ZEN authentication problems

I have signed up with Zen and presently I am using their dial-up
facility because I can't get the ADSL modem working.

It was working previously with another ISP, and has its own BT line
which works. The ADSL modem is a D-link 300G which worked fine before
with the previous ISP.

It is reporting "Auth. failure". The tech support man at Zen says he
cannot see a problem on the line, but that he cannot see my modem
trying to connect. Because of the wait on their tech supp phone line
(45 mins or so) I can't usually call them from home where the system
is; I can do it only by leaving the phone hands-free at work!!

I understand that ADSL authentication involves several steps along the
line to the ISP. It's probably failing at one of these. The ZEN man
says the problem is probably at my end and that he could report it to
BT but they will charge if it isn't a BT problem.

The previous ISP didn't acknowledge requests to get off the line (they
are in a total mess as far as I can tell), so I did it by asking BT to
change the phone number! Perhaps this is a part of the problem; the
previous ISP still "owning" a part of the line to Zen?

I would appreciate any suggestions.


Peter.
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In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Peter says...
> The previous ISP didn't acknowledge requests to get off the line (they
> are in a total mess as far as I can tell), so I did it by asking BT to
> change the phone number! Perhaps this is a part of the problem; the
> previous ISP still "owning" a part of the line to Zen?
>
it doesn't work like that. Merely changine the number doesn't change the
physical wiring, and that's what the ADSL service is tied to.

For a clean line without ADSL you would have needed a complete
installation of another physical line into the house. I would think the
previous supplier has still got their hooks into your phone line and
that needs to be removed. Contact Zen again and get them to escalate it
with BT.

FR

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:43:30 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) (Peter) wrote:

>I have signed up with Zen and presently I am using their dial-up
>facility because I can't get the ADSL modem working.
>
>It was working previously with another ISP, and has its own BT line
>which works. The ADSL modem is a D-link 300G which worked fine before
>with the previous ISP.
>
>It is reporting "Auth. failure". The tech support man at Zen says he
>cannot see a problem on the line, but that he cannot see my modem
>trying to connect. Because of the wait on their tech supp phone line
>(45 mins or so) I can't usually call them from home where the system
>is; I can do it only by leaving the phone hands-free at work!!
>

First of all, we've not had a call queue above 16 minutes today. That
was one single call in the queue for 16 minutes and such a long wait
time is high above what it's been for some time (there has been a
fault, unrelated to ADSL, hence the higher-than-average queue). The
current wait is 1 minute 30 seconds. I just felt it important to
correct this exaggeration of our call queue length.

>I understand that ADSL authentication involves several steps along the
>line to the ISP. It's probably failing at one of these. The ZEN man
>says the problem is probably at my end and that he could report it to
>BT but they will charge if it isn't a BT problem.
>

What happens when you attempt to login using: bt_test@startup_domain ?
Obvioulsy you can't provide details of your account in this group, so
I don't know what diagnostics have already been conducted - but with
login issues this is one of the most basic checks to ensure your modem
is configured correctly.

>The previous ISP didn't acknowledge requests to get off the line (they
>are in a total mess as far as I can tell), so I did it by asking BT to
>change the phone number! Perhaps this is a part of the problem; the
>previous ISP still "owning" a part of the line to Zen?
>

If you've ordered Zen on a different number, but nothing physical has
changed, there is a chance that the provisioning process hasn't worked
correctly. Do your old ISP details still work?

If you don't have time to call Technical Support then perhaps it would
be worth e-mailing instead?


regards,
Phil D.Long
Team Leader - Second Line Technical Support
Zen Internet Ltd.
W: www.zensupport.co.uk

>First of all, we've not had a call queue above 16 minutes today. That
>was one single call in the queue for 16 minutes and such a long wait
>time is high above what it's been for some time (there has been a
>fault, unrelated to ADSL, hence the higher-than-average queue). The
>current wait is 1 minute 30 seconds. I just felt it important to
>correct this exaggeration of our call queue length.

I am sure it was a lot more than that, but OK. I called 0845 058 9000.

Everyone speaks highly of Zen which I why I went there, and this sort
of response is a very good sign.

>What happens when you attempt to login using: bt_test@startup_domain ?

What password should I use? You can email me - my address in at the
bottom.

>If you've ordered Zen on a different number, but nothing physical has
>changed, there is a chance that the provisioning process hasn't worked
>correctly. Do your old ISP details still work?

The reason I don't want to try the old ISP login is because I am
trying to get them to terminate the service, and if I login even once
they can say that I still use the service. I had this years ago with
some other ISP on a dial-up; they kept track of the logins and used it
to justify a delay of several months in closing the account.

>If you don't have time to call Technical Support then perhaps it would
>be worth e-mailing instead?

I have done, yesterday, but got no reply (yet).

It's a fair point about BT and the other ISP still holding the line.
However, why did your man say the line looks good? He also said that
he can't see my modem's login attempts - these two statements are
surely incompatible.

I will phone Zen again this afternoon. If you email me I will be happy
to email you back, of course. Thank you for the feedback.



Peter.
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> Everyone speaks highly of Zen which I why I went there, and this sort
> of response is a very good sign.
>
>>What happens when you attempt to login using: bt_test@startup_domain ?
>
> What password should I use? You can email me - my address in at the
> bottom.


Any password should work - I usually use 'test'

James

(E-Mail Removed)ldomain wrote:

>> What password should I use? You can email me - my address in at the
>> bottom.
>
>
>Any password should work - I usually use 'test'

Will try tonight - thanks.


Peter.
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On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 12:10:52 +0000, (E-Mail Removed) (Peter) wrote:

<snip>
>
>I will phone Zen again this afternoon. If you email me I will be happy
>to email you back, of course. Thank you for the feedback.
>
>
>
>Peter.

E-mail sent.

regards,
Phil D.Long
Team Leader - Second Line Technical Support
Zen Internet Ltd.
W: www.zensupport.co.uk

Phil Long <(E-Mail Removed)0m> wrote:

>>I will phone Zen again this afternoon. If you email me I will be happy
>>to email you back, of course. Thank you for the feedback.
>>
>>
>>
>>Peter.
>
>E-mail sent.

After a very long phone session it looks like a BT problem. The modem
will connect to the name given earlier but not to anything else.


Peter.
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An update:

I telephoned the original ISP (Clara) and finally got some sense as to
what's going on, though the man refused to give any real details.

He said that if one asks Clara to terminate an ADSL account which has
say a 1 year notice on it, Clara has the right to prevent BT allowing
another ISP on that BT line, until the notice period expires.

He said that Clara don't exercise this right; however they require the
customer to pay off the remainder of the notice period before they
send the message to BT to release the line so another ISP can go on
it.

So, despite multiple requests from me which have not been acknowledged
to get off the line, Clara have not yet asked BT to do it.

I had called BT some weeks ago and they said that they cannot remove
an ISP from a line unless the ISP has gone into liquidation. They said
that all I can do is close that line and install another one - with
the setup cost that entails. I suggested that they simply change the
number; they said that should also do it. So this was done.

But it could be that Clara are still holding onto some part of the
phone line further back. I am now expecting a call from their accounts
dept tomorrow (or when they get around to it; this has now been
running for weeks) which will state that they need a cheque for
£25/month until November 2005 before they will get off the line...

There is a lesson to be learnt here (apart from the obvious one as to
which ISP to avoid!!) and that is to not sign any ADSL contract which
has such a notice period!! The penalty of getting rid of an ISP could
be the full installation cost of a BT line - £150 or so.

Zen have dealt with this very well, I think. I just hope that BT
manage to sort out the mess.


Peter.
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"Peter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> An update:
>
> I telephoned the original ISP (Clara) and finally got some sense as to
> what's going on, though the man refused to give any real details.
>
> He said that if one asks Clara to terminate an ADSL account which has
> say a 1 year notice on it, Clara has the right to prevent BT allowing
> another ISP on that BT line, until the notice period expires.
>
> He said that Clara don't exercise this right; however they require the
> customer to pay off the remainder of the notice period before they
> send the message to BT to release the line so another ISP can go on
> it.
>
> So, despite multiple requests from me which have not been acknowledged
> to get off the line, Clara have not yet asked BT to do it.
>
> I had called BT some weeks ago and they said that they cannot remove
> an ISP from a line unless the ISP has gone into liquidation. They said
> that all I can do is close that line and install another one - with
> the setup cost that entails. I suggested that they simply change the
> number; they said that should also do it. So this was done.
>
> But it could be that Clara are still holding onto some part of the
> phone line further back. I am now expecting a call from their accounts
> dept tomorrow (or when they get around to it; this has now been
> running for weeks) which will state that they need a cheque for
> £25/month until November 2005 before they will get off the line...
>
> There is a lesson to be learnt here (apart from the obvious one as to
> which ISP to avoid!!) and that is to not sign any ADSL contract which
> has such a notice period!! The penalty of getting rid of an ISP could
> be the full installation cost of a BT line - £150 or so.
>
> Zen have dealt with this very well, I think. I just hope that BT
> manage to sort out the mess.
>
>
> Peter.

Do you really mean notice period, or do you actually mean that you signed a
1year contract & now you're trying to get out of it early?

If this is the case then it probably says in the terms & conditions you
signed up to, that they reserve the right to charge you the full years
contract cost to release the line early.