DSL: Denouement

As mentioned in previous entries, the DSL we had installed was having ... issues.

Weather and light conspired to let me re-do the run from the demarc to the punchdown today. It went more easily than I'd expected, actually. I drilled a new hole in the sill plate for the wire, ran a fish tape through the crawlspace, and taped on the new Cat5 line. Pulled that through and connected both ends, then checked the phone.

Dial tone is a good sign.

Turned on the DSL modem, waited for it to boot up, and it had a connection in about 2 minutes. I buttoned things back up, turned on the wireless router, and tested connection. Working.

Speedtest.net gave me a 41ms ping, 2.6Mb down, and 0.5Mb up. Not bad.

Punched up Netflix on the PS3 and started watching "The Expendables". A few pixelated frames in the first few minutes but it smoothed right out.

MrsZ's laptop connected fine.

It's been a few hours with data going on and off, browsing and chatting and so forth, and the connection has remained steady.

I think this MAY be a win.

(The old wire I pulled out was just plain hideous. Kinks, bends, weird turns, and the insulation was stiff/crackly in places. Pretty clearly the base issue.)