Broadband options and failing DSL pre-qual

jkeogh

Apologies for the cross post - also on the Ireland offline list.

Hi - I live in Lucan in Dublin, and for some unknown reason, my phone line fails the pre-qual for i-stream DSL.
The exchange is fine, my neighbour can get i-stream, but not me.

I have a number of extensions in my house, adding perhaps 80ft to the length of the cable, 3 phones in total. Does anyone know if this affects the pre-qual test?

What about other options? Here is a summary of what I have found by grepping the web:

http://www.unison.ie/cablenet/price.php
Wonderful - 512k for €50 per month with only €75 setup - but only in Thurles
and Clonmel.

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/at...rnet_cable.html
NTL cable modems - 512k for €35 per month - but only in Tallaght, Templeogue
and Dublin 6.

http://www.esatbt.com/esatcom/homep...ofexchanges.htm
DSL from ESATBT - but not in Lucan

I am seriously thinking of putting in another line (no guarantee that it will work though), or going with the expensive, but available (my house can see the sky) satelitte service from Digiweb.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can improve the chances of passing the pre-qual?
Any comments on the digiweb service?

Cheers,

JK

MagicBusDriver

I had difficultly passing the test as well, can you hear noise on the line? If so can eircom to look at the line, dont mention ADSL. How far are you from the exchange?

jkeogh

The exchange is at the end of the bloody road (which makes it SOOO much more frustrating )

There was noise on the line - the line even completely died last week - they sorted it out (without coming to the house BTW) but the line still fails pre-qual.

Did you get your problems sorted out?

DMC

It could be noise on your line from the other extensions.

Only have one phone in the main socket, (the point that Eircom would install) nothing else plugged in to any other extension, and do the prequal again. If it passes, you can assume that your internal wiring aint up to the job.

I wouldnt go for another anaolgue line, they might only split the line, and that means you would never get DSL.

ACE OwNz J0oO!!

I live in greystones and i am in the area to subscribe to esat Dsl but i cant find out how much it costs . Hopefully less than €40

watty

My plan is put WiFi aerials at place LNB goes on 90cm dishes and have 2Mbit, 5MBit, or 11MBit (depends on signal quality) link to the office and use its broadband. Also fix stupid stuff on office LAN without needing VPNs, or car trips from nice cosy home.

My sums indicate that 90cm Satellite dishes used with ordinary WiFi gear ought to do 5km to 8Km.

Nobody using office Broadband at night......

I think 512K is about 95 Euro but a 256K service soon maybe at 45 Euro from Esat. We using Esat here in Limerick Office and it fine.

Dustaz

Originally posted by ACE OwNz J0oO!!
I live in greystones and i am in the area to subscribe to esat Dsl but i cant find out how much it costs . Hopefully less than €40

its €108 per month incl vat.

ozpass

My sums indicate that 90cm Satellite dishes used with ordinary WiFi gear ought to do 5km to 8Km.

I'm not an expert by any means Watty, but I think that using parabolic dishes to focus the signal from WiFi equipment renders it illegal, as the 'effective' power output is greater than that achievable with a 250 mW omni/directional/segmental antenna.

As I said though, could be wrong.:)

lynchie

Originally posted by jkeogh
The exchange is at the end of the bloody road (which makes it SOOO much more frustrating )

There was noise on the line - the line even completely died last week - they sorted it out (without coming to the house BTW) but the line still fails pre-qual.

Did you get your problems sorted out?

I had the same problem, I was only 50m from the exchange and my line kept failing. I was told by an engineer that extensions will add noise to the line. Also, I almost had a full short circuit on the line due to sky's digibox being plugged into the line. After removing both from the line, he tested it again and said it should be fine for dsl. I rang the pre-qual number but they said it still failed. In the end, I got in a new line, telling sales I wanted it for dsl, and the new line passed first time.

I think the problem with the pre-qual dept is that their database is not current, i.e. it may take 2-4 weeks before your line's test results are updated. I know that it is definitely 2 weeks because when my line was put in, the pre-qual dept had no record of my new number in their DB for about two weeks, so they couldnt test it, even though the engineer tested it from the exchange 10 mins after he installed it.