OT (kinda) DSL Bandwidth - not a Bezerkly thread;)

[CADsortaGUY]

OK - I'll try to keep this short.

History:

DSL= fine(for the most part) since i switched from cable last fall. Now all of a sudden last Wednesday my download speeds(I'm supposed to have 640dn/256up) dropped to basically nothing. I called ISP(Avalon) and line provider(Qwest)Thurs morning but by then I was up to ~300-350kbps. I have fluctuated from ~0 to ~425 since then. Before last Wed. I was consistantly above 500kbps on dslreports and 2wire.com.

Dunno what to call this stuff - but is info anyway😉:

-I live within 11000ft of the "C.O." so my distance is real close.
-My line tested at ~40db which is GREAT!
-I haven't added anything software or hardware wise. and I've tried from multiple computers.
-network was taken out of the equation - still no good
-They replaced the card at the CO (the card splits the phone line and DSL line) - still no luck
-ISP has gone over all my stuff on their end multiple times and all is good on their end.
-Quest has sent 2 techs(1st one wasn't a DSL tech though😀isgust😉 to test the lines
-I haven't touched my DSL modem's settings in ages - except tonight I rewrote it cuz they wanted me to.
-I have a "home-run" from my modem to their "D-mark"
-download "speeds" are all over the board between ~0 and ~425 which means there is a problem somewhere.

I'm at wits end and so is everyone at my ISP and Qwest. I am paying for a 640/256 line so i'd like it to be available - not that I "need" that much but I like the 256 up versus the 128 up that cable has(can you say ftp😉😛)
Anybody have a clue what else might be causing my "speed" problem? Or if not, does anyone have a few hints/pointers on how to get them(qwest) to actually fix my problem or any help on what to say in negotiating a refund/compensation deal?

Thanks,
CADkindaGUY

 

[Confused]

ftp









Don't know why this could be happening, sorry, and no suggestions, but here's a bump on the house (don't expect it to be free next time 😉)


ConfusedBW

 

[ColinP]

DSL is subject to cross-talk across the pairs in the main cable going back to your POP. So, as more people in your vicinity start to use it, your line quality will effectively drop. This could be a source of the problem. Has it been raining ? Could be damp getting into the cable somehow... You will terminate on a DSLAM back at the POP. This will probably have an STM-1 (or possibly an STM-4) ATM uplink back to an ATM switch in a metro site. So, there is probably 155Mbit/s (122Mbit/s after overheads) or 622Mbit/s (500 ish) total b/w available. There may be multiple uplinks though. A service provider will generally apply a contention ratio of 20:1 on the access network. What this means is that if he has an STM-1 uplink (155Mbit/s) and every customer had a maximum D/L speed of 1.55Mbit/s they would actually put 2000 customers off that DSLAM and hope they weren't all active at the same time.

Also, 11000feet is around 2 miles. If this is radial distance then the actual cable distance could be much greater. So you aren't really that close !!!

Hope that helps,

cheers,

Col.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks,

-We tested my line to get the distance - it came up at 11120ft plus the 40-50ft of wire in my house. I know ~2miles isn't "real close" but they were trying to blame the speed not being at 640 on my distance from the CO.:|
-I know they "overfill" their lines but this is still happenin are all hours of the day/night so I doubt that is the problem. I asked about that but they claim that they are "well with their limits"- whatever that means.
-It is Spring so there is moisture but they "can't do anything about that, since it is so hard to find out where exactly the problem is."- DSL tech

BAH these guys SUCK!


It is 4am my time and my "speed" is at ~400 on 4 different tests - 2wire.com, plus all three at DSLReports:|

I guess I'll have to switch back to cable - dammit

 

[Migroo]

Sorry to hear about your connection trouble CADkindaGUY 🙁

It always bites.

I'm not of much use either I'm afraid, my only experience has been with cable. Just wanted to say I hope it gets better! 🙂

 

[hughesjr]

This may not be the problem, but what is your upspeed traffic when you are doing the Down speed test? When you are downloading tcp packets, acknowledgement packets are required to be sent back to the source before the download can continue...so if almost all of the 256 up was being used (say by an ftp server/webserver/mail server) when you are running your test then the download speed will be much slower.......

 

[Robor]

I've been getting dropped of my Roadrunner connectiong requiring a reboot (can't /release /renew the IP) so I was going to look into DSL. Hearing this I think I'll stick with the minor problems I've got! Thanks for the heads up!

Hope you get yours worked out. Good luck!

 

[Dale]

DSL

which modem do you have ??
can you get in your modem and watch the debug, if you are getting errors
from outside your house they will show as retransmits in the modem


have you tried a different computer?? laptop or a friends computer
do you have a local router or firewall


talked to another user?? hopefully on the same DSLAM as you ??
once all of our users had the same problem as you described and it turned
out to be some TELCO equipment a long way from here

the symtoms you describe sound like the line problems Colin described above, but the TELCO can see this without coming near your house

several things on your computer can also cause it, so it is a good idea
to try with more than one computer

main thing is to find another user on your circuit with the same problems

the phone co already knows if your line is clean or not



..Dale

 

[Smoke]

Get a new modem.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks,

Modem=cisco 678
I've been in it and watched for errors and such and the modem seems clean. I would love to try a new modem but Qwest (the lovely monopoly telco) makes you buy them🙁 they were giving the internals away for free or external USB modems for free but from what i've heard those suck worse than the Cisco 678s. I'll see if I can snag one from somewhere to try it, or try to get a new one from Qwest(yeah right😛 - that'll happen😛)

I have tried multiple computers - even tried with a clean install of winXPpro :Q😛

Shhh - don't tell everyone...I only have the cisco as a firewall😱

I don't know anyone who is on the same circuit -Kilowatt's store is just right downtown here but i haven't a clue if he would be on the same circuit.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!:|

Well looks like a couple more hours on the phone with Qwest and if it isn't resolved I'll be switching back to cable.:disgust:

Thanks for your ideas guys.

CADkindaGUY

 

[Migroo]

Good luck CkG 🙂

Let us know how it goes.