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Superslow broadband

Teazle
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎11-02-2015

Re: Superslow broadband

Anotherone,
Thanks for that.
Perhaps I wasn't making myself clear but the BTwholesaale site you suggest is the very one we have been using. We understand that poor wiring or other factors In our homes can affect our speeds but we have been trying to divorce that from what we are looking at. We have been trying to just look at what is delivered to our doorsteps and AFAIK by using the BT wholesale site we have been doing just that.
Your point about the local distribution within the village is interesting. I've never studied telegraph poles before but. I've just been out and wandered down the road. The poles do indeed, as you say, have a "DP" number on them. Most, but not all the poles appear to be serviced from a manhole a few feet from their base. These are in turn serviced (I assume) from a "main manhole"......it's certainly the one the engineers seem to head for and is certainly at a logical site within the village (reasonably central, on the main road from the exchange and outside where the post office used to be). Beyond that it's difficult to see what is happening. we don't appear to have a cabinet and it looks as if the lines come into the village underground and are then distributed underground to each telegraph pole.
On your other points my main socket was installed long before the ones with a test socket were introduced! and yes, everyone is on the same exchange!
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,534
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Superslow broadband

Quote from: Teazle
and yes, everyone is on the same exchange!

Just to be certain, do not confuse being on the same STD code as being on the same exchange.  All subscribers in my area are on the same STD code, however lines are fed into this village from at least two exchanges - one South of the river, the other from the North.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
Thanks: 457
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Superslow broadband

Well done having a look at the poles, what you've described is not uncommon and noting who is on what DP could be very significant. You only need a problem on one line on a DP and if circumstances are not ideal it may have a detrimental effect on the other lines on that DP due to cross-talk (by the way we are only scratching the surface here).
If your use of the BT Checker is not yielding a Cabinet number, then you may be on Direct Exchange Lines (DELs) and that makes life a lot more difficult when someone has a faulty line (there's no real E and D sides).
If a Cabinet Number is coming up on the checker, it's a case of have good hunt round for it. It will be somewhere that Openreach goto frequently when dealing with line issues - it's where the 'E' sides connect to the 'D' sides.
The Wholesale checker does of course tell you which exchange a number is on. If you want more detail on the exchange https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search is a good source.
Teazle
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎11-02-2015

Re: Superslow broadband

Quote from: Townman
Quote from: Teazle
and yes, everyone is on the same exchange!

Just to be certain, do not confuse being on the same STD code as being on the same exchange.  All subscribers in my area are on the same STD code, however lines are fed into this village from at least two exchanges - one South of the river, the other from the North.

I'm as sure as I can be that we are all on the same exchange. As well as sharing the same STD code, we all seem to share the same first three digits of our individual numbers......so much so that, within the village, we only bother to give the final three digits if we give our number to anyone. Surrounding villages seem to be much the same; it's as if we all have an STD code followed by a three digit village code which is then followed by our own three digit number. Certainly nobody in the village has mentioned any other exchanges. It's true though that some in the outlying areas at the edge of the parish are on different exchanges but we have not included them in our calculations.
Teazle
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎11-02-2015

Re: Superslow broadband

Quote from: Anotherone
Well done having a look at the poles, what you've described is not uncommon and noting who is on what DP could be very significant. You only need a problem on one line on a DP and if circumstances are not ideal it may have a detrimental effect on the other lines on that DP due to cross-talk (by the way we are only scratching the surface here).
If your use of the BT Checker is not yielding a Cabinet number, then you may be on Direct Exchange Lines (DELs) and that makes life a lot more difficult when someone has a faulty line (there's no real E and D sides).
If a Cabinet Number is coming up on the checker, it's a case of have good hunt round for it. It will be somewhere that Openreach goto frequently when dealing with line issues - it's where the 'E' sides connect to the 'D' sides.
The Wholesale checker does of course tell you which exchange a number is on. If you want more detail on the exchange https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search is a good source.

I'm intrigued about the cabinet number. As I said earlier, only one of the numbers we checked earlier yielded a cabinet number. As it happens this line was the fastest in the village at it was reported as being on "Cabinet 1". I've checked a few random numbers.....I only need worry about the final three digits....and two also reported "Cabinet 1". However, both of those numbers were also reporting speeds as poor as any others in the village, so that doesn't seem to have taken us any further forward. There just seems to be some confusion about whether or not we actually do have a cabinet. For what it's worth though, I think the answer is that we have no cabinet......in a village like ours somebody would have said "Oh, it' s round the back of old Arthur's place."!!!
Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
Thanks: 457
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Superslow broadband

Well in theory if you have some that are coming up with Cabinet 1, then it should exist somewhere!. It may well be perfectly possible that a significant number of people are on DELs and only a few (more recent lines perhaps) are on Cabinet 1 which might conceivably be outside the village. It needn't be a large cabinet either, it may be only a small one serving some outlying properties perhaps. Or maybe wherever it's been put, perhaps it's been placed with the future intention of more lines being moved to it in the fullness of time. If a lot of the lines coming in are on deteriorating Aluminium cable, then there could be some planning for future replacement at a time when Openreach have no option but to do so.
In our village for example there are (were) 3 'E' side cables going to our cabinet. Two of which are old aluminium and the third a newer copper one. I used to be on one of the old Aluminium ones and used to get intermittent noise problems, luckily now I'm on the copper one. However most of my 'D' side is Al but thankfully not in poor condition.
Drop me a PM with your exchange and village name if you don't want to post that in public and I'll see if it's possible to dig up anything of any use (pun not intended)..
Teazle
Dabbler
Posts: 16
Registered: ‎11-02-2015

Re: Superslow broadband

Anotherone,
Thanks for that. I think that I'm going to have to go on an expedition to try to find the missing cabinet or perhaps it will be easier to wait until I next see an Openreach van in the village!
Before I do that though I think I'll try mapping at least part of the village to show which houses are on which Distribution Point. It may show why some immediate neighbours have dramatically different speeds.
If I may, I'll take you up on your kind offer. I'm sending you a PM.
dick:quote