone over almost any wire.

Running parallel to electric lines and fluorescent lights can cause issues, but in my experience it is not really that common. I have a ~160ft run of Cat3, Cat5, RG6, and Electric in the same trench (non-metallic conduit) and have not seen any issues over the last 15 years.
twelvechars
join:2014-10-06
Salt Lake City, UT

twelvechars

Member

new wiring is in, went with the indoor/outdoor cat5e. Cat5 blue->green, blue/white->red, easy enough, right?

Initial numbers looked good as far as SNR/attenuation. Sync speed wasn't quite what it should be (~10M down, but the full 896k up), but a big improvement over before. First speed test (laptop providing PPPoE) was ok, 7M down, 0.7M up. Connected through the router, and things started going downhill - speed tests ~1M down, 0.08up. Modem started regularly dropping and reconnecting. That evening, it went down completely, modem never gets past Startup Training/Startup Handshake.

Spent some time on the phone with CL yesterday morning, it *sounded* like they put a block on the account for some reason (I had a heck of a time hearing the gal on the phone). She said they'd remove the block, but I haven't been able to connect since. Tech is scheduled to come out tomorrow morning...
twelvechars

twelvechars

Member

just to wrap this up - after 10 minutes of poking around, testing various locations, we pulled the jack out of the wall and, ta-da, broken wire.

I'm assuming I must have broken it when pulling the excess wire out of the junction box. fixed that, connected right up, speeds are back where they should be.