Convert phone line to Ethernet connection
Convert phone line to Ethernet connection
Oh... I thought they were just run through holes drilled in the studs like the power wires are... and/or run through a conduit? Also it seems stapeling phone lines/ethernet cables to studs is a hot topic and a lot of people have very opinionated views.
Phone lines not a big deal, but it's terrible for ethernet. They do travel through holes, but then as they feed downward to the cutouts they get stapled. Even if the staples were "insulated" they pinch the cables way too hard, can mess with signal quality. There's a reason why the high up you go in categories they more separation there is between pairs.
Short-range connections work well with VDSL, especially with the new G.FAST option. It delivers full upload speeds without sharing bandwidth like DOCSIS does. In my home, point-to-point VDSL adapters using telephone cables are available but aren’t widely used and require disconnecting the phone line to maintain a direct connection. Since VDSL supports only 100Mbit, I’d prefer alternatives such as Powerline before even thinking about it. It’s best suited for very long distances where fiber or repeaters are impractical.
The biggest issue for me is the distance to the exchange. I'm in Wales, so DSL is extremely poor and the exchange is hard to reach. Even in major cities it's unreliable. From my experience, DOCSIS works much better.
Depends on the DSL configuration. AT&T uses remote cabinets called VRADs in local areas. All copper connections go through them, and fiber returns to the central office. This setup mirrors how cable companies handle DOCSIS connections. The challenge is that it needs to be concise. Cable providers don’t face the same distance constraints. Even if I order a package, my cable company can only offer gigabit speeds. DSL in the US is largely outdated.
Set up old ADSL, VDSL/G.FAST equipment on your street similar to DOCSIS. It provides dedicated bandwidth to your home using the existing phone line, unlike DOCSIS which shares bandwidth. The fiber connection inside the cabinet still competes with other traffic, but the overall capacity is limited compared to what DOCSIS can offer. This means you might not get the same level of contention management as with DOCSIS.
I think they share the same constraints, the key difference lies in a cable company needing existing infrastructure to deliver TV services. There’s no issue with cable in general—it either functions or it doesn’t. With DSL, performance drops with distance because there’s no need to transmit TV signals down the line. It doesn’t matter if certain frequencies become ineffective after a specific point. I know someone in the US who desired cable but it didn’t reach his property despite payment. It might have been because his driveway was simply too long for service. There’s a cable cabinet roughly 100 meters away from my VDSL unit, yet they never connected my end of the street for cable. For DSL, it was just about linking a cabinet to the existing one, as telephone lines are already in place.
ADSL was exactly what I was talking about. But yeah, VDSL is better. I just prefer DOCSIS more as its capable of higher speeds. DSL is generally useless over distances though, unless you have a street cabinet to provide your connection it just can't really get to the same standard as DOCSIS. Again I'm talking from my own experiences so it might not be 100% correct.
I've experienced a 10Mbit slowdown over the last five years mainly because more users switched to VDSL and the resulting crosstalk. On the positive side, I'm in a location where G.FAST seems promising, but I'm skeptical about their rollout plans. Adding another cabinet would be costly, and I don't believe they'd invest in this area without strong demand. Cable companies generally have a stronger incentive to upgrade since their services are bundled with other offerings. Telecom providers, however, were limited in their early offerings and by the time streaming became popular, many had already shifted to on-demand services.