I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had an ongoing saga with my ADSL
connection at home. But will re-iterate it again in case someone can
be bothered to read it all. ;-)

I signed up qith One.Tel in July or so and for about 2.5 months it was
working beautiful and without a problem. Then it just seized to connect.
After further attempts it managed to link up initially, just to lose
the connection within a minute, it did that a few times and then just
stopped working altogether, displaying the error message 'Error 680 No
Dialtone'[1]. I then rang One.Tel to report the problem and they said I
should leave the computer on and running for three days while they
performed some tests. So I did. Nothing happened and I still couldn't
connect. Went through a routine of troubleshooting following some advice
I recieved from here. I then tried three different modems the
Speedtouch 330 USB modem delivered with my initial setup,a BT Voyager 105
and a Belkin ADSL modem and four port wireless router thingy to no avail.
I tried four different microfilter, two different computer, three
different connecting cables from BT socket to the various modems.
I tried it with and without microfilter and I had a look into the socket
for a mysterious test-socket I was told about, which didn't exist.
I then took my initial set-up to a friend of mine with ADSL, connected it
to his line and it was working fine. However the telephone on the same line
worked well.

During the whole time I called One.Tel repeatedly to ask for advice and to
get them to sort it out. They performed three to four whoosh[2] tests on
the line, and it never showed a problem. Every time they promised me someone
would get back in touch with me to inform me what happened. Not a single
time did they keep a promise and I wasn't informed about anything.

Finally, so I thought, I requested my contract to be cancelled as One.Tel
wasn't keeping their side of the contract and I felt that another provider
may be keener to sort out a problem for a new customer than One.Tel is for
an existing customer.

After not hearing anything for a week or so I rang them again just to be
told that the cancellation was refused as the line showed no fault.
I became slightly irrate at that point and the helpdesk bod apologised
tens of times for One.Tel's complete and utter failure to pass on any
information. However, he suggested that an engineer would come out to
look at the problem in situ. I thought fine, and they promised to send
one out on the following Monday morning between 8am and 10am. I asked
the guy on the help-desk three times what I should do if noone would come
on that morning, and he said I wouldn't have to worry as definitely someone
was going to come.

Come Monday noone showed up. When I rang BT, they said they have had no
requests for an engineer from One.Tel, but would increase the gain on my
line to maximum, to see if that would help. It didn't and I went back to
One.Tel, where they now said that their faults department refused to send
out a request for an engineer as the line showed clear on their tests.
Again I requested an engineer saying I'd be happy to pay for him if it
turned out to be my fault after all. They promised me to ring back to
give me a date when this engineer would come, but again nothing happened
although I gave them three days for that.

So again I had to ring them back to chase this up.
This time they said that BT refused to send out an engineer as their test
showed no fault. Upon my question what I may do next the One.Tel bod said,
there is nothing one could do, and if I'd request another cancellation as
the circumstances have now changed. So I did, and was promised to recieve a
letter within 5-10 working days. Today that period expired and I rang
One.Tel again. Where they told me, after apologising profusely that noone
got in touch with me, that the line was cancelled on the 26 of November.
The next step is now to try getting my money back for the months I was
without any connection and they where happily charging me.

So I finally managed to get out of the contract with One.Tel, the most
unhelpful bunch of dyslexic water-repelling kings I've ever had to deal
with. As I just have been informed that my line has been released, I'm
now looking for a new provider with an interest in a new customer.
I kept an eye on Eclipse and just got a recommendation from freedom2surf
via a colleague at work. So that is fine and I'm sure I will be able to
find a suitable ISP, but however, I strongly believe that the problem is
still existing and is most likely in the wiring at my house, or flat.
So I was wondering if there is a helpful soul here, who knows about this
stuff and could give me some good advice where to look or what to do.
Of course, if we have a resident ADSL engineer in the Oxford area I'm
happy to provide a generous amount of beer and curry for any engineering
type acts performed by this person.


[1] I know broadband modems don't have a dialtone as such, it's a
Speetouch330 and it must be some line-signal it refers to as dialtone.

--
pt

If its any help Peter I had some problems when I signed up with Wanadoo. I
finally solved it by disconnecting all extension sockets from the master
in-coming BT socket and all worked OK. I then re-connected the one slave
socket I wanted to use and it still worked fine. I could not re-connect any
of the others as it killed the ADSL.

We are at the end of the BT line so the isgnal is quite degraded anyway and
the added cableing I had installed in the house killed the ADSL signal.

Hope this helps

--
Brian
---------------------------------------------

"PeterT" <krautCUT@ukrmNO.SPAMnet> wrote in message
news:cpa3fv$30u$1@news.ox.ac.uk...

ashnook

Well, as I had it running happily for 2.5 months, and as I don't have any
extensions to the incoming BT line it's unlikely to be a problem of similar
nature.

--
pt

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 18:50:05 -0000, "PeterT" <krautCUT@ukrmNO.SPAMnet>
wrote:

I read an article today that suggested flashing fairy lights can emit
enough RF interference to screw up your BB connection. Anything like
that nearby?

Muxton
Maybe now, but not in September when the problem started.

--
pt

ROTFLOL

The line gain parameter they referred to is an exchange parameter that
sometimes helps with 56k modems, fax machines etc., but has absolutely no
relevance to ADSL


--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Ah - I didn't read your post thoroughly enough. Obviously...!

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 17:54:07 -0000, "PeterT" <krautCUT@ukrmNO.SPAMnet>
wrote:

[snipped]

My sympathies with your plight. Best of luck getting it resolved.

Oliver.

i would avoid eclipse - they are the same RE support.

i would recommend demon - i have installed demon 5/6 times for people and no
probs - also - their help desk support is great,

kev

PeterT wrote:

kevin bailey

Ta, worth keeping in mind.

--
pt

Oliver
Ta, let's hope so.

--
pt

Muxton

hehe, no worries, 't was a longish rant.

--
pt

Graham

Well, I suppose that indicates that the BT broadband desk doesn't
necessarily know much more.

--
pt

PeterT wrote:
Front desk deffinitely don't...

Snap... I have the same problem and the same response from Onetel!!!! What I
have found is that I can use broadband if I am also using the phone. I have
used 7 filters two modems and two computers. I have disconnected all my
extensions and have even plugged directly into the BT socket using my laptop
bypassing all my wiring. It still does not work.I know I am a long way from
the exchange and was only able to get broadband after the Milton Keyes
tests. Does anyone have any idea what I can do next???
"kraftee" <kraftee@spamoff& die.com> wrote in message
news:41b9ea16$0$9361$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...

Derek Evenden wrote:
What modems have you tried??

There appears to be cases of circuits which are more prone to work with
specific chipsets than others, especially on longer reaches. If you've
tried 2 Thompson 320 modems see if you can get your hands on a Voyager 105
or Westell type or visa versa...

I'm not saying it will work but it's just a suggestion.

Been flagging it up for a couple of weeks now & finally today someone has
taken notice (mainly because they personally met the same type of problem)

Hi, Thanks for your advice but it a miricle has happened well nearly, it is
all now working, same phones, modem computers etc., it started to work on
Saturday and has not stopped. I have done nothing different to what I have
tried for nearly 3 weeks, I don't know about Onetel, nothing was planned,
maybe BT did something with the exchange I don't. It is a mystery the answer
I will never know. Thanks for your time....

"Derek Evenden" <devenden@onetel.net> wrote in message
news:41ba151b@212.67.96.135...