Another reason to get Smart?

digitaldr

I'm currently with Digiweb DSL (Whitehall exchange) and my broadband has been down since last Friday. My dsl light is out and I didn't change any settings (phone works fine from the phone socket on the filter). Resetting the modem didn't help. Digiweb felt - probably quite rightly - that it's a line fault more than likely connected with the upgrades and contacted Eircom on Monday who finally bothered their ar*es checking it out today. They say it's not a line fault and will be sending an engineer to my house who no doubt will discover that it's a line fault after all and so the saga will drag on and on....

Anyway, am I right in thinking that going with Smart will cut Eircom out of the equation entirely? Maybe Smart will turn out to be worse than Eircom!

digitaldr

digitaldr wrote:

I'm currently with Digiweb DSL (Whitehall exchange) and my broadband has been down since last Friday. My dsl light is out and I didn't change any settings (phone works fine from the phone socket on the filter). Resetting the modem didn't help. Digiweb felt - probably quite rightly - that it's a line fault more than likely connected with the upgrades and contacted Eircom on Monday who finally bothered their ar*es checking it out today. They say it's not a line fault and will be sending an engineer to my house who no doubt will discover that it's a line fault after all and so the saga will drag on and on....

Anyway, am I right in thinking that going with Smart will cut Eircom out of the equation entirely? Maybe Smart will turn out to be worse than Eircom!

If your line can't handle DSL now that probably won't change with smart.
Its the same line afterall.

Anarchist

Has anyone actually got Smart yet?????

digitaldr

ronoc wrote:

If your line can't handle DSL now that probably won't change with smart.
Its the same line afterall.

It's been handling it for the past year up until now! In fairness to Digiweb they seem to have been doing their best and have been in daily contact.

beller b

Anarchist wrote:

Has anyone actually got Smart yet?????

I 've been wondering about that myself. there was a lot of talk a few weeks ago when the first 3 exchanges went live but not a word since. Smart are saying the March/ April exchanges are on schedule & WILL go live this month. I wonder are they waiting to see if there is a quick verdict from the court case with Eircom? What date is that due?

WezzyB

Well there is about three weeks before their March/April live dates for the first phase of exchanges, my local exchange is Phibsborogh and should be available is this timeframe according to their website and broadband telephone reps.


Even if the ComReg/eircom case is decided upon in the High Court, surely eircom will explore other legal avenues and hopefully nab all the people who signed up for the smart broadband service but haven't been connected.

I have a feeling that I could be tempted to choose eircom's broadband if Smart don't enable my exchange ASAP.

Peteer

Anarchist wrote:

Has anyone actually got Smart yet?????

Not quite, but am expecting my Modem on Tuesday, was to have been Monday but was waiting for the disconnection order with Eircom BB.

Will post when I have additional news.

Anyone else connected with Smart yet?

Cheers,
Peter

digitaldr

digitaldr wrote:

Anyway, am I right in thinking that going with Smart will cut Eircom out of the equation entirely? Maybe Smart will turn out to be worse than Eircom!

What I really wanted to know was if I ever developed a dsl line fault in the future and was with smart would eircom still have to sort it out or as smart have their own equipment in the exchange would it be down to them?

Thanks

beller b

Peteer wrote:

Not quite, but am expecting my Modem on Tuesday, was to have been Monday but was waiting for the disconnection order with Eircom BB.

Will post when I have additional news.

Anyone else connected with Smart yet?

Cheers,
Peter

Best of luck with it. BTW what exchange are you on?

beller b

I think the way LLU works is this
Smart have run all thier own cabeling to the exchanges (fibreoptic I think)
Smart have installed thier own equipment in the exchanges
The so called, last mile of cable , to your house is eircoms which is rented to Smart at wholesale rates.
I think smart will deal with all problems & in the event that the fault lies within the last mile eircom would bill Smart. I could be wrong but could you imagine ringing those "cheerful" people who answer the phones in eircom, & saying " excuse me , Im a Smart Telecom customer can you fix my line please?? lol

Peteer

Summerhill Exchange!

Again like mentioned elsewhere I need to change my phone number to go live also or wait until the Eircom/Comreg court case later in the month for porting No.s. I understand that the phone no. will be included in the box containing the modem. That is why it was put back until Tuesday as they are waiting for the Eircom BB to be cancelled as only then they can switch over to Smart BB and then send the kit. They also do a line check which will bounce and cause delay if the line is not free from dsl service and then require to be resubmitted for checking again.

I had no problem loosing my telephone no as I only got it installed in the first place to facilitate internet connections in the first place 4 years ago. And maybe this will cut down the no. of current calls looking to speak to the "bill payer" so that they can offer cheaper calls than Eircom. I have had one question for such callers and one statement. The question was "Can you reduce my current line rental" A. "No. you will still pay rental to Eircom" And statement was that "their savings were on calls made, of which I make very little and therefore of very little use to me. In order to save I had to spend and that was not a good reason to deal with any of them". Now what Smart are doing is providing instant savings on rental (free) and I don't mind paying for the few (if any) calls I will make.

End of rant.

I'll post any progress later.

Peter

beller b

Peteer wrote:

Summerhill Exchange!

Again like mentioned elsewhere I need to change my phone number to go live also or wait until the Eircom/Comreg court case later in the month for porting No.s. I understand that the phone no. will be included in the box containing the modem. That is why it was put back until Tuesday as they are waiting for the Eircom BB to be cancelled as only then they can switch over to Smart BB and then send the kit. They also do a line check which will bounce and cause delay if the line is not free from dsl service and then require to be resubmitted for checking again.

I had no problem loosing my telephone no as I only got it installed in the first place to facilitate internet connections in the first place 4 years ago. And maybe this will cut down the no. of current calls looking to speak to the "bill payer" so that they can offer cheaper calls than Eircom. I have had one question for such callers and one statement. The question was "Can you reduce my current line rental" A. "No. you will still pay rental to Eircom" And statement was that "their savings were on calls made, of which I make very little and therefore of very little use to me. In order to save I had to spend and that was not a good reason to deal with any of them". Now what Smart are doing is providing instant savings on rental (free) and I don't mind paying for the few (if any) calls I will make.

End of rant.

I'll post any progress later.

Peter

Did they mention anything about downtime?
ie When you get the modem is your new number live or do you have to advise them the modem has arrived & wiat while they disconnect your line from eircom to themselves. (as they still have to do this manually because of eircom , hence the trial)

Peteer

I'm not 100% sure of the next step once the modem arrives. I would expect some down time while broadband is switched over and as per the phone line for voice I didn't enquire into it as it is not important to me.

From reading other posts there could be as much as 10 days downtime. http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2510387&postcount=13

Again, I'll post when I have facts or experiences.

Cheers,
Peter

robo

Hi Peteer, yeh let us know how it goes with Smart. IS it self-installation for the same price?
Also, just wondering, did you have to annoy the hell out of them for them to offer you this option with the new phone number? Just wondering cos I am waiting for them also and I am in the Crown Alley Exchange which is suppose to be live in March/April?

Peteer

robo wrote:

Hi Peteer, yeh let us know how it goes with Smart. IS it self-installation for the same price?

Self install, I didn't consider any other way.

robo wrote:

Also, just wondering, did you have to annoy the hell out of them for them to offer you this option with the new phone number?

No they asked me if I wanted to avoid delay and have a new No. or wait for Comreg and Eircom to sort themselfs out with number porting before being able to keep my No.

Update, My Ericom BB was disconnected just after Midnight this morning. Smart had tried to test the line over the week end but could not do anything as there was still DSL on the line. They will begin the process today and the modem will be here on Thursday. Meanwhile I can expect 10 days for the Smart BB to be connected.

Again will post if there is anything of note during that time.

Meanwhile it's Dial up at home for now. Happy days!

All the best,
Peter

Shougeki

any idea when the crown alley exchange will be ready?

cut my BB and gettin the jitters waiting....

machalla

Well I'm down to 5 working days (including today) till the line is supposed to be enabled. Got the modem last monday. Maybe with some luck it will be enabled before the end of the week. Heres hoping anyway.

Shougeki

machalla, Is that crown alley exchange? or another Smart exchange?

beller b

machalla wrote:

Well I'm down to 5 working days (including today) till the line is supposed to be enabled. Got the modem last monday. Maybe with some luck it will be enabled before the end of the week. Heres hoping anyway.

What exchange are you on?? on my second week of dial up; it's worse than quitting the smokes

Peteer

Hi There,

OK I have received my ADSL router today! Just dawned on me. I don't know and didn't check if it is Macintosh compatable. I'll know later on in any case.

My new phone number has also been issued. I can as of today still expect up to 10 Days for the whole lot to become active.

I must say that going back to dial-up has been a pain in the neck. Thankfully I still have DSL access at work.

Regards,
Peter

LoBo

Shougeki wrote:

any idea when the crown alley exchange will be ready?

cut my BB and gettin the jitters waiting....

Maybe you should have asked them before cutting?
I PM'd Garfield about when Crown Alley would be ready and he said they were still sorting out 'civils' issues and that i'd be better off getting a bitstream free trial (signed up for UTV's) and then checking when that runs out (ie, 3 months)

CuLT

Peteer wrote:

Hi There,

OK I have received my ADSL router today! Just dawned on me. I don't know and didn't check if it is Macintosh compatable. I'll know later on in any case.

My new phone number has also been issued. I can as of today still expect up to 10 Days for the whole lot to become active.

I must say that going back to dial-up has been a pain in the neck. Thankfully I still have DSL access at work.

Regards,
Peter

Heh, my IOLBB ran out last month, it's a gruelling three to four month wait for me (for Smart).

Thankfully I have access in college; unfortunately 56k isn't an option anymore.

Drummer

No reason to get smart !!!

Get it ?

CuLT

*beats drummer

get it?

Shougeki

So when i rang last week why was i told that they were on time?

I rang AGAIN today, and they told me Crown Alley would be ready in 10 days or so.

Got this from two seperate people there.

Are they lying?

I was hoping i wouldnt have to go with someone else, but im getting kinda sick of smart telling me one thing and hearing another thing here. :mad:

B

beller b

Shougeki wrote:

So when i rang last week why was i told that they were on time?

I rang AGAIN today, and they told me Crown Alley would be ready in 10 days or so.

Got this from two seperate people there.

Are they lying?

I was hoping i wouldnt have to go with someone else, but im getting kinda sick of smart telling me one thing and hearing another thing here. :mad:

B

I'm getting the same.. Spoke to Smart a few times over the last few weeks re Santry & they always insist it is on time for April......12 days & counting.. PMed Garfield the other day , waiting to see what he comes up with...

On a different note, Had some Muppet from eircon onto me today begging me to take them back (in broken english)... I told him Eircon are too expensive (I wanted to say ****e as well but he wouldn't have understood) & I tought Smart had a better deal. I then got a 10 minute rant telling me that they were cheeper than Smart. Really! I said, whats your price for 2meg BB & line rental? Wait for it.........................€87 a month!!!! How the ***** is that cheeper that €35 I asked? Ah! but we give you a Wireless router... Big Swinging you know what! They still havn't got the gist of this competition lark have they?

TimTim

Peteer wrote:

Hi There,

OK I have received my ADSL router today! Just dawned on me. I don't know and didn't check if it is Macintosh compatable. I'll know later on in any case.

My new phone number has also been issued. I can as of today still expect up to 10 Days for the whole lot to become active.

I must say that going back to dial-up has been a pain in the neck. Thankfully I still have DSL access at work.

Regards,
Peter

Not sure about the USB interface, but using the ethernet should work no problem assuming you have TCP/IP installed and configured correctly along with the router.

But configuring the router isn't rocket science,

machalla

You may want to make sure to turn on the firewall on it in this age of rampant virii as its not on by default.

The only problem with this is that you will have to configure the ports for certain protocols. For instance you need to enabe port 443 for https. Otherwise you won't be abe to get to gmail for one.

Just a suggestion but if you can't seem to get to a site or get programs workng its a fair bet it might be the firewall.

Peteer

Hi,

The router was no problem. Like TimTim said, it's only the USB that needs windows drivers but ethernet is what I'll be using anyway and was an easy set up.

I now wait for the the line to go live!

Regards,
Peter

TimTim

Shougeki wrote:

So when i rang last week why was i told that they were on time?

I rang AGAIN today, and they told me Crown Alley would be ready in 10 days or so.

Got this from two seperate people there.

Are they lying?

I was hoping i wouldnt have to go with someone else, but im getting kinda sick of smart telling me one thing and hearing another thing here. :mad:

B

We only know of one offical Smart rep here, Garfield. So I'd be more likely to take his word over someone elses.

Edit: But we only know of one.... ¬_¬

They could be lurking around...

beller b

TimTim wrote:

We only know of one offical Smart rep here, Garfield. So I'd be more likely to take his word over someone elses.

Over to you Garfield....................!