Totnes Internet issues

[saffy_]

Ive noticed that the Internet at Totnes station hasn't been working for the past week or so, and it's a fairly busy station - they can't sell tickets with card, none of the departure boards work, it's almost carnage. Surely GWR would've tried to get it fixed by now - has this been happening to other stations and could it be deeper than just an Internet fault?

 

[Nippy]

Carnage?

 

[D6130]

Perhaps it's an issue with interference from Ley Lines? (This from a part-time resident of Hebden Bridge....the Totnes of the North!)

 

[Cletus]

I always find that in that part of the world - vaguely Newton Abbot to Plymouth - internet signal is always terrible.

 

[jon0844]

Internet signal? It's almost certainly all fixed Internet and not using mobile data or Wi-Fi. There's likely a cable fault or something that could take a while to fix.

 

[46026]

Living in Totnes myself I can confirm that a lorry has knocked over the telegraph pole which carried the phone lines to the station ( yes we still have some down here). Awaiting for BT Openreach or whatever they are now called to fix. See GWR doing there best by positioning a ticket seller with a portable machine at the ticket office this morning.

 

[sharpener]

Living in Totnes myself I can confirm that a lorry has knocked over the telegraph pole which carried the phone lines to the station ( yes we still have some down here). Awaiting for BT Openreach or whatever they are now called to fix. See GWR doing there best by positioning a ticket seller with a portable machine at the ticket office this morning.

Seems pretty hopeless, it's been going on for a week now, my wife encountered it on Monday 16th.

Doesn't NR provide the comms over railway-specific infrastructure? Failing which, if it is over the public network why are there no redundancy, no fallback plan, no mission-critical contract terms with BT?

 

[Somewhere]

Seems pretty hopeless, it's been going on for a week now, my wife encountered it on Monday 16th.

Doesn't NR provide the comms over railway-specific infrastructure? Failing which, if it is over the public network why are there no redundancy, no fallback plan, no mission-critical contract terms with BT?

Its just a railway station. Doesn't affect the running of the trains, so its not critical

 

[Deafdoggie]

Living in Totnes myself I can confirm that a lorry has knocked over the telegraph pole which carried the phone lines to the station ( yes we still have some down here).

Some what? Lorries, telegraph poles, stations or phones?

 

[sharpener]

Its just a railway station. Doesn't affect the running of the trains, so its not critical

Most sensible businesses would think providing essential information to their customers to be mission-critical.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Most sensible businesses would think providing essential information to their customers to be mission-critical.

They may well do. But if they've got to wait for OpenReach to repair the cable, then they've got to wait

 

[talldave]

They may well do. But if they've got to wait for OpenReach to repair the cable, then they've got to wait

Or nip to Argos, buy a 4G router and stick a Three SIM in it?!

 

[Deafdoggie]

Or nip to Argos, buy a 4G router and stick a Three SIM in it?!

I don't know the complexities of PIS wiring, but i suspect it's not wireless, given unstaffed stations have it and there's nowhere for a router, and there are no wifi networks in remote places. So I guess they're hard wired ethernet

 

[geoffk]

Perhaps it's an issue with interference from Ley Lines? (This from a part-time resident of Hebden Bridge....the Totnes of the North!)

I used to live in the Calder Valley and am now in Exeter. Oddly I was saying to someone the other day that Totnes was the Hebden Bridge of Devon! Can't help with the fault though.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

They may well do. But if they've got to wait for OpenReach to repair the cable, then they've got to wait

Indeed, and Openreach hold all the cards in such circumstances. In the situation described, they're very likely to have declared MBORC (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control) and in doing so thrown the repair SLAs out of the window. It'll be fixed when it's fixed. That's how they operate.

 

[ExRes]

Indeed, and Openreach hold all the cards in such circumstances. In the situation described, they're very likely to have declared MBORC (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control) and in doing so thrown the repair SLAs out of the window. It'll be fixed when it's fixed. That's how they operate.

A few short years ago we had the delight of an Openreach man, albeit a subbie from another company, driving up from Cornwall to Brixham to fix the faults we had, it was his last week as he'd decided to become a taxi driver to increase his income!! £15 they paid him and he had to pay his own fuel costs, no wonder Openreach take so long to do repairs, they must spend most days searching the country for people prepared to be paid an idiotic and insulting wage

 

[Somewhere]

Most sensible businesses would think providing essential information to their customers to be mission-critical.

Its the railway, not NASA. Mission critical

 

[talldave]

I don't know the complexities of PIS wiring, but i suspect it's not wireless, given unstaffed stations have it and there's nowhere for a router, and there are no wifi networks in remote places. So I guess they're hard wired ethernet

A 4G router gives you ethernet from mobile/GSM. You can ignore its WiFi capabilities.

 

[Deafdoggie]

A 4G router gives you ethernet from mobile/GSM. You can ignore its WiFi capabilities.

You want them to balance a 4G router on top of every PIS?

 

[talldave]

You want them to balance a 4G router on top of every PIS?

It's not complicated. Whatever connection BT Openreach provide probably ends in an ethernet socket. Unplug whatever's plugged into it and plug it into 4G router. All other (Network Rail?) network wiring remains untouched, works as normal and effectively doesn’t know anything's changed.

 

[Parham Wood]

It will depend on what contract NR have with their network provider for the site, it will not be directly with Openreach and also what contract the network provider has with Openreach. A few years back when I was involved in UK communications (not for NR) I know that some network providers did not have a service level agreement with Openreach so it was best endeavours even though one might have a service level agreement with your network provider. Probably in this case there is some complication to restoring service. Provision of an emergency 4G link should not be difficult but it is not totally simple as you cannot just have open ended access to the 4G network. Some sort of private virtual network would be required to be set up between NR and the new router. However this is something a network engineer should be able to do in a short time and I would be surprised if they did not have similar set ups operating already.

It would be feasible to provide permanent automatic 4G backups, but there would be a cost to this. Indeed it would also be possible to just provide a 4G POS terminal to take card payments in this situation.

 

[Energy]

It's not complicated. Whatever connection BT Openreach provide probably ends in an ethernet socket. Unplug whatever's plugged into it and plug it into 4G router. All other (Network Rail?) network wiring remains untouched, works as normal and effectively doesn’t know anything's changed.

A lot of maybes in that...

The big deal for these networks is PCI compliance for card machines, a basic 4G router wouldn't support the routing required to keep devices separated. They may require a static IP for their operations (the vast majority of mobile connections are not). None of these are particularly difficult issues (and they should really have 4G backups anyway*) but for the short while the line is out its easier to send a GWR staff member with a portable machine.

*its a common issue outside the railway that many stores have 4G backups but the antenna is lumped inside the server rack so gets very poor signal.

 

[sharpener]

but for the short while the line is out its easier to send a GWR staff member with a portable machine

Hardly a "short while" if it takes well over a week to fix it. Also Post #6 upthread seems to imply it took until the 23rd to deploy someone with a portable ticket machine, not much of a Plan B. Certainly there was no such individual there on the 16th, wife had to get her ticket issued at Paddington to be able to cross London on the tube.

Went past on Friday night, all seems now to be working.