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Dial-Up Connection Problem and Buck Passing


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Old 25-01-2010, 18:37
KennedyC
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I have a peculiar problem with making a dial-up modem connection and would appreciate any thoughts or advice. I apologise in advance for the length of this post.

For a new job I have been given a laptop and at the end of each day I am expected to use the laptop to make a dial-up modem connection to HQ when data is transferred etc.

My telephone line is a standard BT line with ADSL supplied by Freedom2Surf (now part of Talk Talk). I connect the laptop modem cable through a microfilter into a telephone extension socket. Run the software on the laptop and it attemps to make a dial-up connection. It goes through the beeping and chirping of negotiation for 65-75 seconds. It sounds like it is restarting the handshaking a number of times and the call usually ends which a squelch or long tone. The connection fails with no connection to the target computer (error number 678).

I have tried everything I can to resolve the problem including using a different laptop with inbuilt modem. Dialing different modem numbers; disconnecting all internal extension wiring and using the master BT socket only. All to no avail. I then tried the work laptop on a neighbours non-adsl telephone line and it worked perfectly.

I have contacted BT who referred me to Freedon2Surf who referred me to BT who referred me to Freedom2Surf who have referred me back to BT. Yes, it is a nice game of piggy in the middle.

Who is responsible for fixing this problem? I can't start this new job until its resolved.

Kennedy
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Old 25-01-2010, 18:42
TeeGee
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I would have thought that it was your employers problem!

Surely once you connect you have to login and that could be done with a broadband connection via VPN (virtual private network).

Do they have an IT department? Maybe simply try without the filter?
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Old 25-01-2010, 18:46
KennedyC
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Unfortunately all of the 900 laptops they use to collect data are configured for this dial-up modem technology. It would be great if I could plug the network cable into it and use broadband but that is not an option. I suspect that there are issues of confidentiality involved since the data is of a sensitive nature.
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Old 25-01-2010, 21:56
iniltous
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Just to be clear, you have an ADSL connection but you have to use dial up to transfer data to your employer.
I would suggest that when you want to use dial up you un-plug your router/filters etc. from the line ( this will result in your adsl sync being lost with the exchange ), so in effect the line is as close to a ordinary pstn line as it can be , plug in your dialup modem (into the tele socket, no filter)and off you go, when data transfer complete unplug the dialup modem and plug in the adsl kit to establish your 'adsl sync' again, trying to use dial up while the adsl in sync is probably not a good idea even though dial up and adsl work in different frequecy ranges
Im not supprised that BT and your ADSL provider are not interested, its not realy their problem.
Final point you say a standard BT line, so you pay line rental to BT and not some other SP, as some SP's (Talk Talk for one) migrate their end users onto their own IP network for telephony and I doubt if dial up modems would work on that system at all, if you pay BT for line rental then you will still be on pstn for telephony
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Old 26-01-2010, 09:17
KennedyC
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I have done all of that and it still doesn't work. I have disconnected my whole internal telephone system and connected directly to the incoming master socket. I have tried it with and without the microfilter.

I pay line rental to BT as we have no LLU on our exchange. Unfortunately no option of choosing an alternative line supplier.

Kennedy
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Old 26-01-2010, 22:37
beerhunter2
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I have done all of that and it still doesn't work. I have disconnected my whole internal telephone system and connected directly to the incoming master socket. I have tried it with and without the microfilter.
Try connecting it via a microfilter (Analogue modems shouyld be treated the same as telephones because they use the telephony frequencies.) to the Test Socket. What happens then?
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Old 26-01-2010, 22:44
iniltous
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I have done all of that and it still doesn't work. I have disconnected my whole internal telephone system and connected directly to the incoming master socket. I have tried it with and without the microfilter.

I pay line rental to BT as we have no LLU on our exchange. Unfortunately no option of choosing an alternative line supplier.

Kennedy
LLU would still use the BT local loop so only way around that would be to use cable (virgin media) if available in your area, assuming your neighbours non adsl line is on bt's local loop and your laptop/dialup works ok on that line it sort of suggests the problem is with your adsl provider, somehow affecting your pstn service.
You need to keep on at your ISP, or get a mac code, swap to another broadband provider and see if that solves your problem....another (more expensive) solution is to get another exchange line installed
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Old 27-01-2010, 18:16
KennedyC
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I spent some time today with the support techs at the company I have to dial up to. After attemping the connect while he listened on my mobile he discussed the problem with a collegue who suggested that I contact BT and ask them to increase the gain on the line.

BTs response - No, they will not do anything to the line that might affect the quality of my broadband connection. The line is ok for voice so they are not going to do anything. I liked it when the lady signed off with "is there anything else I can help you with".

Unfortunately the NTL/Comcast/Virgin cables go right past the front of our small estate but don't come on to it. So that is not an option.

I have come to the conclusion that the only solution is to get another line from BT. How mad is that - a company supplies a cr*p service and offers no help to resolve the problems so I have to order another service from them.

Kennedy
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Old 27-01-2010, 19:04
iniltous
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I think you may be blaming the wrong company here, your original post states you tried your laptop on a neighbours line and it worked perfectly, if your laptop worked ok on a neighbours line ( that doesnt have adsl) but wont work on your line then the obvious place to start is with the thing that makes your line different to your neighbours, the adsl service....increasing the gain on this line wont make any difference, your and neighbours lines will be set as auto again anyway ( so compensating for variations in line length), your location is Darlington, is that your exchange
area, if it is how far from the exchange are you, the exchange is in pretty much in the town centre, BT will sometimes give a very long line a set gain in excess of what is normal but this is normally when the line is 'quiet' and thats normally lines that are 8kms or more from the exchange and such a long line would probably not support adsl
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Old 27-01-2010, 20:47
KennedyC
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I am connected to the Dinsdale exchange. Its less than 1 mile away, takes 10mins to walk the cable route.

You may be right about the ADSL causing the problem but that doesn't give me much of a solution. Since there is no problem with the ADSL service my ISP don't want to get involved.

I have been told by the company that uses this dial-up system that many other staff have ADSL lines and some of them need to disconnect their ADSL routers before they make the dial-up connection but they have never had anyone with a problem like mine.

I could change my ISP although I can't see that a new ISP would change any of the ADSL equipment on the exchange end of my line. All that would happen is that the connection would route to a different proxy/gateway.

Kennedy
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Old 27-01-2010, 21:24
tvlooker
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There is no problem using a dial up on a adsl line Just plug in with a filter connected like a telephone.
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Old 28-01-2010, 09:24
beerhunter2
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I have been told by the company that uses this dial-up system that many other staff have ADSL lines and some of them need to disconnect their ADSL routers before they make the dial-up connection
In that case those people have a fault - probably Internal Wiring or Filter placement based. Have you tried my suggestion in Post #6 yet?
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Old 28-01-2010, 20:53
openreachpeep
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could it be something as simple as the CLI not being available. have you tried putting 1470 infront of the dial up number?
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