were do i go from here ?

peterk19

i have just been onto eircom and my line is not suitable for broadband but i am within disatance of the exchange it got something to do with i only have a 2 wire cable running into my house so i was just wondering does anybody know were i can go from here any info would be appreciated
Pete

PowerHouseDan

get a new fone line in?seems to be the only op,

tomk

Originally posted by peterk19
It's got something to do with only having a 2 wire cable running into my house

If that's what they've given you as an explanation, it's BS. Two wires is all you need, as long as they are of the required quality. It's more likely that the wiring is sub-standard, but €ircon are not required to do anything about it as long as your voice service works.

If you're sufficiently interested, get back on to whoever gave you the "2 wires" story, and ask them for a real reason. It probably won't help you get BB, though.

Are you in any of the wireless or cable BB areas?

Mutant_Fruit

a new phone line doesn't always help! Its an expensive mistake to make if it doesn't fix the problem.

If a neighbour on either side of you has DSL broadband then the odds are a new line would fix it, but if they fail aswell, then you are practically guarenteed that a new line to your house won't fix it.

iwb

I bitched and complained for three months until my line magically started passing.
One thing you can do is call 1901 and ask them to check the line for voice. Tell them the quality is bad or something. If they find a problem, they will come fix it which might solve the DSL problem but it is a long shot.
You can also request that they come out to fix a problem even if 1901 don't find one but if there is no problem, you will be charged for the call out.
If someone in your area has DSL, cut a deal to share it with them wirelessly. It is legal to share the bandwidth as long as your t and c's don't preclude it. It just isn't legal to share the cost typically.

peterk19

im in Donaghmede so thees no cable and apparently wireless is a bit expensive for what you get ill try the bitching until they sort it that and i might ask around to see if anyone knows a eircom engineer that may take a look at the wireing and give me a real answer has anybody got any contacts icould use that may get me better joy than 1901
thanks for all the help
Pete

blobert

I'm in the same boat as you matey.

Eircom say our phone line is good enough for voice calls (the quality is pretty porr actually) so they aren't keen on re-installing the lines. Rather than hound them for months I've signed up for Irish Broadband. That's not going so well. They promised to install within 3-4 weeks. That was two months ago. I still haven't been given a date for a line of sight test.

I have found the customer service levels of both Eircom and IBB to be truely dreadful.
Having lived in the states and britain for a while it really is a joke in comparison. Surely some company could set up and deliver on their promises?

Anyway try IBB and see it you are in their range.

peterk19

yea i know i had broadband in nea zealand and they had it installed in 2 days no messing about at all that and every house seems to be capable of having it ah well this is what ive come to expect from company within ireland the funny thing is peopl seem to just accept it.
Pete

Calibos

I second what Mutant Fruit said.

Thats how I tracked down my issue.

I was never sure whether my problem was

1-Distance from the exchange
2-Crap Wiring somewhere between me and the exchange
3-Crap wiring within my estate
4-Crap wiring between the Eircom junction box at the end of my drive
5-The fact that I had ISDN
6-The fact that I had a Dect on an extension and a Fax Machine

The online checker at www..adsl.ie was useless and provided little or no helpful information other than you line passed or failed for unknown reasons. That changed a few months ago when they removed the requirement for account numbers!

When I found out about this I looked up all my neighbours phone numbers in the phonebook and entered them on the online checker. 8 out of 10 passed. This ruled out reasons 1,2&3. There is an Eircom manhole/junctionbox at the bottom of my drive and another one across the road. The fact that both nextdoor neighbours on either side of me passed and whom would be connected to the same box as me, indicated that the problem was between the box and me. ie It could be reason 4,5 or 6. So the simple removal of the account number requirement has helped me eliminate 50% of the possible causes for my line failures.

As for 4,5&6 I could have tackled them in any order but seeing as about 2 inches of my phoneline was exposed coming out of the manhole infront of my drive and had been worn by cars driving over it, it was reasonable to assume that this was the root of my problem. IN this case there was a high probability that the installation of a new line would solve my problems. Fortunately before I forked out €150 for a new line, Eircom contractors arrived in the estate and upgraded all the lines of every house. So I got my new line without having to pay for it. I waited a full month to give the autotest a chance to run (they run it once a month) and for the test result database to be updated (where the online checker gets its results) and now my line passes and I have had my ISDN downgraded and have now ordered BB from UTV (my test result/downgrade and BB ordering was a little bit messy and confused for reasons I haven't gone into in this thread lest it confuse the issue).

Anyway if you can rule out 1,2&3 then great. You probably don't have damaged exposed line issues like me so you probably don't have an issue 4. If you don't have ISDN which can cause fails apparently though not in my case or many others then you have no issue 5 so that then leaves your 6 internal wiring and equipment. Best thing to do there which is mightily inconvenient but necessary if you want to go the whole nine yards to get your pass is to disconnect all equipment and extensions bar one bog standard phone (one that does not need its own power plug) for 4-5 weeks. The autotest will eventually run sometime in that month and if any of those items was causing your fail then with them disconnected you should pass. Cancelling call answering on your line might be a good idea to.(at least I think I heard that somewhere) If all this fails to get you a pass then your last option is to pay for a new line. If that fails....your ****ed!! If it passes then you can transfer your number to the new line, cancell your old line, order BB and when you have BB then you can reconnect your extensions and equipment which BTW don't conflict with BB itself, just the BB Line Test.

Good Luck

Keith

iwb

Calibos,
fair dues to you for a very comprehensive and helpful post. However, one big caution. I think it would be wrong to assume that because many other lines locally passed, that yours will also.
There are quite a few other possible reasons for the line not passing besides distance and the last few feet of copper.
Even if you eliminate line splitters, loading coils, line taps and waterlogged lines, it is still possible that the pair you get from the exchange is from a different cable which might just happen to have different problems.
To be honest, every time I see an eircom technician jointing a cable, I wonder how even voice signals pass over it. I know it is the done thing, but it looks so dodgy.
I do agree that it is more likely that a new line will pass if your neighbours pass but I don't know if I would risk it. My line was never going to pass, even though my next door neighbours passed and I live in an apartment!