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Author Topic: Fourth line goes in next Wed  (Read 19602 times)

Weaver

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Fourth line goes in next Wed
« on: August 03, 2018, 08:06:58 PM »

I may well have missed an email or two from AA, my ISP, and was waiting on BT or certainly thought I was. Anyway, Janet got an email saying

Quote
I don't think it will come down to excess charges, please see the updates below :-

*Pratiksha Shinde (14:10:57) They have provided the update as Spares found on CSS Divert may be possible. *
*Pratiksha Shinde (14:14:16) So I request you to check on 25/06/18 for an update on the order.IF the engineer provide any update till 25/06/18 that will be very helpful. *
So we should know a little more next week.

and later -

Quote
The order is still plodding along, cabling work is still required, it is moving
but taking a little longer than we'd hope

*Pooja Kiran Chavan (11:42:27) Mikey I could see the job is with contractors for cabling work and they have given the ECD is 25/07/18. *

I shall keep chasing and update you ASAP.

Then finally the other day another one saying that BT would be coming on the 8th of this month to install an additional copper line. Yippee. I didn't think that BT was going to go for it.

I wonder if BT had to do some actual work around here before they could promise a date? - sounds a bit like it? Could it be possible that they needed to first check how many free copper pairs were good? Would probably have that information to hand already?

So -

The cost is £130 for installation. I can't remember what it was before, but £60 is the usual AA price for a copper pair install, I think. BT can perhaps just demand whatever they like, as they did before? Such is the joy of being an effective monopoly. Or perhaps Ofcom has got their bony grip on BT wrt this too. I am pleased that it is so cheap anyway, a relief. :-)

Then, iirc, per month: £12.20 for the copper, £12 for ADSL and an optional £12 for ‘premium’ traffic prioritisation. And I have no idea if there is VAT on top of that lot or not, doesn't say on the website, or if it does then I cannot see it. I hate it when you cannot see inc-VAT / exc-VAT in situ.

1. I have to get the small switch up and running which will be acting as a VLAN mux to connect all the modems into the Firebrick. It will be modems to small switch, then switch to Firebrick. This addition is needed because I will not have enough free ethernet sockets on the Firebrick. AA has the config for the small switch on their website, iirc. 2. I then have to do a config file for the modem itself. I have written a program in the iPad that can do that, generate the XML config for a ZyXEL modem. 3. And finally I must change the main Firebrick XML config to reflect the changes.

Anyway, next wed is the day. That means I need to buy some very nice biscuits for our BT man. Kettle will be on etc.

It is the second pair in the second drop cable.
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2018, 09:06:58 PM »

I very much doubt that there was any reliable and up-to-date network records . . . I suspect that a "proper little man" had to be sent out to survey and prepare an inventory.

A new circuit provision will, of course, have a new NTE5C. So remember to request that just a telephony front be fitted. You won't require the xDSL filter front.
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2018, 09:18:07 PM »

I asked AA if they could attach a note to the job, to ask our man to bring a normal telephony front with him. I don't know how much stuff like that they have spare in the van. I would rather not waste an additional small amount of money having to buy yet another entire NTE just to get the front, as before.

Do BT engineers sometimes need to make some other actual changes in advance, for any reason?

There has been a wee bit of Openreach van coming-and-going down into the village over the last couple of months. New (individual) houses were mentioned in an earlier post and that could well be the reason.

I am wasting a lot of money on BT+AA ‘premium’ traffic prioritisation. This has been discussed in a couple of threads maybe, once or twice before. Unfortunately the only way to find out its worth would be a long and careful comparative test, which would be really hard to design. The cost is such that I could get another copper line out of the money saved by killing Premium.
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2018, 09:59:38 PM »

I asked AA if they could attach a note to the job, to ask our man to bring a normal telephony front with him. I don't know how much stuff like that they have spare in the van.

I would expect that both types would be carried in the van. I know there are other specialised variants e.g. the one to disable the connection to the incoming metallic pathway, fitted when the telephony service is carried over FTTP and a link cable is used to connect the on-board ATA of the ONT to the pre-existing internal telephone extension wiring.

Quote
Do BT engineers sometimes need to make some other actual changes in advance, for any reason?

I think that will depend upon the circumstances of the actual provide process. Removal of a DACS unit, for example.

Quote
I am wasting a lot of money on BT+AA ‘premium’ traffic prioritisation.

Ultimately that has to be your decision but perhaps you could try without it and see if you notice its absence?
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2018, 01:06:03 AM »

As for a trial, by its very nature you would have to wait until various networks are heavily loaded to give it some stress. I can't remember, but with some if these things there is a BT charge for turning a feature off, also maybe a one-off charge turning it on. That was true for the BT enhanced care feature or whatever it is called - the premium / priority maintenance call out thing which I also have on one or two lines.
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kitz

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2018, 12:28:32 AM »

Good luck for Wednesday and I hope it all goes smoothly :)
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #6 on: August 05, 2018, 10:30:51 AM »

thanks kitz!  ;D  I am looking forward to 33% more upstream as that is a real pain. Uploads generally, using the iCloud, iMessage, photos, doing backups sometimes taking a couple of hours. Should take me to ~1.5Mbps upstream real TCP payload throughput, with any luck.
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2018, 11:28:13 AM »

I didn't understand the bit about "CSS divert".

And I wonder what the "contractors' cabling work" was all about, as I have the drop cable already?
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Black Sheep

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2018, 12:19:34 PM »

I didn't understand the bit about "CSS divert".

And I wonder what the "contractors' cabling work" was all about, as I have the drop cable already?

I can only guess that there is an element of cable to be 'dug down on', or some other 'civils-type' work, that we employ contractors to perform ???

Regarding: 'They have provided the update as Spares found on CSS. Divert may be possible.' ..... CSS is a database we use, and one of the functions it has is to look for 'spare pairs' on other DP's should there be a shortfall on your own serving DP.

It would appear there is at least one spare pair on another DP that can be diverted to your own DP. There should have been a full-stop placed between the words 'CSS' and 'Divert' on the original message from your ISP.  :)
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2018, 10:17:26 PM »

Sorry for such a basic and ignorant question, but I am not familiar with the physical layout of things. With long EO lines, where are the DPs?
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Black Sheep

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2018, 10:27:13 PM »

Could be anywhere from outside your premises, to a few miles away ............ especially on long rural runs.

That would be my only <slight> concern ...... there may well be 'spares' available to be diverted to the DP, it depends where the DP is situated and the capacity beyond this point ???

The engineers will work this out.  :)
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2018, 11:33:19 PM »

There are no cabs outside my house - referring back to that previous thread, which Burakkucat found for us - I am just in the middle of nowhere, on the northernmost edge of our village, nearest to NSBFD and the copper bundle is coming down to the village from the north, from NSBFD eastwards via Harrapul on the main road and then southwards down the three+ mile long lonely Heasta road across the high moor then down to me.

Any cabs must definitely be on the main road. I think FTTC cabs have sprung up now all around Broadford, along the main road heading west-north and then east towards the Skye Bridge. There are some shown in Harrapul and in Breacais too. So presumably there were existing straightforward interconnect cabs near them? (Apologies, not sure of the correct terminology) PCPs ?

So I am thinking there were maybe enough pairs in the bundle to Heasta, but not enough supplying a PCP in the middle of the path to me that is located in Harrapul, so they had to sort out things from the NSBFD exchange to that PCP. Would that make sense?

I had always naively assumed that there were either enough in the Heasta bundle or not and in the latter case, I would be right out of luck.
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #12 on: August 05, 2018, 11:50:09 PM »

Peering up at the pole-top (with the help of a Google Street View image from 2011) there appears to be just a BT66, from which the aerial drop-cables originate. There is one (or is it two?) carrier poles before those cables enter the office at Weaver-land.

There is a multi-pair cable that descends the pole. Clearly it branches off from the main cable(s) which meander down into the village. I wonder if it might just be at the ground-level joint where the diversion is proposed.
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2018, 11:58:19 PM »

So that will be the pole just across the road below my house?

From there, two drop cables rise high up to a pole on the high ground level with our house from whence it is straight in horizontally to the office window upstairs.

And there is the split where the rest of the pairs carry on south into the village?

Actually, I think I can just see the BT66 in this pic.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 12:06:17 AM by Weaver »
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #14 on: August 06, 2018, 12:16:54 AM »

So that will be the pole just across the road below my house?

Yes, that's the one.

Quote
From there, two drop cables rise high up to a pole on the high ground level with our house from whence it is straight in horizontally to the office window upstairs.

That is the carrier pole.

Quote
And there is the split where the rest of the pairs carry on south into the village?

Somewhere at the foot of the roadside pole (the one with the BT66) would be my guess.
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