ADSL connection....confused.

[Haez]

Hello forum 

So i've been trying to get myself an ADSL connection since november 2011 but my fortnightly applications keep getting rejected due to 'no ports being available'

March 2012 came and a tophat is installed on the streetside cabinet just 40m from my front door.

This sparked massive snooping around on my end and from what i understood, the tophat is supposed to provide additional ports as well as a workaround people who could not be connected due to pair gain / RIM issues.

So i wait patiently for it to be activated which is scheduled for June 2012 for mine. (PCOK CA39 / DA056)

Today at work, i decide to use Telstra livechat and just try to signup for **bleep**s and giggles to see what happens. I advised the rep to check for ports first since that has been a known issue to me.

The response took me by complete surprise ! I was told that the rejections i received for the past few months due to 'no ports' had been incorrect. I was then further advised that the real reason why my applications had been unsuccessful was due to it "just not being available at the exchange"

I told the rep that my neighbours on all 4 sides have ADSL so it's just me and she suggested that maybe they were connected through the Telstra smart community. This concept was entirely new to me and i had not read a single thread about this for the half year i lurked around the whirlpool forums.

I admit that i know nothing about the Telstra smart community and what they are about, i will google them and make a few calls later today.

But in the meantime, can a rep or anyone with the know-how clarify if i'm unable to get ADSL is due to :
1.) port availability

2.) not available at exchange  <-- still cynical about this. 

Thanks in advance guys. 

- H

[Lathania]

Hi Haez,

I'd just like to start by stating that if you were in a Telstra Smart Community, you'd know about it and there is 0 possibility of any of your neighbours being in it and you not. Smart Community fibre areas generally (not always) are in new development suburbs and the entire suburb will be connected with fibre.

It could be that Telstra's records indicate that you are too far away from your exchange to get a service, but the records for you neighbours are just under and may need a technician / technical support to investigate and get it overridden by the sales department. That said, if thats the case and you're on Wireless at the moment then you may get a better service from your wireless.

Have a chat to a sales person about overriding the auto checks and attempting to connect you anyway.

[Steph · Accepted solution]

Hi Haez, 

If you send me a Private Message with your contact email address, I'll send you an email and get some information from you and we'll find out what's going on. 

I'll be able to check our previous requests and find out what the actual situation is . 
Although a quick check indicates that at Point Cook, CA 39 there are No ADSL ports available, and it's currently not enabled for ADSL2+ (which you already know :-)  so as long as that is the correct information for your service, it sounds like no ports is the case. But it's always worth double checking just in case that's not the right information, or if there is another issue :-) 

 

[Haez]

@ Step  :  Done. Thanks in advance !

@ Lathania :

Exactly ! I thought so too. After calling up Telstra smart community, i found out that it's essentially fibre internet so yeah i'm definitely out of the picture here. My only hope is for when the tophat for my area goes live and there won't be anymore hiccups and i'll finally get back online.

Information from http://adsl2exchanges.com.au/detailedsummarystart.php

Line of sight    :   2554m

Estimated cable  :  3193m

Estimated attenuation : 45

Estimated maximum speed : 5666

I'm not entirely sure how these numbers fare, but i typically read on whirlpool that if the cable length is >5000, there will be too much signal loss and means no internet. I'm fairly confident that the numbers i got above should be fine since my neighbours aren't raging about anything.

The tophat was scheduled to be activated in May 2012, but apparently it's been updated to be sometime in June 2012.

Here's hoping that i will be able to get a connection then !

Thanks !

- H

[Lathania]

I'll express my extreme cynicism in regards to anything you'll read on whirlpool in advance =P However from memory Telstra's attenutation limit is 54dB so technically you should be fine in that regards. Let us know how you go!

[Haez]

Thanks Lathania

Haha yeah, like any other forum, Whirlpool is full of trolls !

I got my ADSL up and running now.
The whole journey is documented here in the following thread :   

http://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/t5/Home-Broadband/Point-Cook-Tophat/td-p/40273 

I'm pretty sure it's ADSL1 and i'm in the process of submitting a plan change to ADSL2.

Even with ADSL1 though it's extremely stable and fast.

I'm at work now so i can't do a speed test and post the results. I'll do that after i get the plan changed to ADSL2+  (^___^)

Cheers