Thanks. I forgot that they had changed the drop line, installed a network
interface device, and I believe gave me a different line, at least to the
next "box" up the street. When it was changed, I was without phone
service(24hr) until they could reconnect me at the central office. So I
don't know exactly how much of a new line I have. As far as the Internet
connection, with DSL I haven't noticed a change in speed, only that after
about 10-15 minutes on the Web, when I click on a link it doesn't respond. I
don't know if that is software, but I will check my speed on the test pages
mentioned.
"MaxAluminum" wrote in message
om...
wrote in message
news:G9rzb.77474$xV6.56282@lakeread04...
hank wrote:
I have a hum on the phone line. Verizon has been out several
times, and
found no problem. The hum is affecting incoming voice quality, and the
answering machine recording is poor. They did AC voltage, stress test,
DC
volts and leakage test. All were "clean". I plugged in different
phones at
the NID, and hum was still there.(they say they don't here it)


Ahhhh. A similar thing happened to me. The line always passed all
tests.
If I disconnected my inside wiring and called Verizon while it was
happening, they could barely hear me over the 60hz hum. I must have
been
told a dozen times that it was most likely my inside wiring and they
would have to charge me to fix it, but I always disconnected my inside
wiring when calling customer service and told them where to shove their
script. The problem only happened when I was trying to work from
home during the day, I rarely noticed it at night.

After a technition left me a door hanger half a dozen times that said
everything tested OK. I finally got one to actually show up while
I was home and had him *listen* to the phone line. He spent the next 4
hours tracing my line to a welding shop where my line USED to go
and should have had the pair disconnected from when they dropped the
line.

The day he disconnected their branch from my line, daytime dialup
speeds changed from 9.6k to 50.6k and no one asked what the hum was
on my conference calls ever again .

Disconnect your inside wiring and listen to your NID to make sure
its not your fault. If the noise is still there don't give up.
Keep calling them until they fix it. If they get snotty
about it call the state utility comission.

That's where I was about to go. Go to a test page on the Internet and
test your connect speed at various times. If you are getting over 30K
on a 56K modem you are doing OK. I get 42K and consider myself very
lucky because I know my lines are not good. If you are getting a low
connect speed you could request a different line. I don't know what
they would charge or if you could negotiate something for nothing.
Connecting to another line is usually a very simple process. (Your
number doesn't change.)