Ok, some updates regarding my line connection.

Problem 1 : My house wiring connections

TELEKOM’s contractor came very fast but I guess business is business. The technician came this afternoon and has done the rewiring of the phone lines. So now, for my PC, there’s now a direct line using the recommended phone cable for Streamyx. That is RM50.

Also, the wiring for the 2 telephones in the house also got replaced and are also connected directly to TELEKOM. That was RM40 per phone so in total, everything was RM130.

According to the technician, rewiring of telephone systems is the norm for them. They just did 4 house before mine and all that the same problem.

And, to connect on, I have to disconnect the telephone on the top floor. Bleargh.

Problem 2 : Telephone system in the old Tabuan Jaya phases

Now, this same technician did mention that since I’m still using the old copper wiring system for the telephone exchange, there’s no way the Streamyx signal will be strong. The newer telephone systems are now using fibre-optic so the signal strength is much stronger.

So there you have it. Problem 1 is fix. Problem 2 may not be so easy and it hinges on whether TELEKOM really wants to upgrade their phone system or not. Which probably will not happen for awhile yet. Sigh. IF EVER…

It was a very funny session. Last Thursday, 2 people came and check the phoneline. They then called the Streamyx tech who came to the house and all 3 started quarrelling. Or so says my granny as they didn’t tell me that they were going on that day.

So, last Saturday, the Streamyx tech came by and explained to me the situation. Ruling out the issue of my PC and modem having problems, it was finally the phone line that had problems.

Problem 1 : My house wiring system
The way the existing phone line was connected, one of the connections outside the house got damaged during heavy rains. In fact, the Telekom contractor wasn’t even suppose to have split the line in such a way that the split connection point is outside the house. So, Streamyx Tech Office (Kuching) has help to arrange for a telephone contractor to come and rewire the house. This will cost me about RM50++ to do the entire wiring works.

Problem 2 : Telephone system in the old Tabuan Jaya phases
This one is not easily solved and it falls on Telekom on whether they want to upgrade the telephone system in the older parts of Tabuan Jaya. Because the phone exchange and system is more than 20 years old, many of the wiring works have weaken such that the Streamyx signal will not be strong. My account had to be downgraded from 1MB to 512kb. It was downgraded last Thursday and there was definitely a noticeable improvement to the line i.e. I didn’t have frequent disconnections. I live in one of the older Tabuan Jaya areas (Phase I or II, I think) so if you’re also getting frequent disconnections, it’s a good idea to downgrade it. So, I save about RM20 a month. According to the tech, once the system is improve, Streamyx will contact me on whether I want to upgrade the package or not but only if the lines have improved a lot to the point it runs a lot better than now.

Plus Note
Because my ZTE modem is one of the older modems, apparently it’s more stable. Phew! That was the only plus point for that day. The newer ZTE modems are apparently less stable and more problematic. And to think I was thinking of changing my ADSL modem to another brand. I wonder if it had to do with the firmware being from DLink. According to Mr. Wong who help to troubleshoot my modem, the firmware interface is exactly like DLink except for the name of the company on top.