In which Coldy attemtps to install ADSL.

The BBQ Pit
1

I received my ADSL DYI package yesterday. I was going to spend the entire day today installing phone lines, external modems, switch boxes, ethernet cards, and then some. I was wel prepared. I knew this was going to take long, be a pain in the ass, and would most likely not work the on the first try.

So. I got the ethernet card, put it in the computer, installed. Piece of cake.

Then, I started on the ADSL DYI package.

Step 1. Get main cable from ISDN box (I currently have IDSN). Attach wires to convertor box (cause my ISDN is the oldfashioned one, no miniplug. Just plain wires). Screw convertor box to wall. Put miniplug in converter box.
Step 2. Screw ADSL splitter to wall. Get miniplug from convertor box and put it in “LINE” extention of splitter.
Step 3. Put miniplug of second cable in “PHONE” extention of splitter. Does your ISDN have a miniplug line-in? Nope. Strip other end of cable and connect red and blue wire (I’m telling you, I was expecting the whole building to explode should I get the wrong wire) to the teenie weenie little fucking goddamned holes, while simultaneously pressing up the little frigging 0.5 mm clips with a precision screwdriver so as to open the teenie weenie little goddamned holes, all while laying on the floor and looking up at a 45 degree angle because the ISDN mechanic decided to screw the box at about 1 foot from the floor 3 years ago - and the connector lid opens UPWARDS to about an 80 degree angle, and can’t be removed. (Step 3, obviously, took about 1.5 hours).
Step 4. Smoke cigarette, drink a beer, curse at those goddamned semi-state owned monopolists that sold you that fucking DYI pack for about USD 150.
Step 5. Calm down again.
Step 6. Get the connector cable from the package. Har-dee-fucking-har, you gotta be joking me. That’s about 6 foot of cable, and my 'puter is in the other room, all the way to the back of my apartment. Luckily, I had forseen this, and bought 18 meters of cable with mini-plugs to replace it. OK, we’ll use that one. Hook it up to included Alcatel ADSL Ethernet converter modem thingie. Which, incidently, has to be put on top of the computer. It’s not an internal one.
Step 7. Hook up Convertor modem to electricity and Ehernet card - which I installed earlier on (not that de documentation ever mentioned I needed one. I had to figure that out myself).
Step 8. Start 'puter, tweak TCP protocols and all that crap, whilst restarting the damn thing 500 times for various settings to take effect.
Step 9. Fire up browser.
Step 10. Read documentation. “You will now need your assigned login and password as sent to you in the letter.”
WHAT letter, fuckheads? I received no such thing!
Step 11. Check documentation for helpdesk availability. Workdays 08:00-22:00. Saturday 09:00-18:00. Sunday closed. The current time when I found out? Saturday 19:00.
Step 12. Repeat step 4 and 5.

So, here I am, using the ol’ ISDN connection. I’m amazed I didn’t fuck it up in the process. But as it is, no ADSL just yet.

So there you go. Just had to vent.

2

Hmph.

The cable company sent a guy over to run a cable line into our house and set up the cable modem for free. Go figure.

:smiley:

3

Feh.

The DIY pack was about USD 150, the Ethernet card USD 20, the extra long cable USD 10. If I wished to have it installed by a pro: an extra USD 150.

So I thought I’d give it a go. Mind you, I’d still have the same problem I’m having now, as the mechanic wouldn’t be doing any computer work. Just cables and shit.

And I’m not changing that annoying typo in the thread title.

4

That’s why we respect and admire you Coldie, you’re tough, but fair.

:smiley:

Fenris

5

My complete sympathies! DSL is quite nice once you’ve got it, but the folks who sell it as a service seem to have a streak of sadistic within a thick layer of stupid, and the combination of their badly written instructions, badly programmed installers, and idiotically maintained tech support service can make installation rather unpleasant.

6

Hey not all of us ADSL installers are badly programmed, some of us actually make sure it works before we leave the customers house and we also make sure we explain things to the customer before we go out. I have had a few problems but I always make sure they are resolved before I leave.

Keith

7

<giggle> I was referring to the piece of SOFTWARE called “Installer”, Odie!

8

Coldy, I have a hard time sympathizing with you.

Back in September of 2000, I called up Tokyuu Cable to try to get a cable modem installed. Their response: “Thank you very much. Your building isn’t yet hooked up to our system (after the &’%#$@”! realtor told us it was) There will be a connection charge of 80,000 yen (US$650), and we should be ready in about 6 months." Forget about that.

October 2000. My ISP has joined up with eAccess to offer ADSL connections. I immediately call them up. “Thank you for choosing eAccess. Due to increased demand, we are not yet ready to connect everyone. We’ll contact you when we’re ready.”

wait

occasional calls to eAccess only to hear “sorry, not yet. click”

February 2001. A new company called Usen is announcing a new 100Mbps FTTH network, with my neighborhood as the starting point. I join up and tell eAccess to go %&$@! themselves (politely, of course). Usen seems all ready to go, but then in April I have to bring my computer in to get its video card fixed. This “3 week” repair job stretches to 6 weeks, during which time Usen calls me 4 times to say “we’re ready to get you set up, when do you want us to come over?” to which I can only answer “sorry, not yet.”

Finally, my computer is back and I call up Usen. “Sorry, due to an unforseen increase in demand, our installation team is running behind schedule. We’ll contact you when we’re ready.”

It’s now June, and I’m sitting here with my fricking 28.8 modem, listening to some mod complain that he has to settle for an ISDN connection until Monday.

I can’t think of a suitable Dutch insult just now, but when I do, that’s what I’ll be wishing on you, Coldfire.

–sublight, posting while intoxicated and really pissed off.

9

Sublight: I wanted to get DSL for quite a while, but it’s not available in my area.

I call Time Warner/Roadrunner, and I got an installation appointment the following week. The installation was free. It rocked, and I average 250+ KB downloads. :slight_smile:

10

I once worked as Technical Support for Verizon Online DSL, and have heard your story more often than not Coldfire. I don’t know how Tech Support is run in your ADSL company, but if it is even close to Verizon’s Technical Support you are in for a couple of weeks of hell.

I feel for you my friend, and hope things go well.

[hijack]
Verizon: You suck big fat donkey balls you rhino felching sons of used condoms!!!
[/hijack]

There. I feel better now. Resume post!

11

Sublight, I feel for you, I really do. But I, too, had to wait 4 months for my ADSL connection (which basically is a single line test, conducted from the headquarters of KPN, the aforementioned semi-state owned monopolist bastard sons of bitches). But you’re right, an ISDN line beats a 28.8 modem. Think of it this way, though. For your SDMB download speed, it doesn’t make a fucking difference WHAT you use most of the time. Your thread loading times are probably the same as mine. :slight_smile:

OK, the news. I called KPN, who DID have a back-up number available on sundays. After some pressure, the tech rep gave in and helped me (he was only supposed to do “emergency stuff”. This is one, shithead. Now help me already). Turns out they changed the log-in procedure - not that that was ever mentioned to me, of course. I now have to input my ISP’s login info directly instead of first KPN’s, and then my ISP’s.

Fine, so I do just that. No go. Continuous diconnections.
I call the ISP helpdesk, which costs me NLG 2,50 per call. Guess what? ADSL Server maintenance. Can take up to two hours sir. If you can’t connect then, please call back.

So, here I am. Still using that trusty ol’ ISDN. I’m loving it more and more every minute.

12

What robgruver’s hijack said.

Here’s my own anecdotes:

The Thrills of BabyBell.net DSL Setup

BabyBell.net Setup, the Sequel

13

HACK!!! <ice cubes spew out of bernse’s mouth>

I paid $50 CDN (about $33 US?) including installation, modem, cables and 1 month of service (1.5MBS)
bernse is continually grateful to the gods that he was born in Canada…

14

Last week, Mr. jadailey and I took the plunge for Broadband Internet. The Sprint guy came out and installed a giant antenna above our house (thank goodness we don’t have a homeowner’s association, as it’s fifteen feet above the roof!) He hooks his laptop in to show us how super it will be once we get it installed on our network (we have two computers on Ethernet), then heads off to his next install. Both he and the original sales guy we talked to said “You’re networked? On Ethernet? Great - you can plug right into the hub!” They made it sound so easy. So Mr. jadailey comes home and attempts to hook us up. Nope - didn’t work. He calls tech support - he fell asleep, he was on hold for so long. Saturday, he called again, and discovered that, no, we cannot, in fact, plug directly into the network hub. Which means that the Ethernet card in my machine has to be replaced. So, right now, I’m set up so that a) I don’t have broadband. b) I don’t have dial-up, either - the hubby disabled it while trying to hook me up. I’m at work as I write this.

However, the installation was free and the equipment was $99. So that’s good.

15

The Latest News from the World of Bureaucratic Idiots, Inc.

After a couple of days of phone calls and verbal harassment of tech reps, I now know why my spiffy superfly ADSL modem won’t connect.

The KPN bastards had neglected to inform my ISP of the proper “Line ID”. In human terms, this means the server doesn’t recognize my line as a valid one, and cuts me off.

Now, I have waited for FOUR months for this fucking ADSL pack. Four months. And what do they do? They send the DIY package to me, only to THEN inform the ISP of the line-ID (which they had lying around since day 1) -which according to the small print “can take up to eight business days”-, making sure I spend the entire weekend tweaking every single friggin’ setting on all the new hard- and software while THEIR helpdesk is out for the sunday, only to inform me on MONDAY that they will be sending the line-ID to the ISP OVERNIGHT monday-tiesday, so it will then be active “within 4 work days”.

Useless fucking incompetent sons of bitches.

I’m gonna call my ISP now and see if they got the line-ID, so that maybe they can speed the process up a bit.

16

“Yup, sir, the Line ID arrived safely. Lemme see here… clickety-click… you should be able to log on now!”

Bless their hearts. Great ISP.

Well, we’ll see when I get home in an hour or so. But at least they have been a hell of a lot more helpful than the phone company that supplied me with the (expensive) hardware and subsequent “service”.

17

Sheesh! Sounds like you had a frustrating weekend! :frowning: PacBell called this weekend wanting to sell me DSL for $50.00 month, free equipment & installation. I don’t think I’d mind letting someone else deal with the hassle.

18

So, I went home and tried to log on.

No dice.

Call ISP. Yup, all should be fine. However, what region are you dialing in from?

Amsterdam.

Ah. There have been ADSL server problems in the Amsterdam area all day. Please try again tomorrow, or in a few hours.

A few hours is now, and here I am. ISDN. Damn, they were right in advising me to keep that. I need it.

We’ll see again tomorrow.

19

Hey Coldfire, I have my DSL line over the german Telekom(edians), I feel your pain, Not only that the installation was quite silliliar to the one you described (took me the better part of 3 hours and some screaming) but I also needed to reinstall Windows and the Ethernetcard killed my sound permanently…

at least the technical hotline that set there for the better part of another hour and manually set up the needed networking thingies was cost free.

oh well good luck, when it works you are never again willing even to touch ISDN or worse a modem.

20

Pffff…

Pfff…

Bwaaa ha ha ha ha ha…

suckerrrr… :wink:

Poor Coldy, I shouldn’t laugh at your troubles. I remember wiring up the same stuff in my aunt’s home. It was a great deal of fun, took me a good week before everything was up and running.

If you need to laugh at someone (me), to take your mind off your troubles, read this thread…

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=75005

Best,

Elly