[YLUG] Broadband Internet Advice

[Matthew Bloch]

On Saturday 28 October 2006 17:23, hxi3 wrote:
[snip]
> I have contacted Virgin, and they have suggested that I plug directly into
> the BT test socket in my home--it is the socket just after the BT line
> enters the house.  To be fair, this fix has dramatically reduced the
> dropped connections.  However, I'm still experiencing some interruption in
> service.  Do you have any ideas on what could be causing the dropped
> connections?

Yes, poor quality / overly long copper between modem and exchange :)

> I am using a Speedtouch USB ADSL modem that was supplied free of charge by
> Virgin.  It is worth noting that my USB modem is located at the end of a
> 15m telephone extension cable.  Could this be corrupting the signal in any
> way?  It has been suggested to me that a broadband router would provide a
> more stable connection and that network cable is much better at carrying a
> signal over long distances, however I don't want to spend money chasing
> this potential solution without getting some feedback first.

The 15m cable sounds like a likely culprit - you can ask Virgin to raise a 
fault with BT, but they would tell you to remove the cable before they'd have 
a go at fixing your copper.  Also if you have phone extensions from the main 
socket, they must all have ADSL splitters installed.  The speedtouch router 
is actually pretty good despite its cheapness, but there is no way of 
extending its reach to your socket without using phone extensions, which will 
degrade the signal.  I would absolutely advise using an ethernet router with 
a short cable to your phone socket, and running a longer ethernet cable from 
there to your computer.  If you still have problems with *that* setup, you 
should ask Virgin to raise a fault with BT Wholesale, who ought to arrange a 
visit after a few days.

I'm sure Virgin are perfectly competent, but of course there are other good 
local Linux-friendly ISPs about if they make fault-fixing hard for you ;)

Best wishes,

-- 
Matthew
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/york/attachments/20061028/0521d1a7/attachment.bin