Does poor quality dial-up line equal poor quality broadband connection?

I have just moved house and the local rural exchange is due to get
broadband by 31 December 2005. Meantime, I can only connect to the
Internet at 28.8k using dial-up. The previous owner had Home Highway and
that equipment is still in situ but now redundant.

Should I be pushing BT to try and improve the line or will it be capable
of decent broadband speeds as it is? I have been told that broadband
uses different technology, so a poor dial-up connection may not matter.
Voice calls are OK.

I am 3km by road from the exchange and the BT Wholesale Availability
Checker says:

"Our initial test on your line indicates that you should be able to
have an ADSL broadband service that provides 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 512Kbps or
256Kbps line rate."

This seems promising, but I would welcome any advice from the experts
here.
--
Rab
Please use Reply-To: address
Anything sent to From: address may not be received

My dial up connection was almost always very slow. 28.8 was not so
bad! Since upgrading to broadband there is no problem maintaining a
2Mbps connection. In retrospect it looks like my dial up modem was
suspect but I tried four different ones with different results.
Connection were always slow. The last really slow dial up was using a
V92 HaM. My current ADSL modem is one of the much maligned Speedtouch
330 but it works a treat!

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:23:27 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>My dial up connection was almost always very slow. 28.8 was not so
>bad! Since upgrading to broadband there is no problem maintaining a
>2Mbps connection. In retrospect it looks like my dial up modem was
>suspect but I tried four different ones with different results.
>Connection were always slow. The last really slow dial up was using a
>V92 HaM. My current ADSL modem is one of the much maligned Speedtouch
>330 but it works a treat!

Sounds like you could have been on a DACS, which was responsible for
the slow connect speeds. This'll have been removed when you had
broadband installed, and if you plug your modem in straight into the
wall socket (ie not via the filter) I bet you'll get a connection
faster than before...

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Rab C wrote:
> I have just moved house and the local rural exchange is due to get
> broadband by 31 December 2005. Meantime, I can only connect to the
> Internet at 28.8k using dial-up. The previous owner had Home Highway and
> that equipment is still in situ but now redundant.

Someone more knowledgable than me could say if HH equipment will degrade
the speech path. My gut feeling is that it will do. The HH equipment at the
exchange and in your premises ought to be disconnected.
>
> Should I be pushing BT to try and improve the line or will it be capable
> of decent broadband speeds as it is? I have been told that broadband
> uses different technology, so a poor dial-up connection may not matter.
> Voice calls are OK.

I think it's the HH equipment that's affecting your dial-up modem speed, in
much the same that DACS would. The fact that HH was OK means that ADSL
should be no problem. The line limit for HH is more stringent than for
broadband.


--

Jock Mackirdy
Bedford

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, wrote:
> On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:23:27 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> >My dial up connection was almost always very slow. 28.8 was not so
> >bad! Since upgrading to broadband there is no problem maintaining a
> >2Mbps connection. In retrospect it looks like my dial up modem was
> >suspect but I tried four different ones with different results.
> >Connection were always slow. The last really slow dial up was using a
> >V92 HaM. My current ADSL modem is one of the much maligned Speedtouch
> >330 but it works a treat!
>
> Sounds like you could have been on a DACS, which was responsible for
> the slow connect speeds. This'll have been removed when you had
> broadband installed, and if you plug your modem in straight into the
> wall socket (ie not via the filter) I bet you'll get a connection
> faster than before...

An interesting concept - DACS and HH on the same line. Please wake up at
the back of the class.


--

Jock Mackirdy
Bedford

On Mon, 7 Nov 2005 13:45:51 +0000, Rab C
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have been told that broadband uses different technology,
>so a poor dial-up connection may not matter.

I moved to broadband because of the dismal performance of dial-up.
No problem at all with broadband.

The other night I went back on to dial-up to clear my desk sort of
thing...performance was still just as bad.

I'm glad I have moved to broadband. Another bonus for me is that it is
more economically to run than dial-up.

Don.

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:45:50 +0000, (E-Mail Removed)lid wrote:

>Sounds like you could have been on a DACS, which was responsible for
>the slow connect speeds.

No, that's not the case. No shared lines.

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com

(E-Mail Removed)lid wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:23:27 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> My dial up connection was almost always very slow. 28.8 was not so
>> bad! Since upgrading to broadband there is no problem maintaining a
>> 2Mbps connection. In retrospect it looks like my dial up modem was
>> suspect but I tried four different ones with different results.
>> Connection were always slow. The last really slow dial up was using a
>> V92 HaM. My current ADSL modem is one of the much maligned Speedtouch
>> 330 but it works a treat!
>
> Sounds like you could have been on a DACS, which was responsible for
> the slow connect speeds. This'll have been removed when you had
> broadband installed, and if you plug your modem in straight into the
> wall socket (ie not via the filter) I bet you'll get a connection
> faster than before...

What *is* a DACS? I gather DACS and broadband don't coexist: when I was
ordering broadband for a customer (who also had max 28 kbps dialup), the BT
line check said that there was a DACS on the line which would have to be
removed, taking a but longer than BT's normal order-to-activation delay. But
what does a DACS do: why would it be on a line? The line was originally
installed as a fax/dialup line.

I've heard that a DACS is associated with line-sharing, but in what way is
the line shared? Two "lines" down one twisted pair to the exchange?

On Mon, 7 Nov 2005 16:02:28 -0000,it is alleged that "Martin
Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> spake thusly in uk.telecom.broadband:

>(E-Mail Removed) wrote in
>(E-Mail Removed):

[snip]

>What *is* a DACS? I gather DACS and broadband don't coexist: when I was
>ordering broadband for a customer (who also had max 28 kbps dialup), the BT
>line check said that there was a DACS on the line which would have to be
>removed, taking a but longer than BT's normal order-to-activation delay. But
>what does a DACS do: why would it be on a line? The line was originally
>installed as a fax/dialup line.
>
>I've heard that a DACS is associated with line-sharing, but in what way is
>the line shared? Two "lines" down one twisted pair to the exchange?
>
It's basically a carrier system that allows 2 lines to be digitally
shared over one copper pair. It's a replacement for the old WB series
analogue carrier units which in turn were a replacement for the old
shared service connection (party line).

If the fax/dialup line was a second line at the premises, it's likely
BT did it due to a shortage of pairs to your distribution point.

It's limited to a data rate of 28.8kbps and due to the sharp cutoff
filters and the use of digital carriers on the physical pair back to
the exchange, it's totally incompatible with pretty much everything
but a bog standard voice line (ok for fax lines though).

More info is available here: http://frank.gwc.org.uk/~ali/dacs/

HTH

--
The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those
which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.
- Helen Rowland

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:55:50 GMT, Jock Mackirdy
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, wrote:
>> On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:23:27 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>> >My dial up connection was almost always very slow. 28.8 was not so
>> >bad! Since upgrading to broadband there is no problem maintaining a
>> >2Mbps connection. In retrospect it looks like my dial up modem was
>> >suspect but I tried four different ones with different results.
>> >Connection were always slow. The last really slow dial up was using a
>> >V92 HaM. My current ADSL modem is one of the much maligned Speedtouch
>> >330 but it works a treat!
>>
>> Sounds like you could have been on a DACS, which was responsible for
>> the slow connect speeds. This'll have been removed when you had
>> broadband installed, and if you plug your modem in straight into the
>> wall socket (ie not via the filter) I bet you'll get a connection
>> faster than before...
>
>An interesting concept - DACS and HH on the same line. Please wake up at
>the back of the class.
You'll notice of course that I my reply was to Steve, rather than the
original poster. Wake up there at the front Jock!