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Author Topic: Fourth line goes in next Wed  (Read 19606 times)

Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #15 on: August 06, 2018, 12:51:50 AM »

I hope those are gel-filled or something. Out in all the wild weather.

The topology is like so:

modem 1 ---                                           
modem 2 ---
modem 3 --- VLAN switch --- Firebrick --- main LAN switch === WAPs === computers
modem 4 ---


The small VLAN switch is a ZyXEL 8-port unit which acts as a MUX. The main lan switch is an HP 24 port one. The Firebrick FB2700 is the router. There are two, soon to be three, ZyXEL WAPs, each one of which has two radios in it. Currently one of the four radios is 2.4GHz and three are 5GHz.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 09:41:52 AM by Weaver »
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gt94sss2

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #16 on: August 06, 2018, 08:44:31 AM »

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. :-)

I just tried a dummy order on the AA website, and as you say, their standard charge for a new line is £60. As such, I would ask them to explain why they are charging you more.

Telco's/ISP's set their own retail prices for new lines but the price they are charged by Openreach have been fixed (unless excess charges apply) and regulated for decades
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #17 on: August 06, 2018, 09:16:32 AM »

I asked them for a breakdown and they said

Quote
Cost split as follows:
#
PSTN GBP60
ADSL GBP50
DLink bridge modem GBP20.

No idea about VAT inc/excl. I said I don't need the modem, so that should hopefully be taken off.

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jelv

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #18 on: August 06, 2018, 02:23:15 PM »

Are you on ADSL1 Max Premium or 21CN? If the former cancelling Premium would mean your upload speed would be a maximum of 448Mbps
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #19 on: August 06, 2018, 04:18:46 PM »

If I am remembering correctly, all circuits are 21CN.
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #20 on: August 06, 2018, 05:03:16 PM »

All are 21CN now
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jelv

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #21 on: August 07, 2018, 07:58:07 AM »

In that case I would doubt Premium is doing much for you - is there any evidence of the exchange being overloaded?
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #22 on: August 07, 2018, 08:34:08 AM »

Jelv wrote:
> exchange being overloaded ?

I really wouldn't know. It may be a Wimbledon-final only thing, and I do very much care about things like that. There is also the thing about AA’s internal network, because they apply it within their own systems and you get guaranteed no internal packet drop which is very good.

What I am unsure of though is: Being so slow, do I get less out of this with or is it irrelevant? Maybe it is irrelevant, because they - AA and BT - perhaps just drop a certain random fraction of all the packets they have so my fraction would be the same as anyone else's fraction if we are both non-premium.

My instinct was: if in doubt spend the money, don't risk it. A lot of other people might very well have the opposite instinct!

I had no inclination to drop premium when we went 21CN even though, so I believe, the upstream sync rate cap of 448kbps no longer applied. Actually since the modem change, two of my lines are just below 448 unfortunately and before they were all above. That was the really bad thing about going to the ZyXEL modems - lost over 100kbps total sync rate upstream, which would be 88kbps IP PDU rate (ie including IP headers, so actual TCP payload would be even less, as IPv4/IPv6 headers + TCP headers + possible TCP timestamps would need to be taken out too).
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #23 on: August 07, 2018, 09:47:15 PM »

Have programmed the small VLAN MUX switch tonight. Mrs Weaver was finally grudgingly ready to help me with plugging cables in.

This job turned out to be a nightmare either because the ZyXEL switch hates Safari/iOS or because iOS was behaving really weirdly, but I think I ruled out the latter. A third alternative is that the switch does not like the absence of dns, or the absence of internet connectivity, or no dhcp server or something. About the symptom was that on many web pages most of the text was missing from web pages. For example on one page I could see radio buttons, action buttons, edit boxes and other controls but no labels next to them so I had to simply guess what they were meant to do. Tried two different web browsers, Safari and iCab. I had to upload a config file into the switch semi-blind. But in the end I got there, somehow. I should perhaps talk to ZyXEL about it.

The Firebrick config is done but untested. Need to plug the modems in tomorrow morning and test it. And also need to configure one more modem out of the spares pile by pushing a config file into it.

I left everything till the absolute last minute after having had weeks and weeks. Of course, it doesn't really matter if anything at all is done before the BT man comes, but it just feels as if it is somehow right for us to be ready to rock and roll straight away.
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kitz

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #24 on: August 08, 2018, 10:30:19 AM »

All are 21CN now

Premium used to be worth it on the 20CN exchanges for a couple of reasons, the obvious being the increased upload speed and less obvious is the 20CN backhauls had very limited capacity when it came to bandwidth as it was literally using the old MSiP backhaul and 155Mb VPs.   That is why Openreach/BTw just could not increase the speeds above 8Mbps because the backhauls would literally go in to meltdown.   VP congestion was not uncommon on the standard home product and why BTw offered premium where the VPs had higher priority. 

21CN changed this.  Some people think it was the new MSANs which made the difference, but the reality is most of the 21CN investment went into the backhauls and a brand new topology.  By using WDM it meant that some of the initial costs were high, but it was a worthwhile investment as it makes backhaul bandwidth more readily available and cheaper in the long term.   Backhauls went from being 155Mbps/622Mbps to 1Gb/40Gb/100Gb.

I used to pay Premium when I was on 20CN but have never bothered since.   You may get the occasional hot SVLAN, but BTw usually fix this quite quickly simply because its easier to do so on 21CN.    I suspect the WMBC MSILs these days are more of a point of congestion rather than the backhaul SVLANs.

You could always drop the premium and then go back on it if you do see problems.
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #25 on: August 08, 2018, 05:23:43 PM »

Today is the day. Hoping that all goes well, otherwise we might have to ship B*Sheep to Skye . . .  :D
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Black Sheep

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #26 on: August 08, 2018, 05:35:27 PM »

Today is the day. Hoping that all goes well, otherwise we might have to ship B*Sheep to Skye . . .  :D

Ha ha ..... I couldn't handle the conditions up in rural Scotland anymore B*Cat, not at my tender age !!  ;) ;D
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #27 on: August 09, 2018, 01:29:49 AM »

Big cock up, Scottie van over too late - another chap is coming tomorrow to do the job, no dial tone on the other (new) pair

Destroyed cwcc@a.3 around noon, 170k sync rate [!] flapping, so now we have one less line than before.
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burakkucat

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #28 on: August 09, 2018, 04:33:23 PM »

Oops.  :(
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Weaver

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Re: Fourth line goes in next Wed
« Reply #29 on: August 09, 2018, 04:51:13 PM »

I was totally wrong - apologies to BT and all Black Sheep's brethren in the far North. I am pretty sure it was the ZyXEL VMG 1312-B10A that has gone bad, after swap out tests. New modem goes in and all is good again. I should have done swap outs yesterday, if I were not such a fool, it was partly the coincidence.

No sign of BT yet, perhaps still time though?
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