Fix The Phone; Kill The Modem

[Murriel]

Phone service is via Verizon. Stand alone DSL using a dedicated data line is provided by a local co. One of the phone wall inserts and the DSL wall insert share the same wall jack as there are two different phone lines feeding in to that jack.

All three phones in the house went dead last week but the DSL modem kept working OK. The phones were repaired by two Verizon techs today but now the DSL doesn't work anymore. They mumbled something about the DSL company putting the wires too close together but told us to call a Verizon cable guy as it was beyond their area of expertise. When the phone insert is plugged into the jack by itself that phone works OK and I can use back up dial up to go online. When both the phone insert and the DSL are plugged into the jack, that phone is dead and of course I can't get online via my back up dial up.

The techs ran out of the house before I could grasp what they were saying, but why would they tell us to get their cable guy if the problem is in the wall jack? Would it be a better idea to get the local ISP tech here?

[Nate Nagel]

There's your problem right there.

Make sure that your home address is actually close enough to a switching station to support DSL - had Verizon (not far from you, as I ASSume you are in/near Baltimore - probably the same people) sell me DSL when I moved once, then when I called to inquire why it was so slow (as determined by a back to back comparison with dial up) they told me I shouldn't have been sold it in the first place.

Then at my next house Verizon never could get my voice line to work properly and without heavy static. Went all-cell and cable modem and never looked back (have used both Cox and Comcast for cable modem, both have been infinitely more reliable than Verizon.)

Seriously, my experiences with Verizon in both NoVA and Maryland have been uniformly piss poor. I can't think of a company that I've been less satisfied with, ever. I am so glad that there are alternatives now, I can't imagine dealing with them in an age when one would HAVE to have home phone service.

nate

[gfretwell]

Make sure they didn't route your DSL through a phone line filter. Beyond that the best thing to try is to plug the DSL modem directly into the Dmark box outside and see if it links up.

[aemeijers]

If it is wired like my 3rd party DSL, the DSL is on the 2nd pair on the existing house wiring, and one jack is split or wired backwards so the DSL shows up on the center conductors.

Best cure, if you have access, is to rewire all the jacks normally, and run a dedicated line (cat5e or higher is best, but ordinary cat3 phone wire will work), directly from the second pair connections at the demarc, to a dedicated jack for the DSL modem. Best to DISconnect the

2nd pair of the legacy house wiring at the demarc when you do this. That way, you have one path from demarc to DSL modem, and an air gap between the voice and DSL wires.

-- aem sends...

[Brandon McCombs]

This doesn't matter if he is at the end of the phone loop. He could be right next to the local Verizon CO but if he is at the end of the loop and the building on the other side is at the beginning of the loop then that building will have the best service money can buy while he may not have any service at all if the loop is long enough. They stop providing service after so many miles because your quality of service would be too low. I don't know what the current cutoff is though.

[Murriel]

UPDATE: Verizon gave me the runaround, handing me off to five different departments. They told me to contact the ISP even though it was the Verizon guy who knocked out the 2nd phone line (dry loop).

The ISP said that there would be a charge and suggested that I fight Verizon for a reimbursement. But the ISP saw the problem right away, fixed it in five minutes, and didn't charge me. The Verizon guy had crossed wires on the panel that mounts to the basement wall. Instead of charging me, the ISP gave me a sales pitch to switch to them for phone service and dump both Verizon and the long-distance provider AT&T. I'm considering it.

[bob haller]

I am sure Verizon intentially mucked up a 3rd party provider of DSL.

I rewired the home trying to help. The phone guy had a big smile when I said I think the troubles werent a accident.

the DSL worked fine once verizon took over.

...........................

I will never be a new sub for any verizon service after FIOS hell.....

The internet part is rock solid, FIOS phone just a nightmare

[LouB]

Who is the ISP, and where?

Lou

[LouB]

Aren't a lot of those "Verizon" techs actually sub-contractors?

[Vladimir]

[LouB]

Well at least it is not comcast