[TriLUG] Request for help: residential internet service provider options.

[Joseph Mack NA3T via TriLUG]

On Wed, 25 May 2016, David Burton via TriLUG wrote:

>> I'm looking for feedback/ideas from the TriLUG community.
.
.
> Steve, this is my suggestion:
>
> On a sunny day, drag an extension cord and your DSL modem outside to the NID
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_interface_device>, which is probably
> on the side of your house. Open the NID, and unplug "the house" in the NID,
> and plug in your DSL modem, alone, in place of "the house," using a short
> phone wire. Connect a computer to the modem and do a ping test.

I had similar thoughts, except his problem goes away (mostly) in banker's hours.

I had a burglar alarm in the house, which I wasn't using (I could never figure 
out how to use it and turned it off). Something I didn't realise was that the 
buglar alarm was in series with the house phone lines and when after a few years 
the burglar alarm decided to die, none of the phones worked anymore. On the 
downslope, I was getting ping losses like you describe. As well the ISP had 
problems so that I wouldn't get DSL for a couple of days (and then it would come 
back) but I'd still have phone. I paid the phone co (Frontier) for their 
internal wiring checkup for someone to comeout and look. He figured that the 
problem with the DSL was back at the exchange (or whatever it's called 
nowadays), and he moved my DSL onto another card (telling me that everyone else 
on that bank of cards would have been getting the same bad service). I cancelled 
the internal wiring contract and eventually figured out how the house was wired.

(The burglar alarm was on the 2nd pair into the house. I forget exactly how it 
was done, but the first pair was connected into the burglar alarm. It was really 
crazy).

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) austintek (dot) com - azimuthal equidistant
map generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!