Problems getting broadband

[kasavien]

Hi all

I'm moving back to my parents this weekend, but they don't have broadband, i'm not looking for broadband packages as i see there's already a thread for that. The problem is that my parents line rental is through a company called Unicom, so there are a lot of companies that won't offer broadband because they require a BT line and for the rental to be paid to BT. Unicom do offer broadband but it is rediculously expensive at £30 a month for a 1mb line.

The other probelm is that when i run the compatabillity check on the BT website it says there is an uncompatable device on the line which prevents ADSL being used. My parents have two phone lines but they are on the same wire/cable, i think one line is piggy backed onto the other, but i may be wrong. Could the second line be the incompatable device, and if it is, is there any way to keep the second line and get ADSL? Cable broadband is out of the question as we live in the country in the middle of nowhere, and i think satellite broadband will be too expensive, so are there any other options for getting broadband?

Hopefully thats not too confusing

Thanks

Andy

[mike306dt]

Is there no way you can convince them to go back to bt "everyday xxx people come back to bt" you could be one of them

Failing that I don't know of any providers that don't require a bt line. £30 for a 1mb connection is extremely expensive Can you not convince them to change? What is it that their current provider offers that is better than bt?

[kasavien]

because my parents are farmers they are charged business rates for line rental, Unicom are cheaper than BT so thats why they are with Unicom. My dad won't/can't change because i think he is tied in for 3 years

[mike306dt]

As an idea mate, BT line rental is what? 9.99 a month? It might work out cheaper if you go for a slowish speed broadband to get another line put in from BT?

[kasavien]

nah because my dad has to pay business line rental he had to pay much more than that for line rental, does anyone know about the incompatable device i mentioned above?

[EtheAv8r]

Well if you don't want to put in another BT line (domestic) and your parents don't want to switch from Unicom.... you don't seem to have much choice but subscribe to Unicom for broadband IMHO.

[stavr0s2k3]

Originally Posted by kasavien

because my parents are farmers they are charged business rates for line rental, Unicom are cheaper than BT so thats why they are with Unicom. My dad won't/can't change because i think he is tied in for 3 years

goodlord man 3 years. that proper sucks!


2 solutions though, 1) check with the ISP's because surprisingly (for me anyway) i noticed that when i moved out and took the broadband from my folks house, i could have it installed on a post office home phone package! although the line was activated by BT, i dont pay them anything, (and damn am i glad!)

my folks then wanted broadband back eventually and they have their phone with Toucan, and they now have broadband from Plusnet without a hitch!

or 2) last resort really, u could get your folks to move back to BT (if possible, sometimes there are charges to get out of contracts) get broadband activated then move back to Unicom.

[peterb]

The incompatable device will be a DACS device that allows two phones lines to be multiplexed onto one physical line pair. It does this by using a higher freqency carrier for the second line, and this interferes with the ADSL signal. (Frequency division multiplexing)

Although the unicom lines might be business, there is no reason why you shouldn't get a residential line from BT and get ADSL on that, although you would have to pay installation costs for the additional line.

[greektony]

and line rental, which is a tenner a month and as most isps charge £20 for a 1meg line there doesnt look to be that much point to it.

[kasavien]

Although the unicom lines might be business, there is no reason why you shouldn't get a residential line from BT and get ADSL on that, although you would have to pay installation costs for the additional line.

Unfortunately i think the above is out of the question too, we're 4 miles from the nearest exchange i think so having a new line installed would be difficult, i think thats why the 2nd line we have at the moment is multiplexed into the original line.

The current line used to be a BT line btw, just that line rental is paid to unicom. I suppose i'll just need to wait until september when i go back to uni for broadband.

Thanks

Andy

[mike306dt]

Do you have any neighbours? Stick their phone number in the broadband checker and see what speed it throws up if any?

[UltraMagnus]

mike: HES ON A FARM!!! so his nearest neighbours are probabally a mile away

[kasavien]

lol, not quite ultramagnus, my uncle lives about 200metres from us and he has broadband, shame we can't get an ultra powerful wireless router. The problem is the dacs device on the current line, as peterb said above.

[UltraMagnus]

hmm, 200m? if you have line of sight a couple of cantennas or helical antennas should be able to do that

dont expect to be able to game though..... latency will be terrible, but for browsing and downloading it should work

[greektony]

or you cant just buy 200m of network cable? Here at work we must have cables that arent far of this long so maybe thats a thought? I know you can buy rolls of cable and crimp it at the desired length and add the network connectors either end. A sort of do it yourself jobbie

[UltraMagnus]

good idea greektony, i dont even think a repeater would be needed over that distance