DSL Throttled

[jhett]

I live in a rural community.  Every 6-9 months I notice my DSL service is continuously throttled more and more.  I pay for and am able to get 3.0 mbps.  When I call to complain several times they will send a new modem.  That will keep me at 3.0 for a while.  Within a few months it gets throttled down to 1.7, then 1.5, then 1.3  and now again I am getting less than 1 mbps.  If I power cycle the modem it will sometimes jump up one level.  Complaining to get a new modem ususall takes 1.5 to 3 hours of my life.  Is there anything I can do to force settings on my end, or is this all controlled by the central office location.  Is there any other technique to ensure I stay within the 80% bandwidth of 3.0 that I am promised?  I have been through 3 modems in 8 years because I tend to live with the lower speeds until they drop below 1.0 mbps again.

[ready2cancel]

I wrote about this last week. regarding "DSL Snails pace".  Same thing happened to me. For one day I was at 2.8. Then each day it kept dropping until it bottomed out at 1.2. Tried support, and got the usual "script". After an hour on the phone I made the decision to swith to Comcast.

I am so thrilled that Verizon made me do this. I had been with Verizon DSL since day one. Since FIOS wasn't available, the best I could get was their enhanced internet from 1.1 to 3.0. As I previously mentioned it bottomed out at 1.2.

I wanted internet only. Comcast had a "Performance" plan for $39.99 a month. I bought the new modem to save the $10 per month modem rental fee. I now get a minimum of 25.0 download speed.  It is a new world. No buffering. Upload speed is 6.0. I can watch Netflix in HD..

In conclusion, Thanks for the horrible service Verizon. You forced me to switch, and  now I realize that you were not the only service available. I sure won't miss the frustration, and it was nice to be able to talk with a real person.

Good Luck.

[pjsutton]

It's not being "throttled" - it's the line optimizer kicking in.

Seems to me that you have a line problem that doesn't always manifest itself. When the optimizer senses the line quality is low, it drops the speed to maintain a stable connection.

Log in to your gateway and post the line stats. I'd be willing to bet your SNR is low and your attenuation is high - both signs of line problems.

Do you have have phone service? Do you notice static on the line? Even if you don't notice static, you're better off reporting to Verizon that you have descreased phone service quality EVEN IF YOU DON'T USE IT because they are legally required to maintain voice service. They'll send someone out to go over the line and if a problem is found, it'll subsequently improve the DSL.

Calling to complain about DSL is a bad idea mostly, because they will just send you new modems to deal with it. Issues like that are line problems, not a result of improper DSL provisioning or an outage.

[jhett]

Does the line optimizer have a memory?  I have seen the line throughput steadily drop in stages over long periods of time.  I can easily watch the throughput via task manager in windows.  It shows a nice picture when downloading songs from pandora or opening graphic intense web pages.  It spikes up to the cap and fluctuates there until the file is complete.  With a new modem it stays strong.  Several month later I see a stairstep down.  Reseting the modem helps for a while but then I learn to live with the reduced throughput.  But when it drops below 1 mbps it is too anoying and I need to do something about it.  I will try the line service request as I do have voice and see if that helps.

[smith6612]

Do you have a screenshot of what you're seeing in the Task Manager that you could share? The graph will tell me at least one or two things as to what's wrong.

[pjsutton]

I don't think it has a "memory" but it kind of makes sense if it steadily decreases over a period of time. It's trying to make up for bad conditions.

Does it seem to happen during certain weather conditions? Kind of sounds like, to me anyway, it's a problem with a wet cable somewhere. When it rains and the cable gets saturated it'll continually have problems until it dries out, at which point the optimizer bumps your speed back up.

My only experience with the optimizer is anecdotal since I have a great line quality.

[jhett]

Here is a current example.  Same results on a windows 7 desktop with a ethernet cable hooked in to the modem.  I was consistenly getting 1.2 mbps for several months and now even with resetting the modem consistently only see .8

[smith6612 · Accepted solution]

Looks like you may need to be reprovisioned. The graph is consistent which indicates a cap on Verizon's end, if you're using their router.

When you ask them to get the provisioning set to a decent speed, please ask them to disable the ASSIA optimizer so that this stops happening.

[JOSEPH123444]

Don't complain too badly. IN ten years my DSL has never gone above 760 K, but I still pay the same price as everyone else - and they tell me I can switch.

But everyone here knows I can't, because Verizon owns the physical lines, so anyone else who offers DSL is leasing the line from Verizon, so there is NO chance for improvement.

[pjsutton]

In your other thread, Joseph123444, you said you were between 16k and 19k from the CO - that's basically the limit of DSL. So you likely will NOT get anything above 1 Mbps. Especially since they don't even sell DSL beyond 18,000 feet. So, that's why your speed have never gone higher. It's not really Verizon's fault, as it is a limitation of DSL itself.