ISDN alternatives to Eircom

k123456

My company is having issues with Eircom supplied ISDN's (used for video confercing)

One of the suggestions is to move to another ISDN supplier, our office is in Sandyford ind est

If we move to another supplier, will we still be going thru eircom exchanges, usin eircom lines etc , ie do other suppliers piggy back on the eircom infrastructure

zipzoc

Yes. All providers 'piggyback' on Eircom's lines. Hence the astronomical line rental fee you can't avoid paying no matter which company you move to! I read somewhere it's the highest in Europe if not the world!

Vanbis

k123456 wrote: »

My company is having issues with Eircom supplied ISDN's (used for video confercing)

One of the suggestions is to move to another ISDN supplier, our office is in Sandyford ind est

If we move to another supplier, will we still be going thru eircom exchanges, usin eircom lines etc , ie do other suppliers piggy back on the eircom infrastructure

No matter what provider you move to it will still be the same line just re-sold to another ISP, even faults will go back through to Eircom.

What is the acutally issue you are having?

k123456

Vanbis wrote: »

No matter what provider you move to it will still be the same line just re-sold to another ISP, even faults will go back through to Eircom.

What is the acutally issue you are having?

Its a long story,
4 isdn's into a polycom vc system, all fine outbound, inbound drops channels so sometimes, inbound runs at 128, 256,384 and rarely 512

Our VC company sent over a portable VC unit to test,which we hooked up to the 4 isdn's

same prob as our main vc unit, so assumption is isdn issue, Eircom say all OK with isdn's

Vanbis

k123456 wrote: »

Its a long story,
4 isdn's into a polycom vc system, all fine outbound, inbound drops channels so sometimes, inbound runs at 128, 256,384 and rarely 512

Our VC company sent over a portable VC unit to test,which we hooked up to the 4 isdn's

same prob as our main vc unit, so assumption is isdn issue, Eircom say all OK with isdn's

I presume this only has happened in the last while? Surley when you report this to Eircom to check the line they can see the drops? Can you produce or get a log report with the drops for the in coming and prove to eircom its not your equipment causing the drops. Your VC company has proved its not your equipment, i know eircom and how this works you just have push this further until its resovled, you've already proved the equipment is not the problem.

Solair

ISDN's ancient and usually pretty robust.

If you've an issue with the eircom service, you can move to another provider. They'll still be using eircom's gear to provide the service, but it's a significant loss of revenue to eircom itself if you switch.

I would therefore ring them up, ask to speak to an account manager in their business customer service unit and tell them that you will be moving to another provider.

If you are in a large industrial estate like Sandyford there may be other alternatives e.g. do you really need to use ISDN for video conferencing in this day and age?

There must be IP-based alternatives, possibly even ones that will still talk to old ISDN video conferencing facilities you're dialing into.

Dardania

Solair wrote: »

ISDN's ancient and usually pretty robust.

If you've an issue with the eircom service, you can move to another provider. They'll still be using eircom's gear to provide the service, but it's a significant loss of revenue to eircom itself if you switch.

I would therefore ring them up, ask to speak to an account manager in their business customer service unit and tell them that you will be moving to another provider.

If you are in a large industrial estate like Sandyford there may be other alternatives e.g. do you really need to use ISDN for video conferencing in this day and age?

There must be IP-based alternatives, possibly even ones that will still talk to old ISDN video conferencing facilities you're dialing into.

Exactly what I was going to suggest - ditch ISDN altogether

FruitLover

First thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was "WTF is anyone still using ISDN in 2010 for??". An IP-based system (e.g. running over SDSL) could be more versatile and will probably work out much cheaper in the long run. You also won't be tied to a single provider.

William Powell

Don't know if this is relevant but first question I'd ask is how are the ISDN lines set up at Eircoms end, Point to Point (what I think you require but double check) or Point to Multipoint. If you can get any connection at all I doubt that is the problem as that can be a show stopper but all the same its a dumb question that has to be asked

k123456

William Powell wrote: »

Don't know if this is relevant but first question I'd ask is how are the ISDN lines set up at Eircoms end, Point to Point (what I think you require but double check) or Point to Multipoint. If you can get any connection at all I doubt that is the problem as that can be a show stopper but all the same its a dumb question that has to be asked

Hi William, thats a good point, and I will find out from Eircom;

Whats the difference between Point to Point or Point to Multipoint

William Powell

All you need to know is that equipment set up to use one can't use the other. Check the polycom manual and see what they require.

Point to Multipoint would be the standard setup if you were going to put a telephone exchange on the end of the lines, but then the ISDN line isn't terminated at the box on the wall so a phone or moden plugged directly in will not work!

Simplest way to test is to get a ISDN modem (the old Draytek usb miniVigor128's that eircom used to sell are good) and see if you can do a dialup connection to the internet. Try each line, any that allow you to connect are set up Point to Point, but if you can't connect then they are more than likely set up as Point to MultiPoint. The settings can only be changed back at the Eircom Exchange.

I wouldn't believe what Eircom say on the phone as you probably won't speak to anyone who even knows what you are on about, I've wasted hours in the past with them on site over this, only way to be sure is to get a phone engineer to check or get an Eircom engineer to check.

PogMoThoin

Can I ask why are You using Isdn and not Dsl in this day and age? Must be costing a fortune