Eircom: Check your phone line for ADSL

viking · 03-10-2002 4:42pm #1

Go to www.adsl.ie and click on the link "Is my line compatible?". A popup window opens asking for your a/c number and telephone number.

I haven't checked if it works yet, anyone wanna try?

viking

Samson · 03-10-2002 4:49pm

I tried it.
I'm still waiting for something to happen.

Samson · 03-10-2002 4:52pm

Just got a response.
It tells me to consider Hi-Speed, which I already have!
:mad:

And I quote:
Thank you for submitting your details for initial testing for eircom business i-stream.

Unfortunately the numbers you have submitted do not currently meet the specifications required to support ADSL. If you have any additional telephone numbers on your account, you may wish to submit them for testing now.

ADSL is a more sensitive technology than other access products (such as PSTN). Every eircom i-stream query has to be individually assessed, and a line tested for suitability. Unfortunately some customers in ADSL enabled exchange areas will not be able to avail of this service.

The fact that your line does not meet the specifications required to carry ADSL, does not indicate a problem with your line. The issue is with the sensitivity of ADSL technology and not your telephone line.

I'm sorry to disappoint you at this stage. We will keep you informed of any changes in the availability of eircom i-stream in your area.

Alternatively, another product that may suit your requirements is eircom hi-speed.

eircom hi-speed is a high speed, dual channel, digital line which means your phone lines are twice as efficient. This enables you to surf the Internet at up to 128kbs*, to send emails or faxes and make or receive calls at the same time. Click here to find out more about eircom hi-speed.

*A subscription account with an Internet Service Provider, with a speed of 128k/bits per second is needed to achieve the 128k/bits speed. Use of both 'B' channels will be charged as two calls.

Tippex · 03-10-2002 4:55pm

Two lines in the house.

Line 1.

Thank you for submitting your details for initial testing for eircom i-stream.

Congratulations! Initial testing shows your telephone line/s xx xxxxxxx should be able to eircom i-stream, eircom's ADSL technology. However, further checks, including a site survey may be necessary.

If you wish, please call 1800 512 128, and a sales agent will be delighted to speak to you about ordering eircom i-stream.

Please note, your PC must meet minimum requirements. If you wish, you can check your PC online. Click here for an online PC check.

Line 2.

Thank you for submitting your details for initial testing for eircom i-stream.

Congratulations! Initial testing shows your telephone line/s xx xxxxxxx should be able to eircom i-stream, eircom's ADSL technology. However, further checks, including a site survey may be necessary.

If you wish, please call 1800 512 128, and a sales agent will be delighted to speak to you about ordering eircom i-stream.

Please note, your PC must meet minimum requirements. If you wish, you can check your PC online. Click here for an online PC check.

I wonder I wonder But will I be subscribing at those prices?
NOT BLOODY LIKELY...

dahamsta · 03-10-2002 4:59pm

I wonder if this is a live line checker, or simply a geographic comparator. If it's a live checker, I hope that Eircom will make the service available to any companies that are considering bitstream ADSL rollout; and of course that there will be suitable oversight to check that the service is accurate.

On the subject of bitstream, anyone else find it odd that there isn't a whisper of interest out there? I mean, I know Eircom's wholesale prices are a bloody disgrace, but surely /some/ companies would take DSL at the high price from a virtual operator, as long as it's competitive with Eircom?

Is the problem that new entrants wouldn't be able to compete, or that the slow rollout doesn't make it worthwhile? Both factors create serious questions about anti-competitive behaviour from Eircom, and I can't think of any other factors.

Most importantly, why am I asking these questions, and not the Regulator. Oh, that's right, she doesn't have the power to intervene. Might as well just send her on holiday then, eh?

adam

milltown · 04-10-2002 3:14am

My guess is that this "initial line testing" involves the eir**** computer checking it's database to find whether your line is connected to an enabled exchange. More disappointment awaits a lot of people I expect.

Xian · 04-10-2002 9:25am

Pressing the "Is my line compatible?" button causes a panel to be opened in front of an oversized mouse. Behind the panel are two plates of cheese. If the mouse goes for the first plate of cheese, your line failed. If it goes for the second, you've passed the test. Motheren technology.

dahamsta · 04-10-2002 10:30am

Pressing the "Is my line compatible?" button causes a panel to be opened in front of an oversized mouse. Behind the panel are two plates of cheese. If the mouse goes for the first plate of cheese, your line failed. If it goes for the second, you've passed the test. Motheren technology.

LOL. EircomTribunal should try and get someone to do a cartoon of that.

adam

corkey · 04-10-2002 6:33pm

Look at this it says my isdn line is ready for ADSL ?, No thank you UTV does me fine

Thank you for submitting your details for initial testing for eircom i-stream.

Congratulations! Initial testing shows your telephone line/s 01 ****** should be able to eircom i-stream, eircom's ADSL technology. However, further checks, including a site survey may be necessary.

If you wish, please call 1800 512 128, and a sales agent will be delighted to speak to you about ordering eircom i-stream.

Please note, your PC must meet minimum requirements. If you wish, you can check your PC online. Click here for an online PC

Other main number for calls fails
Unfortunately the numbers you have submitted do not currently meet the specifications required to support ADSL. If you have any additional telephone numbers on your account, you may wish to submit them for testing now.

:rolleyes:

oscarBravo · 04-10-2002 7:11pm

Just a side note on Eircom line testing:

My [wired] phone line started behaving strangely on Wednesday evening, giving short, erratic little chirps instead of the full "ring ring" it usually does. I wouldn't mind too much except that my answerphone/fax now can't figure out whether calls are coming in, so people can't leave messages.

So, /paul grits his teeth and rings 1901. The girl on repairs asks me to hang up and she'll do a line test and call me back. She calls back and says that the line is perfect, must be my phone. I explain that I have a fax machine, normal phone and cordless attached, and they all behave the same. She tells me they must all be faulty. :rolleyes: Anyway, long story short, I asked her to send the boyz around, and subject to the usual €57 caveat, she agrees.

The point of the story is: she insisted not only that the line is perfect, but that I'm not on a carrier line; the test she did allegedly doesn't work on a carrier. If there's one thing I'm pretty bloody sure of, it's that I'm on a carrier, as confirmed by the engineer when he called round this afternoon. So I ask myself: how reliable are these so-called "line tests" they do?

NeRb666 · 04-10-2002 9:29pm

yay I failed

perhaps I should consider hi-speed

no thanks I'd rather a cyanide pill

PiE · 05-10-2002 9:45pm

Why not try new Hi-Cyanide!

BArra · 05-10-2002 10:34pm

lol

Delphi91 · 05-10-2002 10:55pm

Originally posted by oscarBravo
... So I ask myself: how reliable are these so-called "line tests" they do?

I had a similar experience back in August.

Failed to connect to the net one day, so I picked up the phone just to check the connection - DEAD, not a sausage. So, rang 1901, talked to Mary, who promptly did a test. Line was fine according to her. Must be the phone itself. So, she said a phone would be posted out in a day or two. "Grand", says I.

Tried a different phone on the same line - dead also! So, it wasn't the phone. It turned out to be the line. This is Wednesday. I'm promised an engineer the following day. Nobody turns up. Guy arrives Friday, plays around down a hole for a bit, then says he can't get any signal at all in the cable. So, how did Mary's line check turn up with a fully working line?

Oh, and the best thing was, the guy then disappears saying nothing. I ring that evening to be told that they've decided the fault was caused by an outside contractor, but they won't be able to do anything until Monday.

Mike

pork99 · 06-10-2002 12:05pm

just tried that - my line is not able to take ADSL despite the fact that I can praticaly see Sandyford industrial estate from my house.

If I'm right next door to one of the major centres of tech industry in the country and my line or local exchange cannot support broadband then what hope?

But wait a minute! I've just looked out the window and I think I see the problem, there is a big bloated parasitic mouse sitting on the phone line, there is a picture of it here; http://www.eircom.ie/bveircom/mouse/index.html

Also noticed a new interactive feature on adsl.ie after the line test (more like phone number test) was negative, see attached

DonegalMan · 06-10-2002 12:18pm

Originally posted by dahamsta
I wonder if this is a live line checker, or simply a geographic comparator.

Probably the latter, Adam, that's how BT works it; the online check is only to see if you are connected to an enabled exchange, if so BT checks if your specific line is ok, usually takes them about 7 days.

Martin

Mountjoy Mugger · 06-10-2002 12:30pm

Originally posted by Delphi91
I had a similar experience back in August.

Oh, and the best thing was, the guy then disappears saying nothing. I ring that evening to be told that they've decided the fault was caused by an outside contractor, but they won't be able to do anything until Monday.

Mike

Mike,

I have ADSL, but it went dead at one stage. Line test from the exchange showed no errors. However, I persevered, and managed to get an engineer out who discovered that someone hack been messing around with the connection box in my block of flats. He reconnected me and everything as fine.

Tellox · 06-10-2002 12:36pm

my mouse went for the first plate of the cheese

SkepticOne · 06-10-2002 12:49pm

Originally posted by pork99
just tried that - my line is not able to take ADSL despite the fact that I can praticaly see Sandyford industrial estate from my house.

You are probably in line of sight for IrishBroadband at the industrial estate. EUR 40 + VAT.

pork99 · 06-10-2002 1:36pm

You are probably in line of sight for IrishBroadband at the industrial estate. EUR 40 + VAT.

Thanks SkepticOne - just went to their site and filled in the enquiry form

Can't see any mention of them providing phone calls - would love to ditch eircom completely

Fergus · 06-10-2002 2:42pm

Regarding lack of i-Stream take-up, one company I know were considering it. They already have ISDN. eircom told them that they needed to switch back to analog line to get ADSL, but they could not confirm that it would work until they had switched back. But they had to pay for conversion back to analog line before they could find out. So they didn't bother.

dahamsta · 06-10-2002 3:15pm

Probably the latter, Adam, that's how BT works it; the online check is only to see if you are connected to an enabled exchange, if so BT checks if your specific line is ok, usually takes them about 7 days.

Funny, I always thought that the line checks on the BT website were live checks, and that this was made available as a service to their bitstream customers. Must try it with my sisters line.

adam

Lennoxschips · 06-10-2002 3:50pm

I had a similar problem in Holland. Subscribed for ADSL and told my internet provider who were doing it that I had ISDN and would need to revert to analogue. No problem, they said, the telephone company will be around to do that for you. What that meant was that telephone company switched the protocol of the phone line to my house over to analogue at the exchange, but forgot to come around to uninstall the ISDN equipment at the house. The result being that the phones stopped working altogether for a week, untill I convinced them that they should turn the ISDN back on 'till they are ready to come around and convert the house back to analogue also. They never showed up.

I still get ADSL bills from my internet provider (which I never pay) and cable internet has recently become available in my area, and that was doddle to install and get working. While cable internet in my area is only half as fast as ADSL, it's so much easier to install that I would never again even think of bothering with all the hassle that comes with ADSL. Not to mention that the cable internet is only 34 Euros a month for a 512/64 stream. A fairly good deal I'd say.