Okay well we've basically had a house phone line here for the past 20 years or so without any problems. We got high speed dsl internet for the first time 3 years ago from Netscape. The modem has worked fine all along, and as you know the modem gets its signal from our house phone line.
Now I don't know if this has anything to do with it but about 7 days ago I was eating lunch when I noticed a couple of guys from some unmarked van that only had a phone number on it with no logo [the logo seemed to be old and faded] doing some work for our neighbor taking taking down most of the lines that run from the street to his house. I don't know what those lines were for but they were dangling close to the floor, and they also seemed to take down the lines that run to our house as well. We're separated from our neighbor by a small alleyway, and all the lines meet in between on the sides of our houses. I was checking the mail that day and had something cooking on the stove and ran back to get my food and eat. I was going to come back out after eating and ask them what they were doing, but by the time I came back out they were gone. I don't know what they were here for but they did touch a lot of stuff out there. Thank goodness I have a photo graphic memory because I remember the phone number from their van. I think I'll call it later today to find out what company they were from.
Anyways about a few days after that I noticed that my net would cut on and off. I'd surf the web and pages would load erratically or everything would be fine and than the net would stop responding after half an hour or so. The modem lights that always stood solid would blink signifying no connectivity, and than go solid again when the net problems would happen. Than came time for me to make some telephone calls to order pizza, talk to some friends, and family. I picked up the phone to make calls and what did I hear? STATIC, nothing but STATIC. Yes you can hear the other person but there is an obvious sound of static and uncleanness when you call someone from our house phones. You can even hear the modem dialing as if it were a darn 56k modem from 1995 right in the background while your talking to someone on the phone. Sometimes when you pick up any phone in the house the darn phone will whistle this loud sonic noise that can rupture your eardrum. So now this problem obviously goes hand in hand with my net issue. Of course I than called my isp [netscape], and told them about the issue. They tested my modem from their offices [they didnt actually come here] and everything checked out fine from the stats they saw on their computers. They actually said that the problems are related to our house phone line. So they instructed me to contact our house phone provider.
We called our house phone provider which is ROGERS Canada and told them that we're hearing static on our house lines and this is affecting our internet because we have a high speed dsl modem. They didn't even care about the issue and just gave us the run around. We called again and they said that the problem could be related to a bad phone plugged in the house. So we did what they said and unplugged every phone in our home and everything plugged into any phone jack in the house and left just one phone plugged into one jack without a dsl filter. They called us back in three minutes and the static was still there. They than said to unplug that phone and plug in another while all other jacks in the house have everything unplugged like before. They called back in three minutes and the static was gone. The tech told us "see it's got to be the phone you plugged in before, it's probably bad, just buy a new phone, and problem solved". I told the tech that the static comes and goes and the net does the same when this static comes over our line. I let him know that he may be right but it's possible that it would return. He said no it won't and hung up on us. So me being smart I left one that one phone plugged in for 30 minutes without having anything else plugged in our home. I than went to pick it up and sure enough the static was there again. This time the phone whistled loudly too. I called them back and let them know the issue was not resolved and they went off and said "we can send a tech to your home, if he does come he's going to go on the outside of your home and find the demarcation box and open it, and if he plugs in a phone to that master jack on the outside of your phone and hears static than it is an issue related to our service and we will fix it, but if he comes there and plugs in his special phone and hears no static you will be charged $65 just for that". That is obviously a ripoff, and I said "well all we have is his word what if he lies and says he here's no static, or how about the fact the static comes and goes what if he comes and tests it out when the static is gone and charges us and when he leaves the static comes back?". The tech on the phone didn't care and said I could test it myself by going to check the demarcation box which should be on the side of my house or in the basement by the electrical panel.
I went in the basement and looked for a demarcation box where the master jack should be and found none. I than went to the side of our house and looked for a box and found none. All there is outside is a secure cable box that cannot be accessed because it needs a special tool, even so it has nothing to do with our phone line since that box is just for cable tv. So I called them again and told them there is no demarcation box for our phone and they just said "ok well we'll call you back later to resolve this". They didn't even call back so we called again and they hung up on us. Than finally the anger came out and we called and asked to speak to a supervisor or manager and they put us on hold and actually didn't put us through to a manager or whatever, but did put us through to someone of seniority over them. That person said they were sorry about the run around they'd given us and that they'd send a tech over the next day, and if any charges were to be made by the tech that they'd credit us back for it. In the end we called this [bleep] company 10 times in 7 days... Anyways...
So 7 days now and we're still experiencing phone problems and net problems. The darn guy knocks at the door and identifies himself as being from BELL Canada not ROGERS Canada. We asked him why he's here from BELL and he says "Well ROGERS uses our lines, they've actually only been in the house phone business for a couple of years, and well the line belongs to us but they can rent it to provide you service, so when theirs problems we actually have to come not them because it's BELL Canada's property". Jeez... Anyways he went in our basement to look for a demarc box and found none, than went outside to the side of our house and found none again. Than he walked down the block to see if there is a small phone tower or major neighborhood demarc box somewhere and phone none. He than came back and told us "well your house is so old [about 60 years old] that the house line has no demarc point. Your line actually goes straight to the street terminal and that's nothing more!". So he than climbed the street terminal on the sidewalk, up the pole with his ladder, and opened up a terminal box. He came down and told us "I just opened up the terminal box and well as you know we just got this major meter and a half snow storm this same week while you've been having these problems so I actually found ice and corrosion in the terminal and cleaned your line up, check your phone and net and let me know if you hear static". We told him that the static was still ever so present. Than he went to the other side of the street and replaced some wire on that pole. He came back and asked us if the static was still there, and we said yes. Than I asked him "can't you come in and test the jacks in our home?". He said "no I cannot because your actually not our customers so I can only service what is BELL property outside, but if you were our customers I could do so". He than said he'd be back after his break and he'd go and test some stuff at their headquarters. He called back after about an hour and said "well I finished checking some stuff at our headquarters and alls well so your good to go". We picked up the phone and the line sounded clean and said "ok well I guess you know what your doing since you actually came and did some stuff and than went to do some stuff there so thanks bye."
The net actually worked all night and so did our phone line. The net didn't even cut off once!!! & than I woke up today to surf the web and seen that the net wasnt responding and the lights were flashing on my modem meaning no connection. I picked up our house phone to check the sound and sure enough the darn static is back.
What the heck should we do? It took us a week to get someone here because our phone company doesn't even care, they don't even own the phone lines they rent it from another company. Even the BELL company guy that came told us "ROGERS always blames us for their problems". I don't know what to do and the net just works every now and than. I need the net as we have a home business and are losing a lot of money from this. They don't care and we don't know what to do. What could be the problem and how could we check it? Has anyone ever gone through this??? Please someone help, offer advice, or let us know how you solved this if you ever did have this problem.
THIS IS WEEK #2 now. I'm barely even able to post this.
Thank You
Edited by superstar, 13 March 2008 - 08:23 AM.
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