So, the engineer's been this morning and the wiring is now swopped. I watched him do most of the work and it looks like, in the main outside box, the incoming wires of white and orange have been used. He's then replaced all the cable which runs from the outside box to my master socket. I actually thought this was fairly new but he said it was worth doing and would only take 10 minutes. I asked what he was using and was told CW1724? To me, this looks almost the same as what was already there
Inside the main outside box he's connected the incoming orange cable to the mainly blue CW1724 cable and the incoming white cable to the mainly white with a bit of blue CW1724 cable. He was mumbling something to himself whilst doing this and didn't sound too impressed?
Inside the master socket he's connected the blue CW1724 cable to point B and the white/blue to point A. Inside the master socket there are two sets of connections labelled A & B and he's used the one on the part of the master socket which is permanently fastened to the wall (the bit that I can't see unless I remove two screws inside the master socket). Apparently the other A & B connections are for some type of extension? I also mentioned my pending move to fibre and he said it would be worthwhile 'upgrading' the master socket ready for the change which he did.
He then ran a few tests and, before connecting the phone extension, asked if I could test the broadband and all worked OK. He then connected the extension and ran some more tests and confirmed everything was OK. When doing it, I had a quick look at some of the Speedtouch info and, from memory, here's the pre and post values (these are only approximate):-
Pre wiring change:
Bandwidth up/down 480/1050
Line Attenuation 41.5/68.5
SN Margin 7/9
Post change, with no phone extension:
500/1550
41.5/67
8/6
Post change with phone extension connected (which is what I have now with around 1 hrs uptime):
475/1219
41.5/68.5
8/9.5
FEC errors 0/0
CRC errors 2/7
HEC errors 2/4
I've posted the errors for my current set up as I'm sure they were much higher pre the wiring change?
The engineer didn't really comment on the above but said it may be worth changing the cabling to the phone extension, which is something I would need to do. Quickly looking at this cabling, it appears to run for around 15 meters, through the garage, and has a connection box within a few meters of the master socket. From the master socket to the connection box there's black cable which looks almost like the CW1724 - if I had to guess I would say this is the same cable that originally ran from the outside box to the master socket. After the connection box, there's some quite thin, flat white cable. This looks like the cable you get from most DIY shops when you buy a pre-made extension.
Looking on the internet, it's quite easy to get CW1724 and I'm wondering if I should replace all the phone extension cable with this? Given the above 'stats' and my pending move to fibre, would it be worth it?
With regard to the HG612, it still shows no DSL connection
. I'm hoping the replacement arrives in the next few days!
EDIT: Here's the error stats with 2 and half hrs uptime:
FEC errors 0/0
CRC errors 2/18
HEC errors 2/18
They are definitely way lower than I had before
Stats after 5 and half hrs uptime:
FEC errors 0/0
CRC errors 2/46
HEC errors 0/34 (The HEC errors for 'up' have gone down form 2 to 0?)