Rediculous Evening Speeds

[andymvo]

Ive had DSL 768, which was too slow. I upgraded to 4mbps. Too slow. Even now, at 7 mbps, im getting 1.0 MBPS MAX during the day (from 12pm - 12am) which is rediculous. Ive had technicians come over and take a look, and nothing. Seriously, Im paying for 7Mbps and im never awake at times to get the speed that i am paying for. Why? Is verizon choking my bandwidth? If there is too much traffic on my line, why am i not placed in another one? Why even have the option to purchase 7mbps when the highest i ever get is 1?

[ScottCA]

Same problem.

Paying for 7.1 Mbps, getting less than 0.5 Mbps in the evening. But at 6 AM get >5 Mbps.

Customer service had me do the normal things, including reversing the cable into the modem (?). The performance actually went down as I went though these steps during the evening hours.

Sending me a new modem but I don't see how that will solve what is obviously a capacity problem at the Central Station.

Does anyone know how to get a service request to the Central Station?

Would a call to one of the radio shows that discusses computer and technology get some attention?

S

[smith6612]

ScottCA: Either give Verizon a call and have them put in a ticket to your CO to solve the congestion issue, or visit the Verizon Direct forum over at DSLReports.com who will definitely work to get this problem solved. As for the call to a radio station, it might. Never hurts to wake people up to have them check things out.

@OP: Do the same as I've mentioned above.

[ScottCA]

Trying DSLReports.com, Verizon Direct. They are at least asking for the right information (tracert data).

Appears to be a problem with this Verizon router: 

L100.LSANCA-DSL-63.verizon-gni.net [71.160.8.1]

Is it normal for customers to detect these peformance issues? Does Verizon monitor the performance of their own equipment?

Thanks for the pointer. Will let you know how this turns out.

S

[smith6612]

You're welcome, and I would suppose that yes, it is normal for a customer to sometimes notice problems. Whether Verizon monitors their equipment for congestion or not, I don't know but I would imagine at least the backbones are monitored. Let me be the first to say in this thread that I've noticed, along with others some odd issues away from congestion that trashes speeds 24/7 on the DSL. You might have heard about an incompatibility between Juniper ERX routers and some Lucent switches, both of which Verizon utilize that trashes download speeds for people connecting through such equipment. While I know about this and can detect it immediately, it can sometimes take a little bit for users to realize what the issue is. A friend of mine who I've explained the issue to for some time finally noticed what I was talking about today while he was on YouTube. I checked his connection and he was no where near maxed, but his connection was runnning at 160-210KB/s out of 340KB/s with Steam, YouTube and an FTP transfer going. No way he shouldn't have had the connection maxed. Most users would normally not take a second thought about that unless the underlying problem was messing with their ability to browse (and it does. The Lucent/Juniper incompatibility actually messes up TCP transfers, causing literal packet loss due to retransmissions even though packet loss shouldn't be happening, and of course this causes stuff to stall out or slow down with no explanation which is not good).

[ScottCA]

After all of the modem and computer resets, a new modem, tracert's, and many hours on the phone - there is now a 'problem on my line' - which somehow manifests itself only duiring peak hours. I have the 'earliest available' service appointment - January 14.

My contract ends on 2/24/2011.

S

[dslr595148]

You guys/gals did not, say:

#1 What the brand and model of your modem is.

#2 What the brand and model of your router is.

[ScottCA]

I have a Westell 327W. No additional routers.

S

[dslr595148]

---

@ScottCA wrote:

I have a Westell 327W. No additional routers.

S

---

If running the blue firmware, go to http://192.168.1.1/ . Choose Troubleshooting, and then click Transceiver Statistics.

If using Verizon-branded firmware (should be Red and Black), go to System Monitoring, Advanced Monitors, and then choose Transceiver statistics. Post up the information you see on that page. If you are prompted for a Username and Password, try one of the following:

admin/password
admin/password1
admin/admin
admin/admin1
Your Verizon username/password

[ScottCA]

Figured I'd give you the data you asked for while I wait for my on-site appointment.

Note: I now have a Westell 7500 modem - these stats are from that modem during a period of bad performance. I also note that the Internet light (not the DSL light) on the modem is flashing intermittently.

Transceiver Statistics

Transceiver Revision A2pB020b3.d20h

Vendor ID Code 4D54

Line Mode ADSL_G.dmt

Data Path INTERLEAVED

Transceiver Information

                    Down Stream Path     Up Stream Path

DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) 4832     736

Margin (dB) 6.8     6.0

Line Attenuation (dB)    47.0     31.5

Transmit Power (dBm)   19.1     11.9

[smith6612]

Well, those statistics aren't good to begin with. Your margins are borderline to disconnect and your line is not synced at the correct speed. This is probably due to the distance your line appears to be running at (~11,750ft). If that is in fact your true distance, Verizon should really have never given you anything higher than 3Mbps. Anyways, if the line can be improved enough to support at least 5Mbps sync with decent margins, it should at least cut down on some possible issues that are dropping the speeds.

The first step to attempting to improve line conditions is to check the modem out at the NID. If you have one, plug your modem into the test jack found inside of it and post up the new statistics. If you do not have a NID, check the condition of your phone wiring and jacks, making sure there are no loose contacts, nothing shorting out and nothing damaged or corroded.

Additionally, if the line cannot be improved even with a tech truck roll, ADSL2+ can be added to the line in many cases that can help the line out a little bit.

On other notes, have you made any progress with Verizon Direct over at DSL Reports about getting the congestion issue solved?

[ScottCA]

The response from DSL Reports have been good but I am apparently at the mercy of the locally dispatched technician, who will visit me on January 14. The rep on DSL Reports seems competent but he reports that he has to defer to the local dispatch when it comes to resolving problems. He believes that my main complaint (the loss of download speed during prime hours) is a result of congestion, but there is also this 'line problem' to deal with.

I am not sure what a NID looks like. I have a telephone box on the side of my house (which I have never looked into) - and something that I think is called a 'pedestal' which is somehow part of the circuit path, about 35 feet from the house.

I see nothing out of the ordinary on the wiring, at least the parts that are visible. The phone works fine.

If this turns into a wiring problem I will be on cable in very short order - and I feel for the retention sales person that calls me to renew my Verizon DSL contract...

Scott

[dslr595148]

---

@ScottCA wrote:

I am not sure what a NID looks like. I have a telephone box on the side of my house (which I have never looked into) -

---

For more info, see the info at

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/1317

[smith6612]

The phone box on the side of your home is more than likely your NID. dslr above posted a useful FAQ for you to take a look at.

[ScottCA]

I looked at everything I could reach with a screwdriver and a wrench and all I saw was copper twisted pair wires, connection blocks, and some grounding wires/straps. I didn't see any type of jack to connect a modem or anything like the image from the FAQ posted by dslr.

Nothing looked corroded or loosely connected.

I will post the results of the technician visit on 1/14/11.

Thanks to everyone for the pointers.

Further information, here are the transceiver statistics from this morning when I had 4+Mbps performance:

Transceiver Revision

A2pB020b3.d20h

Vendor ID Code

4D54

Line Mode

ADSL_G.dmt

Data Path

INTERLEAVED

Transceiver Information

                             Down Stream Path    Up Stream Path

DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec)      4832   736

Margin (dB)     5.1   6.0

Line Attenuation (dB)     47.0    31.5

Transmit Power (dBm)    19.1     11.9

S

[ScottCA]

Technician was just here. Swappd the wire to my house. He announced it was repaired.

I told him there was no improvement in performance (thru speedtest and speakeasy). He said it would 'get better over time'. Makes no sense.

Also said that the evening congestion would be repaired be switching the line. Also makes no sense.

I got the impression that he sees this a lot and knows that there is nothing he can do to fix it.

I reported this over at DSLReports and will let you know what they say over there - but I am calling Time Warner right now.

S

[ScottCA]

Technician called back later and repaired an issue with the CO. Didn't fix the slowdown problem. Download performance fell from 4.3 Mbps at 3:30 PM today to 0.7 Mbps at 9:30 PM.

Reported to DSL Reports - will let you know what comes of this.

Transceiver Statistics:

Transceiver Revision A2pB020b3.d20

Vendor ID Code 4D54

Line Mode ADSL_G.dmt

Data Path INTERLEAVED

Transceiver Information   Down Stream Path Up Stream Path

DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec)             5056                736

Margin (dB)                                       7.4                     5.0

Line Attenuation (dB)            49.0              31.5

Transmit Power (dBm)           19.4         11.9

[smith6612]

Yeah, typical case of congestion once again. Keep us updated on how everything goes. As for the physical line itself, ADSL2+ could be added to the line as an attempt to obtain more speed and stability over your distance, as you seem to be connected over a good amount of wire.

[ScottCA]

I noticed something very odd the last two days. My download speed goes from 4+ Mbps to <1 Mbps between 3:45 PM and 4:30 PM - but it doesn't decay slowly - it just drops all at once. In the whole of this adventure, I have never seen a download speed between 4 Mbps and 1 Mbps - just 4+ or <1 Mbps.

I wonder if Verizon has made a corporate decision to give priority on the available bandwidth to non-DSL users (maybe FIOS users) at peak times and just leave the DSL users with minimal performance?

Over on DSL reports I see many complaints about DSL speed, but the FIOS questions are mainly about how to configure things - not performance.

Any opinions on this?

S

[andymvo]

Having problems again. DL speed was going at 800 kb/s an hour ago and now im at 20 @ 11:30 PM. So many people have this congestion problem, and i havent seen it fixed once yet...having the same problem at my school apartment with ATT internet as well. Theres just a time of the day when the speed just plummets...as for my router info sry i cant get it right now, ill get back to it soon....not at the place where verizon net is at. But, i doubt its my equipment because i do get good speeds at certain times of the day. and because im having hte same problems with AT&T, guess i have to live with it 

[ScottCA]

The rep over at DSL reports wants to continue to focus on modem connection speed which is 5 Mbps vs. the 7 Mbps in my speed plan. He opened another maintenance ticket.

I will let you now what comes of this.

Scott