volt/amp readings using multimeter on ADSL line

That's ridiculous. Seems like you all have problems that could be fixed in a few minutes by a competent technician. It appears as though the technicians just try to avoid anything that involves a bit of work. Have you tried asking them to repair your faults privately for a small fee - my guess is that suddenly they will be keen! Sometimes it's better just to pay a bit to save yourself years of frustration.

I would try a multimeter test on her line to see if the voltage stays constant - could be a bad connection somewhere on the line. Time for DMT ...

Let's see what happens with your noise problem! The more pictures that you have of the equipment on the poles etc. the better because I can't see that anything is going to improve in the near future. It seems that your line should be able to handle speeds above 4Mbit/s provided that it's repaired properly. It's only working at a fraction of its capacity at the moment. When it was functioning shortly after you filtered it through the UPS it was starting to look quite reasonable.
 
Last edited:
no contact as yet of the "specialist" gonna phone the tech up today...otherwise i'm posting on www.hellopeter.com tomorrow.

anyhow

all my pics of my outside setup towards underground cable.

as per google earth
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/linesetups-1.jpg

1st pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/1stpole.jpg

path from 1st to 2nd pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/1stpole_2_2ndpole.jpg

2nd pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/2ndpole.jpg

3rd pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/3rdpole.jpg

3rd pole suggestion for new entry point
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/3rdpole_to_newentry_suggestion.jpg

4th pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/4thpole.jpg

4th pole to 5thpole connector pole
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/4th_connector_5thpole.jpg

5th pole - dropdown
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/5thpole_mydropdown.jpg
 
If I had a long ladder I might be tempted to take a look in your dropdown box to see what's actually inside. Maybe you could also check on the earth connection.

I would also try out that RFI circuit. It seems that when you disconnect your router the noise stops for a while so it's not impossible that the RFI filter may be able to prevent what appears to be some type of buildup of charge by draining it away. If you don't have access to a component shop you should be able to find all of the bits you need inside one or two blown compact fluorescent bulbs that sell for about R15. These usually contain toroids, inductors and also suitable capacitors. The values aren't critical - any inductor or toroid with between 20 to 100 turns of wire should be fine. The aim is to see whether or not you can prevent the noise from starting up by changing the line characteristics slightly.

It should also be possible to use a bit of electronics to disconnect your router from the line for a fraction of a second every 15 to 30 minutes etc. but I'm not sure whether or not you would lose sync or not. Do you think that this could be a workable solution to prevent the noise from starting? I can also send you a simple circuit for a bridge tap moderator which again changes the line impedance to prevent echoes. I might also try using a filter with a path to earth to try to drain off any charge buildup that might be taking place on the line.

Regarding a new drop down wire - this may or may not solve the problem. If it's being caused by a faulty station/surge protector and they change you to a new one during the process then it should fix it. Similarly if it's an earthing problem. My guess is that your ADSL would work perfectly if you connected your router directly to the distribution box and that there's a small problem on the line to your house but it could even be the DSLAM. There are so many levels of people involved with ADSL at Telkom that a simple job of switching in or out a few working components could turn into a major operation.
 
thx for the reply.

whenever they get here - i'll try to get a photo - a bit high for my ladder.

i have ordered an RF filter - gonna take 3-4 weeks.

the whole reason i worry about all of this:

-online gaming - playing clan games for either WoW / Bf2 is a no-go for ADSL connection interruptions.
-banking - a few banking sites don't like you dropping sync for too long - disconnects you
-packet loss - this you feel in gaming
-overall browsing experience.
 
I'm still suffering the same problems, think the next time a technician comes out I'll do like you guys said and ask him to fix it privately, its been 2 months and I've been having an screwed up connection
 
check this BULLTWANG

my netgear router thinks all of the sudden that my line attenuation is 15.5!!! down..

i'm like HUH...

down from 52-54...i don't think so :)

shall see when i unplug it now :)
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;1219692 said:
check this BULLTWANG

my netgear router thinks all of the sudden that my line attenuation is 15.5!!! down..

i'm like HUH...

down from 52-54...i don't think so :)

shall see when i unplug it now :)
Click to expand...


It is possible that telkom techs may have moved your line from the dslam in the exchange to a mini-dslam which is much closer to you , which would account for the very low attenuation , ( your SNR will probably be much better as well now )
 
nope...snr reading was 22-24 at time of 15.5 attenuation down...

did a complete shutdown of everything.

back up to 54 for attenuation - snr now 23-25
 
Last edited:
After looking at your photos here is another suggestion this time regarding your telephone pole! Is your telephone pole ground connected to your Eskom/water pipe ground? A good ground is very important in preventing RFI problems. Maybe you can try to bring an electrical extension cord which is plugged in somewhere close to the telephone pole and connect the thick metal cable to the Earth connection on the extension cord using a plug with a short wire. See below.

"For maximum interference rejection, make sure your system ground is of the highest possible quality. Proper telephone installations establish system ground either at the Protector Box or the Service Entry. You should be able to see a heavy gauge ground wire that goes to either the power company ground or to a known-to-be-conductive cold water pipe. Connections to any other source of ground should be considered suspicious. Telephone companies will generally correct an improper ground at their expense.

Good grounding goes a long way toward shielding your telephone wiring from intruding RF. An upgrade in system ground at some sites can eliminate telephone RFI. At other sites, a better ground can reduce interference noticeably, requiring less work and/or fewer filters."
 
well i was thinking of doing this:

i have the dropdown wire set of 2 wires in my wall then connecting thru a "choc" connector to a blue/white pair of wires which then runs to the split RJ11 setup...

this RJ11 setup has got 2 brackets metal/iron? that touches the sides of the wallbox... - i was thinking of maybe let each wire uniquely go to each side (white left , blue right) - if that would serve as an earth , and then from there to the rj11 splitter.

gonna try it...nothing 2 loose
 
had a situation now where i had an SNR running at between 4 and 7 - webpages didn't resolve - went to the phone - pushed the hook button about 20 times...came back to pc..boom SNR 25.

wonder if it aint a problem at the exch besides all the local speculation/things to check.

i mean your call terminates in the exchange..

can someone tell me - when you have ADSL - you have 2 wires as per normal - 1 voice 1 data...the data leg gets plugged into DSLAM port...where does the voice leg go - into the same DSLAM port - or another port?

the observation that pushing my off the hook button improves my SNR - tells me that BOTH legs go into the DSLAM - in that case - the DSLAM CARD is faulty?

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/jannie40/11sept0800.jpg
 
Last edited:
@OMN: Call the exchange and ask them to switch your DSLAM card - I don't think that it's a big job but they will probably tell you otherwise. Surely this will only take a few minutes.
 
^^ not that easy.

i've asked the tech - he said - no there isn't anything wrong with the port - i KINDLY asked him again - he said he would see what he could/can do.. (wish i can hit them when they say "see what i can do")

have never been to the dslam - and i don't recon telkom would let me in.

i'll try someone else.
 
This is why it's so difficult to isolate the problem - it's so difficult to get Telkom to switch things around.

Are those two extra wires in your dropdown cable connected to the telephone pole earth (that thick steel cable that anchors the telephone pole)? Apparently even if the RFI problem is being caused by a bad connection on the line or a faulty surge protector etc. a good earth may help to reduce the problem. After looking at those photos of your telephone poles there seem to be a lot of untidy earthing wire connections on top of the poles so it may be a good thing to make sure that you have a good earth connection.
 
[OUPA]MrNutz;1225444 said:
ok..nothing has been going on this week

monday morning i shall post on hellopeter.com

enough!
Click to expand...

Good call, they are clearly incompetent and lazy!
Sometimes you get lucky and find a techie who actually wants to find the problem and other times(read most times) you dont.
Not sure how you seperate yourself from bf2 online for that long tho :D
 
yeah well - have had previous invites 2 join clans like [FiB] and even =BFB= - but with an unstable line - it just aint an option
 
More simple line fixes ...

If there is a bad connection at one of the joints along the outside line if you repeatedly put the phone on and off hook or let it ring a number of times (phone yourself repeatedly via a cellphone etc.) without answering it the increased current flow might improve the problem. It's best to use a phone that is powered directly from the phone line not one with it's own power pack. The reason for using a 48V standard for phone lines was that the higher voltage would help to prevent deterioration of joints etc. Would need to repeat this process regularly.

Have you tried watering the area around the ground connection to your *phone pole* with a hosepipe to see if there's any improvement in the noise or not? If the earth is wet in the vicinity around the ground connection this should improve the grounding performance. If you have a multimeter you could try to test to see if there is any voltage reading between one or both of the telephone wires and the telephone pole ground. If the station or surge protector on top of the pole is faulty there should be a small current flow to ground. You must be very sure that you are using the telephone pole ground though and not your house ground (unless they are connected together). Maybe you could connect a lawnmower extension cable to the pole ground so that you can do the tests inside the house etc.

I would try out this fix below with just a 0.01uF cap directly across the phone lines. If you don't have a suitable capacitor you could try a fluorescent starter (small white cylinder with two brass legs) - sells for ~R4. These contain an RFI type capacitor and a small glass bulb. You should just snip off the glass bulb first *before* trying it out as the bulb contains a normally open switch which might turn on if the line voltage increases when the phone rings and short out your line.

http://www.eham.net/forums/RFI/1481
http://members.cox.net/wb1aex/RFI.html
http://www.qsl.net/arrlsw/lax/tele.html

This link has scans of the Bell Canada manual on telephone RFI elimination.
http://www.line-man.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11943
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X