Regular Brief Outages During Thunderstorms & rainstorms: Benmore Switch.

[Sandtonman]

Hi Folks, I am a new member just finding my way around this Forum.

I did the followng Google search on the Forum, but drew a blank from the many similar threads, on my specific issue; hence the new thread. Apologies if it has been discussed previously.


Google Search: adsl thunderstorm issue site:mybroadband.co.za


OK, so here's the issue.

I live around 500m from the Benmore Switch.
I have uncapped up-to 4MB/s Broadband. My ISP is M-Web (global originally) Line and ISP contacted individually.
I have had this service for around 6-years and have upgraded the service as necessary to where I am today.
I have to say that, until recently, the service has been great!
Speeds have dropped off recently to around 3MB/s; but I can live with that as international speeds have generally improved.

The issue is, that when I arrived back from the UK at the end of January, the storm season had hit in SA.
This season only, every time there is a big storm down in the valley, West of Benmore, I lose ADSL connectivity.
The DSL light on my (D-LINK) router remains green, but the Internet light goes red.
Sometimes it recovers itself; more often, I need to reboot the router.
It looks to me like there is a microwave connection from Benmore towards the West, for internet traffic. The outage corresponds pretty much exactly with storms big enough to down DSTV (out of Randburg) briefly.

Anyone got experience of this? or has a contact at Telkom or M-Web who could advise?
Such regular and predictable outages are simply not acceptable.

Cheers, K.

 

[FNfal]

Hi and welcome
I know when it rains hard the microwave drops signal
But most telkom exchanges are fiber fed so dont think that is the problem.

 

[Segg]

I used to have a similar problem, my snr would drop extremely low (about 6db) and my routers Internet light would turn red, but Telkom recently did something to my line, reducing attenuation to 25db and increasing snr to 36dbwhen it used to sit at 63.5db and 10db respectively, nowadays I dont have any more problems no matter the conditions

 

[Sandtonman]

Hi and welcome
I know when it rains hard the microwave drops signal
But most telkom exchanges are fiber fed so dont think that is the problem.

Thanks for the welcome and yes I am aware that pretty much all comms are via fibre; so I am also confused as to why this should happen, so regularly when, there are BIG storm clouds in the West (big enough to clobber DSTV's up/down links)

Rather than simply logging a call, (which can be a bit of a black hole -- particulary with such an intermittent issue), what I'm really looking for is a contact at Telkom or MWEB who would be up for a discussion and would understand the question and take some interest in resolving it. Any suggestions? I know this is probably asking a lot Cheers, K.

 

[MickeyD]

This looks more like a cable issue.

Scenarios:

1. Somewhere along your route water is getting into a manhole and impacting your circuit.
2. If the route is overhead (which I doubt) then Telkom's lightning protection needs some maintenance along your cable route.
2. There is a dry or poorly made joint somewhere on your physical cable route between your jack and Telkom's exchange.

In all 3 scenarios you will have to ask Telkom to fix (if you pay Telkom for the ADSL rental and not Mweb). If you pay Mweb for the ADSL rental then you log a call with them and they will contact Telkom.

 

[Sandtonman]

This looks more like a cable issue.

Scenarios:

1. Somewhere along your route water is getting into a manhole and impacting your circuit.
2. If the route is overhead (which I doubt) then Telkom's lightning protection needs some maintenance along your cable route.
2. There is a dry or poorly made joint somewhere on your physical cable route between your jack and Telkom's exchange.

In all 3 scenarios you will have to ask Telkom to fix (if you pay Telkom for the ADSL rental and not Mweb). If you pay Mweb for the ADSL rental then you log a call with them and they will contact Telkom.

OK, So log a call, it may have to be if no one can come up with an inside track?

Regarding your cable diagnosis, this would have been my first instinct, too (I am an electronics engineer), however......

The Benmore Switch is around 4 to 500m from me, literally; cable runs undeground and point-to-point.
Service is rock-solid apart from these brief outages.
The fault is brief, lasts maybe 5-10 minutes max. (not a water issue)
Fault does not correspond to dense-cloud, rain or lighning in my immedate area.
Fault does correspond with very heavy rain/storm clouds a km or so to the West.
I am very high up with a West facing balcony, so can observe this accurately; can pretty much predict when the failure will occur.
Normally happens when cloud is dense enough to make DSTV go down ( MC's head office with all their antennae is also directly West of me) hence the microwave link question.
I Question Telkom's use of microwaves as possibly a temporary solution, as there is a lot of fibre piping and roadworks activity outside the switch in Benmore Road, at the moment. maybe microwaves a stopgap until fibre routing/roadworks complete
Just don't believe I'd get a straight answer/satisfaction by logging a call.

Would like to discuss this with other than a call cente agent? Any suggestions?

Cheers, K.

 

[MickeyD]

From your house (joint 1) the cable will run to a Distribution Point (DP - joint 2).

From the DP it will run to a Street Distribution Cabinet (SDC - joint 3).

From the SDC it will run to a Main Distribution Frame (MDF - joint 4) or directly to a DSLAM frame....

Benmore Gardens is a major exchange and will have more than 1 fibre to ensure redundancy instead of a MW link. Telkom hardly uses MW links for inter-exchange routes...

I still think there is an issue with a joint somewhere.

PS. DP and SDC can be and probably is underground.

 

[Sandtonman]

.......I still think there is an issue with a joint somewhere......

MickeyD, I absolutely bow to your superior knowledge and gut feel on this ( I can see your number of posts ); so will log a call with Telkom, as you suggest.

But why the symptoms I describe? The bad weather is well West of both me and the Switch plus I get rock solid service for the rest of the time?

Will post an update in due course.
Cheers, K.