22 April 2008

ADSL2/2+ in Dunlop area?

| hunter222a
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Hi, has anyone in the Dunlop area been able to get an ADSL2/2+ connection?

I’ve been told that it runs off a RIM from the Melba Exchange.

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MangaGal said :

This post may be a bit late but here goes nothing.

I’m in Dunlop as well. I’ve been on ADSL1 since we were told it’s possible for Dunlopians to have ADSL connection. I’ve signed up for a 1.5Mbps connection. It’s really the best I can get on a pair gain system.

I’ve been in Dunlop since ADSL became available here too. I had ADSL 1.5 (theoretical 8Mbps) through Velocity and I got between 3-6Mbps speeds depending on time etc, so you should be able to do much better than 1.5.

Currently I’ve got 2 x 512/512 lines as I run a business from home. I’ve researched all options including running fibre from home to bypass the RIM. I was prepared to pay $10k to have it done but was told it would cost a lot more than that!

I’d happily pay good money to get a fast line if it was possible.

Think it sucks now? Just wait till all your data has to be dynamically filtered as it goes out to you.
Truth is Canberra lacks the density to have decent infrastructure – telco services, public transport, everything. It’s the price for living in the bush capital.

Holden Caulfield11:06 am 17 Mar 10

Fyshwick anyone?

Gungahlin Al9:44 am 17 Mar 10

You ain’t alone. Gungahlin has big patches of hopeless web.
And yes it all seems to slow to a crawl at night – much worse lately than I’ve ever seen it.
My 1.5Mb service never exceeded 0.7Mb, day or night.
I upgraded to 8Mb (which Telstra so kindly offered me at the same price as the 20Mb service, because they can’t/won’t deliver that in Gungahlin).
So now my 8Mb service delivers me an absolute maximum of the 1.5Mb that I used to opay less for, but with normal throughput of around 0.7Mb.
Telstra you are a joke. A pox on you.

This post may be a bit late but here goes nothing.

I’m in Dunlop as well. I’ve been on ADSL1 since we were told it’s possible for Dunlopians to have ADSL connection. I’ve signed up for a 1.5Mbps connection. It’s really the best I can get on a pair gain system.

Lately, I’ve been really frustrated over the speed at night. Every night, my connection is down to 0.1Mbps. During the day, I get the full speed I pay for.

Now, here is my bitching… how many people in Dunlop don’t work during the day?! So, basically when my internet speed is at the peak I’m at work in civic; when I get home at night to catch up with some YouTube clips, oh, I’m down to 0.1Mbps because everyone else who is human is back at their homes probably doing the same thing!!!! Unless my boss would pay me to surf the net for hours, I have no complaint! But, who’s insane here? Me who’s trying to do the right thing (by not surfing the net at work) or someone who sanely created this idiotic issue?!

Please, someone please just shoot whoever has decided to use this stoopid pair gain system for so many households in a developing surburb in a “NON-THIRD-WAR” COUNTRY – AUSTRALIA!!!! We probably have the worst technology infrastructure compared to, er, you name it…

My search for a solution still continues after all these years. FYI, We’ve been in Dunlop for over 9 years now. So don’t be surprised if your ADSL1 isn’t so ADSL speed at night.

You lot are spoiled. Try Hume with 3.8Kbs – Yes three point eight. About an hour for a couple of meg file.

Love Telstra.

“Basically you have to get ADSL1 and live with it 🙁 At least it is better than dial-up”

Well I have had adsl 1 since it first became available in Dunlop ( 4 or 5 years ?)but for the last 6 months I have had a terrible time with slow connections in the evenings and over the week-ends. During the week (daytime) I get approx. 2400/kbps Sometime between 4pm and 8pm it drops to as low as 20/kbps. After months of complaining and getting charged for a call out fee by Telstra who claimed the fault MUST be at my end I got informed today that Telstra have started “shaping” speeds during peak times. So it would seem that I have broadband and getting dial-up speeds (and a slow dial up connection at that !) : ( With the recent enviromental destruction at West McGregor and “The Dunlop Ponds” residential housing estates it can only get worse.

Thanks for all the responses guys… guess I’ll have to stick with ADSL1 for now.

natecv8, Bzzzt on two accounts. First that article you have pointed to is incorrect. See the RIM and the ADSL DSLAM are two different beasts in two seperate cabinets. The ADSL DSLAM does not run over the RIM. The RIM is just for telephone. The DSLAM has it’s own fibre link back to the exchange, it just sits in the same cabinet as the RIM. The bandwidth to the RIM is therefore not an issue as the 4mb/s is for voice, which gives up to 60 VOICE channels. As for what the aggreigate link back to the exchange is from a DSLAM, well that would depend upon the model is used and the ‘trunk’ cards used. Ever heard of a protocol call SDH? No look it up and tell me what the max bandwidth is. That is what most modern DSLAMS would use to trunk back to the main data switch in the exchange.

As for ADSL2 in RIM’s. You will find that, unlike ADSL(1) Telstra does not have an obligation to resell it so there goes that argument.

The minimux pictured is an example of an non integrated RIM. For each RIM there is another unit in the main exchange which then connects to the telephone exchange with copper. All newly installed RIM’s are integrated, meaning they are not mini muxes but remote shevles off the main telephone exchange and as such connect directly (through fibre)

PS I am an ex phone tech and worked on the RIM’s in their early days.

“Macgregor is Scullin exchange”

If that’s the case, then good luck getting anywhere near ADSL2 speeds, as you’ll be too far from the exchange. You may as well be stuck with the poor suckers in Dunlop on the RIM.

BTW – who would’ve thought RiotACT was full of comms experts?

JC said :

With RIM users, a DSLAM needs to be placed in the street. There are two problems. Space and cost, as each ISP would require their own DSLAM in the street. Not likley. The problem is’t a bandwidth problem, I mean to say there is quite a lot of fibre in the street and each fibre can carry a rather large amount of bandwidth. As for ADSL2 if Telstra upgraded their DSLAMs for ADSL2, it would be all well and good, but would they then onsell it to ISP’s for a reasonable cost? Doubt it? Would an ISP be willing to put a DSLAM in the street for what is potentialy a few users? Doubt it.

The majority of your post was correct, but this part is wrong. RIM devices use telco-standard connections such as E1 (2Mbps) connections back to the exchanges (see http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm?id=1045&show=al). Yes they use fibre links back to the exchange, but this is telco equipment which has long considered data transfer as small 64kbps streams. To get the sort of capacity (100Mbps, 1Gbps) we see out of fibre these days would take an upgrade of the transceivers and switches back at the exchange, and would be way more costly.

Your argument about requiring multiple telco installations is also wrong. In this case, ISPs would have access to any Telstra ADSL2+ Minimux ports – if there were any – in exactly the same manner as they do with ADSL1. The simple fact is there’s just not the bandwidth to support it.

montana you are talking out your bum. Pair gains are used in older suburbs to increase the capacity of the copper lines from the street to the exchange. Ie they have two exchanges lines, they stick em in a pair gain unit, then use 1 copper line to the street where they split in two again.

A RIM for all purposes is like taking part of the exchange and putting it in a cupboard in the street. The copper from the houses run to the RIM, then fibre back to the main exchange. If the RIM is a non integrated type you also have trouble with dial-up speed, the units in Dunlop are non integrated.

ADSL technicaly has nothing to do with a RIM, but is run through DSLAM’s. In a non RIM configuration the DSLAM sit in the exchange building. Your copper line comes from the street and then is first run into the DSLAM (bit similar to the filter at the house end), where another line splits off to the telephone exchange for your phone circuit. Many of the major ISP’s have their own DSLAMs in the exchange, even more so with ADSL2. As far as I am aware Telstra do not sell ADSL2 wholesale like they are required to do with ADSL.

With RIM users, a DSLAM needs to be placed in the street. There are two problems. Space and cost, as each ISP would require their own DSLAM in the street. Not likley. The problem is’t a bandwidth problem, I mean to say there is quite a lot of fibre in the street and each fibre can carry a rather large amount of bandwidth. As for ADSL2 if Telstra upgraded their DSLAMs for ADSL2, it would be all well and good, but would they then onsell it to ISP’s for a reasonable cost? Doubt it? Would an ISP be willing to put a DSLAM in the street for what is potentialy a few users? Doubt it.

As for copper from Dunlop to Melba exchange, you will find there is not very much at all, if any. Besides depending where you are in Dunlop the distance might be starting to strech it a bit for ADSL2.

RandomGit, you will find that Macgregor West will like most new developments, especialy so far from the exhcnage will end up RIM’ed as well.

I’m on ADSL 1.5 out at Amaroo at the moment and I’m well happy with it – it’s as much as I need. And I’m even sharing it (through the Free Australia Wireless project).

I am in Dunlop and ADSL1 the best I can get. It is just wholesaled Telstra ADSL1 through Westnet. As there is no ISP that actually owns the ADSL1 hardware.

I dont know about spare capacity, but when I got it 15 months ago there was no delay. And the only way to get ADSL2+ is if Telstra upgrade the hardware in the RIM… ie fat chance 🙁

Transposing from what I was told is moving off pair gain to a direct line. So you cant get that done in Dunlop as each house is already on its own pair.

Think of a RIM as a mini exchange with a fibre link back to the main exchange ie Melba.

Basically you have to get ADSL1 and live with it 🙁 At least it is better than dial-up

Excellent!

nathanaelB – Macgregor is Scullin exchange….

montana: Actually, transposing your line means they move you off the RIM entirely and therefore you can get ADSL2+. If you remain on the RIM, the best you can hope for is ADSL(1). Even that can be a bit of a long shot – from memory a standard rim has something like 32 ADSL slots available, but can be servicing anything up to 450 phone lines, and it’s first-come, first-served.

In answer to the original question, Dunlop is indeed entirely on RIMs from Melba. I don’t know whether or not anyone’s had any luck getting a transposition done – Telstra are highly unlikely to do it if there’s still ADSL space on the RIM you’re on. Even if they do, it can take quite a while to get done (I waited something like 3 months when I got my line in Amaroo done).

Best bet for info on this stuff is whirlpool.net.au.

I’ll be wanting to know for when I move to new Macgregor suburb in Jan next year!

Melba exchange has ADSL2+, I’ve been on it for months.

Whether or not Dunlopians have access to the same equipment is beyond me.

Holden Caulfield11:26 am 22 Apr 08

Dunlop, pfft, what about Fyshwick FFS!

It’s technically possible to get ADSL (not ADSL 2+), however it all depends on whether or not Telstra are willing to transpose your line. Im guessing you are on a pair gains to a RIM in Dunlop. Stupid telstra did things on the cheap and now dont want to upgrade people to copper which they should have used from the start.

I had to wait a year for Telstra to open up more ports at our local Crace/Mitchell Exchange a few years ago after placing my ADSL order 🙁

RIM users can get ADSL, as long as there’s sufficient ADSL enabled ports in your RIM node. Forget ADSL2+ though, there’s just not enough aggregate bandwidth from the nodes back to the exchange to offer it in the first place, which would make it a pretty bad investment for Telstra to buy ADSL2+ enabled cards for the RIMs.

I’ve heard all sorts of stories regarding the ability to get clean copper back to the exchange (if that’s an option in your area) by convincing Telstra that you need it for ISDN/alarm communications/whatever but they’ve probably caught on to this by now, if it ever worked.

MelonHead said :

RIM = nil ADSL afaik

Nil ADSL2/2+, correct. Normal ADSL is still possible.

RIM = nil ADSL afaik

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