Hot Tar Drip Speed Test Wave

I've had Verizon DSL for over a decade and rarely get speeds anywhere near what I'm paying for. Currently I'm paying for Fastest DSL but it's about as fast as dialup. A while ago I started getting disconnected much more frequently than normal. After tons of chats, phone calls, service visits and 3 modems, I was told the problem was with a server so Verizon made a few changes and I got great service for almost 24 hours. I do speed tests several times a week to gage how pathetic Verizon service is. A few days ago I found out I can keep a record of my tests in a wave and invite others to join me.

Go to http://www.speedtest.net/wave/abcdbac7c73c0bd0 and join the Verizon Hot Tar Drip wave to compare your connection speed with me. Maybe we can shame Verizon into providing the kind of service we're paying for. For accuracy, I do speed tests when I'm the only person online in my home. It gets even slower when the spouse is online.

Accepted answers

catlady4114

I finally convinced the spouse to switch to Comcast or Clear after showing him our speedwave results with 4 different browsers and three different computers in the house. I called Verizon one last time to see if they could get me up to the speed I've been paying for. After a long chat and being told my case would be referred to another department, lo and behold, a few hours later I was getting over 6 mbps download!! It lasted almost 12 hours which is about half of what their last fix lasted. Now I'm averaging 1.7 mbps download. That's more than twice as fast as what I've been getting since upgrading service but still falls in the category of unbelievably crappy and over priced service. I would prefer to have my money back I doubt that Verizon would do that so Comcast or Clear, here I come!

I guess it's time to click the 'accept as a solution' button.

All comments

catlady4114

Thanks for joining the speed wave. All the Verizon customers slow as tar just like me but that Roadrunner ISP in NY is pretty good for download speed. I'll see if they have a counterpart in the DC area because I'm tired of paying $50 a month for what amounts to dial-up service.

smith6612

Overall, Cable should give better speeds on the downstream given you aren't on a saturated/overloaded node when compared to the DSL. I did add a result of mine to the Speed Wave mentioned above however. I should be pretty easy to spot on the list.

If your DSL is disconnecting a lot in addition to being slow, it could be indicative of line trouble. Post up your modem Transceiver Statistics for us to see. If you need help getting those, tell us which modem you have,

catlady4114

I haven't been able to get transceiver stats or use in-home agent since the last Verizon tech came out. I have DSL but I started getting some kind of FIOS error message. Verizon determined the problem was not the line but something else on their end. The fix lasted for a day, then it got slow again but I stayed connected. Now I'm getting disconnected again. I thought FIOS might be the solution but I talked to several FOIS people with the same problems I have. It looks like the only solution will be a different ISP but the spouse is reluctant to change. Maybe the current round of disconnects will convince him to drop Verizon.

Hubrisnxs

If you have fios in the area, I would jump on it, it's heads and tails better than cable and dsl.

IF you're wireless and getting disconnected, then it's probably a problem with your wireless signal, and you can log into the router and change the wireless signal. If you're hardwired and getting that problem, then that is probably something else, and may in fact be in the dsl network. That same problem wouldn't exist in the fios one, they have a different line from your house to their local equipment, and that line is less susceptible to traditional interference. most fios customers are pretty happy with their internet.

catlady4114

FIOS is available but I can't keep my number so I passed on it. Friends and neighbors with FIOS are having the same problems so it probably won't fix my issue. We just have really poor service in our area.

I sure hope it isn't the router again. Verizon replaced the two bad ones they gave us. We've only had this one since January. Since we still had problems after they gave us a new router and said the line quality in the house was excellent , they figured it was on their end and changed servers but as I said in the original post, the fix didn't last. I'm still trying to get the spouse to ditch Verizon for internet and phone. That's the only solution that seems to work. If you look at the stats in the speedwave, I'm not the only person with lousy service from Verizon.

catlady4114

I guess it's time to click the 'accept as a solution' button.

smith6612

Comcast would be the better choice of the two other providers you mentioned for the meantime, despite P2P throttling and a 250GB Cap. ClearWire's service isn't exactly meant for home use, considering it's wireless/"Mobile" Internet. Those who are using it as their home connection tend to find out why I'm saying this, and it's due to the fact that they do have a cap and once you exceed it, you get throttled heavilly.

If FiOS is seeing the same slow-downs in your area, I'm rather surprised (or not). It means someone has dropped the ball in making sure the Central Office has ample capacity available (it's become a problem everywhere it seems). How coincidental that I received this piece of info, yet I read an article today about the folks behind Internet2 setting up 100Gbps over a single strand of Fiber which they will use for backhaul going to schools and government/research buildings. Get something like that going to a Verizon CO and I'm sure there would be at least ample backbone capacity. From there, it's up to making sure the switches (Lucent/Cisco?) and the routers (Juniper/Redback?) are up to par. Obviously, it isn't that simple though.

It is noteworthy though to forward off some old notes some people over at DSLReports have mentioned, though. Many have noticed that when FiOS shows up at a Central Office, DSL usually starts to hit the fan rather quickly. Shows the lack of upgrades that goes into areas that have only partial FiOS coverage.

catlady4114

I definitely agree with you Smith6612 about service going down hill when FIOS shows up. That's when we started having constant trouble instead of intermittent trouble. I figure they want everyone to switch. The price isn't bad at all but the service is a joke.

Verizon's sending out a tech for the 3rd time next week. My best speed today was 2.68 mbps down and .61 up. I was only disconnected once and it could have been due to them fiddling around with my line. They're obviously tweaking things. We shall see how it goes and if I go in a few days. Just by reading this forum, I know I'm not the only person calling about this kind of problem. They really need to do better by their customers since there are so many ISP options available.