Re: Dropouts on broadband connection - a solution

[James Devenish]

Hi,

As mentioned, there are fundamental physical reasons why twisted
signal pairs (and Cat 5 contains several) create superior immunity to
noise even without additional shielding or screening. As a bonus, for
peace of mind, also note that twisted pairs are superior at not
radiating their own noise to other systems.

James.

Re: Dropouts on broadband connection - a solution

[Robert Howells]

HI Tim,

As a Senior Telstra Technical officer responsible for fixing  " odd " 
faults,

some 25 years ago I was prompted to Test a " Flat " extension cord in
comparison with a " round " extension cord to ascertain the difference 
in

CROSSTALK .

The flat cable was absolutely " YUK " and responsible for all sorts of 
problems.


It amazes me that so much of it is seen in shops when I know it's design
can cause so much trouble.

So I am not surprised at your results.  The " flat " cable is only good 
in one circumstance :
that is when you absolutely have to run a cable under carpet in a foot 
traffic area .


All other times pick the round telephone cable or something like cat5  
which

do have twisted wires inside the sheath of the cable.

Cheers

Bob


On 16 Jul 2006, at 10:05 AM, Tim Law wrote:


Hi,

I have a DSLAM service with iinet, and prior to that with Highway1. 
Over the

last year or so I've been getting increasing numbers of dropouts on the
broadband connection, which would be obvious when Entourage would go 
seeking
to download mail and not get through - giving an annoying clunk clunk 
alert

noise. I also wasn't getting much speed through the broadband.

Checking the log, I'd be connected for five minutes, sometimes a few 
hours,

sometimes lots of hours, but mostly it would dropout at least each half
hour. Annoying...

Lots of trying to trace the problems, resetting modems, replacing 
modems,
resetting OSX software, placing the modem within 2m of the Telstra 
outlet,
replacing filters and the problem remained. A Telstra tech came to 
check
line noise and commented on the flat cable I had around the place, 
leading
from my single Telstra wall outlet to various phone connections. He 
said it

'could' be picking up interference like an antenna and not helping the
dropouts. These dropouts would happen more after I had been using the
landline phone and I always thought there was a landline fault outside 
my

home.

The flat cable all looked in good nick, but I was getting desperate, 
so out
I went and bought a 100m roll of Cat5 cable, a nifty crimping tool and 
heaps
of connectors - oh and two pairs of Uniden digital phones, one for the 
VOIP

line outgoing calls and one pair for incoming landline calls.

Now I have no dropouts, and lots of spare Cat5 cable having only used 
30m.

It seems the twisted pairs of the Cat5 cable are very good at limiting
interference, but I never worked out where this interference was coming
from, it's just fixed.

Thought this might be helpful to others with similar problems.

Tim



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