Having Trouble Getting Internet Connected

[knod]

I just moved into a new condo and tried to get internet connected. Just for the record I don't own the condo, I'm leasing and it was only just recently built. True came out and were going to hook up cable but when they took readings at the jack in the room the reading was too low. They said down the hall is was 60 but in my room it was 40 and they can't do it.

I then showed them the two phone jacks in my room. I don't have a phone in the room and don't know if I even get a dial tone. The men couldn't speak Engish and my Thai is not great so I don't know why all I know is they said they can't do dsl over the phone line. They didn't test it or anything. Is this right? They were blaming the building's network or wiring and said speak with the reception who I spoke to after but they blammed it on true.

I'm going to go back to true tomorrow and talk to them with a friend who can translate for me and then try 3bb and hopefully they can get it sorted. I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea of what my options might be. Can I get a new coax cable run to my room? I don't mind dsl over the phone but is this possible? Do I need to get a TOT phone line so I can get 3bb dsl? I was of the opinion true or 3bb could just do it through my existing phone line or maybe make a couple of changes at one of the distribution panels/frames. I know 3bb will run their own cable for dsl sometimes but I'm on the 20th floor.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[RandomSand]

The way telecoms cabling generally functions is that a telecoms company, or perhaps several, will have run their multicore (100+ lines) telephone cables into the building's service area.

The telco's incoming muticore cables end in a termination box that's situated next to a second internal line termination box. All the internal lines come off the second box and end in the wall sockets. Anything on the outgoing box is the telco's responsibility. All the internal lines, coming from the second adjacent box are part of the building and not the telco's affair.

For a telecoms company to give you a live line they just need to allocate a line on their multicore cable and "jumper" it between the two termination boxes in the service area. So for True to say that the signal is bad would indicate that the internal lines must be very bad quality.... possibly aluminium and not copper or perhaps run in parallel with high voltage cables. Therefore; if true are correct (and although this is Thailand; they are the professionals!) then the only solution to remedy bad internal wiring would be to replace it.

Maybe the condo management have a electrician or telecoms guy that can do it ?

It might be the case that the "jumping" point is in the hall which would make it an easy job. Then again if you're on the 10th floor and the service area is in the basement then it will likely take two guys all day to do it.

You could try another ISP, and maybe they'll forget to test the internal line (easy enough as it's not their responsibility), and then your DSL modem will never be able to maintain sync.

edit: I just reead you post again "on the 20th floor".... Do you have cable TV? True can do internet over cable TV cables.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Looks to me like you (the OP) are saying that you tried to get cable (not ADSL) connected and failed because the cable signal wasn't good enough at your end of the corridor. So this will be some sort of internal cable wiring problem that the building management (or developer as it is a new build) should sort out. Talk to them.

The cable technicians normally wouldn't be equipped to deal with ADSL as there is no relationship between the two (different equipment, different wires, different distribution, different everything). You can get back in touch with True sales and they should be able to tell you whether they can provide you with ADSL or not. The internal phone wiring will already be in place and all True (or whoever you end up choosing) will have to do is connect the internal wire that runs to your room with their incoming wire downstairs. If True cant/wont help then just try another ADSL supplier. Whether you also need a TOT phone line or not depends on who you go with.

Personally I would put some more effort into trying to get the cable sorted out rather than mess about with ADSL.

[Pib]

Yea, sounds like the physical wiring is funky....attenuation to high to allow a good connection. When the attenuation is too high (a bad thing) the signal to noise/margin ratio will most likely be too low (a bad thing)...high attenuation/low SNR causes disconnects, low download/upload speeds, customer complaints, etc (bad things).

[BlackPuddingBertha]

"Can I get a new coax cable run to my room?"

For what it's worth, I had some problems with my cable internet and the cable technicians (Sophon, Pattaya) came out and had a look. They discovered that the connections in the corridor were corroded and they replaced a section of cable and a junction box, and changed the various F-connectors which sorted it out.

That was in an old building and if you have similar trouble in a new building then it should be down to the developer to put it right as I mentioned. It's probably just a bad connection somewhere, or maybe a bit of coax that has got twisted or damaged.

[knod]

I signed up with 3bb today and am just going to get dsl with them. I've never dealt with dsl until now. From my research last night I guess 3bb use dry loop so I don't have to pay for the phone line. Thanks a lot, now I understand why the guys from true couldn't do anything as they just specialise in the cable. I'm a sparky by trade but I just couldn't get my head around why the guys that came to install cable couldn't do the dsl and thought dsl mustn't be available. I will only be in this condo for 8 months and I don't want to pay for an electrician to rectify the wiring. Also I think it will be one big headache trying to get it fixed with the language barrier and the way things are done here. Turns out the 3bb contract is good for me also.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[iluvbeaches]

Looks to me like you (the OP) are saying that you tried to get cable (not ADSL) connected and failed because the cable signal wasn't good enough at your end of the corridor. So this will be some sort of internal cable wiring problem that the building management (or developer as it is a new build) should sort out. Talk to them.

The cable technicians normally wouldn't be equipped to deal with ADSL as there is no relationship between the two (different equipment, different wires, different distribution, different everything). You can get back in touch with True sales and they should be able to tell you whether they can provide you with ADSL or not. The internal phone wiring will already be in place and all True (or whoever you end up choosing) will have to do is connect the internal wire that runs to your room with their incoming wire downstairs. If True cant/wont help then just try another ADSL supplier. Whether you also need a TOT phone line or not depends on who you go with.

Personally I would put some more effort into trying to get the cable sorted out rather than mess about with ADSL.

Newer buildings should have true docsis via cable. Much more reliable, faster too, than the copper lines with dsl. See if you can get that.