How to order DSL from when your line fails (just) the test?

Mredmond

Okay,

My line fails the DSL test on distance, although I'm connected to an enabled exchange (Navan). There is a premises less than .5k away which has DSL, so I'm very close. I'm told that I could very well get a reasonable percentage of the bandwidth available on say a 2mb connection. However when I rang Eircom today, they told me that they have no way to place an order once their system brings up a "fail" on the line checker test. Anyone had a similar issue and worked around it? Ideas?

Sponge Bob

Your internal wiring , whats the story ?

How far away are you from the exchange , road length ????

Have you tried for BT business BB which is in Navan but which has its own test as they own the DSL gear ??

Mredmond

Sponge Bob wrote:

Your internal wiring , whats the story ?

How far away are you from the exchange , road length ????

Have you tried for BT business BB which is in Navan but which has its own test as they own the DSL gear ??

SpongeBob,

Not sure about the quality of the line, but in any case its too long. At least that's what the engineer told me when I requested a specific check. The prob is that I'm just outside the 4/4.5kms range from Navan exchange. (very difficult to measure accurately due to winding roads).

Oh, and to add insult, I'm actually less than 3kms from another exchange, Kilcarn, (this one is easy to measure) which is enabled, but Eircom say they don't have any lines running to my specific area from Kilcarn exchange.

Didn't know about BT Business, you got my hopes up there, but I've just entered my number on their checker and it failed there also.

I've told Eircom that I'm willing to take my chances and pay full price if I even get half the bandwidth, but they don't have the process to accommodate me.

Laguna

Eircom won't budge on the issue. They have you down as a fail, therefore won't bother sending out an engineer regardless of you promising to pay full price for hlaf the bandwidth (which is crazy in the first place). Take it from someone who has conversed at length with Eircom for three years on broadband, if they say you can't get it, you can't, not necessarily because you're incapable of getting a DSL signal but because Eircom have done your local exchange and are not going to do a stroke more work in regards to improving your personal line connection, end of story.

Go wireless, get Metro from Digiweb.

Oh and the reason the line failed on the BT phoneline checker as well is because the line checker is the one and the same for all the DSL providers, it all comes from Eircoms database.

paulm17781

Are Smart available in Navan? If so, they would most likely give you DSL. I know there are a few people who are very far from the exchange who pay for what ever bandwidth they get. If they are available they would be your best bet.

Mredmond

Laguna wrote:

Eircom won't budge on the issue. They have you down as a fail, therefore won't bother sending out an engineer regardless of you promising to pay full price for hlaf the bandwidth (which is crazy in the first place). Take it from someone who has conversed at length with Eircom for three years on broadband, if they say you can't get it, you can't, not necessarily because you're incapable of getting a DSL signal but because Eircom have done your local exchange and are not going to do a stroke more work in regards to improving your personal line connection, end of story.

Go wireless, get Metro from Digiweb.

Oh and the reason the line failed on the BT phoneline checker as well is because the line checker is the one and the same for all the DSL providers, it all comes from Eircoms database.

No line of sight for Digiweb wireless unfortunately (metro is not avalable in Navan).

As you pointed out, the DSL providers do use Eircom's DB except for Smart afaik, who have their own set up. Thanks anyway

Mredmond

paulm17781 wrote:

Are Smart available in Navan? If so, they would most likely give you DSL. I know there are a few people who are very far from the exchange who pay for what ever bandwidth they get. If they are available they would be your best bet.

Paul,

Smart not yet in Navan - their trigger program says its on their "current network build programme", but I haven't seen any sign of it on their published lists to be honest.
I'm interested that you know people who are doing what I am willing to do, ie pay for whatever bandwidth they get despite being far from the exchange. Do you know how they managed to place their order? (Presuming thier lines failed the online check like mine) and with which supplier?
Thanks

Laguna

No, to be honest, no matter how much I want broadband, I wouldn't have the slightest desire to pay over the odds for whatever bandwidth Eircom could 'supply' to me. If I pay full price for a service, I want the full service, not some half baked/half arsed service where I'm the clown paying over the odds.

Mredmond

Laguna wrote:

some half baked/half arsed service where I'm the clown paying over the odds.

That depends on what service you're looking for and how much you are willing to pay. Eircom (and all the other DSL providers who re-use thier infrastructure) have just doubled their downstream bandwidth, does that make everyone a "clown" who, up to the day before were paying the same price for half the bandwidth?
Providers bundle their packages in an arbitrary fashion dependant on their own business model; each charges a different price for slight variations on bandwidth.
The way coverage and competition are on this country you have many people paying more than their neighbours in other counties for (sometimes) a lesser service. Some go wireless, some have to go Satellite at exorbitant prices, simply because that is al that is available to them.
That doesn't make them clowns. They are paying for something that they need, at the only price available to them. If they could get a better service, and cheaper, I'm sure they would gladly switch.

kaizersoze

mredmond wrote:

Didn't know about BT Business, you got my hopes up there, but I've just entered my number on their checker and it failed there also.

Did you try their business line checker (https://secure.btireland.ie/cgi-bin/sme/order) or the home line checker? The business checker uses their own database not Eircoms.

Blaster99

Laguna wrote:

No, to be honest, no matter how much I want broadband, I wouldn't have the slightest desire to pay over the odds for whatever bandwidth Eircom could 'supply' to me. If I pay full price for a service, I want the full service, not some half baked/half arsed service where I'm the clown paying over the odds.

Not everyone gets the full service. It depends on your line quality. Chances are many who currently fail the test could get 512kbps, but perhaps with some amount of disconnects.

Mredmond, have you tried the usual lark and disconnected everything from your phone line except a normal wired phone? Stuff like cordless phones, Sky digibox, etc. This can help to pass the test.

hobie

Not everyone gets the full service. It depends on your line quality. Chances are many who currently fail the test could get 512kbps, but perhaps with some amount of disconnects

and remember dial-up is typically 40k max in operation :eek: ...... I would have been delighted to get anything like 512kps when I was on Dial-up (up to last bleeding week !!!! ) ....

Laguna

Mredmond, I'm not inferring you're a clown because of your proposal to Eircom to overpay for a service, it just annoys me to the extreme that people like yourself (and myself and, well, many others) who practically (and in your case actually do so) have to bribe €ircon to give you some class of DSL service in 2006. This is beyond a joke, getting BB in this country is akin to winning the EuroMillions, unless you live in the social meccas such as Dublin, Cork, Galway or Limerick, your chances are slim to none.

I live in rural Carlow, 6km from an enabled exchange (Borris), years of phonecalls finally resulted in me being told that before Christmas that BB was coming to Borris, overjoyed I left it at that. The Eircom technicians (and I use the term generously) came and went, low and behold, because I live beyond the fabled 4.5km DSL (imposed) limit, no BB for me!. I received in black and white that Eircom see the area as done (i.e. implicating no more work is to bee done in the area) and people like myself living beyond the 4.5km can go **** ourselves.

Long story; I know, but perhaps you can see why I refuse point blank to EVER pay Eircom over the odds for (in my opinion) a basic commodity in the 21st Century, nay, part with money to Eircom in any form, I'd rather go without and hope that maybe that the Aesops Fable of WiMax proves to br true in the near future...

Prosta

Same as Mredmond.
On the Navan exchange but too far out.
Digiweb wireless survey last week. 2bar signal when I need 4bars.
Kilcarn exchange is closer but I'm not on it.

Failed the BT Business checker linked above.

I get 42k - 45k on dialup. Is this any indication of line quality?

Grasping at straws here .... If I requested a 2nd phone line, would it go to the Kilcarn exchange or Navan?

kaizersoze

Prosta wrote:

I get 42k - 45k on dialup. Is this any indication of line quality?

Grasping at straws here .... If I requested a 2nd phone line, would it go to the Kilcarn exchange or Navan?

The dial up speed means you don't have splitter on your line but other than that it doesn't mean much.
Eircom told Mredmond that the didn't have lines going to that area from the Kilcarn exchange so it's more likely that any new line will go to the Navan exchange.

blocparty

Blaster99 wrote:

Mredmond, have you tried the usual lark and disconnected everything from your phone line except a normal wired phone? Stuff like cordless phones, Sky digibox, etc. This can help to pass the test.

im in a similar situation in cork. im about 3-4km from an enabled exchange. smart can offer us broadband but my parents dont want to change number meanig we would have to get a new phone line which would cost €120. we could also get metro but my parents dont want to get VOIP instead of a regular service because our area is a bit dodgy for power cuts.

a few years ago my brother put in a number of extra phones throughout the house. there is now a total of 5 phones in the house 3 done by my brother. i dont even know why we need that many phones but its dones now. so i was wondering would this cause my line to fail/ if so is there anyway of fixin the problem?

Mredmond

Laguna wrote:

Mredmond, I'm not inferring you're a clown because of your proposal to Eircom to overpay for a service, it just annoys me to the extreme that people like yourself (and myself and, well, many others) who practically (and in your case actually do so) have to bribe €ircon to give you some class of DSL service in 2006. QUOTE]

That's Okay Laguna, I might have taken you up wrong so. Thanks for the help anyway.

Mredmond

Prosta wrote:

Same as Mredmond.
On the Navan exchange but too far out.
Digiweb wireless survey last week. 2bar signal when I need 4bars.
Kilcarn exchange is closer but I'm not on it.

Failed the BT Business checker linked above.

I get 42k - 45k on dialup. Is this any indication of line quality?

Grasping at straws here .... If I requested a 2nd phone line, would it go to the Kilcarn exchange or Navan?

Prosta, I actually placed an order for Eircom for a new line. They took the order, gave me my new number on the Kilcarn exchamge, sent me a bill for €120 approx with a new account number.....and then the local engineer rang and told me that they have no lines going out my way, and that there were no plans to run any new ones out!

BTW, Have you registered for the Smart trigger program?

Sponge Bob

Mredmond wrote:

Prosta, I actually placed an order for Eircom for a new line. They took the order, gave me my new number on the Kilcarn exchamge, sent me a bill for €120 approx with a new account number.....and then the local engineer rang and told me that they have no lines going out my way, and that there were no plans to run any new ones out!

As you are in the constiuency of our esteemed Minister of Communications I would write to him asking if he could get you a nice satellite connection seeing as there is nothing more high tech in your part of Navan.

Write weekly until he sorts something !

1huge1

is it true that you always fail the dsl test if you have isdn even if your in a dsl area?

Laguna

1huge1 wrote:

is it true that you always fail the dsl test if you have isdn even if your in a dsl area?

Yes

weeder

do you heave a d.e.c.t phone?????

Blaster99

Laguna wrote:

Yes

I had ISDN and and those two numbers passed the test. My other phone line did not, however.

Mredmond

Blaster99 wrote:

Mredmond, have you tried the usual lark and disconnected everything from your phone line except a normal wired phone? Stuff like cordless phones, Sky digibox, etc. This can help to pass the test.

Blaster, I have 2 Sky boxes & a cordless phone, but I had the number tested with these disconnected. The other thing I have, a relic of the previous owners, is a Phonewatch set up (unsubscribed, but still sitting on the line). The Eircom Broadband techies assure me that this would not cause the line to fail the DSL test, but I do have a lingering suspicion. Its just not that easy to disconnect, with the the way its wired up.

Blaster99

Yeah, get rid of it.

When these tests were done, were they actually doing the tests or reading test results from a database?