Stupid Phone System
OK.
So.
I have Magma as my DSL internet provider.
I have Rogers as my home phone provider.
I want the two to play nice together.
I call Magma, they say I need a circuit number.
I call Rogers, they say they don’t provider circuit numbers. But I should request a “dry loop dsl connection” from Magma.
I tell Magma this, they say “What? Try again.”
I call Rogers, apparently they have two home phone services, digital and analogue. I have the digital, therefore, no circuit number.
I call Magma, tell them this, they say they don’t support Rogers digital service then.
I call Rogers, get them to change the account to analogue(because I really care about this sort of thing) and that will happen Friday.
So, in general, one more week without internet.
Gah!
Two failings(possibly my own, I never rule that out):
1. Magma doesn’t mention the fact they don’t support a Digital Rogers
2. Rogers doesn’t mention that they have an analogue account
Both suck.
Gonna go back to tin cans and string.
Filed under: Blog - @ March 27, 2006 12:06 pm
I’ve been contemplating dropping local phone service and going with VoIP. It’s not like I use the phone much anyway. But I’m on DSL, so I have to wonder, then, who’s in charge of the wire that brings me DSL? Because Magma doesn’t mess around with wires.
Apparently it’s possible. I’m just not sure the $10 or so a month is worth the hassle.
Step 1: Get phone service. Honest to Goodness, Plain-Old-Telephone-System phone service. Not VOIP, Not CableFone, an honest to goodness copper loop that plugs into an honest to goodness phone which has an honest to goodness RJ-11 end. If you can plug Grandma’s rotary phone, and you can get dial tone, you’re golden.
Step 2: Contact the DSL provider of choice. Hell, *I* could sell you DSL service from over here; getting you the equipment would be a bit of a bitch.
Step 3: There are exactly four things that the DSL provider of choice will need to know. 1: Your phone number from step 1. 2: Your ‘service address’ with your phone provider; generally, this is your billing address. 3: Your phone provider. 4: How you’re going to pay them.
Step 4: They will make the DSL bit happen in about a week or so.
Step 5: Plug in your line filters, plug in your DSL modem, plug in your gateway (for the love of all that is indecent and unholy, get a bridged modem and use the gateway of your choice to do the PPPoE stuff) and configure as required.
Step 6: Bask in the glow of high-speed Internet.
Step 7: Don’t bother with VoIP. It’s useless, due to one overwhelming fact: Your VoIP connection is at the mercy of the crappiest link between your modem and the VoIP provider’s infrastructure.
Love — Centurion, Mightiest of the Mighty, now with all required ‘t’s. Did ye get me email about going to Anime North?
Oh, and Step 1 should say ‘if you can plug Grandma’s rotary phone *into the wall* and get dial-tone’. Not plug it into some wacky VoIP gateway thingamajiggy.
Spring has sprung, so my ‘nesting’ instinct has kicked in.
Get it? Nesting?
God, I slay me.
Back to web app coding I go. Heigh-ho.
That’s no fun. I wanted to run my own asterisk server. 😛
The whole point of me getting Rogers was to avoid Bell’s asinine “Let us flip a switch for $90” setup fee.
That pissed me off, always has, always will.
So I said, fuck that! and went with Rogers.
If only I had known…actually, if I had known, I would have asked for the analogue service in the first place, and all would have been well.
And no, didn’t get the email about anime north. Let me review…
Who knew that getting Rogers’ phone service would make life difficult? Actually… *I* did! I’m also one of those people who likes to say “I told you so.”
I told you so.
You told me nothing!
Nothing is what you told me!
Nothing!
Bell equally sucks.