Our sync speed on ADSL2+ is now at a fantastic 10Mbit, with 812kbit out, with the introduction of a Billion 5200 to the network lineup.
That device saw the retirement of the trusty D-Link DSL-504T, which just wasn’t cutting it for ADSL2+ with 8Mbit, 800kbps.
ADSL2+ has an inherent disadvantage, however. The property we rent has a socket that isn’t attached to the wall.
To make matters worse, it’s a lowset house, and bricked at the bottom, and to make it even worse, the lead in cable drilled through the floor to the first socket is like 1cm long. So, if there’s a break on the socket or the cable, and new wire needs to be stripped back and attached, it’s not going to be pretty, with some poor schmoo needing to crawl underneath the house, and probably terminate the lead in cable there, and run a seperate cable up, so that way the length issue doesn’t involve running a new cable in from the street, or adding join after join.
Getting to it means crawling under the house so that you can remove it, and then extend it, simply because working on it inside is not easy with the length available, and you’d want to concentrate on not having to do the job again either.
But, that’s only half the issue, the socket, has what can be described as blue residue on the positive terminal, and it’s all dried in, which couldn’t really be helping things in the field of line stability or increased sync speed.
Anyway, what I’ve decided to do is remove the inline filter from being the modems connection point, and instead, got a double adapter for the socket, plugged the modem into one port, and ran a standard cable up to the filter, and then the phone to the filter.
That should hopefully stabilise the line a bit more, currently, we are seeing dropouts around once every 24 hours. It syncs back up again, and is tolerable to some degree, but I’d also like to have the service UP, because the drop outs sometimes interupt us, which sucks.
I’d be curious what it’d cost to get that socket fixed properly, I think it’s Telstra’s network boundary point for the house, considering it is the first socket (and the black lead in cable would confirm that for me at least).
So, I assume the socket would be Telstra’s responsibility to replace, when you consider the visible blue that is on the socket to some degree.
I’m worried something will hit it, or the cord will get pulled on hard enough that the wires from the lead in cable will break (copper can only really be bent back and forth so much!), and the black cable will drop below the house, meaning someone (ie. not me), will need to go fish it out, push it back up, and try and terminate it properly.
It’s likely a Telstra issue, considering it is Telstra’s boundary point. They get paid line rental to maintain it, so I guess we’ll wait and see just how much maintenance Telstra really do for that line rental they insist is required to maintain telephone lines.
As for stability, well compared to the DSL-504T, the Billion 5200 is miles ahead, and the speeds are also showing themselves to be faster.
The socket isn’t weak or anything, it’s just loose on the floor and that black cable concerns me it might fall down, meaning someone will have to go fish it back, and I don’t like crawling under houses. It’s not likely, I’ve got plenty of (but not excessive) slack on the cables that do connect to the socket.
Enjoy!