54 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
54 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
Written by Bill Noel
|
|
|
|
Your system has noise!! Ever heard that from one of your users? Of
|
|
course you have. And did you have a problem? Most likely not. If you
|
|
had a noisy line then all of your calls would have been noisy. Then
|
|
where is the problem? It is in what is known as the trunking network.
|
|
The Trunking Network is a series of lines and trunks that connect
|
|
switching offices. All offices do not have direct trunks, so they are
|
|
routed through a connection office. Sometimes these trunks operate on
|
|
copper cable, sometimes onT-Carrier, and sometimes on the Fiber Optic
|
|
cables that are currently being installed. Any one of these methods can
|
|
cause data problems. In fact, any carrier system can cause one way data
|
|
errors. That is, the BBS can be seeing errors and the user does not see
|
|
them, or vice versa. The latter problem makes your user know for sure
|
|
that your BBS is in trouble.
|
|
|
|
Trunking Network problems are the most difficult problems to solve.
|
|
Southern Bell does not train their Repair Clerks to handle trunking
|
|
complaints. What you should do when you experience data problems to a
|
|
certain exchange is listen to a quiet line into that office. Try to
|
|
describe the problem in terms of steady noise, "popping," "frying,"
|
|
"other people on the line", etc. Tell the repair clerk that you always
|
|
have this type of problem when calling the 457 exchange when calling
|
|
from the 999 exchange. Tell her this is a trunking problem and to
|
|
please really the report to Trunking Maintenance. Never tell her that
|
|
you have a data problem. Southern Bell does not guarantee data
|
|
transmission on non-conditioned lines. (However, a non-conditioned line
|
|
that meets all of their normal residential service requirements will
|
|
support data up to 2400 baud with very little problems). Remember that
|
|
when you buy a cheap modem, you get a cheap modem. Why was it cheap?
|
|
Because they left things out like noise filters! Keep that in mind when
|
|
you buy.
|
|
|
|
But what if you are really having trouble on you line? Be careful
|
|
before calling Ma Bell with a complaint. If you are not paying them the
|
|
$1.00 service charge for House Wire Maintenance, they will hit you with
|
|
about $35.00 per hour to fix the problem, or even if they don't fix it
|
|
but prove it was you fault. The mini-jacks located in your house can
|
|
cause you a lot of noise problems. They get all kind of things in them
|
|
like smoke, grease, animal hair, and dust. These things cause the
|
|
contacts to corrode. Corrosion causes noise. If you have an OHM meter
|
|
and the technical skill to use it, lift the house wire from the
|
|
terminals and check for high resistance shorts in you house with all of
|
|
your modems and phones removed from the jacks.
|
|
|
|
Noise problems can also come from the carbon blocks located in the small
|
|
grey box located where the phone lines enter your house. Normally this
|
|
condition will appear after an electrical storm or high winds when there
|
|
may have been currents flowing on the phone lines. These devices belong
|
|
to the phone company and you should not mess with them.
|
|
I hope this will shed some light on the subject of noise for you.
|
|
|