niconiconi
ADSL works over wet string? Now, what about "ADSL over a UNPLUGGED phone line"? During a building-wide copper to fiber upgrade, the phone company stupidly unplugged my phone line from the distribution box. the phone was completely dead, no voltage. But my ADSL modem could complete the handshake. Speed degraded to ~128 Kbps, but I could still read basic webpages or chat on IRC... Apparently the parasitic capacitance on the line was enough for the AC signal to jump across the gap. My best guess was that only the ground wire was lost, and the parasitic capacitance of the modem's isolation transformer could complete the circuit via the mains powerline.
Jun 3, 2023 at 11:16pmWeb
Show thread⦺ irick 🐁🐈⚩Jun 3, 2023
@niconiconi
I love over-engineered protocols so, so much.
Show threaddr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧Jun 3, 2023
@niconiconi "The internet treats air gaps as damage and routes around it."
Show threadSkylar Caulfield Jun 4, 2023
@niconiconi I love the fact irc worked lol
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Jun 4, 2023
@skymtf @niconiconi IRC always works
Show threadzhenechJun 6, 2023
@lanodan @niconiconi @skymtf IRC by definition can't be broken, because when something is broken we complain on IRC and it's magically fixed afterwards. If IRC would be broken, where would we complain about that?!
Show threadHaelwenn /элвэн/ Jun 6, 2023
@zhenech @niconiconi @skymtf Citizen Band or some ham radio?
Show threadSteveJun 4, 2023
@niconiconi I’m aware of a case where there was a 2cm gap on just 1 wire of the pair and it wasn’t detected for years because they never used the phone and back in those days adsl1 was capped at 1.5mbps here. It was only discovered when they upgraded to adsl2 and didn’t see an improvement in sync speed
Show threadSaphira Lohikäärmekettunen Jun 4, 2023
@lilstevie @niconiconi had this happen some months ago, one of the two wires disconnected - technician was really confused as all measurements said it shouldn't work but it still synced ~5 Mbps (from the 100 we have)
Show threadJes Moved to @[email protected]Dec 29, 2023
@littlefox @lilstevie @niconiconi wait you can get 100mbps over adsl
that's awesome
Show threadSaphira Lohikäärmekettunen Dec 29, 2023
@Jessica @niconiconi @lilstevie VDSL2 with vectoring, we actually needed supervectoring (up to 250mbps) to get that speed not too long ago, but they did some wiring improvements apparently and downgraded us to vectoring - which is fine, we only pay that speed anyway
Show threadUrsidinoj/The BjornsdottirsJun 4, 2023
@niconiconi What
Show threadCassandrichJun 4, 2023
@niconiconi This makes me 🤬 how bad my line must be to actually drop...
Show threadLisPiJun 4, 2023
@dalias @niconiconi Oxidized to hell.
Show threadaliceJun 4, 2023
@niconiconi i didn't know people post SCP stories on mastodon now
Show threadAcesabeJun 4, 2023
@niconiconi
I'd love to read a more in-depth explanation of how the signal could "jump across the gap" presuming said gap was at least several cm or more? Considering how poor many people's xDSL lines are, makes you wonder what the air-gap jumping record is!
Show threadNatanael ⚠️Jun 4, 2023
@acesabe @niconiconi the air gap jumping treats the wires (yes even the short wiring in the port) as antennas. Accidental antennas is quite common. Somebody made the raspberry pi GPIO pins transmit FM radio.
Show thread[Yaseenist] CauseOfBSOD  Jun 4, 2023
@niconiconi That is seriously impressive

Must be why ADSL still works even when Openreach wires it (seriously, I have seen some of their wiring that is like these tiny wires held together by a joint made out of what appears to be hot glue that was shaped between fingers)
Show threadodo2063Jun 6, 2023
@niconiconi The black Magic of RF (EMC)🙌
Show threadjan klarname ullrichJun 6, 2023
@niconiconi things you simply can't have with fiber optics.
Show thread#GuiguiDec 28, 2023
@niconiconi adsl works on everything if the stars align just right
Show threadJes Moved to @[email protected]Dec 29, 2023
@niconiconi wireless ADSL
Show threadniconiconiDec 29, 2023
@Jessica more like "single-wire ADSL"
Show threadJes Moved to @[email protected]Dec 29, 2023
@niconiconi I mean technically it's the same thing as wireless charging, 2 coils meet and cross the gap
Show threadWilliamDec 30, 2023
@niconiconi yes, ADSL will work with one of the pair fractured.
Show threadEnkiusz🇺🇦Dec 30, 2023
@niconiconi sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic