[ILUG] Eircon DSL - A word to the wise

[Martin List-Petersen]

The problem with Eircom probably is, so I would  say, that they tell you
less, than what you would need to know.

Maybe a bit background first: I'm from Denmark, have been living in
Sweden for a while, so at least 2 mbit adsl (flat, no bandwidth limits
and allways being able to pull data ab 200 KB/sec and above) and fixed
ip (actually i had a /27, but that's not the regular) has been default
for me for years. Also it doesn't matter if you have ISDN or PSTN,
they'll deliver the modem, no matter what you need. 

In Sweden even 10 mbit/s flat and it's not more expensive than regular
adsl here.

When i came to Ireland I started ordering ISDN (all my gear is ISDN, i
use it for telephony, datacalls etc.) and of course got Eircom to check
my line for ADSL as soon as it was established. Allready here starts the
big wondering, when i got to know, that i only can get two phoneno.'s on
a ISDN line. No more, no less. (The specs for ISDN say something else
and in any other country they'll gladly give you whatever amount you
need, for a fee of course).
My line failed the adsl test every time. After about 3 months i got the
name of an account manager at Eircom, that could arrange for a physical
test on my line. He mentioned "besides", that i would loose one of my
phoneno.'s when i got adsl. (Wait a second .... ) When asking him for
the reason and to make sure, that we are on one level here ... none of
my phones, gear etc. will work, if i don't have isdn anymore, he told
me, that eircom allways downgrades you to pstn, once they deliver adsl
(I found that on Irelandoffline.org later, but would have nice to see
that piece of info on any eircom site). So i reconnected the pstn line
(an inactive one in my flat, that sits there on the side of my isdn nt
box), took them only one day, got them to check the pstn line for adsl
(it's connected to the same switchbox out on the street as the isdn
line) and yeah .. suddenly i could get adsl.

Sometimes it would be just nice to get information like that upfront. 

Next joke (NOT): if you are an eircom dialup customer, you can not
browse eircom.ie. It's not possible. It just won't work. At least here
in the Dublin Area. Any other connection will work. Dialing up on
eircom, using a proxy at another place to browse eircom.ie will work,
but not trying to browse their pages directly. So no chance, if you want
to look at your invoice or what ever you are doing at eircom.ie. At
least not in the 3 months that i was on dialup (and they ended last
weekend, when i got adsl).

/Martin

On Thu, 2004-04-29 at 18:27, Denis Hennessy wrote:
> I ran into this when I was moving from ESAT. There seems to be some kind 
> of 'cooling off period' that they worry about. The solution is simply to 
> get a phone line at your new office, order DSL on that, and when it's 
> working cancel the old service.
> 
> /dh
> 
> Philip Trickett wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, 2004-04-29 at 14:48, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>By the way, 
> >>I've always found Eircom ADSL people very helpful and knowledgeable
> >>(at least by comparison with me).
> >>Some people seem to have been programmed to go into hysterical mode
> >>when the word "Eircom" appears.
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >It is just a shame that the knowledgeable people are not backed up by a
> >policy of a company that tries to aid the use of broadband and the phone
> >system.
> >
> >I went to eircom today to enquire about the process of transferring my
> >DSL when moving offices.
> >Apart from wanting to charge a termination fee (due to the fact that
> >they have to disconnect the DSL at the old office(?)), I was told that I
> >would have to wait a minimum of 2 weeks(!) until the DSL would be
> >available in my new office.
> >
> >Just to say, I am pretty flabbergasted! 
> >
> >Phil
> >
> >  
> >