Quick questions regarding Eircom lines for DSL

TouchingVirus

How could I determine if they were on a carrier line and what could I do to get onto a regular one?

How do I determine what exchange I'm on?

Can somebody tell me where in Longford the Carrickglass exchange is, it's earmarked for DSL by the end of 2009, but on the eircom map (on broadbandatoz.ie) it's not there at all. I think they might be talking about Carriglass but some lat/long co-ords would be awesome


Appreciate anybody's input

kaizersoze

53.7349019 -7.7319836 co-ords for Carriglass

Put your number in here to get the exchange you're on.
http://www.btireland.ie/24mb/24_checker.html

lucernarian

Thanks for that Kaisersoze, saved me a bit of rummaging.

As for removing a pairgain, well... They are rather sensitive to electrical damage, mechanical damage and they have even been stolen by thieves, while trying to get copper cabling etc... So the pairgain could suddenly have to be replaced all of its own accord!! Eircom come to fix the line, you ask them while they're there to see what they can do to make the line pass for broadband.

Or you could simply find the local linesman and tell him of the carrier line problem. Offer him some sort of gift if he could look at the line for ya. That method seems to work most often in my experience.

You could order a new line, and have it specifically marked as an order for a bundle with broadband. Sometimes line installs have a promotion where they're free for a couple of months. Get old number transferred to new line, cancel old line! A sure fire way of getting broadband if available in your area.

Finally the whinge, bitch and moan option. Involves writing a complaint to eircom, and complaining to local politicians and at least one TD. Usually includes stuff about neighbours being able to use the internet properly, having to wait so long for something, needing it for work at home, can't send photos to relations abroad without going to friend's house, dialup is very slow too, mentioning how you've contacted politicians about it. Yadda yadda yadda.

A quick rule of thumb is that if you're using a computer less than 8 years old, and it *never* connects on dialup at greater than 33.6 kbps no matter which phone socket it's plugged into, then you're on a carrier line. Not sure if it's a reliable guide anymore though.

The definite way includes asking your local eircom engineer, and following your line out and looking at the pole where your line goes into junction boxes and identifying what sort of box it travels into. Engineer is a 100% right answer, the other method is ~98% accurate.

There ya go! That took longer than expected! Btw, if anyone has some nice email addresses of eircom directors, it would be handy to post them (once legal etc.). Nothing gets eircom attention like an email to their CEO:cool:

Edit: I think half of that post is basically irrelevant... Ah well, at least the "identifying if i'm on a pairgain or not" has been discussed..

TouchingVirus

Thanks Kaizersoze, I plugged those co-ords into google maps and I ended up with the location.

The Carrickglass exchange is the closest exchange to my house, only 2.6km away by road. I can follow the phone lines along the road too

However, when I plug my number into the BT site it tells me "We're sorry but the LONGFORD exchange that your phone line is connected to has not yet been enabled for BT 24Mb service." Am I to assume then that I'm on the Longford exchange? Is there any way I could be hooked up to the closer exchange without moving house - like is the Carrickglass exchange new? (we've had this line 10 years almost).

Maybe I should note that there's a house 1 mile down the road from me that didn't have a line 2 years ago. New people moved in, got a line installed and they can get broadband

@to_be_confirmed: No matter what I did, when I was on dialup I never connected more than 33.6kbps, usually it was 28.8kbps. I was on dialup from September 2000 until 15 months ago. I should add that we had two lines, one for the internet (two separate numbers)

lucernarian

Unless the carrickglass exchange is brand new and the linecheckers don't know it yet, I'd say you're connected to the longford one. I've checked other lines in the area, they all seem to pass.

Looks like you're on a pairgain. As you're connected to a big exchange, you might have luck in asking friends you know if they know anyone in eircom, and you could get in touch with a friendly linesman that way. Or you could go down to the exchange and find one that doesn't look too busy.

Ordering a new line will almost definitely get you a broadband capable line, but it costs €121 for install and first 2 months line rental. Effectively costing you about €70.

Are you 2 miles closer to, or further away, than Carrickglass is to Longford?

TouchingVirus

I've a funny feeling that Carrickglass is new and was put there to deal with the 400-500 houses they were building there in the Manor before the construction industry fell on its ass. Even numbers that are belonged to businesses very close to it are all on the Longford exchange according to BT..

I'm 2 miles further away from Longford. So on the drive home from Longford I actually pass by the Carrickglass exchange every time.

Interestingly enough my neighbour gets a fail on the line checker, but his brother (lives beside the guy with broadband) gets an Amber (Pass, subject to confirmation).

TouchingVirus

As an aside, anybody got the Longford exchange co-ords? I've looked on those google maps by Bohrio for Small & Large exchanges, it's on neither

crownhill

There is an exchange High street past Longford arms but before the bridge on right hand side. It's possible that there might be another exchange in Longford. I have only delivered equipment to one.

TouchingVirus

crownhill wrote: »

There is an exchange High street past Longford arms but before the bridge on right hand side. It's possible that there might be another exchange in Longford. I have only delivered equipment to one.

Out towards Strokestown? Jaysus, I'm miles from there

crownhill

Sorry poor directions .It's pretty close to the army barracks

TouchingVirus

Right, I went outside and took a walk along the phone line and here is what I saw. Sometimes I wish I was a telecoms engineer

Starting at the post outside my house, there's a white/grey square looking junction box. It has 3 wires coming out of it. One runs down the post, into conduit, under the ground and into my house. One metal unsheathed one runs to ground. The other black wire runs up the post, however it doesn't connect to the thick black wire that's highest up on the post. It seems to run along it's own wire. It's much thinner than the thick black heavy wire.

Both the thick wire and the thin wire run from my post to a post outside my neighbour's house (who cannot get broadband). It might be worth mentioning that the thick black wire doesn't terminate at my post, it continues further down my road to other posts & houses. It looks like my neighbour has the same setup as us. And now there are two thin wires, and the big thick wire. These run up to the next neighbours house. I don't know if they can get broadband. There is a black "yolk" attached to this post. It's about 6 inches long, and is cylindrical in shape. Some black wires go into that and come out of it. The two thin wires don't.

Now there's still two thin wires (my house + neighbour) and a big thick one. These run across the y junction to another post and seem to disappear. They run onto the post, there's a jumble of wires and another one of those 6" black cylinders. The only wire coming off this post is a thick black wire, that runs down the road in either direction. 1 mile down that road, towards Longford Town, is the neighbour who can get broadband.

TouchingVirus

crownhill wrote: »

Sorry poor directions .It's pretty close to the army barracks

Close to the Army Barracks - yeah, I'm still a fair bit from there. I know where there's a load of eircom vans parked in the IDA Industrial Estate, perhaps that's the engineers building or something

kaizersoze

53.7294936 -7.8006875

lucernarian

Aye, that's probably the AEH - Area Engineering Headquarters. No point having a site capable of holding vans, small trucks and various construction machinery in the centre of a town. Some of them have exchanges in them. E.g. Mallow and Drogheda.

Thanks for the walk info. I was hoping I'd be lucky and that the wire would go to a junction box immediately. Obviously that didn't happen:D

The little box, if it's a bit chunky and square will have the eircom or Telecom Eireann logo printed on it. If it's flat and not really square shaped, it's an ericsson connection box. Most house wires go into one of those first before going to join bigger cables. It's not a pairgain.

2 miles the wrong side of Carrickglass... I'm starting to think it's more of a basic laws of physics problem. You're probably too far from the exchange. Btw, does your dialtone ever sound more "faint" than phones that you've used in the town?

TouchingVirus

kaizersoze wrote: »

53.7294936 -7.8006875

So that's what that is? Wow, I'm about 10km from there, so I'll not be getting DSL if that's my exchange.

TouchingVirus

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Aye, that's probably the AEH - Area Engineering Headquarters. No point having a site capable of holding vans, small trucks and various construction machinery in the centre of a town. Some of them have exchanges in them. E.g. Mallow and Drogheda.

Thanks for the walk info. I was hoping I'd be lucky and that the wire would go to a junction box immediately. Obviously that didn't happen:D

The little box, if it's a bit chunky and square will have the eircom or Telecom Eireann logo printed on it. If it's flat and not really square shaped, it's an ericsson connection box. Most house wires go into one of those first before going to join bigger cables. It's not a pairgain.

2 miles the wrong side of Carrickglass... I'm starting to think it's more of a basic laws of physics problem. You're probably too far from the exchange. Btw, does your dialtone ever sound more "faint" than phones that you've used in the town?

The white box is about 3 inches thick. It's pretty high up on the post, so I can't see if it has a logo on it. The other wire (not my house wire) doesn't join with the thicker wire until several posts away at the top of the road.

Do you know if I could be put onto the Carrickglass exchange? I'm going to drive down the road this evening and see if I can find it or if it's on, I strongly suspect it was built for handling that major construction project. If I could get on that exchange, and they enable it soon I could actually get real broadband :eek:

It's been a while since we used an analog phone, gone all cordless now. But no, the dial tone always sounded strong, never get crackles or other nasty stuff on the line.

lucernarian

3 inches... That's a bit different. Is it possible to take a photo of this box?

As for being put on the carrickglass exchange... Well it could be possible, but you'd want a very friendly engineer to do that for you. And you might also have to give up your number, but I don't think it's so necessary these days.

TouchingVirus

I'd give up my number and possibly a little fingernail to get onto a BB-guaranteed exchange

I'll take a picture of the box now, probably will get a ladder too. So I'll edit this post when I've got it done

TouchingVirus

Right, so I got out and noticed an old Telecom Eireann Sign on the outside of the box. The box is about 2"-2.5" thick off the post.

Here's the pics, it isn't that overcast today, I blame the sun and the fact I can't find a DSLR camera :P



Left wire = my house. Middle = ground. Right = Thin wire to the posts



As you can guess, the thin wire up the post is the one that connects to the box in the picture above, not the thick black wire.

TouchingVirus

Just went to those coords Kaizersoze provided. There appears to be a new telephone pole there with new wiring - no exchange though. It could very well be behind the wall, but as that's a building site and is all locked up because of the construction crisis I'll never get in to check.

lucernarian

Ah I get ya now. I didn't realise the boxes I mentioned earlier were as big as that.

Ok, you're not on a pairgain. I'm 98% certain. There *could* be a pairgain further down the road, which is connected to a junction box and serves some of the lines. But that's not common.
I think it's unlikely that you'll ever have DSL...:( Have you looked into what local providers there are? I'd say there's one or two with bases on Cairn Hill.

TouchingVirus

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Ah I get ya now. I didn't realise the boxes I mentioned earlier were as big as that.

Ok, you're not on a pairgain. I'm 98% certain. There *could* be a pairgain further down the road, which is connected to a junction box and serves some of the lines. But that's not common.
I think it's unlikely that you'll ever have DSL...:( Have you looked into what local providers there are? I'd say there's one or two with bases on Cairn Hill.

If there was a WISP on Cairn Hill that I don't know about I'd be very surprised. It's the ideal spot for a WISP to locate something, but from what I know the fees RTE charge for placement there are astronomical.

Clinging onto hope about Carrickglass though, gonna talk to my local TD/county councillor and the eircom engineers out there in the business park to see if it's in operation and if I can get connected to it. Even Carriglass phone numbers don't show up as being on that exchange Thanks for all the help TBC, it's very much appreciated!

TouchingVirus

As an afterthought, I think I should mention that the box outside only ever had one line going into it, but at some stage we had two phone lines (one for dial-up, one for the phone). When we canceled the extra line, no eircom engineer came down to disconnect anything. So is it possible there's still a pair gain?

The only other thing of interest on the line is something I see a lot, so i doubt it's any sort of multiplexer/pairgain/splitter

Fuzzy Clam

TouchingVirus wrote: »

If there was a WISP on Cairn Hill that I don't know about I'd be very surprised. It's the ideal spot for a WISP to locate something, but from what I know the fees RTE charge for placement there are astronomical.

There are 2 antennae across from the gate up to Cairn hill, similar to fixed wireless antennae. Of course, this might be just a repeater rather than an A/P.

lucernarian

That looks like a standard junction box with at least one other small cable going into it. Standard fare really.

TouchingVirus

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

There are 2 antennae across from the gate up to Cairn hill, similar to fixed wireless antennae. Of course, this might be just a repeater rather than an A/P.

I must drive up there and check this out, though I'm at a loss as to how to find out who owns those if they're not within the RTE land.