by Mr Butt Phone.
Is getting a working DSL line Dumb Stupid Luck?
History that matters: "LOAD COILS", a cute device buried underground to help the sound of females voices in the 1930's-1950's. Oh yes female voices.. reminds me of the time I had a lady meet me at the front door wearing nothing but a towel, oops, I'd best get back to the subject...

PROBLEM #1 : Load Coils will KILL the DSL signal. Cure: we swap the F1 cable.
Whats that?
CO---->Cross Box(F1)---->Aerial Terminal(F2)---->House

[ could be all underground too, but the labels still apply.]

The CO, usually 6-10 in a large town. You have to be within about 16,000 ft of one for a reliable signal depending on many variables. Quality of the cable,distance, number of junctions and such.

Swapping the F1: I call assignments and get a different cable,then call design and they figure the wiring for the DSL part. Your phone number is the same, I swap the F1 end at the crossbox, the CO folks swap their F1 end so your number is the same. It can take from 20 min to 6 hours depending on circumstances.

F2 swap, same gig as above, but often ladder work especially at the drop end. Often harder cause the record keeping is casual it seems. Often have to search and locate the proper pair.

Problem #2 INFERIOR INTERIOR WIRING

The PREVIOUS OWNER is the only person who has done this. Thats what all my customers say..Yeah Right..I find the whole house wired in portable phone extension cord...UGLY.. BAD..Wiring left over from 1930 just running off to some dead jack..This will kill your signal too. Voice may be fine but not the high frequency of DSL. Just last week, the house was build in 20's the ORIGINAL phone stuff was still in use, in the bastment on the floor joists. I just chopped off the old wire and the signal went from 0 to 24 db..

Trouble #3 MICROFILTERS BACKWARDS OR MISSING

Gotta have those filters on ALL DEVICES, heres a short list:
1. Answering Machine
2. Fax machine
3. Alarm system
4. Other phones on the same number
5. Digital Cable boxes
6. Satalite TV boxes
7. Wall mounted phones too

Headache #4 NO OPERATING SYSTEM CD...

Customer has gotten uncle George to build the computer and George "shared" his copy of WIN98 but the CD is in the NEXT STATE... Many files get installed when NIC cards or modems are installed. Without the CD, IT WONT HAPPEN.....

Pain in the Tush #5 DSL SALESPERSON UNTRUTHS

"Well the salesman said you'd come out and fix it"...
So he got his $40-60 bucks wheather it works or not...I think I want a sales job.... OH your at 21,000 feet...it will NEVER WORK just to plain far. Well the truth is it may work, My longest feed I recall is over 19,000 FT!! The
quality of the cable has to be there of course. I've seen 10,000 that wouldnt work, just too much moisture in the cable. Too many cable splices and such.

Bummer #6 NO SPARE F1 OR F2
I arrive and find you have load coils on your line. There are no unloaded spares, or NO SPARES at all. End of story, Get a cable modem, oh no cable here, get it over the satalite. Stick to your 56K..........

JUST DO IT!! COUGH UP THE BUCKS AND ORDER
OH SURE the sales person says it will work..Now you know since your above educatiion it MAY not. But the ONLY way to tell is PLACE YOUR ORDER TODAY!!
So look around this site and get your approximate distance. If your over 10,000 FT save your quarters till you can spring for a CISCO 675. It works better on weakers signals that the Intel 2100 It seems.

NEXT INSTALLMENT ...What I find when I come to your house...
As the door creaked open, she casually closed her robe, exposed was her.........

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Related features:
•Mac the BA DSL Guy (the help-desk view).
•DSL Installation explained from start to finish (the ISP view).