Question about testing POTS Lines

[cpalmer2k]

I figured this would be the best place since it doesn't really fit anywhere else, but I'm looking for someone with knowledge/experience of good old POTS phone lines. Spectrum has been down at my house in SC since Helene hit, and so far they haven't been able to give us any timetable as to when it will return. As much as I hate to do it I'm considering signing up with AT&T DSL for right now until things are back up and running.

We have never had DSL at this house when we've lived there, but we do have an old telephone interface box on the outside. Is there any way I can "test" it to see if the line running from the street to that box is good? I'm betting it was cut years ago when they buried the new cable line because I remember the cable guy saying something about running into it. I need to know whether it is good or not before I contact AT&T to set up service.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Do you have cell service at your location from any of the main 3 providers? If so, using one of those for internet might be a better option than DSL. Starlink might be an option as well.

 

[waylew]

I figured this would be the best place since it doesn't really fit anywhere else, but I'm looking for someone with knowledge/experience of good old POTS phone lines. Spectrum has been down at my house in SC since Helene hit, and so far they haven't been able to give us any timetable as to when it will return. As much as I hate to do it I'm considering signing up with AT&T DSL for right now until things are back up and running.

We have never had DSL at this house when we've lived there, but we do have an old telephone interface box on the outside. Is there any way I can "test" it to see if the line running from the street to that box is good? I'm betting it was cut years ago when they buried the new cable line because I remember the cable guy saying something about running into it. I need to know whether it is good or not before I contact AT&T to set up service.

Check for about 48vdc between the 2 wires coming in from the "pole"or if there's a modular phone jack in the box plug a phone in and see if you get a dial tone.If you get either the line is probably good,if you get neither the line may still be good but is disconnected back at the "switch",wherever that is.

 

[cpalmer2k]

Do you have cell service at your location from any of the main 3 providers? If so, using one of those for internet might be a better option than DSL. Starlink might be an option as well.

The main cell towers in our areas are still having issues too, and my neighborhood isn't in range for any of their "Home Internet" services because we're too far away from the tower itself.

StarLink may be the best solution. I bought one and we've been trying it, but it has been very slow on my PC. We've been connecting directly to the StarLink router, but last night I discovered that was part of my problem. I wanted to get the rest of our network back online so I used a travel router as an ethernet bridge. I connected it to the StarLink WiFi, and then used the ethernet jack on it to connect our main router. The PC immediately got faster and is nearly as responsive as it normally is with Spectrum. For some reason the WiFi card on my PC and the StarLink router don't like each other. I'm going to play with placement this weekend to see if I can find another location to set it up. Right now I have good signal with no major obstructions, but there is no good way to wire directly into the home router with it where it is. We have a bonus room above our garage, which limits my ability to get cabling down to my network panel in the laundry room. The side of the house where it is located has trees all around, so I can't set it up on that side because of them.

Check for about 48vdc between the 2 wires coming in from the "pole"or if there's a modular phone jack in the box plug a phone in and see if you get a dial tone.If you get either the line is probably good,if you get neither the line may still be good but is disconnected back at the "switch",wherever that is.

Thanks, I will try that this weekend just to see what options may be available.

 

[comfortably_numb]

For some reason the WiFi card on my PC and the StarLink router don't like each other

Does the Starlink router offer 2.4 and 5 Ghz wireless (either separately or combined)?

Is the wireless network card in your PC 2.4 or 5?

 

[cpalmer2k]

Does the Starlink router offer 2.4 and 5 Ghz wireless (either separately or combined)?

Is the wireless network card in your PC 2.4 or 5?

Natively it shares the same SSID for both, which I think may be part of the problem. My laptop card supports 5Ghz, and it says in the StarLink app it is connected at 5Ghz but it was very, very sluggish. Once I wired into the ethernet connection the problem was solved. Ultimately I'd like to find a better location for the StarLink so I can use Bypass mode and just rely on our regular router, but I'm going to have to play with that over the weekend. I'm much more pleased with the possibility of it being a long term solution after that change though. People down the street from my house got their Spectrum working again last night, so I've got my fingers crossed that it might not be as long as I thought it would be before that is restored either.