Datastream: Any way to find out if your exchange is enabled for it?

If you order a datastream product and the ISP accept the order and you
get an activation date does that mean your exchange is datastream
enabled? At what point does the ISP know if it is?

I only ask as my activation date of 8th June has come and gone with no
service yet. Virgin have raised a line fault ticket with BT and I'm
waiting for an engineer to call. Just wondered if it is a line fault or
simply that the exchange doesn't do datastream. It's a country exchange
in a village.


--
www.ukwebhost.com

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:28:24 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>If you order a datastream product and the ISP accept the order and you
>get an activation date does that mean your exchange is datastream
>enabled?

all exchanges can do Datastream, that does not mean a particular ISP
has a connection to it or has spare ports available in it. You would
have to understand the specific ISP procedures to answer the question,
but in general it appears they take orders first and ask questions
later. SOP is to say "we are waiting for BT" rather than saying "we
screwed up and took an order on an exchange where we don't have any
capacity"

> At what point does the ISP know if it is?

when they order the datastream VP and ports and are told the job is
completed.

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:28:24 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> If you order a datastream product and the ISP accept the order and
>> you get an activation date does that mean your exchange is datastream
>> enabled?
>
> all exchanges can do Datastream, that does not mean a particular ISP
> has a connection to it or has spare ports available in it. You would
> have to understand the specific ISP procedures to answer the question,
> but in general it appears they take orders first and ask questions
> later. SOP is to say "we are waiting for BT" rather than saying "we
> screwed up and took an order on an exchange where we don't have any
> capacity"
>
>> At what point does the ISP know if it is?
>
> when they order the datastream VP and ports and are told the job is
> completed.

Thanks for that. Getting a bit frustrating trying to get anything out of
them. BT say sorry it's a BT Wholesale issue so you need to talk to your
ISP. The ISP says sorry, we're waiting on BT to send the engineer to
your house.

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:34:13 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Getting a bit frustrating trying to get anything out of
>them.

this is your golden opportunity to run away and choose a better ISP
using IPstream. Don't miss out !

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:34:13 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Getting a bit frustrating trying to get anything out of
>> them.
>
> this is your golden opportunity to run away and choose a better ISP
> using IPstream. Don't miss out !

Yeah you're probably right about that but the price and free
modem/connection appealed. Would have gone with Plusnet if their free
modem and connection was actually free.

Plus if I cancel now I'd have to go through the whole procedure again of
the ISP liaising with BT to get an engineer out to fix whatever the
problem is. Can always give notice to Virgin once it's working as it's a
monthly contract. Wonder how long the downtime is when changing from
Datastream to IPStream?

On 29 Jun 2005 22:53 UTC, "Cullen Skink" wrote:

>Phil Thompson wrote:

>> this is your golden opportunity to run away and choose a better ISP
>> using IPstream. Don't miss out !

Yes, plenty of choice, including Freedom to Surf, Demon, etc, who do some
accounts with dynamic IP like Virgin, and no (or generous) quota limits.

>Can always give notice to Virgin once it's working as it's a monthly
>contract.

When did you start it ? There's now a 'clawback' of the activation fee
if you cancel before the first year is up, AFAIK.

>Wonder how long the downtime is when changing from Datastream to IPStream?

Well, if the DataStream ISP will give you a MAC, it should be a matter of
hours to migrate from one to the other (there are trials on at Metronet,
and some other ISP). Depends how fast the original ISP is to close access
and how long it take for BT to do the other part. One migration had my old
ISP stop my connection soon after midnight on the day, the new ISP confirmed
access was possible soon after 16:00 (by e-mail, giving my login info! good
job their mail also caused an SMS alert, so I saw the subject line anyway)
though I had spoken to them around 0400, when they explained it was all
automated and depended on them being told by BT Wholesale that it was OK
(I suppose they'd have wanted to charge for use of the account and then
if BT W had said it wasn't active, there'd have been refunding cash etc)

poster wrote:
> On 29 Jun 2005 22:53 UTC, "Cullen Skink" wrote:
>
>> Phil Thompson wrote:
>
>>> this is your golden opportunity to run away and choose a better ISP
>>> using IPstream. Don't miss out !
>
> Yes, plenty of choice, including Freedom to Surf, Demon, etc, who do
> some accounts with dynamic IP like Virgin, and no (or generous) quota
> limits.
>
>> Can always give notice to Virgin once it's working as it's a monthly
>> contract.
>
> When did you start it ? There's now a 'clawback' of the activation
> fee if you cancel before the first year is up, AFAIK.

I'll have a look at other options once the line is working. I signed up
with Virgin before the cancellation fee was introduced and have two
emails from them saying there would be no charge should I cancel.

>> Wonder how long the downtime is when changing from Datastream to
>> IPStream?
>
> Well, if the DataStream ISP will give you a MAC, it should be a
> matter of hours to migrate from one to the other (there are trials on
> at Metronet, and some other ISP).

I thought the problem was that Datastream ISPs don't do MAC codes or is
it just some who didn't?

Anyone experience of migrating from Virgin to an IPStream ISP?

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:31:09 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I thought the problem was that Datastream ISPs don't do MAC codes or is
>it just some who didn't?

the latter. When there was no D->I migration a pure datastream ISP
would have no need of a MAC issuing process. Virgin use IPstream too.
Tiscali are declining to issue MAC even now there is a migration path
in place (may still just be a trial, not sure).

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

Phil Thompson wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:31:09 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I thought the problem was that Datastream ISPs don't do MAC codes or
>> is it just some who didn't?
>
> the latter. When there was no D->I migration a pure datastream ISP
> would have no need of a MAC issuing process. Virgin use IPstream too.
> Tiscali are declining to issue MAC even now there is a migration path
> in place (may still just be a trial, not sure).

Thanks again. I'd been told Virgin were Datastream as they use NTL or
something or do you mean they use both? Anyway just off the phone to
them and they said BT tried to contact me but couldn't get through. I
asked why did they not use the alternative number that they (Virgin) had
requested to give to BT. "Sorry, we didn't pass it on." Sigh.

On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 11:17:31 +0000 (UTC), "Cullen Skink"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'd been told Virgin were Datastream as they use NTL or
>something or do you mean they use both?

they used to use IPstream, then NTHell bought out the Virgin element
and decided to stick to using their datastream network. So I imagine
they have both type of users at the moment but all new users are
datastream.

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.