Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: How to find my cabinet?  (Read 6929 times)

sheddyian

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1159
    • My Shed Blog
How to find my cabinet?
« on: May 25, 2012, 11:45:47 AM »

Recently, the telephone cabinet down the road from me was replaced with a shiny new one, and a new fibre cabinet installed next to it.  This is happening all over town. Great!  ;D

BUT I don't think that's the cabinet I'm connected to.

Allow me to digress with a little tale...

A few years ago, late one night, the lights started flickering madly, the TV had a fit and then everything went off.  Lucky I wasn't watching a late night horror film, or I'd have suspected a poltergeist!

Looking outside, I see much darkness, so went to telephone electric co to report fault.  Phone doesn't work. Of course, it's a DECT phone. No power. Plug in corded phone. Get incredibly crackly line, dialling tone getting quieter and quieter.  Then dead.  Perhaps it is a poltergeist.

I imagine all sorts of chaos at local exchange up the road, so wandered up that way, but there are lights in houses nearby and everything looks fine.  Just houses near me without power.  Report electric fault and phone fault at nearby phonebox, which is working fine.

That night, most power restored, but not to my house or immediate neighbours.

Next day, BT arrive first, spend several hours trying to find fault. Neigbours phones off too.  Then electric turn up, and walk up and down road like BT were doing, waving instruments and sonic screwdrivers about.

Want to guess what had happened?

Much lifting of manholes and digging of tarmac later, all is revealed.  electric cable underground had burnt out, utterly melted.  Had also taken out nearby phone lines, also all melted!

As I recall it took 3 days to get the electric back, and nearer 5 days to get the phones restored.

So, all this was up the road from me, in the general direction of the local exchange.  I was told they'd replaced the phone cable most of the way up.

The shiny new phone and fibre cabinets are down the road from me.  So I assume I'm not connected there. 

I thought I'd wander up the road to see if I can find the cabinet that I am connected to.  And I can't find it!  I can see no cabinets, old or new, up the road from me, on either side of the road.

Is there always a cabinet?  Could my wires go straight to the exchange as it's quite near?

Any hints as to what I might look for?

I'm just curious if my cabinet is fibre enabled, that's all  ;D

Ian

Logged

waltergmw

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 2776
Re: How to find my cabinet?
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2012, 02:20:53 PM »

Hi Ian,

If you like to pm me with your postcode I can have a look for you.

Kind regards,
Walter
Logged

sheddyian

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1159
    • My Shed Blog
Re: How to find my cabinet?
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2012, 12:40:09 PM »

Thanks!

House used to have phone line from a pole in the distant past, judging from the remains on the wall, but has had underground connection for a very long time too, as the connection point on the wall that the underground cable goes into was a round GPO one with a central knurled screw until recently, when BT changed it for a modern greyish plastic one in which the central slotted screw has already rusted  :D

Ian
Logged

sheddyian

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1159
    • My Shed Blog
Re: How to find my cabinet?
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2012, 01:15:48 PM »

Update :

Well, despite Waltergmw giving me some interesting notes on which cabinet I might be connected to, I never did find the actual cabinet. 

However, in the last few days, Openreach have been causing much congestion digging up the main road a little way up from where I live, and yesterday a new fibre cabinet appeared there.  This is in the exact direction that I know my telephone line runs.

I'll go and have a look later, see if I can find the actual telephone cabinet now I know where the new fibre cabinet is.

Ian
Logged

biohead

  • Reg Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
Re: How to find my cabinet?
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2012, 02:44:26 PM »

http://fttc-check.alc.im should give you the cabinet number you're connected to. It's FTTC plans are a bit out of date so I'm lead to believe, but it should still have you on the correct cabinet (assuming when the lines were knocked out, you were replaced on the same cabinet).
Logged
 

anything