Earthlink DSL in Los Angeles BLOWS

[blahblah99]

=============START RANT===============

Is it just me, or does earthlink dsl in west LA area sucks?

Tracing route to www.earthlink.net [207.217.114.200]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 192.168.0.1
2 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms user-uivfq81.dsl.mindspring.com [165.247.233.1]

3 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms foundry-1-ve3.lax.mindspring.net [207.69.228.1]

4 * 30 ms 30 ms 199.174.118.89
5 * 30 ms 30 ms cisco-1-s5-0-1.pas.mindspring.net [209.86.67.10]
(and more hops to follow)

I get no packet loss from #2, but when I ping #3, i get about 10-30% packet loss and it gets worse during the day. Whats even worse is that I described the EXACT problem to them, telling them that the problem isn't on my end - that its from the router at the central office wherever its going and he STILL runs me through the bs procedures like resetting the dsl modem, unpluging phones, etc etc, but don't do anything about it. Its been over 3 weeks now since I've complained to them. Now if I can find another reliable service I'd disconnect these vultures and let them deal with my credit card company. Anyone else have problems with earthlink?

 

[Beau]

Earthlink anything BLOWS.

 

[pulse8]

Can't having your MTU too high cause packet loss?

 

[blahblah99]

I dont think its MTU, because I can ping the first hop a 1000 times and get 0% packet loss.

Its the 2nd hop that gives me problems, so obviously the problem lies between those two connections.

 

[bunker]

DSL problems can be blamed on your phone company, not earthlink. The phone company supplies the connection, earthlink supplies the account, storage etc...

 

[ILikeSprite]

<< Earthlink anything BLOWS. >>



Earthlink dial-up ownz!

 

[Lithium381]

<< Earthlink anything BLOWS. >>



Their dialup works great for me....i just ordered DSL though....eh!? I'm in the bay area, so maybe i stand a chance of getting a good deal?

 

[rahvin]

<<DSL problems can be blamed on your phone company, not earthlink. The phone company supplies the connection, earthlink supplies the account, storage etc...>>

You might want to study that more. Most Earthlink DSL accounts are through COVAD, the first hop is on COVAD backhauls to the POP, the second and subsequent hops are on Earthlinks routers -> Internet. The high packet loss is either a misconfigured router at the backhaul connection at Earthlink or simply an overloaded router. I would actually place odds on the second option.

 

[blahblah99]

rahvin, do you work for an isp? cause you seem to know what exactly I am talking about.

My dsl lines does go through GTE and COVAD. They try to blame the problem on GTE first, and then covad and I showed them how packet loss is occuring at my 2nd hop - hence the problem is due to what you described an overloaded router since packet loss/internet speed seems related to peak hours.

 

[rahvin]

I have a COVAD line through Speakeasy.net. The second hop is almost always the ISP. It's a bad or overloaded router. You are getting 20-30ms pings on COVAD's backhauls. You should give Covad.net a call and see if they will switch you over to them for the same price/service. (although I think covad.net requires PPOE and you may have a contract with Earthlink). If you can, you need to speak to a second level tech support person (It's gonna be like pulling teeth to get to talk to one). You need multiple pings (to your DNS server) and multiple traceroutes as evidence of where the problem lies. Find the IP of the router in question that's dropping your packets. Noone in the first tier of tech support is gonna know what you are talking about. You may have to spend a bunch of time on the phone and be real patient jumping through their hoops and stuff then just pop the question on wether you can speak to a second level tech support person.

Be aware that they may KNOW the router is overloaded and not care (because of budgetary constraints).

 

[ace31216]

You think they are bad. You should check out Pacific bell DSL in San Francisco. It took 6 months to finally get everything set up right

 

[blahblah99]

I think I'll give covad a call to see if they can switch me over to their network so I can dump this piece of trash they call earthlink high speed dsl....

As far as tech support goes, they always run me through the same bullcrap - reset modem, reinstall software, change settings on tcp/ip protocol etc etc when I am showing them that I am getting 30% packet loss on second hop. They won't let me speak to 2nd tier support cause they say it doesn't exist anymore? What BS.

 

[IGBT]

I had numerous problems with e/link as well. Dumped them after a few months. :disgust:

 

[ElFenix]

<< Los Angeles BLOWS >>

 

[SUBxWRX]

<<

<< Los Angeles BLOWS >>

>>




HARD

 

[hans007]

i have earthlink mindspring here in the ucla area. uses verizon lines. its been really slow during the day now, but after 11pm or so its great.

 

[PliotronX]

<<

<< Earthlink anything BLOWS. >>



Earthlink dial-up ownz! >>


I agree, one of EL's POP's are in Pasadena 10 minutes away from where I live, and I had very nice pings averaging 130-150 in online games with EL 56K. I also averaged about 6-7KB/sec downloads, and sometimes 10-12KB/sec when easily compressed data was downloaded.

Their DSL was not the same experience for me. It averaged about the same pings I got with dial-up, and about 60KB/sec downloads. So then I signed up for AT&T (was MediaOne at the time) RoadRunner, and have been getting 30ms average pings, and 180KB/sec average downloads. So I recommend EL for dial-up, but agree that their DSL isn't too good.

 

[Mrburns2007]

EarthLink DSL on the east coast is rock solid 99.99% of the time.

 

[blahblah99]

hans,

do you get dns problems and dropped connection sometimes? I ALWAYS get those problem also, and its due to the fact that they reset their routers/servers everyday. I'm also by UCLA area and im on the mindspring max plan way back when earthlink shot it down to hell. suppose to be 1500k down, and 384k up, through gte->covad->earthlink but i'd rather use my BOL dialup during the day!

 

[bugsysiegel]

Is there any Earthlink that doesn't blow? or suck?

 

[drake6]

:| It not earthlinks falt it usually sucka$$ Pac hell that provides the dslam and telco back bone to most of earthlinks customers is Los Angeles county. I have pac hell dsl direct and I have a friend who works in earthlink tech support in the old pasadena headquaters and we both agree pac bell dshell sucks. If you have the option of get cable internet acess from a decent company (aka not charter) do It now .... because chances are who ever you get your dsl from Pacific Hell will provide the back bone and that major bad news. Although form what I here vermizon dsl worse which I find hard to imagine , but ..... that a story for another post:Q:|

 

[serialb]

Earthlink DSL is great compare to fvcking Qwest/MSN DSL. HOWEVER, Earthlink customer support is horrible.

 

[cavemanmoron]

waah i am almost broke/bankrupt,and had to tirn off my roadrunner/cable
waaaaah
dsl is ok but cable is faster...
dial up is tooo slooow

 

[rahvin]

<<I think I'll give covad a call to see if they can switch me over to their network so I can dump this piece of trash they call earthlink high speed dsl....

As far as tech support goes, they always run me through the same bullcrap - reset modem, reinstall software, change settings on tcp/ip protocol etc etc when I am showing them that I am getting 30% packet loss on second hop. They won't let me speak to 2nd tier support cause they say it doesn't exist anymore? What BS. >>

I'm not sure when you ordered your DSL (prices have gone up in the last 6 months), but if you don't have a contract I would recommend switching to either Covad.net or speakeasy.net. Covad is dynamic IP and a little lower cost. For a slightly higher price per month you can go with speakeasy and get a static IP and the ability to run server services per their TOS. Speakeasy is very gamer friendly.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

directv's dsl is awesome. i have had it for over a year and not too many problems!