[oclug][OT]

[Brad Barnett]

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:17:53 -0500
Chris H <chris123 at magma.ca> wrote:

> Greetings 
> 
> Ive marked this OT as is only partially linux related. 
> 
> Was following up on an client who has had considerable issues with
> stability on the symaptico network. Connectivity is dropping at a rate
> of 5-6 times a day. Typcially this the case when the lines are dirty,
> out of range or an improperly installed card at Bells end. All issues
> were checked and it appeared that the later was the case. (all too
> often) 
> 
> Today Bell showed up at the office and left the following notes. 
> 
> "As this is a 3meg account and the test indicate 100 % packet
> transmittance, there is little room for error. Hence we have installed a
> filter on the line to ensure only 90% transmittance allowing for a 10%
> error factor"
> 
> Ummm...any idea what the ".........."  this means. It makes absolutely
> no scense to me.
> 
> /ch


I doubt they've installed a filter.  They probably just decreased your
line speed, allowing for better error tolerance.

It is a cop out if the line was working perfectly before, of course.  I
once had a DSL line that worked flawlessly for over a year, at which point
much of the above started to happen.  BCTel's response was to do the exact
same.  It was cheaper for them then solving the real problem, which was
the line degrading somewhere.

I wouldn't put up with it, and they finally fixed the problem for real. 
However, it is entirely possible that your client has never had a suitable
connection.  If this is so, there really isn't anything wrong with solving
the problem this way.