Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON
 ·Cogeco Cable
| Bell sucks!
I know that goes unsaid, but I wanted to get this rant out of my system.
I was looking forward to switching from Hogeco to TekSavvy and was disappointed when I synced at 1280/786. After trying some line tests with no success, I requested to be switched to a remote. Since there was no remote, Bell put me on interleaved and now I sync at 1184/384.
It baffles me how there is no remote in my area as the CO is 5km away. I guess 2500 houses isn't enough to justify the expense. |
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vintagewino
join:2003-07-22
Grimsby, ON
 ·TekSavvy Solutions..
 ·magicjack.com
·Look Communications
| said by Barry  : It baffles me how there is no remote in my area as the CO is 5km away. I guess 2500 houses isn't enough to justify the expense. There likely IS a remote in the area, but most often, they are reserved for Sympatico customers only. The rest of us all can sneeze into the wind. 
Too many horror stories in this forum someone having good speed on Sympatico, switching to (your choice) ISP, and getting knocked off the remote back to CO.  |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| That would explain it because I could of sworn there was a remote 3000 feet away from my house. It's a brick shed with a Bell logo and I often see a truck working on it.
You can even see a truck by it on Google Maps.
»maps.google.ca/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.48···t=h&z=20 |
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Guspaz
Guspaz
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC | That may not be a DSL remote. And 3000 feet as the bird flies is a lot longer as the wire goes. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | This is true, but it's definitely shorter than 4.5km. |
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nanook
Premium,MVM
join:2007-12-02
·Bell Sympatico
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| reply to Barry
said by Barry :It baffles me how there is no remote in my area as the CO is 5km away. I guess 2500 houses isn't enough to justify the expense. I live about 4km away from the CO in a ~350,000 population "hi-tech" community yet there is still no RSLAM.
I used to live in an even larger community, where house prices ranged from $600k to $millions (i.e. upscale) where I was 5km from the CO yet there was no RSLAM until 3 years after I left.
And FWIW I was with BellER in both cases until switching to TekSavvy about a year ago. Do not ascribe to malice what is more easily explained as rank incompetence. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | That is even worse. I guess I'll have to factor in the distance from the CO when I move.
What speeds do you sync at now? |
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nanook
Premium,MVM
join:2007-12-02
·Bell Sympatico
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| said by Barry :What speeds do you sync at now? 4Mb/s reliably. After a lot of internal rewiring, adding a POTS splitter, etc. I am now on the borderline for 5Mb/s. But I am concerned that may introduce reliability (transmission errors) problems.
Perhaps you can post your line stats from your DSL modem as well as the make/model of modem. Like me you may be able to make substantial improvements from within. |
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rosenqui
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Kanata, ON
| reply to Barry
Make absolutely certain that your inside wiring isn't partly to blame. My POTS line gets split into separate voice/DSL lines at my demarc box since I have extra pairs coming into the house, so I've never had any issues. My parents however signed up for DSL a few years ago and they were getting terrible speeds.
At first I thought it was their distance from the CO that was to blame, but we went around and disconnected every phone in the house since not all of them had DSL filters. My dad put the ones he was given on the oldest/cheapest phones figuring those were the ones most likely to cause interference. With everything but the DSL modem disconnected from the line his speed jumped to near the maximum - about a 4-5x improvement!
We eventually traced the problem to an older Nortel cordless phone, but to ensure that there wouldn't be a problem in the future we used a stock DSL filter to split the line where it entered the house, then kept the voice portion of the line isolated from the DSL portion. The DSL modem is the only thing on the DSL side of the splitter. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| reply to nanook
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | reply to nanook
I know the wiring could be improved, but I'm hesitant (and highly tempted at the same time) to shell out another $100 for a technician to come and do the job. |
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nanook
Premium,MVM
join:2007-12-02
·Bell Sympatico
·TekSavvy Solutions..
1 edit | With that 63dB attenuation you are at least 5km from the CO. Your ST516 modem is a good choice for marginal lines.
Your best bet at this point is to review your internal wiring. If you have any experience with wiring this will not be a difficult job. There are lots of people here who can help.
To start I would suggest that you temporarily connect only your DSL modem at the demarc (with no filters), i.e. disconnect the rest of the internal phone wiring and look at your line stats again. If there is an improvement then you can decide if it is worth the effort to fix the problem(s). |
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daboom
join:2001-12-16
Oshawa, ON
·Primus Talkbroadband
| reply to Barry
Ouch the best thing for you would be to get those stats from the actual demarc, this will help you determine if the inside wires are in need of real attn or not. Basically connect the modem at the demarc and unhook the entire house while you get the stats. If you got a new nid ie nice gray box outside then doing this would be as simple as pluggin in a phone line.
--
Come join us on EFNET irc.dks.ca #teksavvy for live chat 
Java Chat back online @ »teksavvy.kicks-ass.net |
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rosenqui
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Kanata, ON
| reply to Barry
Demarcation box |
said by Barry :I know the wiring could be improved, but I'm hesitant (and highly tempted at the same time) to shell out another $100 for a technician to come and do the job. If you have easy access to the demarcation point, try plugging the DSL modem in there using a good quality phone line and see if your stats improve. My demarc looks something like the one shown above.
You unplug the appropriate plug on the right-hand side (normally you would never open the left-hand side where the green blocks are in this picture), which disconnects the feed into the house. Then plug in the DSL modem and you've removed your house wiring from the equation. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| reply to nanook
I tried at the demarc with all phone devices unplugged and the sync stats where the same, but the attenuation and snrm improved. Thing is, to get the jack I was using to work I did a shitty job wiring it. Since I didn't have a punch down tool, I avoided the 66 block completely. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | reply to Barry
My demarc is tiny compared to that. I just took off the cover and found some spider eggs and that I would have to wire it myself because there's no plug. It would also be a huge pain in the ass because I don't have a laptop. |
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corkyy
join:2008-06-01
Laval, QC | But wait... The metal box on the right side... Is it the Electrical box?
It could generate a lot of noise on the phone line.
Also you said the stats (snr, att) are better at the demarc, could you post it? |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | Yes it is an electrical box and I deleted the pics because I was frustrated and had given up. I'll move my computer again and run another test in a couple minutes. |
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Barry
join:2008-11-04
Oakville, ON | reply to corkyy
I didn't actually hook it to the demarc outside, but where it comes in from the inside. Basically 3 feet away. |
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nanook
Premium,MVM
join:2007-12-02
·Bell Sympatico
·TekSavvy Solutions..
2 edits | reply to Barry
The 66 block is effectively your demarc. I have an almost identical situation. My suggestion would be to see if you can move the wiring to the demarc as far from the electric panel as possible. Also keep the phone wiring as far as possible from house wiring and try to run the two perpendicular if possible. I even considered running BellERs incoming through a different opening a couple of feet away from all the electrics.
If that makes an improvement, consider installing a POTS Splitter. Mine fits nicely in a standard metal duplex electrical box. I have that box grounded to the electrical box.
Anyway, it would be interesting to see what your new line stats are.
Added:said by Barry :the sync stats where the same, but the attenuation and snrm improved To clarify, your synch rate (profile) is set by BellER. You cannot change it yourself. If you can improve attenuation and SNR enough you may be able to get TekSavvy to ask BellER to put you on a faster profile. |
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