DSLAM onna stick?

royan

We've just moved from Wicklow to near Naas, and BT have said that our line fails the test for ADSL.

Other possibilities aren't looking good, so I'm pushing them a bit to find out what's wrong. It doesn't look like a distance issue, though we might be near that limit - 4.5km from exchange to the pole in the road, then a bit in to the house - so investigations are ongoing. Our landlord, who lives very near by, does have ADSL, and I followed the cable at the weekend and concluded that his line is longer. He can't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to get it.

Thing is, he then mentioned that there's fibre as far as the pole in the road, which sounds odd to me - my understanding is that DSL will only run over copper. Is it possible that we have FTTC and a mini-DSLAM on the pole? How small do they make them these days? Do Eircom use them for serving rural areas? Are they recognisable (without using my dead-of-night ninja climbing skills and a screwdriver)?

jor el

As far as I know, eircom have no DSL equipment outside of the exchanges, so there won't be any DSLAM on the pole. Also, fibre coming to the pole is very unlikely, and I wouldn't put any faith in what your landlord told you, unless he is an engineer that works in eircom.

The most likely cause is that your line is split. If this is the case, and since you're dealing with BT, you'll never get this resolved. You're only hope of getting a splitter removed is if you are an eircom customer. They won't even entertain listening to you when you're a re-seller customer, and from what I've read and heard, the reseller will not push the issue, and eircom will not give a damn about them anyway.

At 4.5km, you may not get DSL even if there is no splitter, and the line length compared to your landlords is only a guide, the fact that his is longer, doesn't mean a shorter line (yours) will work.

dub45

I presume too that it is very difficult to gauge the actual distance of the line as distinct from the straight measurement between house and exchange.

Sponge Bob

It is entirely possible to put a DSLAM on a pole , mind you it will only do about 8 subscribers and eircom only have a few of these discreetly installed for 'special' people . I think they run metro ethernet backhaul .

There are exchanges in a box ( the size of a large fridge mind) in Wickow already . Cannot do any more for you unless I know where you are by PM .

royan

dub45 wrote: »

very difficult to gauge the actual distance of the line

I'm taking a best guess at the route along the only likely road to get my figure of 4.5km, and I know that could be wildly out, but that's not what I'm trying to pin down here. From the pole mounted kit to the house the route is highly visible and very clear to measure.

zeris

Eircom have a method of bringing DSL to an area that currently doesn't have DSL and doesn't have a dedicated exchange. I don't know what hardware is being used.

I know that the area around Waterford Airport has (or will soon have) DSL without an exchange and instead are using a cabinet of some kind. Along with the airport there is an industrial estate so it is probably financially viable.

MunsterCycling

RSU is a mini exchange, see Sponge Bobs thread askig for the gps co-ords of unknown ones.

MC

royan

It's been confirmed that we're on a split line ("carrier line" was their terminology).

Now, is it possible to say what might be typical for a carrier line as provisioned by Eircom? Would there be just two lines multiplexed over a pair, or more? Where we live has four cottages which apparently are all on carrier lines; if we're 1+1, and could get agreement with our neighbours (who have wiring in situ but no intention of getting even voice service) would it be wildly optimistic to imagine that Eircom might entertain using that capacity to revert us to a dedicated pair?

Our Customer Care person at BT is doing a great job so far of pushing Eircom on this.

paulm17781

I've never had to do this but the quickest way may be to go back to Eircom and order their (more expensive) broadband. As said above, you may get better results. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't want to do on principal but it may be easier.

royan

I considered that from the start - thing is, we'd not get the free UK calls that we have in BT's calling plan.

watty

Orignally it was just two. Now it can be many.

royan

One device on the pole appears to be marked "Multigain / RBM 2004 E". Looking like that's a 4-way unit, though I can't find any real documentation on it.

zeris

Seen one of them in a hotel before. Made by a company called Tadiran. They are a multiplexer/concatenater where 2 or 4 copper lines from customers go in and one line comes out going back to the exchange.

lucernarian

The vast majority of pairgains as seen on poles across Ireland are the Tadiran ones. They multiplex 2, 3 or 4 lines onto one pair.

As for getting any lines switched over so you can get a clean pair, it completely depends on the engineer from what I've seen. Where I live, I've seen engineers removing pairgains at request by a local. On the other hand, some engineers insist "tough luck". Sometimes they respond well to a €50 note, some will never budge.

Also, complaining to the chief executive by letter, and outlining that there are neighbours who don't intend on using their in situ line, can work wonders. I suggest you try this, as it's harder for a possibly problematic local eircom linesman to say "no" to his boss:)

royan

zeris wrote: »

Made by a company called Tadiran.

Yup, I found Tadiran's website, but there's no mention of this product or market space. Guess they're obsolete already

kaizersoze

paulm17781 wrote: »

I've never had to do this but the quickest way may be to go back to Eircom and order their (more expensive) broadband. As said above, you may get better results. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't want to do on principal but it may be easier.

The problem with that approach is that sales will not take an order on a line that shows as a fail in their database.

I've always found that trying to get it sorted locally by an engineer is the best way.