DSL Enabled - and then not!

noelcosgrave

Last February, I found that, after waiting some considerable time, that DSL was available to my number (on the Drogheda exchange). Of course, I signed up immediately. For the first couple of months it worked reasonably well, with the router losing sync for only a few minutes a day, and running at 1MB/s. At that time the reported attenuation on the line was 45db.

In April the bandwidth was increased to 2MB/s and from around that point in time I have a deteriorating service - now available at most 5% of the time, with router struggling to maintain sync for the remaining 95%. Also the line attenuation appears to have jumped to 63-65db with a noise margin of around 6-7db. From what I can see, eircom have swapped me onto an inferior copper pair, as nothing else could explain a 20db increase in attenuation.

At this point in time, they (eircom) claim the line is not DSL capable, despite the fact that there is a DSL service enabled on it. My ISP is unable to persuade eircom to get the finger out and do something, suggesting that they refund all or part of my sub.

Has anyone else had the experience of having broadband enabled, and then being told that the line is no longer capable of delivering DSL? If so, what did you do about it, if anything?

As an aside, does anyone know if there are any faceplace filters available to replace the standard eircom phone socket faceplate? Such filters are frequently of higher quality and can improve performance of DSL on marginal lines.

Sponge Bob

Eircom GUARANTEE a constant minimum speed of 256 kbits once they pass your line for BB , the min speed is higher on some of the business class packages but its 256k on the residential ones . This 256k is a floor, the guarantee is for a constant 256k not an intemittent 256k.

Passing a line and enabling the line is effectively a contractual GUARANTEE that this 256k minimum will be honoured by Eircom (Eircom Wholesale provide this guarantee ) for the duration of the . If Eircom need to carry out engineering work to ensure that they continue to honour this contractual guarantee they must do it .

I would email phil.nolan@eircom.ie and remind him of this guarantee . If there is any faffle then bring Comreg into the loop pronto .

Get it fixed now while you are still in contract , if out of contract then its tough luckski.

HTH

noelcosgrave

Sponge Bob wrote:

Eircom GUARANTEE a constant minimum speed of 256 kbits once they pass your line for BB , the min speed is higher on some of the business class packages but its 256k on the residential ones . This 256k is a floor, the guarantee is for a constant 256k not an intemittent 256k.

Can you provide any references for that, preferably online? My connection is on a business class pacakge, FWIW.

Passing a line and enabling the line is effectively a contractual GUARANTEE that this 256k minimum will be honoured by Eircom (Eircom Wholesale provide this guarantee ) for the duration of the . If Eircom need to carry out engineering work to ensure that they continue to honour this contractual guarantee they must do it .

Eircom, despite having received several requests from Digiweb, have done precisely nothing about it.

I would email phil.nolan@eircom.ie and remind him of this guarantee . If there is any faffle then bring Comreg into the loop pronto .

I have already contacted ComWreck and they have not even responded to me, let alone got their finger out and done something.

Get it fixed now while you are still in contract , if out of contract then its tough luckski.

Thanks for the pointer on that. I guess I have a couple more months to sort it out then...

Sponge Bob

noelcosgrave wrote:

Can you provide any references for that, preferably online? My connection is on a business class package, FWIW.

Its hidden on the eircomwholesale.ie site .....somewhere . rate adaptive of any sort is min 256k on the downstream no min on the upstream that I know of , grind thru this lot Here . The minimum guarantee given by Eircom Wholesale is repeated on the Eircom Retail site here , all Bitstream carriers get this guarantee from Eircom Wholesale, not just Eircom Retail .

Eircom, despite having received several requests from Digiweb, have done precisely nothing about it.

sounds typical enough.

I have already contacted ComWreck and they have not even responded to me, let alone got their finger out and done something.

you must formally complain to your carrier first and wait 10 days for a full resolution, complain to digiweb and complaints@eircom.ie today , just tell them you want your minimum 256k for the moment.

Thanks for the pointer on that. I guess I have a couple more months to sort it out then...

You can get the rebate for loss of service after its fixed but if you go out of contract they will never fix your line . If you had 10% service for 6 months you may demand 90% of your money back once its working .

lucernarian

Are you sure the line has been interfered with in some way? The higher attenuation could boil down to the line not capable of supporting higher speeds/frequencies. It could be that you are at a fairly long distance away from the exchange - where are you located anyway?

Am I right in saying that the figure you get for attenuation varies depending on the speed it's supposed to be at?

kaizersoze

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Am I right in saying that the figure you get for attenuation varies depending on the speed it's supposed to be at?

Possibly but I think it's more related to distance AFAIK.

noelcosgrave

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Are you sure the line has been interfered with in some way? The higher attenuation could boil down to the line not capable of supporting higher speeds/frequencies. It could be that you are at a fairly long distance away from the exchange - where are you located anyway?

Am I right in saying that the figure you get for attenuation varies depending on the speed it's supposed to be at?

No, I don't remember anything in the DSL spec that suggests that attenuation varies with line speed. Attenuation is a static characteristic of the line, regardless of speed, or indeed regardless of whether the line is DSL enabled.

Lines with higher attenuation do not support higher speeds, and very high attenuation means no DSL support at all. My line attenuation jumped from a figure in the 40's to a figure in the 60's, and this increase is far to great to be explained away by bad cable jointing or whatever.

In theory the attenuation currently on my line should mean that I have no DSL, and indeed Eircom say that the line is not DSL capable. However, the fact remains that they would NEVER have enabled DSL if the overall performance of the line was not significantly better at the time I made the request. As telco's go, eircom's DSL-enabling criteria are considerably more conservative than others around Europe, so the line must have near flawless... once upon a time!!

lucernarian

noelcosgrave wrote:

No, I don't remember anything in the DSL spec that suggests that attenuation varies with line speed. Attenuation is a static characteristic of the line, regardless of speed, or indeed regardless of whether the line is DSL enabled.

Lines with higher attenuation do not support higher speeds, and very high attenuation means no DSL support at all. My line attenuation jumped from a figure in the 40's to a figure in the 60's, and this increase is far to great to be explained away by bad cable jointing or whatever.

In theory the attenuation currently on my line should mean that I have no DSL, and indeed Eircom say that the line is not DSL capable. However, the fact remains that they would NEVER have enabled DSL if the overall performance of the line was not significantly better at the time I made the request. As telco's go, eircom's DSL-enabling criteria are considerably more conservative than others around Europe, so the line must have near flawless... once upon a time!!

Sorry, my bad about the line attenuation thing. I guess the attenuation figure is measured on a certain frequency then? E.G 400 kHz?

Do you know if any Eircom men were working on the line? To be honest, if I saw a jump in attenuation like that which was not caused by a speed upgrade, then I'd say there's a fault on the line.

Like SpongeBob said, complain to digiweb and eircom. There's clearly a problem that can be resolved as your bb worked before. Have you made any changes to the line in your home/premises like adding a phone etc.?

noelcosgrave

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Sorry, my bad about the line attenuation thing. I guess the attenuation figure is measured on a certain frequency then? E.G 400 kHz?

As far as I know, it is a mean attenuation over a range of frequencies.

Do you know if any Eircom men were working on the line? To be honest, if I saw a jump in attenuation like that which was not caused by a speed upgrade, then I'd say there's a fault on the line.

Not that I know of, but there is a huge amount of building work going on around here, so I am sure Eircom have been working in the general vicinity.

Like SpongeBob said, complain to digiweb and eircom. There's clearly a problem that can be resolved as your bb worked before. Have you made any changes to the line in your home/premises like adding a phone etc.?

As soon as the holiday period is over, I will complain (again) to both Digiweb and Eircom. I have made no changes, and the figures quoted are for connection of the router directly to the master socket with no other extension cabling connected.

lucernarian

Hmm it seems very likely Eircom are responsible in some shape or form. Nothing much else you can do until you complain. What street are you on anyway? It could be a while before cables are sorted out if footpaths are being dug up.

Btw eircom provide their own special ADSL faceplates, it's white with 2 RJ11 ports on it. I don't know how you could get hold of one. I thought they were used for engineer installs if they were needed.

bk

One thing you should watch out for, devices on your telephone line can cause higher attenuation.

Something like a faulty telephone could cause that.

Try removing all phone equipment but the modem and check if it improves.

However it is more then likely a problem with the line outside your house. Maybe Eircom have put a pairgain on your line to give a neighbour an extra line or perhaps the line has been damaged and is shorting.

DialUpMeArse

I have a similar situation where I live. Basically it seems that every second person has a BB enabled phone line.

And every second person doesn't.

And this enigma has materialised in a housing estate of bungalows, pobably about 1.5 times the size of Croke Park...if even. All the numbers in the estate are either 2810 or 2819.


Fcuk Eircom. And every Motherfcuker they employ. Pardon my FRENCH but I'm about sick of this backward ****pot of a Country.