ISDN Downgrade tomorrow afternoon. Anything I should know/ask/watchout for??

Calibos

Background - My line fails despite all my neighbours including both semi-D nextdoor neighbours passing. ie Distance and line quality within the estate not an issue. Some may remember me posting pics of the 3 inches of exposed and worn line from the eircom manhole at the bottom of my drive. Thank God I balked at the cost of having a new line run to the house because lo and behold Eircom contractors (TE Telecom) arrived a few weeks ago in the estate to replace all estate trunk and 'to the door' wiring....utilising the ducting they installed by digging up our gardens 7 years ago!! Apparently the upgrade work started with the laying of this ducting but was cancelled before the new wiring was done and it took Eircom 7 years to get back around to it!! :D:D

Waited a month after the new wiring was done to give the autotest a chance. Went to the online checker and got a popup saying 'you have exceeded your 200 linecheck allowance. Please call 1901 for further rechecks!! No way have I checked my line 200 times....but anyway!! So that leaves Fax, Dect and internal wiring and ISDN as my line fail culprits. Now I figure its probably ISDN thats causing the trouble so a downgrade is a given but I figured, well chances are the engineer can do an onsite line check and we can disconnect the other gear for it aswell meaning I wont have do endure that disconnect everything for at least a month malarkey.

So!!!!.........Got a call confirming an engineer appointment for Tuesday (Today assuming this is read after midnight ) 2-4pm for an ISDN Downgrade. Slightly worried that my original downgrade order through the BB Dept was not processed and this order through a 1901 Biddy was. ie not sure if I mentioned to biddy that it was for a BB test. Will this make any differance as to the type or Eircom engineer they send out?? And even if it is am I naive in thinking he will do a live line test for me??

ie will it be a case of he goes to exchange and disconnects ISDN on my line there....comes up to the house and disconnects my ISDN box, (I disconnect the other gear and extension)........he rings Test Dept for a live test..........

.....I pass and they amend the database......He takes ISDN box....and then I proceed to start the ball rolling with a clicksilver order :D
OR
.....I fail and he reconnects ISDN...I reconnect gear and extension.....he goes back to exchange and reconnects ISDN there and Broadband GameOver :frown:
Is this the way downgrades go as a matter of course or will I have to Bribe him to put me out of my misery quickly:D:D

OR

Worst case will he just disconnect ISDN and go, leaving me with instructions that when I finally get an auto test after a week or six :D and fail...that I should call him back to refit the ISDN???

Thanks for any advice in advance!

Keith

BKtje

Worst case will he just disconnect ISDN and go, leaving me with instructions that when I finally get an auto test after a week or six

That is the most likely outcome im afraid. I dont think they can do an on demand test tho i could be wrong. They will not reconnect your ISDN afdter disconnecting it on the same day for the same price afaik.

No way have I checked my line 200 times

I dunno what this is. i cant believe it matters how many times you check and i doubt its been 200months since the auto line checking started so tbh i dunno wtf that is. Maybe someone else can answer this for you.

Good luck tomorrow tho

Calibos

You won't effing believe this!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

No one else has heard of this 'exceeded line check limit' popup thingie and the BB Dept guy I originally ordered the downgrade from hadn't heard of it either. I didn't imagine it so I've just gone to the prequal online check thing to invoke it again and cut and paste the text. Guess what, no popup thing. Guess what I entered my number. Guess what. My line now passes!!!!! ****ing typical!!! I finally get a downgrade appointment for tomorrow and I pass the night before!!!

So now the situation has changed to
..........Do I let the downgrade proceed for €30 and buy a 56k modem for €30......try and cope with analogue dial up for a few weeks till I get my self install pack for €99--total cost about €159
OR
Cancel the downgrade, keep ISDN till UTV process an engineer install for €199 ie seamless transition straight from lovely ISDN to even lovelier BB but it cost €40. TBH the money isn't an issue??

As Victor Meldrew always said........"I don't beliiiieeeevvvvveee IT!!"

:D:D

LastIrishMonkey

Get the downgrade but be sure to pester em afterwards because my line kept failing till they updated the onlinetest thingy

Calibos

Thats whats so funny and maddening and silly and great all at the same time!! My line has passed now.....before the downgrade!!

machalla

I'll be moving to a new house shortly which apparently had ISDN on the lines.

The Line should have been turned off by the previous owner before I move in but will I still have to downgrade the line to get them it to pass for broadband or would it be automatically downgraded by the previous owner finishing up their account? I know in the past ISDN on the line seemed to cause an automatic line failure. Any info on this?

Calibos

Update.

The wiring from my Eircom manhole to my house was upgraded/replaced by eircom contractors luckily before I ordered a new line saving me a hundred or two. I left it about 4 to five weeks and then checked the online checker which gave me that 'exceeded line check' popup. I then phoned the BB department. He consulted the database and my line still failed so I was convinced that the bit of exposed line on the path musn't have been an issue after all. It must be ISDN. So I ordered a downgrade which was never processed. That was 4 weeks ago. I rang biddy on 1901 on Friday and she re-ordered the downgrade. Got a call yesterday to confirm downgrade appointment. Checked the online checker last night for a laugh and......Pass...before the downgrade!! So I can only surmise that I hadn't left it long enough when I rang 4 weeks ago for the auto test to run. I never thought of checking it again since then till last night. So it wasn't ISDN or my extension, faxes, etc it really was the gammy exposed cable after all!!

So downgrade was done this morning, I rang UTV to let them know to process my clicksilver order and that there was no need to organise a downgrade cause its already been done. Might speed up the process?! I got a cheap internal 56k modem which I have just hooked up and I am now getting 50.6k which is pretty much top notch for analogue 56k. That also seems to indicate a gammy exposed line being the culprit all along as I never got above 40k when I was originally on 56k. Browsing is nearly as fast as I was getting on ISDN atm!!

I am now a Happy Camper!! :D

RobertFoster

Originally posted by machalla
I'll be moving to a new house shortly which apparently had ISDN on the lines.

The Line should have been turned off by the previous owner before I move in but will I still have to downgrade the line to get them it to pass for broadband or would it be automatically downgraded by the previous owner finishing up their account? I know in the past ISDN on the line seemed to cause an automatic line failure. Any info on this?

ISDN doesn't automatically fail your line. I had ISDN and it passed.

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by RobertFoster
ISDN doesn't automatically fail your line. I had ISDN and it passed.

yeh, well i'm still on isdn atm but my line passed the online tester thingy if that means anything

machalla

Thanks for the info on the ISDN folks.

jbkenn

My ISDN downgrade was done at the exchange, the engineer only called to my house to leave a hand written note with his Mobile no., to call if there were any problems, I called him to ask did he need to remove the "Hi-Speed" box, he said no, just plug the phone into the analog port and "sure you might want ISDN again"

jbkenn

exiot

I got the downgrade from ISDN to PSTN, then to Broadband, done in a matter of about 15 minutes and no problems at all

Calibos

He took my wall box but didn't want the eicon diva serial TA. I would have probably gone with the engineer install for convenience sake Exiot if I had known my line was now passing before I ordered the standalone downgrade. ie in which case the downgrade from ISDN and upgrade to DSL would have been done at the same time like in your case. As it stands now, I'm downgraded and will get a self install pack which actually works out cheaper anyway so I'm not complaining. ie €30 downgrade fee and €99 Self install fee. Engineer install is still €199 isn't it??