Website change watcher for BT DSL checker

Hi,

Our cabinet is being upgraded sometime soon, and I'm familiar with the BT DSL checker and what to look for when FTTC is available.

I was wondering if there's a website 'change' checker that will work with the BT DSL site? You have to input postcode / line number information to get a result and all website checkers I've tried don't support this (as there's no 'page link' that's relative to you).

It'd be good if there was as it would save checking the DSL status every day manually

Or is there another accurate automated way of being informed of FTTC cab status?

Thanks in advance.

Edited by deleted (Thu 21-May-15 00:32:33)

Follow That Page worked very well for me for the exact purpose you require.

I'm not sure if this helps of not, but it's what I do to keep a watch on availability.

Replace 99999999999 with your number in the link below.
You can then save it as a bookmark and then only need a single click to check a line:

www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput?URL=&SP_NAME=a%20service%20provider&Telno=99999999999&VERSION=29&MS=E&CAP=yes&AEA=N

+1 for follow that page. Does exactly what you are after

In reply to a post by b4dger:

I'm not sure if this helps of not, but it's what I do to keep a watch on availability.

Replace 99999999999 with your number in the link below.
You can then save it as a bookmark and then only need a single click to check a line:

www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput?URL=&SP_NAME=a%20service%20provider&Telno=99999999999&VERSION=29&MS=E&CAP=yes&AEA=N

Actually BT have updated it a bit since version 29, they are as far as I know version 38, I use a similar URL for all my checks:
www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput?URL=&SP_NAME=a%20service%20provider&TelNo=1234567890&VERSION=38&MS=E&CAP=no&AEA=yes

Just need to replace 1234567890 with the phone number.

Paul

Seems it's just the note below the line results they've changed - adding a mention about clean/impacted.

In reply to a post by b4dger:

Seems it's just the note below the line results they've changed - adding a mention about clean/impacted.

I think the version argument is so that the server knows what is supplied and what it should expect.

As far as I recall its been version 38 now for a few months.

Paul

Excellent, so it seems using followthatpage combined with the custom URL b4dger provided is the way forward

Cheers all

Oh one more thing - any way of adding address / postcode to the DSL http link, for friends who might not have a BT phone number?

....and why can't I reply to my thread? I had to quote myself to reply this time! :-/

In reply to a post by digitalis:

Oh one more thing - any way of adding address / postcode to the DSL http link, for friends who might not have a BT phone number?

....and why can't I reply to my thread? I had to quote myself to reply this time! :-/

For that we would need your postcode and door number, you can PM me the info and I will send the link back via PM.

Paul

Ok, sent you a reply in PM, I am assuming the postcode and door number was your friends.

Basically it is sending the information as if you entered your postcode and then on the next screen you select the full address from the list, so its doing that second part.

Paul

In reply to a post by digitalis:

Oh one more thing - any way of adding address / postcode to the DSL http link, for friends who might not have a BT phone number?

Looking at Paul's replies to that, he has given you a routine that accesses the Address Checker using two steps. It's a clever work-around.

In the Address Checker, when using it manually, it looks as if you have to enter the full address. But if you simply enter the postcode there you get a list to select from of all addresses for that postcode. Hence the two steps he appears to have given. The second step doing the selection.

I'm posting mainly to say that never-ever use the pure Postcode checker. That doesn't have a similar facility. In the case of a postcode with several cabinets it just gives an average answer for the first cabinet in a spreadsheet, or maybe these days in a database. Using the Address Checker in the way he is doing that accesses all cabinets for the postcode.

I'm not sure the double selection routine will work perfectly in all cases - you need to look at the address line above the estimates table to be sure it is the one you are interested in.

....and why can't I reply to my thread? I had to quote myself to reply this time! :-/

Every post has a Reply button, so you can reply to (or quote/part quote) a specific post.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by digitalis:

Oh one more thing - any way of adding address / postcode to the DSL http link, for friends who might not have a BT phone number?

Looking at Paul's replies to that, he has given you a routine that accesses the Address Checker using two steps. It's a clever work-around.

In the Address Checker, when using it manually, it looks as if you have to enter the full address. But if you simply enter the postcode there you get a list to select from of all addresses for that postcode. Hence the two steps he appears to have given. The second step doing the selection.

I'm posting mainly to say that never-ever use the pure Postcode checker. That doesn't have a similar facility. In the case of a postcode with several cabinets it just gives an average answer for the first cabinet in a spreadsheet, or maybe these days in a database. Using the Address Checker in the way he is doing that accesses all cabinets for the postcode.

I'm not sure the double selection routine will work perfectly in all cases - you need to look at the address line above the estimates table to be sure it is the one you are interested in

Rob its not in 2 steps, its just one step, it uses the last step to request info.

Like for example for the following postcode W1T 4JZ (yep the BT Tower)
Using the following as the url argument value will get you your info:
|BRITISH%20TELECOM%20TOWER||CLEVELAND%20STREET||LONDON|W1T%204JZ|WE|A00027996550|

So the above with the following:

www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput?addressselectbox=

Gives you this: BRITISH TELECOM TOWER all on 1 line and a single request.

Try it

Check out its exchange name

Paul

Either I've misunderstood your replies to digitalis, or you've misunderstood my post . I certainly don't understand what you are suggesting I try.

Two questions.

1) If I want something that will go to my postcode+housenumber in one step, what do I enter at the end of www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput?addressselectbox=
?

2) Assuming that gets answered, I'll reserve judgement on the second, but think I've just realised - it's two steps done manually, but a query such as you will be submitting would be a single step.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Either I've misunderstood your replies to digitalis, or you've misunderstood my post . I certainly don't understand what you are suggesting I try.

Two questions.

1) If I want something that will go to my postcode+housenumber in one step, what do I enter at the end of www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput?addressselectbox=
?

Well it can be tricky if you don't know what you are doing.

Steps...
1: Enter just the postcode in BT's DSL address checker in your browser.
This is just to get the information you need.

2: Via the browsers menu view the source of the page of all the addresses being displayed.

It will/should display a list of addresses like the following for the address in question, you may need to scroll down:
<option value="|BRITISH TELECOM TOWER||CLEVELAND STREET||LONDON|W1T 4JZ|WE|A00027996550|">BRITISH TELECOM TOWER, CLEVELAND STREET, LONDON, W1T 4JZ</option>

Notice the line in between the two double quotes, thats what you need to use for that address.

3: Now put that line at the end of www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput?addressselectbox=

Please Note...
You may/will need to replace all spaces with %20

So it should look like the following:
www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.AddressOutput?addressselectbox=|BRITISH%20TELECOM%20TOWER||CLEVELAND%20STREET||LONDON|W1T%204JZ|WE|A00027996550|

All on 1 line.

If your wondering what the WE and A00027996550 are...
The WE is the District ID and the A00027996550 is the NAD Key (Network Address Key) for that address.
District ID are normally the first 2 letters from the Exchange Code (WEWBLO)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

2) Assuming that gets answered, I'll reserve judgement on the second, but think I've just realised - it's two steps done manually, but a query such as you will be submitting would be a single step.

Nope just the second step is required, you bypass the first step due to you already know the info that you would of done for the first step.

Basically your only sending what would of been sent for the last stage from your browser.

This only works due to BT's bad coding standards.

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Fri 22-May-15 12:07:05)