FTTC Install Fail
Well, the Openreach engineer has been round and all is working again, and the speed is good.
He came round at about 08:40 am, I told him about the problems on Friday, and that the landline was dead, and he was not aware of that.
So logically, the first thing he did was get the land line working again. As expected, the fault was in the house, and at the joint between the drop wire and the cable running to the NTE5. One of the cables was broken, perhaps it happened after the previous engineers put the jelly crimp on and tried to screw the cover back on. The joint is a BT 80A/92A, which was bypassed on Friday. Since there was a PCB with screw terminals and IDC block, there was not much space to put the cover back on. The cover must have pushed the crimps and the lack of space resulted in a break. Since the existing conductor pair on the NTE5 side of the cable being used was so short and there was not much slack left, the engineer swapped over to the unused spare pair. He also removed the PCB from the BT 80A since it was not needed and this would provide the space needed for the jelly crimps. The dial-tone was now back, and the line was good and quiet.
There was still no VDSL sync, so there was a problem in the cabinet. So the engineer connected an Oscillator to the phone socket (to find the line at the other end) headed out into the PCP. He found that the connections made on Friday had been reversed (in terms of connections going to the E-Side and D-side IDC blocks (also referred to as ports) in the PCP). This meant that the phone would be fine, but the VDSL signal would not go through. So once this was corrected, he came back and used his EXFO meter (Openreach normally use either the JDSU or the EXFO) to test the connection at the master socket.
All results were good, attached are images of the tests. As you can see, my order was one of those that have gone through as a 40/10 order instead on 80/20. But it is pretty close to maxing out, and connected using VDSL2 profile 17a on fast path with very little errors. My estimated distance to the cab is 543m (using Google maps with a ruler to measure the length of the path based on following the BT manhole covers to the PCP). I know this length will be longer since the actual cable routes will have bends, the actual underground route will be slightly different and there is probably a bit of excess/slack.
I also got him to test the connection at the other end of the data extension kit to make sure there was no problem with the wiring, and all was fine.
All in all, I am happy with the results so far:
Chris, could you please arrange for met to be put onto the 80/20 profile?
Thank you.
He came round at about 08:40 am, I told him about the problems on Friday, and that the landline was dead, and he was not aware of that.
So logically, the first thing he did was get the land line working again. As expected, the fault was in the house, and at the joint between the drop wire and the cable running to the NTE5. One of the cables was broken, perhaps it happened after the previous engineers put the jelly crimp on and tried to screw the cover back on. The joint is a BT 80A/92A, which was bypassed on Friday. Since there was a PCB with screw terminals and IDC block, there was not much space to put the cover back on. The cover must have pushed the crimps and the lack of space resulted in a break. Since the existing conductor pair on the NTE5 side of the cable being used was so short and there was not much slack left, the engineer swapped over to the unused spare pair. He also removed the PCB from the BT 80A since it was not needed and this would provide the space needed for the jelly crimps. The dial-tone was now back, and the line was good and quiet.
There was still no VDSL sync, so there was a problem in the cabinet. So the engineer connected an Oscillator to the phone socket (to find the line at the other end) headed out into the PCP. He found that the connections made on Friday had been reversed (in terms of connections going to the E-Side and D-side IDC blocks (also referred to as ports) in the PCP). This meant that the phone would be fine, but the VDSL signal would not go through. So once this was corrected, he came back and used his EXFO meter (Openreach normally use either the JDSU or the EXFO) to test the connection at the master socket.
All results were good, attached are images of the tests. As you can see, my order was one of those that have gone through as a 40/10 order instead on 80/20. But it is pretty close to maxing out, and connected using VDSL2 profile 17a on fast path with very little errors. My estimated distance to the cab is 543m (using Google maps with a ruler to measure the length of the path based on following the BT manhole covers to the PCP). I know this length will be longer since the actual cable routes will have bends, the actual underground route will be slightly different and there is probably a bit of excess/slack.
I also got him to test the connection at the other end of the data extension kit to make sure there was no problem with the wiring, and all was fine.
All in all, I am happy with the results so far:
Chris, could you please arrange for met to be put onto the 80/20 profile?
Thank you.
Thanks for that.
I was put onto the 80/20 profile shortly after 00:00 yesterday morning.
The connection details are as follows:
Estimated Line Length: ~600 meters (based on my previous estimate plus some excess, and giving a rounded number);
IP Profile Downstream: 48.83 Mbps (BT Wholesale Checker Estimate = 45.9 Mbps);
IP Profile Upsteam: 20 Mbps (BT Wholesale Checker Estimate = 8 Mbps);
Also worth noting that my pings are still nice and low most of the time, generally ~8 ms to a UK server. So I assume I am on fast path.
Overall, I am happy with the connection. I am ever so slightly disappointed that my downstream speed was fairly close to the estimate. I was hoping the checker was an underestimate and that I would have a downsteam speed of something between 50-60 Mbps. However, I knew it was unlikely, and it could have been worse. Still, I am very happy that I am on fast path with low pings, that almost makes up for the speed. Hopefully that continues to stay on.
I was put onto the 80/20 profile shortly after 00:00 yesterday morning.
The connection details are as follows:
Estimated Line Length: ~600 meters (based on my previous estimate plus some excess, and giving a rounded number);
IP Profile Downstream: 48.83 Mbps (BT Wholesale Checker Estimate = 45.9 Mbps);
IP Profile Upsteam: 20 Mbps (BT Wholesale Checker Estimate = 8 Mbps);
Also worth noting that my pings are still nice and low most of the time, generally ~8 ms to a UK server. So I assume I am on fast path.
Overall, I am happy with the connection. I am ever so slightly disappointed that my downstream speed was fairly close to the estimate. I was hoping the checker was an underestimate and that I would have a downsteam speed of something between 50-60 Mbps. However, I knew it was unlikely, and it could have been worse. Still, I am very happy that I am on fast path with low pings, that almost makes up for the speed. Hopefully that continues to stay on.
Happy to see that you're now up and running and on the correct profile.
If there's anything else then just let me know
If there's anything else then just let me know