23-02-2012, 08:54 PM
Plenty more where that came from 
ADSL is a piece of piss to work on, you're basically only using the A and B legs of a phone line right back to the MUX. Plugs are either connected or not, same with krone strips (or IDC's - insulation displacement connectors). Only real degradation you get is failing ADSL filters. With HFC and coax, a good connection is based on stinger length, quality and cross section of copper core, quality of braiding, how watertight the fitting is, quality of F connector used, all sorts. ADSL in that respect is either off or on, coax we have to maintain each and every connection in the house and network, and there's a lot of them.
As a service tech I only work on the connection from the pit (in SID architecture) or DP (in SBC architecture). From the tap, you have the drop cable to the house, external termination (omni) box, isolator, internal wiring, splitters, HDU's (unity gain splitters).. and each cable has an F connector that has to be fitted correctly. If ONE fitting is loose now, it causes freezing/blocky pictures with the TV and intermittent connection to the broadband due to the high upstream from the modem. If they peak over +55dBmV they effectively burn themselves out. Oh and if one tiny bit of aluminium braiding in the cable touches the stinger you get a total loss of service.
Oh, AND, the network should be fully closed, hence needing connectors done up tightly. We're monitored on network egress as the frequencies we use can interfere with emergency service and air traffic comms, so all open ended cables have to be terminated. But on the flip side, ingress from all these comms in the air can cause having with the SNR of the network by increasing the noise floor, which means modems and set top boxes can't lock on to the network and again, fucks up the service.
We had one guy this week who was taking out about 30 houses in his street as his internal wiring was done himself and was pumping noise into the network in his area. We traced it back to his drop cable, fitted a 50dB reverse path attenuator and boom, all the other houses came back online.
I could be here for days. Basically, it's a lot more complex from a service point of view than ADSL, but SO much more rewarding.
/geekmode
ADSL is a piece of piss to work on, you're basically only using the A and B legs of a phone line right back to the MUX. Plugs are either connected or not, same with krone strips (or IDC's - insulation displacement connectors). Only real degradation you get is failing ADSL filters. With HFC and coax, a good connection is based on stinger length, quality and cross section of copper core, quality of braiding, how watertight the fitting is, quality of F connector used, all sorts. ADSL in that respect is either off or on, coax we have to maintain each and every connection in the house and network, and there's a lot of them.
As a service tech I only work on the connection from the pit (in SID architecture) or DP (in SBC architecture). From the tap, you have the drop cable to the house, external termination (omni) box, isolator, internal wiring, splitters, HDU's (unity gain splitters).. and each cable has an F connector that has to be fitted correctly. If ONE fitting is loose now, it causes freezing/blocky pictures with the TV and intermittent connection to the broadband due to the high upstream from the modem. If they peak over +55dBmV they effectively burn themselves out. Oh and if one tiny bit of aluminium braiding in the cable touches the stinger you get a total loss of service.
Oh, AND, the network should be fully closed, hence needing connectors done up tightly. We're monitored on network egress as the frequencies we use can interfere with emergency service and air traffic comms, so all open ended cables have to be terminated. But on the flip side, ingress from all these comms in the air can cause having with the SNR of the network by increasing the noise floor, which means modems and set top boxes can't lock on to the network and again, fucks up the service.
We had one guy this week who was taking out about 30 houses in his street as his internal wiring was done himself and was pumping noise into the network in his area. We traced it back to his drop cable, fitted a 50dB reverse path attenuator and boom, all the other houses came back online.
I could be here for days. Basically, it's a lot more complex from a service point of view than ADSL, but SO much more rewarding.
/geekmode
![[Image: signature_zps1a02ba79.jpg]](http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/martypellowe/media/signature_zps1a02ba79.jpg.html)