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View Full Version : 50M Is this a typical cabinet?


New to cable
25-01-2012, 22:41
Just had an outage and took stroll over to the local cabinet and the door was open revealing this. Sorry for crap quality but every single "tap" I believe they're called is connected to a 3 way splitter. Then the cables off the splitter each had a different address tag. So I assume this cabinet has more customers than originally intended?

Download Failed (1) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/img0016hal.jpg/)

Nedkelly
25-01-2012, 22:44
In some areas yes there is a program in which these cabs are getting a make over :).There will be a lot of dead cables in there ie the customers are no longer with us and should come off the tap .That cab is a bad one :D

thenry
25-01-2012, 23:33
Thats a disgrace. VM upgrades will soon sort that out as mentioned by Ned

REM
26-01-2012, 00:01
That looks messy.

I was bored to took the liberty of "improving" the photo a little :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21046157/street-box.jpg

Tim Deegan
26-01-2012, 01:40
I don't envy the poor engineers who have to sort through that spaggetti

Sephiroth
26-01-2012, 10:38
The 3 way splitter population is worrying. If this is done all over the area then the optical node will be well oversubscribed. Not only that the homes furthest from the cabinet are likely to have low downstream and high upstream power, affecting the number of devices they can have at home.

It's a shocking practice IMO.

Stephen
26-01-2012, 10:48
The 3 way splitter population is worrying. If this is done all over the area then the optical node will be well oversubscribed. Not only that the homes furthest from the cabinet are likely to have low downstream and high upstream power, affecting the number of devices they can have at home.

It's a shocking practice IMO.
As mentioned their is a project running just now to clean up all the cabs and a lot of those connections in the cab may not actually be live anymore, so after clean up that cab will more than likely look alot better and not have as many splitters.

New to cable
26-01-2012, 11:00
As mentioned their is a project running just now to clean up all the cabs and a lot of those connections in the cab may not actually be live anymore, so after clean up that cab will more than likely look alot better and not have as many splitters.

Well recently 2 Virginmedia guys spent a whole day messing about in that cabinet then a day or 2 later it was repainted. I got awful feeling that the "Clean up" team have already visited that cabinet.

Unless you can confirm they have/have not reached Telford yet?

Sephiroth
26-01-2012, 11:03
As mentioned their is a project running just now to clean up all the cabs and a lot of those connections in the cab may not actually be live anymore, so after clean up that cab will more than likely look alot better and not have as many splitters.

Sure. But you know the HFC standard - the infrastructure should be such as to support between 500 and 2000 homes passed per optical node.

I do trust VM to at least intend doing the necessaries, particularly by pulling more fibre to the optical nodes in high population areas so as to regulate the demand on the provided DS/UP channels.

I suppose you could argue that the small cabinet in the picture, if replaced by a large cabinet, wouldn't need the splitters. So if this small cabinet is an exception rather than area practice, I could sort of back off save that it should be a larger cabinet. The practice of putting splitters at the tap point is poor and makes it more noise prone if un-used ends are not terminated.

New to cable
26-01-2012, 11:11
Sure. But you know the HFC standard - the infrastructure should be such as to support between 500 and 2000 homes passed per optical node.

I do trust VM to at least intend doing the necessaries, particularly by pulling more fibre to the optical nodes in high population areas so as to regulate the demand on the provided DS/UP channels.

I suppose you could argue that the small cabinet in the picture, if replaced by a large cabinet, wouldn't need the splitters. So if this small cabinet is an exception rather than area practice, I could sort of back off save that it should be a larger cabinet. The practice of putting splitters at the tap point is poor and makes it more noise prone if un-used ends are not terminated.

Are you sure thats a small cabinet? Its atleast 3foot high and 4 foot in length maybe 1 foot in width. I have never seen and bigger ones round here.

kwikbreaks
26-01-2012, 11:19
The practice of putting splitters at the tap point is poor and makes it more noise prone if un-used ends are not terminated.

There will be a lot of dead cables in there ie the customers are no longer with us and should come off the tap .

Sounds like unterminated lengths of possibly damaged coax hanging off the splitters is pretty much a certainty.

I guess given the options available - refusing to take a new customer or installing another cab fitting a splitter seemed a good option the first time the cab got full. Carrying that decision forward until every tap point had one shows just how slipshod things can become. Who would be to blame - local network management or higher up the food chain?

Sephiroth
26-01-2012, 11:23
No I'm not sure due to picture definition. But from the one's like that I've seen in my area, all the tap points are 15 dB and there is a single door.

I haven't seen the directional coupler in the picture and therefore wonder whether or not this cabinet is the last in the daisy chain onto the optical node.

kwikbreaks
26-01-2012, 11:37
Could it be a two door cab with just the RH door open? It looks very narrow in relation to the height to the typical cab in my area (all two door ones).

New to cable
26-01-2012, 11:45
I will pop over get a better picture now its daytime,

kwikbreaks
26-01-2012, 11:55
Hold your nose - chances are every dog in the street will have cocked its leg over those cables.

New to cable
26-01-2012, 12:17
Download Failed (1) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/815/img0020lf.jpg/)


Download Failed (1) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/810/img0021mq.jpg/)

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 ----------

Although from the picture it looks like the top of the cab is flat,its not its pitched like the the roof of a house, so its wider than it appears. I'm a crud photographer.

---------- Post added at 11:17 ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 ----------

Although from the picture it looks like the top of the cab is flat,its not its pitched like the the roof of a house, so its wider than it appears. I'm a crud photographer.

Sephiroth
26-01-2012, 12:43
I can see from the coloured tabs that the tap points are at least graded in the 12/15/22/29 dB range. I presume that the directional coupler is in the other half of the cabinet.

If there's a 240V sticker on the open door, then the other half might have the optical node. That wold be worth a photo.

GrimUpNorth
26-01-2012, 13:18
Well recently 2 Virginmedia guys spent a whole day messing about in that cabinet then a day or 2 later it was repainted. I got awful feeling that the "Clean up" team have already visited that cabinet.

Unless you can confirm they have/have not reached Telford yet?

Download Failed (1) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/815/img0020lf.jpg/)


Download Failed (1) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/810/img0021mq.jpg/)


If thats seen a coat of paint in the last few years I'd be surprised :D

Cheers

Grim

New to cable
26-01-2012, 13:29
It had a bunch of lads with "Community service" Hi-Vis vests on painting it not to long ago. It did have a lot of graffiti on it although they did a crap job.

But I guess if VM can get it done for free they dont care.

thenry
26-01-2012, 13:56
It had a bunch of lads with "Community service" Hi-Vis vests on painting it not to long ago. It did have a lot of graffiti on it although they did a crap job.

But I guess if VM can get it done for free they dont care.

:LOL: genius

Digi Tel
26-01-2012, 17:39
Nice thread, lads and lasses.........but wouldn't it be wise to close the door?

SiJ2000
26-01-2012, 19:33
That is by far the worst cabinet I have ever seen in my life!!!!!!

alexcopeland
26-01-2012, 19:59
I'll have to take a picture and upload it here tomorrow of a VM cabinet missing the cover and one large black cable coming from it near my flat. I aw it after doing a school run with my daughter.

daveyg99
26-01-2012, 20:09
Just shocking the local service delivered from that cabinet. VM certainly have got an up hill struggle with the cabinet refurb works.

New to cable
27-01-2012, 20:32
The point is when you see that picture it makes it hard to see Virginmedia as a major professional ISP. I post that pick on a few BT, Sky and Talktalk forums including the official support forums.

The reaction was as expected was one of disbelief. The Sky help forum moderators asked if they could use the picture in the office (I suspect they would of anyway)

But its just not very professional and even the biggest VM fan would admit you would not expect something like that from Sky

Andrewcrawford23
27-01-2012, 20:44
The point is when you see that picture it makes it hard to see Virginmedia as a major professional ISP. I post that pick on a few BT, Sky and Talktalk forums including the official support forums.

The reaction was as expected was one of disbelief. The Sky help forum moderators asked if they could use the picture in the office (I suspect they would of anyway)

But its just not very professional and even the biggest VM fan would admit you would not expect something like that from Sky

oif course you wont expewct that on sky!!!!!! sky dnt own there own infrasture bt cabinet are bad granted not as bad as the one above but there still bad and sky use bt cabinet as such for ther econnection

craigj2k12
27-01-2012, 20:52
sky have their own infrastructure as well dont forget

Hom3r
27-01-2012, 21:49
sky have their own infrastructure as well dont forget

Yes but Sky comes via Satellite to the dish on the house.

VM comes by cables which required street cabinets.

sollp
27-01-2012, 22:01
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/6725/img0020lf.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/815/img0020lf.jpg/)


http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/4913/img0021mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/810/img0021mq.jpg/)

---------- Post added at 11:16 ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 ----------

Although from the picture it looks like the top of the cab is flat,its not its pitched like the the roof of a house, so its wider than it appears. I'm a crud photographer.

---------- Post added at 11:17 ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 ----------

Although from the picture it looks like the top of the cab is flat,its not its pitched like the the roof of a house, so its wider than it appears. I'm a crud photographer.

Nothing new there all thanks to the Service and Install departments.

Sephiroth
27-01-2012, 22:07
Yes but Sky comes via Satellite to the dish on the house.
VM comes by cables which required street cabinets.

Sky's broadband comes via satellite? What speed can it reach?

Pierre
27-01-2012, 22:17
But its just not very professional and even the biggest VM fan would admit you would not expect something like that from Sky

one of the most stupidest comments I've heard in a long time. I'm not sure you're qualified to judge who is or who isn't a "professional " ISP.

You wouldn't expect anything like that from any other company, except maybe Smallworld, as no other company in the UK operates a HFC access network like VM

kwikbreaks
27-01-2012, 22:30
I'm not sure you're qualified to judge who is or who isn't a "professional " ISP.I'm sure he isn't and neither am I but I sure as hell can form an opinion and that picture just reinforces the one I already have after experiencing the garbage CPE they put out untested, random swapping of my cable tap requiring me to be at home for a service call to put it right, and above all the level of congestion VM accept as within their acceptable limits. I've also had far more short term outages on cable than I ever saw with ADSL even when a house move left me with a duff line.

Why am I still with them? Because OpenReach are just as shoddy having failed to fix an ADSL line fault despite 5 visits. Going back to ADSL would leave me on the same duff line - luckily I expect the duff section to be bypassed by fibre when Infinity launches here.

sollp
27-01-2012, 23:30
I'm sure he isn't and neither am I but I sure as hell can form an opinion and that picture just reinforces the one I already have after experiencing the garbage CPE they put out untested, random swapping of my cable tap requiring me to be at home for a service call to put it right, and above all the level of congestion VM accept as within their acceptable limits. I've also had far more short term outages on cable than I ever saw with ADSL even when a house move left me with a duff line.

Why am I still with them? Because OpenReach are just as shoddy having failed to fix an ADSL line fault despite 5 visits. Going back to ADSL would leave me on the same duff line - luckily I expect the duff section to be bypassed by fibre when Infinity launches here.

You might be unlucky and find its from the cab to your premise that is faulty.

Halcyon
27-01-2012, 23:36
Out of interest, these boxes obviously all need power to run the cabinets equipment.
Where does the power come from? Do Virgin pay directly to the grid?

Sephiroth
27-01-2012, 23:48
The inter-cabinet cables carry a 60V supply fed from the optical node which has mains power.

Andrewcrawford23
28-01-2012, 09:47
Yes but Sky comes via Satellite to the dish on the house.

VM comes by cables which required street cabinets.

my arse, sky use asdl using bt lines, they use llu so they are not limited by capicty and have to provide there own hence the recent 100gb backbone upgrade

and sky own no infrasture not for television nor for broadband well apart form what they install at the bt exchanges

and in case anyone thinks oh sky own the satilletes they dnt sesastra do and lease the capicty to sky and other ocmpanies

Nedkelly
28-01-2012, 10:22
Alot of cabs are due a make over and upgrade it takes time .We have just over 2900 cabs in my town and so far about 200 + have been done not all cabs look like that .It seems to be high turnover areas where the cabs get that like that:)

Nopanic
28-01-2012, 10:35
The point is when you see that picture it makes it hard to see Virginmedia as a major professional ISP. I post that pick on a few BT, Sky and Talktalk forums including the official support forums.

The reaction was as expected was one of disbelief. The Sky help forum moderators asked if they could use the picture in the office (I suspect they would of anyway)

But its just not very professional and even the biggest VM fan would admit you would not expect something like that from Sky

I'm not questioning the poor state of the cab, but why post this on those forums ?

Surely posting it on the official VM forum, to have it addressed would be the logical thing to do, if you have concerns, seems you're after reactions more than resolutions.

Sirius
28-01-2012, 10:37
I'm not questioning the poor state of the cab, but why post this on those forums ?

Surely posting it on the official VM forum, to have it addressed would be the logical thing to do, if you have concerns, seems you're after reactions more than resolutions.

It fits the agenda of the OP

kwikbreaks
28-01-2012, 12:08
You might be unlucky and find its from the cab to your premise that is faulty.It could be but I know a new drop wire was installed and one engineer switched to another pair back to the cab or at least said he had. It's a gamble but I won't be cancelling the cable until I know for sure it is working properly. The fault type is called an HR DIS which causes noise on voice so if it's still there it will be very obvious and as both services will be installed together I simply won't accept it with a fault present.

If it comes to that the upgrade work for the speed doubling may even sort my area out properly although with current timings of June for Infinity and October for VM doubling I'll probably never know. If it turns out that my area gets sorted before Infinity comes then I'll have to think about it carefully - on past record VM don't deserve the business but then again nor do BT.

Sephiroth
28-01-2012, 12:22
Kwikkie - how would there be a HR DIS fault in your cable connexion? As you then mention it's a voice fault due to a proper contact not being made. I suppose there could be a cable fault caused by a poor connexion or a break but as you've had a re-pull ......

What have I misunderstood?

kwikbreaks
28-01-2012, 12:42
That was the ADSL fault which the OR engineers failed to fix after 5 visits and drove me to cable.

There is no cable connection fault. The upstream was high and I got that fixed until a street engineer decided to play swap the taps and I called that in and got it fixed. The cable problem here is simply oversubscription as it is in so many areas once they decided to sell 100Mbps unlimited on 200/18 pipes.

MagicUK
28-01-2012, 22:12
my local box has had the door hanging off twice and ive reported it twice and both times they have secured it again, obv there not as advance as the bt fttc box but my 50mb works fine, just wish they would hurry up with the upload speed increase in croydon area 03.

DJSADERS
31-01-2012, 21:38
ha i have seen too many cabs like that lol the techs "should" check signals at the house, so if it's all good there then there shouldn't be a problem, but as said above some cabs are up for a refurb, Reading has had quite a few done already

Chrysalis
01-02-2012, 19:12
Just had an outage and took stroll over to the local cabinet and the door was open revealing this. Sorry for crap quality but every single "tap" I believe they're called is connected to a 3 way splitter. Then the cables off the splitter each had a different address tag. So I assume this cabinet has more customers than originally intended?

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8899/img0016hal.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/210/img0016hal.jpg/)

I dont know if its typical but mine looks similiar.

This is why in a recent dicussion with seph I mentioned splitters and a cabinet potentially housing 100s of customers. When I checked mine it had splitters galore and they couldnt close the door. Its closed now but they had to put a metal bar across it to keep the doors closed.

---------- Post added at 18:04 ---------- Previous post was at 18:01 ----------

Alot of cabs are due a make over and upgrade it takes time .We have just over 2900 cabs in my town and so far about 200 + have been done not all cabs look like that .It seems to be high turnover areas where the cabs get that like that:)

The question is why dont new cabs get rolled out to split the load, and people wonder how utilisation gets high :(

Clearly that picture shows VM are getting the revenue for that area, so some of that profit should be put back in to provide proper infrastructure.

---------- Post added at 18:05 ---------- Previous post was at 18:04 ----------

I'm not questioning the poor state of the cab, but why post this on those forums ?

Surely posting it on the official VM forum, to have it addressed would be the logical thing to do, if you have concerns, seems you're after reactions more than resolutions.

A reason would be to raise awareness.

You seem more unhappy that the picture was posted rather than your employer has let this happen.

---------- Post added at 18:12 ---------- Previous post was at 18:05 ----------

As mentioned their is a project running just now to clean up all the cabs and a lot of those connections in the cab may not actually be live anymore, so after clean up that cab will more than likely look alot better and not have as many splitters.

What happens if a cleanup crew arrives and none of them are dead so still splitter hell? is it left alone or some routed to new cabinet?

New to cable
06-02-2012, 16:28
Still wondering if or when that cabinet is due to be "cleaned up". Its in Telford so surely a member of VM staff know if the clean up crews have hit Telford or not?

Also will people connected to that mess still be expected to take a price increase? Oh and as for connections not being used, last time I had a "Tech" out who was meant to inspect my tap at the cabinet he just said there is no point. The Cab is fully and moving me won't make any difference.

Infact I had 3 visits each was with a promise that they would inspect my connection at the Cab and not 1 went. They all pretty much said the same thing about it being a mess.

I even posted on here months back saying 1 guy went and came back saying he could not find my cable at the cab. He also said he probably would need 2 days to find my cable. Than on of the "Techs" from here said all he would need to do was connect his special phone or something like that. But now you've seen that I guess it become obvious why I will never get my cable checked.

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:27 ----------

Still wondering if or when that cabinet is due to be "cleaned up". Its in Telford so surely a member of VM staff know if the clean up crews have hit Telford or not?

Also will people connected to that mess still be expected to take a price increase? Oh and as for connections not being used, last time I had a "Tech" out who was meant to inspect my tap at the cabinet he just said there is no point. The Cab is full and moving me won't make any difference.

Infact I had 3 visits each was with a promise that they would inspect my connection at the Cab and not 1 went. They all pretty much said the same thing about it being a mess.

I even posted on here months back saying 1 guy went and came back saying he could not find my cable at the cab. He also said he probably would need 2 days to find my cable. Than one of the "Techs" from here said all he would need to do was connect his special phone or something like that. But now you've seen that I guess it become obvious why I will never get my cable checked.

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:28 ----------

Still wondering if or when that cabinet is due to be "cleaned up". Its in Telford so surely a member of VM staff know if the clean up crews have hit Telford or not?

Also will people connected to that mess still be expected to take a price increase? Oh and as for connections not being used, last time I had a "Tech" out who was meant to inspect my tap at the cabinet he just said there is no point. The Cab is full and moving me won't make any difference.

Infact I had 3 visits each was with a promise that they would inspect my connection at the Cab and not 1 went. They all pretty much said the same thing about it being a mess.

I even posted on here months back saying 1 guy went and came back saying he could not find my cable at the cab. He also said he probably would need 2 days to find my cable. Than one of the "Techs" from here said all he would need to do was connect his special phone or something like that. But now you've seen that I guess it become obvious why I will never get my cable checked.

BenMcr
06-02-2012, 17:38
Still wondering if or when that cabinet is due to be "cleaned up". Its in Telford so surely a member of VM staff know if the clean up crews have hit Telford or not?Well if you gave me the info I'd asked for might be able to find out ;)

Sirius
06-02-2012, 18:32
Well if you gave me the info I'd asked for might be able to find out ;)Did you not reorder the requested batteries for your VM issued crystal ball. You know the one everyone assumes we have. ;)

Skie
06-02-2012, 19:54
Wait, this is in Telford?

Surely that entire cabinet is the result of a certain other cable user in Telford who was forever going up down around and basically using every possible tier of cable in the span of about 2 weeks. I'd wager that cabinet is just connected to his house alone.

Andrewcrawford23
06-02-2012, 20:00
Wait, this is in Telford?

Surely that entire cabinet is the result of a certain other cable user in Telford who was forever going up down around and basically using every possible tier of cable in the span of about 2 weeks. I'd wager that cabinet is just connected to his house alone.

apart from teh ntl network in the olden days you only ever got one cabel to your porpety back in the oden days ntl allowed two cable intoa property but they are few and far between, that cabinet is typical of over subscribed areas or areas where people join adn leave virign but the cabinet isnt tidied up, i do wonder if once cabinet upgrades are complete they will disconencta cusotmer properly once they leave for one there unlikely to be cable thives then because there cable would be discontunied unless there a paying cusotmer

jtaylor06
06-02-2012, 20:31
Wait, this is in Telford?

Surely that entire cabinet is the result of a certain other cable user in Telford who was forever going up down around and basically using every possible tier of cable in the span of about 2 weeks. I'd wager that cabinet is just connected to his house alone.

Most likely!
Trolls and cables don't mix together very well!

(ashamed to live in Telford :( )

qasdfdsaq
06-02-2012, 20:53
Wait, this is in Telford?

Surely that entire cabinet is the result of a certain other cable user in Telford who was forever going up down around and basically using every possible tier of cable in the span of about 2 weeks. I'd wager that cabinet is just connected to his house alone.
Lol. Wouldn't be surprised.

New to cable
06-02-2012, 21:33
Also worth mentioning..

It actually also appears that some of the splitters connect to another splitter lol.

So it has 1 cable from the "tap" into a 4 way splitter then one of the cables off the 4 way splitter goes into a 3 way splitter. So possibly 5 or 6 customers off 1 "tap"..Is that a certified Virginmedia practice?

jb66
06-02-2012, 21:41
What's the alternative?

qasdfdsaq
06-02-2012, 22:11
Since the tap itself is already splitting one cable off to dozens, which has already been split several times before it even reaches the cabinet, I don't see what the big deal is.

jb66
06-02-2012, 22:47
Attenuation is attenuation, does it matter?

thenry
07-02-2012, 01:23
What's the alternative?

replace the cab with a shed

Chrysalis
07-02-2012, 06:01
well talk about coincidence, my street cabinet has been moved and now the doors are shut properly.

its still green but a darker green and looks newer and cleaner.

kwikbreaks
07-02-2012, 10:47
I don't see what the big deal is.I'd see the big deal as probably having large numbers of dead and unterminated coax runs because with a mess like that it's obvious that VM haven't documented what goes where so won't be disconnecting dead runs. An unterminated run of coax could introduce noise. It will also introduce standing waves but I've no idea if that is of any importance on cable TV + BB - in analogue days it would have caused some ghosting.

horseman
07-02-2012, 12:06
Attenuation is attenuation, does it matter?

Not if you choose to ignore any opportunities for noise ingress, microreflections, tilt/slope, equalisation, group delay, laser clipping…. ;)

qasdfdsaq
07-02-2012, 12:15
I'd see the big deal as probably having large numbers of dead and unterminated coax runs because with a mess like that it's obvious that VM haven't documented what goes where so won't be disconnecting dead runs. An unterminated run of coax could introduce noise. It will also introduce standing waves but I've no idea if that is of any importance on cable TV + BB - in analogue days it would have caused some ghosting.
OK, that's true - *if* they're not documenting properly. The simple fact that you've got a few splitters in series isn't an issue though, since the cable already goes through several splitters in series before reaching the cab. Not using those splitters properly is of course another matter...