sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers (1200 baud) Analog Modems Not Communicating

We are having a devil of a time getting our
old MultiTech MT2834ZDX modems to communicate
with the VeriFone/Nurit terminals in the field.

At 1200baud, we think they should behave.
Instead, we are getting garbage on the line and
dropped transactions.

Our lines at our new location are supplied by
AT&T and they are also stumped as to the problem.
The line current is fine at 25.6 milliamps, they
have checked the polarity, but the comm
remains an "iffy" thing.

We had this problem before we move about two years
ago when the CO installed a new switch. We finally
figured out that if the lines were provisioned as
"fax modem" they started to work.

Here, we are all fiber up to a Litespan remote
terminal (allegedly). The network manager (AT&T)
say there is no way to provision the lines
differently and is stumped.

Help!

1. Can this remote terminal be configured in such
a way to communicate with our old modems?

2. If this is NOT the culprit, what else should
we be checking?

Thanks!

He isn't stumped,he just doesn't want to tell you that digital (as in your "fiber" FiOS or whatever you have) won't play nice with digital as in faxes, modems, alarm systems or credit card terminals. It's only good for analog voice. Some services do have provisioning to account for this, evidently what you have doesn't.

I would suggest that you switch back to copper.

-Hal

Thanks for the prompt response!

They say that copper is NOT an option, that the CO is 20 miles away and that there is no copper option in this subdivision.

LightSpan eh ... Errrr... Long time since I’ve even thought about one of those.

First thing we need to find out is what type of card(s) your are assigned off of.

POTS = Remote POTS
UVG = Universal voice grade
EUVG = Enhanced universal voice grade.

There are C and R designations in front of the designators to differentiate Central Office end (C) and Remote end (R) for cards that and are not interchangeable.

Have at&t switch from one type/class of card to another might just do the trick for ya. One of them was flaky with faxes and modems but I can not for the life of remember which one it was now. :scratch:

Don’t quote me with at&t here but I THINK it was the UVG’s that had a fixed balancing network and echo canceler that couldn’t be adjusted. Maybe someone else here knows.

So this is fiber from the CO to the Lightspan, copper to your premisis?

-Hal

CnGRacin: Are you referring to channel bank cards that would be installed at the RT? I was told that "fiber" comes from the CO to the RT, and that the former is just that and the latter (RT) is not "configurable". I have tracked down some docs on the Liteview admin software that references POTS service, but nothing on any "sub-options".

Plus, is there a place to search as to whether the culprit is the POTS/UVG/EUVG cards you mention?

Thanks for the clue . . . need to have a more precise bit of data to get back to the NE here.

Jay

I think you are losing track of the fact that you are a customer and none of this equipment belongs to you. While it's well to seek opinions from forums like this and our experts, it's not your business to tell your service provider how to handle their equipment any more than I would want my customers telling me how to do my job. Unfortunately the internet can sometimes provide the little bit of information that can make some people dangerious- or in this case very annoying.

You would be better served if you focused your efforts where they should be, putting pressure through the proper channels on your service provider to get them to resolve the problem. Either that or with your feet by finding another way to have your service supplied.

-Hal

I agree with Hal. Having said that you may want to ask your provider if the C.O. termination is directly interfaced into the C.O. switch (integrated) or if you are served by an analog len from the C.O. switch and wired to port in the Lightspan located in the C.O. It’s been a while but it’s worth asking if there are more provisioning options available in the Lightspan using the analog len option.

"Dear FL PUC, AT & T will not provide plain old telephone service to me that is able to support modem communication, even at 1200 Baud."
Note that it would help if you test with 2-3 other brands of modems, as well as 2-3 Fax machines of various brands. Keep track of your attempts to get AT & T to correct the problem. Time of call, time of service, names, dates etc. Climb the supervisory ladder. When they refuse to take calls, tell you too bad, or 'we can do nothing else', the letter to PUC, with documentation, goes out with copy to AT & T. Shouldn't take more than a week's worth of sweat on your part. Mean while.... I guess you're out of contact.

Yes, I was referring to the cards installed in the RT… But keep in mind, if the RT is NOT GR-303 fed the cards need to be paired together.

It’s not likely you’ll find much in the way of technical specifications for the cards themselves on the web.


Hal, true statements but in this case it seems Jay (the OP) has the ear of an interested party in the Network Engineer. No, not his business to tell the Telco what type of card he should be provisioned on, it seems useful in this case for him to say, “hey Network Engineer, can you put me to another type of pair-gain card.”