mitch@hq.af.mil (Mitch Wright) (08/03/90)
I hope this is the right place to post this.... My home phone line has been giving me a tremendous problems. I have connected several computers (C-64 thru Sun386i), and a variety of modems to boot. All of them pick up on the static in the line. I have called the phone company and they have sent out technicians several times. A filter has been installed on the line, and now the *voice* quality is just fine, but my modem[s] still find the line to be much too noisy. My throughput is 400bps at 2400bps. As you can guess, this is VERY frusterating. I can remove the noise characters by switching to MNP, but the throughput is still 400bps, which is basically useless. Funny this is, I call number 111-1111, and I get a noisy connection, I call up the local TAC 222-2222 and the line is just fine. At least 100 people dial the 111-1111 number and have NO problems, except one other poor soul within the same exchange as me (765). After going through the run-around of being told I can upgrade my service to a data-line by one office, and the next office says that I can't do that, but I can have a dedicated circuit (Yeah right $!$!$). I *WAS* thinking about subscribing to UUNET, but if my line is this noisy and the phone company is obviously (and admittedly) not willing to fix the problem, it would be a waste. Now for my questions: o Has anyone else had this type of problem? How did it get resolved? o How do UUNET customers deal with this? I'd ask someone with UUNET, but I am lacking a contact there. o The phone company says that they can only guarantee the voice quality on residential lines without having a dedicated circuit -- Is this true, or have I run into yet another phone co. employee with the wrong facts? o Will an RJ45S really help? o Any suggestions on how to get the phone company track down the bad circuit and I fix it, assuming that's the problem. It is obviously not a problem with my home connection -- or with the destination. Any Help / Suggestions with be GREATLY appreciated. -- ..mitch mitch@hq.af.mil (Mitch Wright) | The Pentagon, 1B1046 | (202) 695-0262 The two most common things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity, but not necessarily in that order.
njs@scifi.UUCP (Nicholas J. Simicich) (08/04/90)
In article <MITCH.90Aug2165457@hq.af.mil> mitch@hq.af.mil (Mitch Wright) writes: >I hope this is the right place to post this.... >My home phone line has been giving me a tremendous problems. I have connected >several computers (C-64 thru Sun386i), and a variety of modems to boot. All >of them pick up on the static in the line. I have called the phone company >and they have sent out technicians several times. A filter has been installed >on the line, and now the *voice* quality is just fine, but my modem[s] still >find the line to be much too noisy. My throughput is 400bps at 2400bps. As >you can guess, this is VERY frusterating. I can remove the noise characters >by switching to MNP, but the throughput is still 400bps, which is basically >useless. Funny this is, I call number 111-1111, and I get a noisy >connection, I call up the local TAC 222-2222 and the line is just fine. >At least 100 people dial the 111-1111 number and have NO problems, except one >other poor soul within the same exchange as me (765). >After going through the run-around of being told I can upgrade my service to a >data-line by one office, and the next office says that I can't do that, but I >can have a dedicated circuit (Yeah right $!$!$). They are probably talking about Dataphone Conditioning, Type II, which only conditions your local loop. I was in a situation where I had a noisy local loop, and to get it fixed, I had to order Dataphone Conditioning. You don't sound like you have that problem. If you can call some numbers without problems, but then you can't call other numbers without problems, then there is probably a problem between two of the central offices in your area. Besides, even if you get Dataphone Conditioning, the phone company will then tell you that they can't guarantee inter-office data paths. The one advantage that Dataphone Conditioning bought me in California was that I could then ask to talk to a data person rather than a voice person when I reported noise. Even Dataphone Conditioning isn't available in New York. >I *WAS* thinking about subscribing to UUNET, but if my line is this noisy and >the phone company is obviously (and admittedly) not willing to fix the >problem, it would be a waste. Now for my questions: > >o Has anyone else had this type of problem? How did it get resolved? I'm trying to deal with it right now. One important point is that you have to get them looking at the path between your home and the central office with the number you can't call. In the past two days, NYNEX has closed my problem No Trouble Found three times, once with a notation that I should contact the manufacturer of my Fax machine. I've been calling back every four hours and opening the problem again. >o How do UUNET customers deal with this? I'd ask someone with UUNET, > but I am lacking a contact there. UUNET calls are frequently long distance. My experience is that this sort of problem is less likely when calling long distance. >o The phone company says that they can only guarantee the voice quality > on residential lines without having a dedicated circuit -- Is this > true, or have I run into yet another phone co. employee with the > wrong facts? It isn't your line which is having the problem. Try calling other places that have modems (see, for example, if you can get a good clean connection to the Tymnet or Telenet ports in your area). If you have another line, try calling the bad number from that line, or bring a computer and your modem to the next door neighbor's house, and call from there. All these things will help you when you argue with the folks from the phone company about how it is a CO problem, and not a local loop problem. It sounds, from your description, like you've already done this. It isn't that they can't guarantee the data quality, it is that they won't, typically because they are too lazy or not knowledgable enough to determine whether or not their own equipment is broken. >o Will an RJ45S really help? Probably not if you can make good connections to some places but not to others. The RJ45S is used to control the signal level from the modem, so as to avoid overloading the local loop. >o Any suggestions on how to get the phone company track down the bad > circuit and I fix it, assuming that's the problem. It is obviously > not a problem with my home connection -- or with the destination. It sounds like you've bounced off of them a bunch. Keep bouncing. Talk to supervisors. There may be nothing you can do. -- Nick Simicich - uunet!bywater!scifi!njs - njs@ibm.com - SSI #OWI 3958