Best way to convert existing ISDN?

Hi

A friend of mine has got an existing ISDN connection which gives him a 64K?
data connection (handled by BTYahoo) and two voice connections, one for his
fax and one for a private voice line in his office. He also pays someone
else to host his website, domain name and forward email to his BTYahoo
account.

He wants to migrate to Broadband (not bothered about who the provider is)
yet still keep his phone number for the fax line and ideally, though I
suspect not essential, keep his phone number for the other voice line.

Any suggestions as to the most painless way to achieve this?

He's had a preliminary call with BT and got no satisfactory answers.

--
Regards
Barry

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 17:39:24 +0000, BJH <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Any suggestions as to the most painless way to achieve this?

reading the thread entitled "Upgrade from BT HomeHighway to
Broadband...?" would be a good start, then come back with any
unresolved queries.

Phil
--
Splenda - the only sweetener made from chlorine :-)

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 17:39:24 +0000, in uk.telecom.broadband,
BJH <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>He wants to migrate to Broadband (not bothered about who the provider is)
>yet still keep his phone number for the fax line and ideally, though I
>suspect not essential, keep his phone number for the other voice line.
>Any suggestions as to the most painless way to achieve this?

A 'managed conversion' from Highway to an ordinary line is meant to be
fairly painless (a read of the posts for the past 24 hours would show
a thread about this matter with various ISP names included).

As for the numbers, I don't know if BT would allow him to use one as a
CallSign number and keep the original. I would consider a fax to e-mail
service instead and remember that whether the line has one or two numbers
for incoming calls, only one number will be sent for CLI purposes to the
destination, so it would probably make sense for that to be his voice
number, not the one for fax. He could use CallSign for a second number
and use a box to filter CS calls to his fax, but equally he could have
another phone line and it would be cheaper than HH... Peter M.



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
BJH <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Hi
>
> A friend of mine has got an existing ISDN connection which gives him
> a 64K? data connection (handled by BTYahoo) and two voice
> connections, one for his fax and one for a private voice line in his
> office. He also pays someone else to host his website, domain name
> and forward email to his BTYahoo account.
>
> He wants to migrate to Broadband (not bothered about who the provider
> is) yet still keep his phone number for the fax line and ideally,
> though I suspect not essential, keep his phone number for the other
> voice line.
>
> Any suggestions as to the most painless way to achieve this?
>
> He's had a preliminary call with BT and got no satisfactory answers.

Go with an ISP which provides a managed ISDN to ADSL conversion, then - if
the line should fail the ADSL test - ISDN will be re-instated at no charge.
Otherwise, it gets very messy - and expensive - if the line test fails. Also
go with an ISP which will host the existing domains. PlusNet would qualify
on both counts.

Your friend needs to decide whether he *really* needs a fax line and, if so,
whether it needs to be a dedicated line. Many broadband users use a
Fax-to-email service (free with PlusNet) for incoming faxes, so as not to
tie up the phone line - and an ordinary fax modem plugged into the voice
line for outgoing faxes, sent at convenient times when voice calls are not
needed.

If he wants a separate *number* for fax, he could use Call Sign on the
single line - but still wouldn't be able to use voice and fax at the same
time. This is little different from Home Highway ISDN in that when the
internet line is in use, you can use phone or fax but not both - it's just
that, with ADSL, the equivalent of the internet line is *always* in use!

--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On 6 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:

>Fax-to-email service (free with PlusNet)

and free with from others, too, including efax.com and inweb.co.uk
(and possibly Demon on some accounts, BICBW). Peter M.



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On 6 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:
>
>> Fax-to-email service (free with PlusNet)
>
> and free with from others, too, including efax.com and inweb.co.uk
> (and possibly Demon on some accounts, BICBW). Peter M.

Indeed. I wasn't implying that it was *exclusively* free with PlusNet - but
just that PlusNet seemed to satisfy all the requirements. Clearly, there are
other fish in the sea!
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

The bit at the beginning was incorrect - the person doesn't have ISDN2
and use his lines for fax, voice, and Internet, at least not all at
the same time.

Anyone with ISDN2 who uses the Internet more or less continuously has
to share one line with phone calls and fax anyway, hence going back to
an analogue phone line and fax is a forward step (if you add
broadband).

If that doesn't work, get a SIP phone & number - then your phone line
is the fax line and broadband provides Internet & Voice.

I don't tout suppliers, so look them up, but an IP phone will cost
less than a phone line rental over a year, even comparing Cisco -vs-
BT.



On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 22:19:45 -0000, "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
>Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> On 6 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:
>>
>>> Fax-to-email service (free with PlusNet)
>>
>> and free with from others, too, including efax.com and inweb.co.uk
>> (and possibly Demon on some accounts, BICBW). Peter M.
>
>Indeed. I wasn't implying that it was *exclusively* free with PlusNet - but
>just that PlusNet seemed to satisfy all the requirements. Clearly, there are
>other fish in the sea!

On 6 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:

>just that PlusNet seemed to satisfy all the requirements.

it does, until you (a) rely on the service and then want to
(b) switch ISP.... While I'm aware the fax to email service
is there and works OK most of the time, there are others which
exist and can perhaps offer other options (such as sending PDF)
as well. I'm 'for' having more than one option for services



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 21:23:45 -0000, Tiscali Tim wrote:

> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> BJH <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> A friend of mine has got an existing ISDN connection which gives him
>> a 64K? data connection (handled by BTYahoo) and two voice
>> connections, one for his fax and one for a private voice line in his
>> office. He also pays someone else to host his website, domain name
>> and forward email to his BTYahoo account.
>>
>> He wants to migrate to Broadband (not bothered about who the provider
>> is) yet still keep his phone number for the fax line and ideally,
>> though I suspect not essential, keep his phone number for the other
>> voice line.
>>
>> Any suggestions as to the most painless way to achieve this?
>>
>> He's had a preliminary call with BT and got no satisfactory answers.
>
> Go with an ISP which provides a managed ISDN to ADSL conversion, then - if
> the line should fail the ADSL test - ISDN will be re-instated at no charge.
> Otherwise, it gets very messy - and expensive - if the line test fails. Also
> go with an ISP which will host the existing domains. PlusNet would qualify
> on both counts.
>
> Your friend needs to decide whether he *really* needs a fax line and, if so,
> whether it needs to be a dedicated line. Many broadband users use a
> Fax-to-email service (free with PlusNet) for incoming faxes, so as not to
> tie up the phone line - and an ordinary fax modem plugged into the voice
> line for outgoing faxes, sent at convenient times when voice calls are not
> needed.
>
> If he wants a separate *number* for fax, he could use Call Sign on the
> single line - but still wouldn't be able to use voice and fax at the same
> time. This is little different from Home Highway ISDN in that when the
> internet line is in use, you can use phone or fax but not both - it's just
> that, with ADSL, the equivalent of the internet line is *always* in use!

I'm confused!

My friend doesn't have HH, this is a business we are talking about, at
least I don't *think* its called HH.

Secondly, he does need a dedicated fax line for the business, but you're
quite correct, I think call sign would be an option, provided his fax
machine was clever enough to differentiate. Altough I do think there's a
smart box on the market, that does?

Thirdly, this ISDN setup does allow one internet connection, the fax line
and a voice line to co-exist all at the same time. At least, that's what he
told me!

--
Regards
Barry

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 08:38:08 +0000, BJH <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>My friend doesn't have HH, this is a business we are talking about, at
>least I don't *think* its called HH.

it might be Business Highway, providing two analogue ports as well as
the digital "pure" ISDN.

>Secondly, he does need a dedicated fax line for the business, but you're
>quite correct, I think call sign would be an option, provided his fax
>machine was clever enough to differentiate. Altough I do think there's a
>smart box on the market, that does?

TwinTalk if the fax machine won't do it.

>Thirdly, this ISDN setup does allow one internet connection, the fax line
>and a voice line to co-exist all at the same time. At least, that's what he
>told me!

ISDN has two channels so he can have internet on one and fax/voice on
the other but never all three together. If he has kit to connect the
fax and phone is ISDN, if there's a BT box receiving the fax and phone
plugs its Business Highway.

The numbering issues will be different if its ISDN compared to BH.

Phil
--
Splenda - the only sweetener made from chlorine :-)