2 Phone lines, DSL and wiring questions

Happy_Harry

When I moved into the house (10 years ago) there was a land line. Not much later I got broadband here and it was 1.6Mbps DL at that time and it never got any better. Too far from exchange etc etc.
6 years ago I needed a 2nd line for work and it was put in by eircom. The 2nd line actually gave me almost 2Mbps. So at some point I ditched the broadband on the 1st line.
I no longer need 2 phone lines so I would like to ditch one. As the 2nd line has better speeds I would like to keep it, but there is something I am too stupid to understand really.

I found a wiring diagram online and am using that as reference

The eircom cable coming into the house has 3 wires, a black one , a green one and a white one. These are then connected somewhere on the eircom unit and from there an orange one goes to the L2 and a white one the L1. This is also where the wires for the extension line were connected to ( I have changed this now and connected them according to the eircom diagram to the customer connection unit and that is working fine.

The second line basically is 2 wires - a green one and a black one going from socket 1 (where the original green and black one terminated) to socket 2.

Question 1 : Why would the extension wires not have been connected to the extension block on the customer connection unit. I get it that whoever built the house did a bit of DIY , but eircom has since looked at the socket at least 2 or 3 times and not changed anything. I would think that connecting two wires together with one screw is not good practice and not helping an already poor DSL signal.

Question 2 : And this is what I , as a non-techie, completely fail to understand.. There is one set of black and green wires entering the house and just being extended to have a second line.. It could support 2 DSL connections of approx 1.8 Mbps - why can it not entertain 1 DSL connection of 3.6 Mbps ?

Question 3: Why is the second line DSL better than the original one ? If it is an extension of the original...

Like I said I am not a techie, especially not a phone or DSL expert , so apologies if I am missing something here, but logically I simply don't understand it.
I am pretty sure asking the Eir customer service team will not help here, so hopefully there is somebody here that can help me understand it.

ED E

Yeah, dont bother calling, even if you get lucky and get an old timer who knows their stuff this isnt in their ballpark as its after the demarcation point.

A. 1 Drop cable coming in containing at least two pairs (4 wires) - This is what you should have.


1. Probably due to the original install. If the house predates DSL in the area then lines were for the most part one big circuit. Line in - Lightning block - MDP resistor - All phones.

2. Thats line bonding, it can be done but its not quite as simple as adding lines together. You have two modems in one at your end, two modems in the exchanges DSLAM(Big daddy modem) and then logical bonding at both sides (eircoms server and your special dual modem) so that its one IP connection. Its a business setup priced accordingly and you won't get the full speed of both lines combined, there's some overhead.

3. Without a diagram I'm unsure but my guess is that your primary line was Modem + All Extensions (+ phonewatch?) but your secondary line was Modem + Fax only. With a wrong / poor setup the presence of that internal wiring would degrade the primary.

Its also possible that of the pairs on your drop wire one is in worse condition or the same for the pairs on the main road all the way back to the exchange. But internal is more likely.


What you should do, IMO:
Take 1 Modem (use the same one)
Disconnect both lines where they enter the house from everything else
Connect line 1 to a faceplate, connect modem, wait 5 mins then read the line stats ( http://192.168.1.254 ).
Repeat last step with line 2.

That'll give you a good idea of what both lines are actually like. If you want to post those stats here we can go through them.

PS: If you have a silver colored netopia/motorola unit try and hold onto it, they perform a good bit better on some really long lines like yours.

Happy_Harry

ED E wrote: »

A. 1 Drop cable coming in containing at least two pairs (4 wires) - This is what you should have.

Right, maybe indeed it is four, I may have a closer look at it again later, but let's assume indeed it is 4..

1. Probably due to the original install. If the house predates DSL in the area then lines were for the most part one big circuit. Line in - Lightning block - MDP resistor - All phones.

OK- fair enough. Not sure why eircom uses a customer connection unit with a block for extension wires , if they are not using it- but again, maybe not so relevant now.

2. Thats line bonding, it can be done but its not quite as simple as adding lines together. You have two modems in one at your end, two modems in the exchanges DSLAM(Big daddy modem) and then logical bonding at both sides (eircoms server and your special dual modem) so that its one IP connection. Its a business setup priced accordingly and you won't get the full speed of both lines combined, there's some overhead.

I read about line bonding, but right now I only have DSL on the secondary line so nothing to bond it with. The very simple thing I don't understand is that one set of wires entering the house can somehow support 2 connections ( using the same copper) but not one with a higher speed. Maybe it is my complete lack of understanding in the first place how the second line is not a second set of wires coming into the house but simply an extension from the dropwire. Especially since they were digging a lot in the garden to find a box, I kind of imagined that they would run a line from that box to the house using the same duct, but no, they didn't.

3. Without a diagram I'm unsure but my guess is that your primary line was Modem + All Extensions (+ phonewatch?) but your secondary line was Modem + Fax only. With a wrong / poor setup the presence of that internal wiring would degrade the primary.

Its also possible that of the pairs on your drop wire one is in worse condition or the same for the pairs on the main road all the way back to the exchange. But internal is more likely.

You could well be right here especially as the wiring for the extension didn't seem optimal...

And again- there is only one dropwire.. not 2..so it must be internal indeed.

What you should do, IMO:
Take 1 Modem (use the same one)
Disconnect both lines where they enter the house from everything else
Connect line 1 to a faceplate, connect modem, wait 5 mins then read the line stats ( http://192.168.1.254 ).
Repeat last step with line 2.

That'll give you a good idea of what both lines are actually like. If you want to post those stats here we can go through them.

PS: If you have a silver colored netopia/motorola unit try and hold onto it, they perform a good bit better on some really long lines like yours.

I can't test as I have only got DSL on one line. What I have done ( at least temporarily) is I removed the extension wires from the actual eircom unit and instead added a RJ11 plug to it, so the lines can be tested without any auxiliary wires attached and hence get the optimal environment. In the mean time I can plug the RJ11 in either phone socket to have the other sockets in the house working. Do you know if Eircom or any other provider could do a real test remotely to figure out which line can give me best speeds , even if I don't have DSL enabled on one of them right now ? Was also thinking of keeping the extension on the RJ11 and use a filter later to keep the extension cable away from the DSL signal - good idea ?

And unfortunately I don't have any old modems- just broken ones

Thanks a million Ed for your help