DSL service [was Re:TLUG Mail list archives?]

[Jamon Camisso]

Meng Cheah wrote:
> James Knott wrote:
>> phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>  
>>> Yesterday, Pathcom (the ISP in this soap-opera) announced that Bell 
>>> would
>>> be visiting to diagnose the problem at my end.
>>>
>>> Today the Bell Service Guy came by early in the morning, while I was
>>> still at home. He didn't knock, he just measured the line, decided
>>> it was OK, and put a piece of paper through the door saying 'Sorry I
>>> missed you since you weren't home.'
>>>       
>>
>> Apparently, those Bell guys have never heard of intermittent problems. 
>> One of my customers has frequent drop outs on one circuit.  Like with
>> you, the Bell guy shows up, does a quick sweep and pronounces the line
>> good, even though I could demonstrate that it was still failing.  It
>> takes a *LOT* of pushing from above to get them to move beyond that.  At
>> another customer (located in a small town near about 300 Km from here),
>> they were also having intermittent failures on an ISDN line.  Since we
>> knew Bell had problems locating suitable pairs, our immediate thought
>> was simply a bad pair between the CO and customer premise.  The Bell
>> tech insisted nothing was wrong with the cable and insisted the problem
>> was with our equipment.  So, just to prove otherwise, I replaced all the
>> equipment we had installed.  The problem was still there.  Lots of
>> conference calls followed and I asked Bell to place a test set at the
>> customer site.  I was promised this would happen.  It didn't.  The Bell
>> tech insisted he could do all the testing from his CO, without a test
>> set at the customer site.  It got to the point, where my response was
>> "Prove it".  All of a sudden we found out it wasn't just a bad cable
>> pair.  The circuit went all the way down to another town about 20 Km
>> away and back, through equipment that they already knew was bad and that
>> another customer was complaining about!  Once they fixed that, the
>> circuit was fine.  Incidentally, I find this sort of problem tends to be
>> unique with Bell.  I don't see it happening with Allstream, Telus.
>> Aliant etc.  I've even heard a Bell tech complain about it!
>>   
> This is scary.
> 
> I'm with Teksavvy and have been experiencing "sluggishness" the past week.
> I called Teksavvy and went through replacing the telephone cable to the 
> modem and disconnecting the phone to isolate the modem. The tech 
> observed that in 2004, my upload was at 640K and not 800K as at present. 
> She is adjusting my upload back to 640K to see if there is any 
> improvement. I was informed that it may take 48 hours for the change to 
> become apparent. I'll check back with them on Monday.
> 
> If the change in upload does not resolve the issue, I have these options:
> a) try another modem
> b) get Bell to check the last mile
>    I understand that Bell may try to charge me $60 or $100 for testing 
> the line if the last mile is OK.
>    But from what I read on this thread, what Bell says may be 
> misleading, to say the least.
> c) check my house telephone wiring
> 
> Do I have any other options or does anyone have any suggestions?

I was having an issue last week too, the tech at Teksavvy suggested I 
try out another line filter on the only phone in my apartment. Turns out 
he was right, and the $4 it cost me saved time, hassle, and costly Bell 
misdiagnosis (though the line quality to my place is terrible to start 
with, I have a good Thomson ADSL modem).

> My last experience with Bell is last year, when I had them transfer a 
> line from the basement to the 2nd floor. I had no phone service for 5 
> days (this is downtown Toronto). In the end, I had to reconnect my line 
> at the demarcation point myself. The tech had unplugged his phone/tester 
> and did not connect my line back.

With DSL you can connect the modem right to the demarc to see if it is 
internal wiring or a line problem with Bell. Something to try before 
pitching money at Bell.

> Bell insisted that I pay for the moving charge. When I wrote to the VP 
> of Public/Customer Relations, citing relevant sections of the standards 
> that they are supposed to maintain and that I was going to formally 
> complain to the CRTC, they called me and waived the charge.
> -- 
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--
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