phone line over ISDN?

jaws104

Despite fitting new splitters the broadband line would drop repeatedly, so I tested connecting modem downstairs and bingo worked perfectly

As it's not feasible putting modem downstairs longterm I'll have to rewire. I do have an Isdn line that was installed a few years ago though, and wondered if it's possible to route the phoneline through this?

Would save me a ton of grief

ttm

Do you have an eircom isdn plug and play box terminating ISDN the connection, if so these boxes have two analogue phone ports you can use. Phone your mobile from these with a std phone plugged in to check what your numbers are.

mackerooney

jaws104 wrote: »

Despite fitting new splitters the broadband line would drop repeatedly, so I tested connecting modem downstairs and bingo worked perfectly

As it's not feasible putting modem downstairs longterm I'll have to rewire. I do have an Isdn line that was installed a few years ago though, and wondered if it's possible to route the phoneline through this?

Would save me a ton of grief

I'm not a 100% clear on what you are trying to achieve here. Does your broadband line come in downstairs and you believe the issue on your broadband is casued by the link cable to upstairs? Is so, it is likely that your ISDN line will also come in downstairs and probably use the same link cable. If not try using that link cable rather than recabling? Or have I completely misunderstood the problem?

jaws104

mackerooney wrote: »

I'm not a 100% clear on what you are trying to achieve here. Does your broadband line come in downstairs and you believe the issue on your broadband is casued by the link cable to upstairs? Is so, it is likely that your ISDN line will also come in downstairs and probably use the same link cable. If not try using that link cable rather than recabling? Or have I completely misunderstood the problem?

OK the ISDN line comes in to the house downstairs and is wired seperately from the regular phone line/broadband to upstairs, ie. it just goes straight up the stairs as opposed to through walls/ceilings skirting boards etc.). It does originate from the same "box" downstairs though

The isdn line terminates with a single phone port. Edit:: and yes I believe the old phone line cabling to upstairs is damaged and the cause of the adsl line drops

ttm

jaws104 wrote: »

OK the ISDN line comes in to the house downstairs and is wired seperately from the regular phone line/broadband to upstairs, ie. it just goes straight up the stairs as opposed to through walls/ceilings skirting boards etc.). It does originate from the same "box" downstairs though

The isdn line terminates with a single phone port. Edit:: and yes I believe the old phone line cabling to upstairs is damaged and the cause of the adsl line drops

Yes you can. All we are talking about is how a bit of multicore cable is wired at each end. If you think the pair of wires that goes upstairs is damaged there will probabaly be another pair spare unused pair you can swap it with, or you can run your own new cable. But do be sure you can put it back the way it was if you screw up

mackerooney

jaws104 wrote: »

OK the ISDN line comes in to the house downstairs and is wired seperately from the regular phone line/broadband to upstairs, ie. it just goes straight up the stairs as opposed to through walls/ceilings skirting boards etc.). It does originate from the same "box" downstairs though

The isdn line terminates with a single phone port. Edit:: and yes I believe the old phone line cabling to upstairs is damaged and the cause of the adsl line drops

First point of call should be to check the termination of the broadband line onto the link cable. Best bet is to punch down onto a single Krone strip before you start rerunning the cables.

Solair

I'm not quite clear on a few points.

1) Is the ISDN line still active and in use ? If so, you cannot use it for DSL services. It's a completely different telephone line coming into your home the one that your DSL/normal phone is on. You could ask eircom to downgrade it to a normal telephone service and get your DSL moved over to that line.

2) If it's an old ISDN line which you longer use, you can re-use the existing wiring for your standard phone + DSL. There's nothing particularly unusual about the wiring used for ISDN, it's just standard multicore telephone cable.

Telephone connections only need two wires in a multicore cable.

It's generally best to use good quality cable e.g. cat5, even though you won't use all the cores it gives you spare pairs should you need them and more importantly it is very well shielded against interference which is important for DSL.

If you really don't want to rewire, what you could do is simply buy a wireless router and leave the modem downstairs. Many routers come with USB adaptors that can be plugged into the back of existing PCs to make them wireless enabled.

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To test your line for noise the simplest approach is :

Plug in a standard telephone to the socket you want to test.

Dial any key on the phone, this will silence the dial tone for a few seconds.

Listen very carefully and you will hear any buzz / crackles on the line.