EXTREMELY SLOW DSL SPEED [HIGH SPEED INTERNET

[GMSkel]

I've been getting extremely slow Downloads speeds on my Verizon DSL High Speed Internet.

Supposedly, my plan is only for 1.5Mb. But I'm paying for 3Mb. I'm only getting a download speed of  100kbps.
My upload speed is 330kbps

I called customer support about a week or two ago, and the person I spoke to verified I had a problem with my connection through some tests he ran on his end. So they sent a technician over to check it out the next day. Right after I called customer support, however, I was getting a good speed. I didn't test it to find out, but I could tell by the speed the pages were loading. Then in a few hours, it went to only 300kbps.

The technician, on the following day, tested my modem and told me I was getting about 2Mbps out of it. So he connected my PC directly to the modem. Couldn't connect to it on my PC, because I had it in bridge mode. I told him he might not be able to pull up the 192.168.1.1 page because I have it set as a bridge.

So he reset it and did his thing, and my download speed went up to 1.5Mbps. He ran the verizon speed test and showed me. But I told him I wanted it connected to my router because I have 3 PCs, so he called someone on his phone, and he was walked through getting the modem into bridge mode in order to connect to my router.

So afterwards, he gets it all up and running. The guy on the phone tells him to set my PC for Automatic DHCP settings. The Verizon Speed tests show me I get 1.5Mbps again. The technician let me speak to whoever was on the phone and I told him that the day before I was on a specific Internet IP, and my download speed was better than usual. And when my router pulled a different IP from the modem, it  reverted back to the crappy speed. I asked him if my assigned Internet IPs had anything to do with it and he said "No." And that as long as I keep my PC for Automatic DHCP, I should be fine.

So I tested my speeds after he hung up, with the technician there, and I had my router pull 3 different IPs from the modem and they were all 1.5Mbps. Also, the technician told me I wouldn't be able to get above 1.5Mbps because I'm about 2-3 Miles from the Verizon location. He pulled up a Verizon page, I'm guessing it was the field technician page. He told me they've been having issues with Linksys routers. And that was that.

Now, 2 days ago my download speed has shot down again, but to 100Kbps. My PCs are still set up for Auto DHCP. I tested my router, reset it to factory defaults, did everything I could think of, and I'm still getting 100kbps.

Now, I am connected to my modem directly from this PC, I reset it to factory defaults, set my PC to connect via PPPoE. And I still get the same download speed directly from my modem. I doubt that my PC is the problem, because my PC is clean of any viruses and spyware. And this occurs of all 3 of my PCs. I haven't connected all 3 of them to the modem directly because its an inconvenience, but they all get the same crappy 100kbps download speed.

I'm thinking the modem could be the issue. I've had it for more than 4 or 5 years. It's a Westell 2200, I have the latest firmware installed on it. The technician said I was eligible for a free modem upgrade. It has never failed me. And it's only been recently, at the beginning of this year that my download speeds have shot down.

My PC specs are:
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, 3.0Ghz
2.75 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Windows XP Professional Edition 2002, SP3
Two 232.9GB HDDs
Internet Explorer 7
EVGA nVIDIA nForce 780i SLI motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Superclocked

If my modem is the issue, I would like to replace it, but I don't know for sure if that's it. Maybe it could be an issue on Verizon's end? My upload speed seems fine, the Verizon speed test confirms it. And when I access my modem's page, I get this message:

 DSL Connect Rate (Down/Up)    960 KBits/Sec by 384 KBits/Sec

So I'm not convinced that my modem is the issue.

Is there anyway to fix my speed? I might have to switch to another ISP if this persis

Message Edited by GMSkel on 03-14-2009 07:51 PM

[dslr595148]

#1 Since you have the Westell 2200 in bridge mode, what is the brand and model of the other router?

#2 Correct me if I am wrong.

The screens of your Westell 2200 looks the screens at

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Westell/Westell2200Wirespeed/1st_SMTP_Server.htm

If that is correct, go to trouble shooting

Some where in there is going to be something called modem stats.

As need be, show a screen shot of trouble shooting in your Westell 2200.



[EDIT] Or the modem stats may be in maintenance

?

Message Edited by dslr595148 on 03-16-2009 02:03 PM

[GMSkel]

wel, i'm able to get to 800kbps at times, but at other times the connection slows down to the point that my home page (yahoo.search.com) loads only half way and then takes about 5 minutes for the rest of it to load. and I've come to find out that i can "reconnect" to my service and get a decent speed by powering off my modem and router, and connecting my pc directly to the modem via ethernet.. then I view my modem stats just in case, and i sometimes get an 800kbps downlink, but most of the time its around 200-400kpbs download. always about a 300kpbsuplink.

then i poweroff the modem, and connect the modem back to my router, my pc back to the router, and everything is normal again and my speed is consistent for the few hours that i'm on the internet. until i return home from work the next day and it's the same story all over again.

here's the screen shots of my modem at the moment:

Connection Summary

http://i30.tinypic.com/33e7xnb.jpg

Tranceiver Stats

http://i31.tinypic.com/160zask.jpg

Log

http://i25.tinypic.com/207ahya.jpg

p.s.

my router is a WRT54GL v1.1 with DD-WRT SP4 mini firmware

and there's also a bridge of the same make and model with the same firmware. i have one pc connect through the bridge, and some gaming systems also. my pc connects directly to the router, and all other wireless devices connect to the router.

Message Edited by GMSkel on 08-08-2009 12:19 AM

[Telcoguru]

You still have something wrong with your line because the download noise margin is way too low. You really need to be at least at 9db or higher to have a stable connection.

[GMSkel]

How would I fix that?

and how would I fix my previous issue with having to reconnect to my modem directly and then reconnect the router?

[dslr595148]

---

@GMSkel wrote:

How would I fix that?

and how would I fix my previous issue with having to reconnect to my modem directly and then reconnect the router?

---

I do not know the answer to the first question, but the second one I know.

Choice is a good thing.. 🙂

#1 What is as addressed over at..

a) http://www.dslreports.com/faq/7267

All DSLR (dslreports.com) FAQs » Linksys FAQ » How Do I » How do I access a modem that is connected to the WAN port of a Linksys Router?

b) http://www.dslreports.com/faq/14276

All DSLR FAQs » AT&T Southeast Forum FAQ » Setup Installation Configuration » Can I configure my third party router so I can access my modem interface.

#2 And there is another choice.

Have the modem handle the public IP, it's LAN IP is 192.168.1.1 and you change the LAN IP of the Linksys so that it is 192.168.2.1

a) That setup can break SSL and VPN connections.

b) If you are trying to "host", you will be required to Double Port Forward.

By "host", allowing users from the net to connect to the compute that you Forwarding to

See as need be: portforward.com -> other guides -> Port Forwarding Behind Two Routers?

^^

Message Edited by dslr595148 on 08-09-2009 03:52 PM

[Telcoguru]

If you can try connecting at the NID. If the readings get better the trouble is in the house. If the readings don't change then it is Verizon's trouble. You are either too far from the central office or there is a metallic trouble on the copper line.

[GMSkel]

well, for the past week or two I had been getting really crappy dl speeds: about 2-4 KB/s

Inbetween those 2 weeks I tried rebooting the router to factory settings, rebooting the modem to factory settings multiple times, having the modem handle the DHCP, changed my router IP to 192.168.2.1 (it used to be 192.168.1.1, same as the modem) etc. All kinds of settings I could think of. Connecting my PC directly to the modem. The DL speed was always 2-4KB/s

I didn't bother connecting to the NID, because I don't want to screw something up.

But yesterday morning before I went out, I unplugged my router from my modem, turned off the router and modem, unlplugged the phone line from the modem, and from the wall outlet. Then I left everything that way for an hour. Plugged everything back in, and from the get go I was getting a DL speed of 85KB/s. I'm still getting that speed right now.

Hopefully it stays this way.

What do you guys think could have caused this?

p.s.

The phone line I've had connected from my modem to the outlet is about 25' in length. I was told the day I called verizon this could affect my speed. I haven't bothered to switch the phone cable because I would have to move the modem in a weird spot if I got a shorter cable.

Message Edited by GMSkel on 08-23-2009 05:21 AM

[dslr595148]

The telephone line to the DSL modem should be less than 14 feet.

Besides that, here are some other things...

http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/HighSpeed/Troubleshooting/Connection+Issues/QuestionsOne/88005.htm

^^

[FieldT]

The phone cord is a problem!! You need to have a cord with good wire like the one that came with the modem. All of the cords you buy in the stores or get with your phone have flat, thin stranded wire that kills the dsl. If you don't have the cord that came with the modem then use the shortest cord you can, 4 to 6 feet. If you have to have a long cord use real phone wire, cat3 or cat5 wire. It is solid copper wire with each pair of wires twisted which is very important. Use one of the twisted pairs!! This can be as long as you want.

[GMSkel]

i can only seem to find cat5e cables. i found this one, but i'm not too sure: http://www.blackbox.com/Store/Detail.aspx/CAT5-Solid-Conductor-Cables-25-ft-7-6-m/EYN737M-0025

can you refer me to a site that sells cat5 phone cables?

[1X]

Ok! I had same problem for 2 weeks until they send a technician to my house for second time. First he told me it was the modem not been able to handle the 7.1 mbps speed ok. Verizon sent me a new one still, the same problem. What the technician and central office found out about my problem was that, since they pushing fios too much to the customers they not pay attention to dsl customers. What they did they had my line capped at their end and using it for other people. great! so what they did they had to move my dsl conection to a new one and bingo! problem solved. not just for me but for 52 other customers that were using same line as me. so most of conection and slow speed conections is not pc's or modems or routers, is the main central office where they can fix your problem. By the way I told the technician that he was not leaving my house till he fix the problem hahaha took him 20 mins to figured it out. good luck.

[GMSkel]

yeah, i think im going to have to call again. my download speed shot down today to 10kbps.

i suspect that using the peer2peer software frostwire might be the culprit, and verizon ends up capping my speed.

i very rarely use frostwire, and my router was configured for open ports on my computer only, but not for any of my other 3 computers. and my parents ended up using frostwire last night to download a couple things. i wake up this morning and notice a significant slow down with my speed. it was 3kbps when i tested it, so i unplugged my router and modem again, and left them that way for an hour. then plugged everything back in. still 3kbps.

when i got home from work later on, i decided to forward the ports on my router for each of my computers for use with frostwire to see what that would get me, because i thought that may have been the issue, still got a lousy 3kbps. then i unplugged my router and modem again, left them that way for 2 hours, plugged everything back in. now i have 10kbps. still lousy

i have a comcast/motorola modem laying around. i think i may just go with comcast internet.

[i_like_turtles]

out of curiosity...

is frostwire a TORRENT client ?

if it is a torrent client and you are seedign torrents your download/upload speesd are going to be HORRIBLE !!!!!!!!

Torrent clients are notorious for DESTROYING your bandwidth.

i would reccommend only leaving it open to download things and then closigng it ( and reopening them when you are not on the computer !!! help the torrent community!!1 )

Edit: after a quick google, i found out that YES it is a torrent client.

make sure that when you want to do internet related things you close the client !!1!@

[GMSkel]

it's a peer 2 peer client, like limewire

[i_like_turtles]

are you sure ? b/c the first result on google is " p2p bittorrent client " on google when you do " frostwire"

edit: Bittorrent is a TYPE of p2p ... the fastest type of p2p b/c u download somethign from 95 people at the same time.

But it is also the most taxing on your bandwidth because of that..

if you dont believe me, then close it, wait like 2 minutes for the connections to be closed, and then do a speed test.

post your results, and then do a speed test with it open and post those results

[GMSkel]

frrostwire is a gnutella client, but it can handle torrents, but i don't use it for torrents, i use bitcomet. the only time i noticed a slow down on my dl speed was when i raised the upload speed on my torrent client to 70% or more. and if i seeded at 80% for a couple hours, i'd still experience slow dl speeds after shutting down the torrent client.

i lowered the bar for frostwire to about 50% upload speed because by default its on 100%. i think that's whats been screwing up my dl speed. my dl speed is only 50kbps right now. i don't shar emy files, and only allow for partial sharing while downloading and with the upload speed cracnked up to 100% at default, i think is what messed up my speed.

p.s.

how would i go about fixing my speed?

[GMSkel]

well, i ended up trying everything i could think of as far as replacing my phone line for the modem, which ended up not working. and i finally went into my basement, and i'm no wiring expert, but i checked some of the cabling in a corner of my basement and found the phone lines that run from the outsie to my home.

i kind of messed around with the phone wiring and checked the tranceiver stats in my modems log and noticed that the downstream path margin would fluctuate. so i decided to unplug two wires on the plug that said "in" and plugged them back in and now i have a dl speed of 830kbps.

there's one set of wires which i think could possibly be the cause for letting in all the noise. i just drew what the phone lines look like here:  http://i25.tinypic.com/25qc291.jpg  [on the "out"s there's a bunch of other wiring that i didn't draw in]

the two wires coming from the "out" to "in" since its just measly wire just twisted. could that be the problem?

but I can take a picture later on for a more accurate look

[dslr595148]

Can you please a take a picture of that?

I have reason to believe that you are right.

---

@GMSkel wrote:

i kind of messed around with the phone wiring and checked the tranceiver stats in my modems log and noticed that the downstream path margin would fluctuate. so i decided to unplug two wires on the plug that said "in" and plugged them back in and now i have a dl speed of 830kbps.

---

^^

[GMSkel]

i drew mine all wrong, but here's the picture

http://i29.tinypic.com/2rh011f.jpg

p.s.

i got home today after work, and again my brother and sister told me that the dl speed was slow. i'm not sure if it's something that they're doing online or what, but it tends to happen when i'm not home.

i just unplugged that cable to the far left on the upper wire bar, and plugged it back in and my dl speed is up to 85kbps

but the tranceiver stats show a downstream margin of 6.0db

[FieldT]

I believe Home Depot and Lowes sell phone wire, if not an electrical supply store will.  Cat 3 is OK and cheaper, It's all I ever use. You don't have to have ends on it, one end can  connect in the nid and the other into a jack, or you can crimp an end onto it and plug it right into the modem. Make sure you use a twisted pair, usually red and green in older style color code, or blue and white with blue on newer style color code. Try disconnecting everything else in nid and only connecting new wire at first to see how it does.