Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
beshannon
Enthusiast - Level 3

I will try to make this short as the last 4 days have been a real nightmare.

My normally and for a long time rock solid DSL 3360/768 began running slowly on Sunday January 6, 2013.  I let it go until Monday, January 7, 2013 when it became so bad I had to call for a trouble ticket.  Aside from the time I spent finding a number and waiting to create a ticket, I managed to get one created.

During the ticket creation process, no less than three tries of a line test by Verizon technical support showed (to them) no problems.  On the fourth try they said there was a "short" somwhere outside my house, they would send a technician.

On Wednesday, January 9, 2013 a technican arrives and begins the process of trouble shooting.  The NID is checked as well as all jacks/dsl filters.  The "problem" is indicated in a wall jack.  All speeds are verified with a meter the technician has, at the NID, at the wall jack and through the modem.  The modem although old (Westell 2200) have been very reliable.  The "short" is "fixed" and we begin putting things back.

When I try to get onto the net, everything is very slow (as I have been saying).  The technician is puzzled as am I.  I run several speedtests on DSL Reports and they all show various speeds ranging from .5 mb down and .7 up speeds.  I run several latency tests and there is severe packet loss along the traceroute.

The technician (who was very nice) offered to swap the DSL modem, brings in a Westell 6100g from his truck and we spend the next 30 minutes trying to set it up. After the technician calls his tech support, the modem is brought up and is working.

The Verizon webpage loads very fast.  When I go to do another speed test the results are the same.  The modem diagnostics show 3360/768, his meter shows 3360/768.  At this point he says that he does not know anything about third party websites and if the Verizon webpage loads there is nothing more he can do, at which point I agree.

Later last evening I get an automated call telling me that my problem has been resolved.  If I disagree I can speak to someone, which I promptly do.  When someone comes on the line I relate my story and they begin again testing the line.  This person immediately recognizes a problem and escalates my issue to a level two support.  While I wait, I manage to find a speed test on Verizon's website that (not suprisingly) shows the same slow download speeds as the "third-party" site did..

When the person returns to the phone (a call that lasted over an hour) I am informed that there are "network issues affecting my speed" and they are working on it.  Interestingly, the speed test on the Verizon website also has a message about my test being impacted by network issues and that I should run the test later.

As I wait for something to be fixed, I just wanted to relate my story as there is little anyone here could do to help me.

Hope others have better luck and you really do not want to hear my experience trying to order FIOS to replace my DSL.  I have already sold my Verizon stock after these last four days.

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
masho95
Enthusiast - Level 3

I ended up having the exact same issue with my DSL over multiple months.  I placed multiple trouble calls throughout the trouble period and the issue would eventually clear up from anywhere from 1-4 days after I reported the trouble. Speed tests to the Colt 250+ test set the technicians use would show 3360/768 speeds but actual throughput would be about .2 kbps-.7kbps. Frustrating to say the least. Really wish I was in a FiOS enabled area, the technology is simply amazing.

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
beshannon
Enthusiast - Level 3

Last evening my issue seems to have been resolved by people working on the network.

Had nothing to do with a "short" on the line.

My speeds are now very stable at 2.8 down and .7 up.  I have gotten a little higher download speeds in the past but this will do for another week until I get FIOS installed

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
beshannon
Enthusiast - Level 3

Just to update the insanity, my internet after Wednesday night was working, albeit slowly.

I spoke to technical support who told me that the network people were working on it.  My internet was better on Thursday and I believed that it was fixed or being fixed.

On Friday I was completely disconnected (again).  All green lights on my modem, but no internet.  I called again and was told that the network people were still working and they needed two more hours.  I was told I would get a call when they were done.  I was specifically told this was why I could not connect to my modem at 192.168.0.1.

Woke up this morning (Saturday) and still no internet.  Got on the phone yet again with tech suppport, I am told that the network people are still working on it, now with no eta.  The tech support person tries to contact the network department and after about 15 minutes of "unplug this, turn this off, change this cable" (total waste of time) they tell me that they will send a technician out on Sunday.

I say ok and set about trying to fix my internet.

Within about an hour I manage to get the modem to finally connect and begin setting up things again and verifying my network.  My speeds have been good today.  About 2.8 down and .8 up, not bad for a 3360/768 tier.  I call back and cancel the appointment for tomorrow.

I get a call around 1 pm and I am told it is Richmond dispatch.  They want to tell me that a technician that was supposed to come to my house today, Saturday, is sick and wont make it.  I say ok, but the appointment was for tomorrow.  After I tell them it was for tomorrow (they do not believe me) I also tell them that I cancelled the appointment several hours before.  I am told they have not gotten that info yet.  I say ok, what would you like me to do since no one at Verizon appears to communicate with each other?  The person appearred really annoyed, perhaps someone will actually do something about how they process information.

This is scary bad customer service and I am beginning to wonder how this company even manages to stay in business save for the fact that so many people are just blindly paying their bill.

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
Not applicable

Very similar problem here in Vinton, VA, just east of Roanoke. It started happening around 1/5/13, and right at this moment it's worse than ever at 0.20 mbps down (strangely, I almost always have good ping numbers and upload speeds). There seems to be a pattern where the speed drops between 7:00 and 11:00pm each night, then it gradually recovers later at night and through a good part of the day. I believe the Verizon network is not robust enough to handle the amount of users and data passing through. This may have been made worse by all the new gadgets people got over the holidays!

After speaking with 3 support techs and being assigned a tech from "executive support" the issue still hasn't been resolved. They sent a new modem/router and I have checked, rechecked, plugged and unplugged all connections, filters, possible noise sources in the house, though since the problem started suddenly and with no changes to anything in the house I have to think the cause of the problem is the outside lines or network.

Unfortunately, I live in a rural area with no alternative ISP whatsoever. I keep telling myself that Verizon DSL is cheap, unlimited and better than satellite or dial-up, but it gets more difficult and frustrating every day. I sincerely hope that Verizon recognizes and addresses this obvious network quality issue soon. Or at least acknowledges that the problem exists and that those of us affected should all sit tight until a resolution is found. It's the corporate silent treatment that really gets under my skin.

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
beshannon
Enthusiast - Level 3

Sorry to hear about the issue, as I stated mine was eventually resolved by someone in netowrk support.  they did not disclose the issue nor did I ever receive a phone call as promised telling me it was repaired.

My speed tests still show I am getting about 80% of what I was getting but it is better than 10%.

I am hoping that my FIOS install goes well tomorrow and does not create a new set of problems

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Re: Verizon DSL slow since Sunday January 6, 2013--Northern Virginia
jeffworn
Newbie

I feel your pain! Things are slow down below you in Fredericksburg, VA and customer service equally bad!

I have been having problems with slow DSL connection, extreme packet loss and latency issues for months in Fredericksburg, VA. Calls to tech spt are typical “line check is fine, nothing more we can do”.  Won’t send me a new router, or listen to any of the inputs on issues I am seeing on the network with test tools, etc. I told them it would be easier for me to and less hassel to just drop them and move back to Comcast, they basically send that fine with them, so I said transfer me to billing, of course I sat on hold for 30mins and gave up. .  I’ve been a network engineer for over 16 years, and I would treat an of my customers that way I would be fired, in addition we work till a problem is fixed no matter how small.

Over the last day, I took my Linksys router out of the picture, ran my laptop direct to my modem and got the same results, packet loss and slowness. Checked all my in house wiring and all is fine. I then hooked my modem and laptop directly to the test port or NIC outside the house and got the same results. So, not my wiring or personal equipment, still might be modem.  I even involved one of my neighbors that has Verizon DSL connection, and his connection is fine, however we compared trace routes to various places and routing path goes over a different back bone router than mine. Can understand why one house over travels a different path than me and I see packet loss about the same point that we separate out.

During all the trouble shooting I notice that I had static inside and outside the house, so I call Verizon again  told them I had static on my phone lines as well, this finally prompted them to send tech out…we will see what he comes up with…supposed to be here by tomorrow, we will see what happens. I note convinced it the wire more so a problem with the back bone network, as this problem comes and goes but this is the worst it has ever been. I am fed up with customer support or lack there of and will be ordering up Comcast this coming week, if all goes well will be say goodbye to Verizon.

Here is sampling of trace routes and pings, if by chance someone from Verizon actually checks this forum…which I never see anyone of the provide feed back.

C:\Users\Owner>tracert www.cisco.com

Tracing route to e144.dscb.akamaiedge.net [72.247.64.170]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.1.1

  2     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  10.27.29.1

  3     *        *        9 ms  ge-3-1-2-0.IAD5-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.8

1.21.250]

  4     *       11 ms     9 ms  so-6-3-0-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.2

2.68]

  5    10 ms    10 ms    10 ms  0.xe-4-0-3.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.30.9]

  6     *       13 ms    29 ms  TenGigE0-5-1-0.GW1.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.38.250

]

  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  8    17 ms     *       11 ms  ash-bb4-link.telia.net [213.155.130.2]

  9     *        *       19 ms  nyk-bb2-link.telia.net [213.155.134.128]

 10    17 ms    16 ms    19 ms  nyk-b5-link.telia.net [213.155.130.245]

 11     *       22 ms    17 ms  a72-247-64-170.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [72

.247.64.170]

Trace complete.

Target Name: www.pingplotter.com

         IP: 216.92.151.75

  Date/Time: 1/19/2013 9:13:06 PM to 1/19/2013 9:14:36 PM

 1    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms    3 ms    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms  [192.168.1.1]

 2    9 ms    9 ms   12 ms   11 ms   *        9 ms    9 ms   11 ms   10 ms    9 ms  [10.27.29.1]

 3   20 ms    8 ms    8 ms    8 ms   *        9 ms    8 ms   13 ms    8 ms    8 ms  ge-3-1-2-0.IAD5-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.21.250]

 4   *       *       10 ms    9 ms   *        9 ms    9 ms    9 ms    9 ms    9 ms  so-6-3-0-0.RES-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.22.68]

 5   10 ms   13 ms    9 ms   10 ms   *       39 ms   10 ms   *        9 ms   11 ms  0.xe-4-1-0.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.2.253]

 6  N/A     N/A     N/A     N/A     N/A      56 ms  N/A     N/A     N/A      13 ms  0.xe-11-2-0.GW10.IAD8.ALTER.NET [152.63.35.233]

 7   *       25 ms   35 ms   25 ms   *       *       30 ms   *       26 ms   25 ms  pair-gw.customer.alter.net [152.179.50.138]

 8   *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *      N/A      [-]

 9   *       25 ms   *       27 ms   *       26 ms   25 ms   *       *       27 ms  pingplotter.com [216.92.151.75]

Ping statistics for www.pingplotter.com

Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 5, Lost = 5 (50.0%)

Round Trip Times: Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 26ms

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