Expected speed with 4000 feet in Fremont

[hinioman]

I have just signed up as a new customer of Sonic Fusion. I am located in Fremont and I currently have AT&T elite internet with an existing phone line. My speed with AT&T is not too bad and averages about 5.25 Mbps download and 63Kbps upload in http://speedtest.net. Because of local and toll charges added per call from AT&T, my monthly phone bill alone ranges $30 to $40 and they keep going up. It is one of the reasons that I want to sign up for Sonic.

With sonic pre-qualifying check, my home phone is about 4,000 feet from CO in Fremont. I wonder if there is any Fremont customers who can share their actual speed they find with Sonic. I am aware of graph plotting mentioned in earlier thread in http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r269108 ... ance-chart but the range of speed varies with location, wiring and equipment.

I will report back my actual speed when I get my setup in about a week with Sonic Fusion. And I look forward to having a choice to take a break from AT&T.

Few questions that I need help on:

1. Any inputs to actual speed from Fremont customers? What should I be expecting for 4,000 feet from CO.

2. When I have Fusion setup, can I still use the phone line to alternate my DSL between AT&T and Sonic. I plan to do testing and compare the two if possible during the transition period when I am still an AT&T DSL customer. In other words, can the AT&T DSL be used with the phone line that has been transitioned to Sonic.

3. I signed up with a Dynamic IP setting. If I later find the need for a static IP, will I be able to request the change after the sign-up.

Thank you all for your valuable inputs,
Hin Man

[virtualmike]

I can't answer #1, although the graphs in the link you noted are good guides.

#2: No. Once you've been ported to Sonic.net Fusion, you are no longer connected to AT&T's voice and DSL equipment. Run your tests on AT&T's equipment now. Once your Fusion is running and you've swapped your modem, then run your tests on the Fusion line.

#3: Yes, through Member Tools.

[hinioman]

Much thanks for your inputs. I was surprised to see the user friendly member tool page, very nice page to keep member informed and easily accessible. Maybe my line is not yet set up, I don't see any static/dynamic IP assignment setup when I go over the member tool link. It is not that important at this point, I will refer to technical support link when I need.

Again much thanks!
Hin

[bbusby]

I'm about 4700' from the local CO via old copper and am getting this:

Attenuation (dB): 28.5 14.5
Output Power (dBm): 0.0 12.9
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 14256 1276
Rate (Kbps): 12019 1019

The static/dynamic selection thingie looks like this:

[hinioman]

@bbusy,

Much thanks for your detailed input. You have fantastic speed at 4700 feet from Sonic CO. I will be happy if what Sonic provides matches what I currently have at 5 Mbps. I try to hold my expectation low so as to smooth out the edges in breaking free from AT&T dsl and land-line.

Wired connection speed test with AT&T Elite with http://speedtest.net


I will do similar test after my Fusion installation in about a week and report back to share with others.

I got my Pace 411n modem yesterday. Sonic is fast in the shipping. I am surprised that there isn't much documentation other than the quick installation guide. It is a good thing that it is so simple but I think it will help users to have a more detailed reference. I can't seem to find any online documentation of the modem.

[update]
I just find the documentation of Pace 411n from Sonic in this link https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Pace_4111N

Thanks again everyone,
Hin

[nyee]

i'm about 4,600 ft in Fremont and my most recent test using speedtest.net is this:



FWIW I have a dedicated homerun from the NID to the modem. That said, when I first got Fusion, I was only getting maybe 6Mbps (the same speed as my old Sonic Elite plan) but did not have a dedicated homerun to the modem. The homerun made a huge difference in my case (home was built in the 2000s so although wiring was relatively new, it was still noisy)

i used to get closer to 15Mbps down when I first got Fusion installed a couple years back, but lost 2.5Mbps on the downstream starting around november of last year (have never been able to figure it out).

At 4,000 ft you should get some pretty nice speed, assuming your wiring is good. Good luck!

[hinioman]

@NYEE,

Thank you so much for your reply. It is heart-warming to see good results such as yours and those from earlier replies.

I am absolutely a newbie with the NID/MPOE setup. Yesterday is my first time opening my NID box and see what is inside. My home is also about 10 years old in Fremont.

My current NID box on the side of my house has 2 Siecor modules. I am not sure if it is a whole house splitter or not. The modules bears the name of 'Siecor' but I don't see any label to tell the full model number.

• NID box with Pacific Bell on the front
• Two Siecor module on right side, each with a test jack -- not sure if the Siecor module is a splitter or not
• Likely a ADSL setup
• Not sure if my 10+ year old NID setup works with Fusion ADSL2+

Both Siecor modules carry a test jack. In research on the net, it looks like one test jack is for data and the other is for voice. I am hopeful that my current NID box setup is compatible with the ADSL2+ in Fusion.

In looking around your previous postings from NYEE and that of others, I am a bit puzzled with the NID pots splitter and if an existing ADSL setup will limit the Fussion speed with ADSL2+. I will test my speed in a few days and share my findings.

@NYEE, can you enlighten us on your homerun setup from NID box to your modem? I saw an earlier thread that you mention about this ADSL2+ Pots splitter

http://www.hometech.com/hts/products/wi ... lmdsl.html
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=508

Is that what are using? And do you install it yourself?

Much thanks,
Hin

[nyee]

My NID looks similar to yours, before I added the splitter (yes, I am using the one from hometech in Cupertino that you saw in my other post).

Here's a pic from a few years back of what my NID looked like with the splitter partially installed:



Do you have 2 phone lines running in your place? If not, the 2nd Siecor is probably there just in case you have an additional voice line, and not for DSL. If you have existing DSL from AT&T, I imagine you have DSL filters attached to the phone jacks inside your home, not a DSL splitter at the NID.

if i remember tomorrow morning, i'll take a pic of the NID showing the splitter fully installed & trace out the wiring.

If you're a confident DIYer (comfortable with cutting open+patching+painting drywall, drilling through potential fireblocks, crawling through the attic, potentially adding new RJ11 jack at the location of the modem) it is pretty straightforward. If not, you should hire someone to do it.

My homerun is pretty simple: from the splitter at the NID, it has a dedicated cable run ("riser" rated CAT6 -- using only 1 of the 4 pairs) up the attic and then back down, directly to a dedicated phone jack in my office. I've got 3 keystones in that wall plate: 1 for voice (RJ11), 1 for data (RJ45), 1 for DSL (RJ11). Modem is hooked up to DSL jack. That's basically it.

[klui]

My current NID box on the side of my house has a whole house splitter. The splitter bears the name of 'Siecor' but I don't see any label to tell the full model number.

Sorry to disappoint but you don't have a splitter. You just have two NID modules and they only allow different phone lines going into your home. nyee's post shows a splitter that should tap into a NID module. You should not tap into anything on the telco side of your NID, only onto the customer side.

They can also look like this http://www.suttleonline.com/catalog/med ... _split.jpg which is the module that I have.

EDIT: My splitter happens to be an ADSL* splitter, which will work with legacy ADSL1, all the way up to ADSL2+. If you can get Fusion you should buy a splitter that works with ADSL2+. When I had my service started, AT&T told me their U-verse installation is quite finicky about twists on the wires at the premises. It doesn't matter for me since I'm behind an RT; but if you can get Fusion, a Cat5 or better homerun would be a more robust install.

[hinioman]

@NYEE, much thanks for your detailed reply. I have a single phone line with AT&T. I salute to you for your DIY homerun setup with a ADSL2+ compatible splitter. I am not a handy man and the homerun setup is way out of my skill level. I was naively thinking that I have a whole house splitter setup. And you and Klui inputs correct my mis-understanding. It is very valuable to see the picture from your home setup, very similar to mine.


@Klui, thank you very much for the correction. I was researching on the internet and I mistook that my two Siecor NID modules are something liks this xDSL POTS Splitter or this one. My current setup using AT&T with the 2wire inline micro-filter per phone jack has this broadband statistics in Signal Noise and Attenuation

• Noise Margin: 21.0 dB (downstream), 13.0 dB (upstream)
• Attenuation: 28.4 dB (downstream), 12.0 dB (upstream)

My switch to Fusion is scheduled for tomorrow on 10/10/2012, I will update how it goes. Thanks everyone for the valuable inputs and corrections.

Much thanks,
Hin