ADSL - Getting BT To Install a New Copper Wire

I've recently discovered that all the houses in our street originally
had all copper wires running from the telephone poles to the houses -
But about 15 years ago our cable blew down in a strom and BT came along
and replaced it with a cheapo Allumium Cable.

We struggle to keep a 1mb/s connection going with Plusnet, whilst next
door who recently got ADSL is zooming about at 7.8 mb/s.

We looked at his and our cables coming from the telephone pole and his
is copper and ours aint - it's silver in colour so I'm guessing it's
Alluminium.

And I know it's not our internal wiring that's the problem because I've
tried it at the master socket (with nothing else plugged in) and get
poor results even then.

When our ISP tried to give us 2 mb/s line speed the connection can take
anything up to 7 hours to sync with a Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem and
we're only 500 metres from the telephone exchange.

So anyone know what BT may charge to remove the cheapo wire and put back
a copper wire as was originally there from the pole to the house?

I'm hoping it's a freebie since they're the ones that didn't replace
like for like cable all those years ago - we pay our line rental to BT
although calls go to Talk Talk and Internet is with Plusnet.

"charlie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:452b10d9$0$8717$(E-Mail Removed)...
|
| I've recently discovered that all the houses in our street originally
| had all copper wires running from the telephone poles to the houses -
| But about 15 years ago our cable blew down in a strom and BT came along
| and replaced it with a cheapo Allumium Cable.
|
| We struggle to keep a 1mb/s connection going with Plusnet, whilst next
| door who recently got ADSL is zooming about at 7.8 mb/s.
|
| We looked at his and our cables coming from the telephone pole and his
| is copper and ours aint - it's silver in colour so I'm guessing it's
| Alluminium.
|
| And I know it's not our internal wiring that's the problem because I've
| tried it at the master socket (with nothing else plugged in) and get
| poor results even then.
|
| When our ISP tried to give us 2 mb/s line speed the connection can take
| anything up to 7 hours to sync with a Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem and
| we're only 500 metres from the telephone exchange.
|
| So anyone know what BT may charge to remove the cheapo wire and put back
| a copper wire as was originally there from the pole to the house?
|
| I'm hoping it's a freebie since they're the ones that didn't replace
| like for like cable all those years ago - we pay our line rental to BT
| although calls go to Talk Talk and Internet is with Plusnet.

A little knowledge is such a dangerous thing. I'm not aware of any ''cheapo
Allumium Cable'' used for dropwire. In fact to my knowledge dropwire has always
been copper. Dropwire that is 'silver' is usually the old grey dropwire 8, which
is copper, and thicker copper that that used in modern dropwire 10 (or even
cad55 for that matter) It does tend to rust and get weak as it has no supporting
strands in it, and it's a mandatory 'free' change. Just ring up (or better still
go to www.bt.com/faults) BT Openreach and report your line as 'noise and
crackling on all calls' and say it only does it when it's windy. This will get
the dropwire changed for you. It may make a little difference to you broadband.
I would suggest that your neighbour is probably pulling your leg, mind you, in
terms to his throughput.

On Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:27:06 +0100, "Pier Danone" <Pier (E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>A little knowledge is such a dangerous thing. I'm not aware of any ''cheapo
>Allumium Cable'' used for dropwire. In fact to my knowledge dropwire hasalways
>been copper. Dropwire that is 'silver' is usually the old grey dropwire 8, which
>is copper, and thicker copper that that used in modern dropwire 10 (or even
>cad55 for that matter) It does tend to rust and get weak as it has no supporting
>strands in it, and it's a mandatory 'free' change.

Copper that rusts? Que?

--
brightside S9

"charlie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:452b10d9$0$8717$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> I've recently discovered that all the houses in our street originally
> had all copper wires running from the telephone poles to the houses -
> But about 15 years ago our cable blew down in a strom and BT came along
> and replaced it with a cheapo Allumium Cable.
>
> We struggle to keep a 1mb/s connection going with Plusnet, whilst next
> door who recently got ADSL is zooming about at 7.8 mb/s.
>
> We looked at his and our cables coming from the telephone pole and his
> is copper and ours aint - it's silver in colour so I'm guessing it's
> Alluminium.
>
> And I know it's not our internal wiring that's the problem because I've
> tried it at the master socket (with nothing else plugged in) and get
> poor results even then.
>
> When our ISP tried to give us 2 mb/s line speed the connection can take
> anything up to 7 hours to sync with a Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem and
> we're only 500 metres from the telephone exchange.
>
> So anyone know what BT may charge to remove the cheapo wire and put back
> a copper wire as was originally there from the pole to the house?
>
> I'm hoping it's a freebie since they're the ones that didn't replace
> like for like cable all those years ago - we pay our line rental to BT
> although calls go to Talk Talk and Internet is with Plusnet.

Charlie, was am in the same position as you and despite neighbours better 4
to 5 mb, I can only get 1.4mb max here. Apparently even people who are fed
from the same telegraph pole can be fed via a different route. So some
might end up with higher speeds than others. My dropwire was figure 8 (the
old stuff) which apparently is the thickest (and best) for higher speeds (if
its in good condition). I actually lost nearly 1mb by having this old line
changed for a new type of cable. Nothing I can do now, just put up with
what the line will do. If I had known before I would have stayed as I were
then.

Have you taken your DG834 round to his place and seen his speed for
yourself?

Ray

On 10 Oct 2006, brightside@replyto_addy_is_not.invalid wrote:

>Copper that rusts? Que?

OK, Oxidizes. Happy?

<brightside@replyto_addy_is_not.invalid> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
On Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:27:06 +0100, "Pier Danone" <Pier (E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>A little knowledge is such a dangerous thing. I'm not aware of any ''cheapo
>Allumium Cable'' used for dropwire. In fact to my knowledge dropwire has always
>been copper. Dropwire that is 'silver' is usually the old grey dropwire 8,
>which
>is copper, and thicker copper that that used in modern dropwire 10 (or even
>cad55 for that matter) It does tend to rust and get weak as it has no
>supporting
>strands in it, and it's a mandatory 'free' change.

Copper that rusts? Que?

Sorry, I should have been very specific here for the benefit of the fuckwit
wordsmith minority. I refer to the steel clips that attach it to the wall. They
rust into the dropwire causing the copper to corrode away.

I hope that helps and clears that up for you ;-)

Pier Danone wrote:
> "charlie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:452b10d9$0$8717$(E-Mail Removed)...
> |
> | I've recently discovered that all the houses in our street originally
> | had all copper wires running from the telephone poles to the houses -
> | But about 15 years ago our cable blew down in a strom and BT came along
> | and replaced it with a cheapo Allumium Cable.
> |
> | We struggle to keep a 1mb/s connection going with Plusnet, whilst next
> | door who recently got ADSL is zooming about at 7.8 mb/s.
> |
> | We looked at his and our cables coming from the telephone pole and his
> | is copper and ours aint - it's silver in colour so I'm guessing it's
> | Alluminium.
> |
> | And I know it's not our internal wiring that's the problem because I've
> | tried it at the master socket (with nothing else plugged in) and get
> | poor results even then.
> |
> | When our ISP tried to give us 2 mb/s line speed the connection can take
> | anything up to 7 hours to sync with a Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem and
> | we're only 500 metres from the telephone exchange.
> |
> | So anyone know what BT may charge to remove the cheapo wire and put back
> | a copper wire as was originally there from the pole to the house?
> |
> | I'm hoping it's a freebie since they're the ones that didn't replace
> | like for like cable all those years ago - we pay our line rental to BT
> | although calls go to Talk Talk and Internet is with Plusnet.
>
> A little knowledge is such a dangerous thing. I'm not aware of any ''cheapo
> Allumium Cable'' used for dropwire. In fact to my knowledge dropwire has always
> been copper. Dropwire that is 'silver' is usually the old grey dropwire 8, which
> is copper, and thicker copper that that used in modern dropwire 10 (or even
> cad55 for that matter) It does tend to rust and get weak as it has no supporting
> strands in it, and it's a mandatory 'free' change. Just ring up (or better still
> go to www.bt.com/faults) BT Openreach and report your line as 'noise and
> crackling on all calls' and say it only does it when it's windy. This will get
> the dropwire changed for you. It may make a little difference to you broadband.
> I would suggest that your neighbour is probably pulling your leg, mind you, in
> terms to his throughput.
>
>


I have been around to the nieghbour in the house next door in person a
few times - he never get's anythign less the 5 mb/s and was on 7.8 m/b
when I visited him yesterday I can see the stats on his screen.

I'm not ADSL Expert but I have hand built about 30 computers myself
including servers so I know a thing or two about PC's

I can see both our cables go from our houses to the same telephone poll
- where they go after that I canot tell you but sinec the local
telephone exchangeis just 500 metres awys I can't really see them taking
vastly different routes to get there - BT's own online checker says I
should get a minimum speed of 6.5 mb/s although AOL when rung in person
seemed to know I could only get 1 mb/s... How AOL knew that and no other
single ISP including BT or Plusnet (my current ISP) seem to know that I
have no idea. Although when I typed inmy postcode and phone number on
their website all I got was an error message (but it work fine on my
aunt's phone number)

Both ourselves and our neighbour have been here over 30 years and both
always been with BT, as far as well can tell we have simialr setups,
except our wire to the telephone poll is different.

Are you suggesting there is a type of copper that is silver in colour or
that I can't tell the difference in colour between two wires - one
coloured copper and the other silver?

Or are you just sayig you migh not be as knowledable as you think you
are and there might be a type of cable used in some instanes that you've
not come across?

The other possible problem could be the black cabled line from the pole
comes into the porch and goes into a white junction box before going
along a white wire to the Master socket inside the house (behind the 2nd
door.)

I've taken a photo which may help (I didn't touch the wiring only
removed the cover to take the photo) - I seem to be able to count 7
wires coming out of the black cable. 3 are yellow, and then 1 black,
white, green and orange. Something I noticed on the photo as it has a
macro lense which I didn't notice in person is that the yellow strands
may be multiple strands of copper? But the white one was deinately a
single strand of a silver coloured wire

Any thoughts now that I've provided a photo?

http://i12.tinypic.com/4d7gxg9.jpg

charlie wrote:
> Pier Danone wrote:
>> "charlie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:452b10d9$0$8717$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>> I've recently discovered that all the houses in our street
>>> originally had all copper wires running from the telephone poles
>>> to
>>> the houses - But about 15 years ago our cable blew down in a strom
>>> and BT came along and replaced it with a cheapo Allumium Cable.
>>>
>>> We struggle to keep a 1mb/s connection going with Plusnet, whilst
>>> next door who recently got ADSL is zooming about at 7.8 mb/s.
>>>
>>> We looked at his and our cables coming from the telephone pole and
>>> his is copper and ours aint - it's silver in colour so I'm
>>> guessing
>>> it's Alluminium.
>>>
>>> And I know it's not our internal wiring that's the problem because
>>> I've tried it at the master socket (with nothing else plugged in)
>>> and get poor results even then.
>>>
>>> When our ISP tried to give us 2 mb/s line speed the connection can
>>> take anything up to 7 hours to sync with a Netgear DG834G ADSL
>>> Modem and we're only 500 metres from the telephone exchange.
>>>
>>> So anyone know what BT may charge to remove the cheapo wire and
>>> put
>>> back a copper wire as was originally there from the pole to the
>>> house? I'm hoping it's a freebie since they're the ones that
>>> didn't replace
>>> like for like cable all those years ago - we pay our line rental
>>> to
>>> BT although calls go to Talk Talk and Internet is with Plusnet.
>>
>> A little knowledge is such a dangerous thing. I'm not aware of any
>> ''cheapo Allumium Cable'' used for dropwire. In fact to my
>> knowledge
>> dropwire has always been copper. Dropwire that is 'silver' is
>> usually the old grey dropwire 8, which is copper, and thicker
>> copper
>> that that used in modern dropwire 10 (or even cad55 for that
>> matter)
>> It does tend to rust and get weak as it has no supporting strands
>> in
>> it, and it's a mandatory 'free' change. Just ring up (or better
>> still go to www.bt.com/faults) BT Openreach and report your line as
>> 'noise and crackling on all calls' and say it only does it when
>> it's
>> windy. This will get the dropwire changed for you. It may make a
>> little difference to you broadband. I would suggest that your
>> neighbour is probably pulling your leg, mind you, in terms to his
>> throughput.
>
>
> I have been around to the nieghbour in the house next door in person
> a
> few times - he never get's anythign less the 5 mb/s and was on 7.8
> m/b
> when I visited him yesterday I can see the stats on his screen.
>
> I'm not ADSL Expert but I have hand built about 30 computers myself
> including servers so I know a thing or two about PC's
>
> I can see both our cables go from our houses to the same telephone
> poll - where they go after that I canot tell you but sinec the local
> telephone exchangeis just 500 metres awys I can't really see them
> taking vastly different routes to get there - BT's own online
> checker
> says I should get a minimum speed of 6.5 mb/s although AOL when rung
> in person seemed to know I could only get 1 mb/s... How AOL knew
> that
> and no other single ISP including BT or Plusnet (my current ISP)
> seem
> to know that I have no idea. Although when I typed inmy postcode and
> phone number on their website all I got was an error message (but it
> work fine on my aunt's phone number)
>
> Both ourselves and our neighbour have been here over 30 years and
> both
> always been with BT, as far as well can tell we have simialr setups,
> except our wire to the telephone poll is different.
>
> Are you suggesting there is a type of copper that is silver in
> colour
> or that I can't tell the difference in colour between two wires -
> one
> coloured copper and the other silver?
>
> Or are you just sayig you migh not be as knowledable as you think
> you
> are and there might be a type of cable used in some instanes that
> you've not come across?
>
> The other possible problem could be the black cabled line from the
> pole comes into the porch and goes into a white junction box before
> going along a white wire to the Master socket inside the house
> (behind the 2nd door.)
>
> I've taken a photo which may help (I didn't touch the wiring only
> removed the cover to take the photo) - I seem to be able to count 7
> wires coming out of the black cable. 3 are yellow, and then 1 black,
> white, green and orange. Something I noticed on the photo as it has
> a
> macro lense which I didn't notice in person is that the yellow
> strands
> may be multiple strands of copper? But the white one was deinately a
> single strand of a silver coloured wire
>
> Any thoughts now that I've provided a photo?
>
> http://i12.tinypic.com/4d7gxg9.jpg

Just why have you got an RF filter on your line, if it's not the
correct model it will severely attenuate your ADSL signal..

Oh & by the way that black wire (which most probably goes all the way
to the pole) is Dropwire 10 it has copper conductors & the only shiny
steel things are the cantilever wires used to help strengthen the
wire....

The RF filter is the main cause for concerne!

[snip]

>> Any thoughts now that I've provided a photo?
>>
>> http://i12.tinypic.com/4d7gxg9.jpg
>
> Just why have you got an RF filter on your line, if it's not the correct
> model it will severely attenuate your ADSL signal..
>
> Oh & by the way that black wire (which most probably goes all the way to
> the pole) is Dropwire 10 it has copper conductors & the only shiny steel
> things are the cantilever wires used to help strengthen the wire....
>
> The RF filter is the main cause for concerne!

My guess is that sometime in the past there was a DACS on the line, and the
RF filter was to remove the noises the DACS introduced. I'm very surprised
you get any ADSL signal at all! This happened to my neighbour. ADSL
service orderded 13 October 2005, got working by BT engineer on 28 December
2005 when he found that filter. It had taken until then to persuade BT that
they should send somebody out!

Get rid of the filter. Join the incoming orange & white pair to the
blue/white and white/blue pair using a waterproof junction box.

--
Graham

Graham wrote:
> [snip]
>
>>> Any thoughts now that I've provided a photo?
>>>
>>> http://i12.tinypic.com/4d7gxg9.jpg
>>
>> Just why have you got an RF filter on your line, if it's not the
>> correct model it will severely attenuate your ADSL signal..
>>
>> Oh & by the way that black wire (which most probably goes all the
>> way to the pole) is Dropwire 10 it has copper conductors & the only
>> shiny steel things are the cantilever wires used to help strengthen
>> the wire.... The RF filter is the main cause for concerne!
>
> My guess is that sometime in the past there was a DACS on the line,
> and the RF filter was to remove the noises the DACS introduced.

DACS doesn't any put noise on the line so you can rule that out...


I'm
> very surprised you get any ADSL signal at all! This happened to my
> neighbour. ADSL service orderded 13 October 2005, got working by BT
> engineer on 28 December 2005 when he found that filter. It had
> taken
> until then to persuade BT that they should send somebody out!
>
> Get rid of the filter. Join the incoming orange & white pair to the
> blue/white and white/blue pair using a waterproof junction box.

DON'T DO IT, get your ISP to get a properly trained Openreach engineer
to visit & replace. You meddle with any internal wires to the peril
of your wallet (£65 + vat for the knock on the door plus at least an
hours charge for any work done, minimum charge is an hour). There is
a known problem & there was a drive to remove these, it was the first
thing which a DSL engineer was supposed to check for quite a few
months, even had to report on finding them as well.

It may not happen now but there will come a time when you do require a
visit & then you'll get stung (probably for more as time goes on as
well). Far cheaper to get your ISP to do their job (the one you are
paying them for) & get it resolved that way.