DSL Hell
Setting up broadband is never easy.
After we received a bill of $142 from our ISP for our 56k dialup service last month, I finally decided that unmetered 256k broadband at $139 per month was worth it. Even though we also have to pay the phone company (BTC) an extra $89 per month to have a broadband-capable line, that should be offset by the ability to get rid of our second line and the fact that all local calls will now be free.
I actually requested a DSL connection through work a couple of months ago, but having been told that 6-10 weeks was not an unusal amount of time to have to wait for BTC to convert the line, last Friday I also initiated it on a personal basis. I figured that between the two requests maybe I'd have service by Christmas.
Imagine my surprise, then, when on Monday I received an email from BTC telling me my line had been converted. It was so quick, in fact, that the only possible explanation was that the line had already been converted due to the request I'd made through work, but no-one had bothered to let us know. Nevertheless, excitedly we arranged for our ISP, Northrock, to change our account from 56k to broadband - and incredibly they did that the same day. I was overwhelmed by this sudden burst of efficiency. Now I just had to buy the modem and we'd be up and running. Given the list of eight BTC-approved retailers who sold them, I figured that wouldn't be a problem.
Wrong. I called all eight and only three of them had any ADSL modems in stock. One of them, Computer City, even honestly admitted that people had had a lot of trouble using it with Bermuda's DSL service and they wouldn't recommend it to me. After waiting a couple of days to try to get a Westell (which Francis recommended) from Leisure Time, which never showed up, on Wednesday I finally ordered a US Robotics USR 9001 from Bermuda Microsystems. It arrived yesterday; last night I tried it out.
Of course, it didn't work. I spent hours installing and re-installing the software, using different ethernet and phone cables, connecting and re-connecting them in different sequences, to no avail. Of the three-stage modem testing process, it never managed to get pass the first stage (modem self-test) unless, mysteriously, I unplugged the phone connection (and then, not surprisingly, it failed the second test, which was phone connectivity). I even tried patching the firmware, but the modem behaved the same afterwards as it did before.
Fortunately this morning Computer City had some modems back in stock - unfortunately they're US Robotics USR 9001s as well. Still, I've ordered one from them in the hope that the problems last night really were down to a duff modem rather than a duff user. Stay tuned to find out.
Meanwhile, BTC and Northrock continue to charge us for a DSL line and account that aren't being used at a rate of $8 per day...
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Just in case you do get things sorted out - don't forget to get a software firewall installed before you connect up the DSL modem... You can get a decent free one from http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp.
Posted by Fraz on 17.10.03 at 13:52