Very Slow Internet Speeds For The Past Two Weeks

[Mr_McLovin]

Hopefully someone can help me. I am on the "Enhanced" HSI package of 1/.368 mbs . For the past year, everything was fine. For the past two weeks however, my download speeds are between .456 to as low as .125 mbs. My upload speed has remained at the provisioned rate. I have an Actiontec GT 701C modem I bought new 3 days ago to replace a Westell 6100G. Unfortunately, replacing the modem didn't solve my problem. The modem is hardwired into a single computer, and is a dry loop connection. I am running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. Here are my specs from the Verizon Speed test site:

Broadband Speed Test

Analysis information:

Checking for Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
SendBufferSize set to [8192]
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 379.69Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 383.18kb/s

------ Client System Details ------
OS data: Name = Windows 7, Architecture = x86, Version = 6.1
Java data: Vendor = Sun Microsystems Inc., Version = 1.6.0_29

------ Web100 Detailed Analysis ------
Client Receive Window detected at 66560 bytes.
Cable modem/DSL/T1 link found.
Link set to Full Duplex mode
Information: throughput is limited by other network traffic.
Good network cable(s) found
Normal duplex operation found.

Web100 reports the Round trip time = 81.32 msec; the Packet size = 1452 Bytes; and
There were 48 packets retransmitted, 106 duplicate acks received, and 132 SACK blocks received
The connection stalled 3 times due to packet loss
The connection was idle 0.81 seconds (6.75%) of the time
This connection is network limited 99.56% of the time.
Excessive packet loss is impacting your performance, check the auto-negotiate function on your local PC and network switch

Web100 reports TCP negotiated the optional Performance Settings to:
RFC 2018 Selective Acknowledgment: ON
RFC 896 Nagle Algorithm: ON
RFC 3168 Explicit Congestion Notification: OFF
RFC 1323 Time Stamping: OFF
RFC 1323 Window Scaling: ON
Information: Network Middlebox is modifying MSS variable
Server IP addresses are preserved End-to-End
Information: Network Address Translation (NAT) box is modifying the Client's IP address
Server says [###########] but Client says [#################]

My Modem Spec screen reports my provisioned speed as 1184/448, which is what it should be. The line attenuation is 13/14, and margin is 61/31. ( I tried to copy and paste the specs, but was unable to).

I called Tech support and went through the usual suggestions with them. They were not able to get a line test running due to an error they kept getting, so they ran a 24 hour test and the line failed. A technician came out Tuesday, but after looking at the modem spec screen and running a ping test on the computer, concluded " there is no problem on our end ". When I showed him the test results via speedtest.net and the verizon speedtest site, he told me " those sites are never accurate". He then said he would call the central office and get back to me. When I didn't hear from him, I called Tech support again, and again the line test failed. A tech is supposed be dispatched tomorrow to look at the line again, but at this point I can't even watch streaming video because of my near dial up speeds. Any suggestions are welcome.

[smith6612]

I'm going to need more information in order to solve this. Just one piece of info should tell me everything I need if it returns the way I'm expecting. If you'd like while you're in the process of getting this information for me, you can try to post up the modem Statistics again. Pasting the stats into Notepad and cleaning up the results should help get it into a format that the forum will accept.

Visit http://www.giganews.com/line_info.html and take a look at the Reverse Traceroutes the page performs to your IP address. When it completes, you will see one of two things.

1: If the results return back and you see your IP address along with Hostname, look at the line above the final one which shows your IP address. You should see something that resembles "core-rtr*" or "ERXG" . Please paste up the name of that hop.

2: If you wind up with a row or two of stars appearing, look at the last line that did not have stars above those lines. That should give the name of the router I'm looking for, as mentioned in #1. Paste up what you see of rthat line.

3: If you are unsure about what I'm asking, provide one of the traceroutes for us to look at. On the final line of the trace, ensure that the IP address in the hostname is removed if one does appear.

About the line statistics: If they are really that good especially on the margins, you shouldn't be at 1.5Mbps/384kbps. You should really be pushing for 10-15Mbps service.

[Mr_McLovin]

Smith,

Just got home from work and read your reply. Thanks for trying to help me with this. The results of the ping test you asked me to run are below:

news.giganews.com

1 gw1-g-vlan201.dca.giganews.com (216.196.98.4) 542 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 xe-2-3-0.er1.iad10.us.above.net (209.66.64.189) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
3 xe-1-0-0.er2.iad10.us.above.net (64.125.25.50) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
4 above-uu.iad10.us.above.net (64.125.13.174) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
5 0.ae1.RES-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (152.63.32.157) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
6 P15-0-0.NYCMNY-LCR-01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.197) 9 ms 12 ms 18 ms
7 P8-0.NYCMNY-GRCYNYGC-ERXG01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.35.241) 11 ms 15 ms 11 ms
8 * * *
9 * *

news-europe.giganews.com

1 vl201.gw2.ams.giganews.com (216.196.110.2) 8 ms 1 ms 1 ms
2 208.174.49.145 (208.174.49.145) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
3 cr2-tengig-0-5-1-0.frankfurtft3.savvis.net (204.70.207.209) 7 ms 8 ms 6 ms
4 cr2-ten-0-8-0-0.NewYork.savvis.net (204.70.195.22) 89 ms 89 ms 89 ms
5 er2-tengig-3-1.NewYork.savvis.net (204.70.198.18) 105 ms 95 ms 101 ms
6 0.xe-9-2-0.BR2.NYC4.ALTER.NET (204.255.168.89) 89 ms 89 ms 122 ms
7 0.ae2.XT1.NYC4.ALTER.NET (152.63.3.109) 83 ms 83 ms 83 ms
8 0.so-3-2-0.NY5030-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net (152.63.17.86) 97 ms 97 ms 282 ms
9 P15-0-0.NYCMNY-LCR-02.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.199) 99 ms 98 ms 98 ms
10 P9-0.NYCMNY-GRCYNYGC-ERXG01.verizon-gni.net (130.81.35.243) 93 ms 93 ms 93 ms
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
Max number of unresponsive hops reached (firewall or filter?)

After trying a bunch of things, I was able to get my modem specs to post. Here they are:

Model:

GT701C

Firmware Version:

3.20.4.3.5.0.9.2.13

Gateway MAC Address:

00:0F:B3:F0:08:14

WAN IP Address

###############

Subnet Mask:

255.255.255.255

Gateway IP Address:

10.32.80.1

DNS Address #1:

68.237.161.12

DNS Address #2:

151.203.0.84

PPP Status

Status:

Connected

User Name:

fast_eddie_001

LCP State:

up

IPCP State:

up

Packets Sent:

28414

Packets Received:

31550

DSL Status

VPI:

0

VCI:

35

DSL Mode Setting:

MMODE

DSL Negotiated Mode:

G.DMT

Connection Status:

Showtime

Speed (down/up):

1184 / 448 Kbps

ATM QoS class:

UBR

Near End CRC Errors :

2/0

Far End CRC Errors :

0/0

Near End CRC(Within last 30 mins) :

0/0

Far End CRC(Within last 30 mins) :

0/0

Near End RS FEC :

0/0

Far End RS FEC :

80/0

Near End FEC(Within last 30 mins) :

0/0

Far End FEC(Within last 30 mins) :

0/0

Discarded Packets(Within last 30 mins):

0

SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream):

16/13

Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream):

61/31

The tech came by this morning, and determined that the problem is not in the outside line or my equipment. Thanks again for your help.

[Mr_McLovin]

Btw, I noticed I totally inverted the Line Attenuation and Margin stats in my original post. I know that makes a HUGE difference. Sorry about that.

[Mr_McLovin]

After the tech left yesterday he told the person who was home that the problem wasn't in my line or equipment. He said the problem was in the Central Office, and that he would send in a trouble ticket so that they could investigate it and correct it. When I didn't receive a call or text from Verizon telling me what the status was, I called them. The rep there told me that the trouble ticket was closed by the Tech. I was pretty unhappy with that, since I don't like to be lied to. Then I got the usual "your speeds are acceptable for your package", even though they are LOWER then my upload speeds. The reps whole attitude changed when I asked who to contact in order to cancel my service. Once again, they are running another test on the line, and I have been assured someone will call me back within 12 to 24 hours ( they were unable to test the line while I was on the phone, because just like the previous times, the test wouldn't load ). Optimum is offering a special promotion in my area that would cost me LESS then what I'm paying now for this "service", and even with cable's limitations, I no doubt would get better speeds then what I'm getting now.

I also did some research online regarding some of the points Smith brought up, and it also isn't pretty. Apparently, the "ERX' designation in the router upstream from me denotes a Juniper Router. Unfortunately, the Juniper router and Lucent switches that Verizon likes to use don't apparently play nice with Windows Vista, or Windows 7, which is what I'm running on. Verizon is apparently aware of the incompatibility, but hasn't done anything about it, because a quick web search regarding problems people are having with it turned up a large amount of results. The upload speeds remain unaffected by this, but the download speeds drop dramatically because of packet loss, which is exactly what I'm experiencing. I'm waiting on the test results from Verizon, but like I said, Optimum is looking like a real replacement.

[smith6612]

Glad to see you've stumbled across some of my older posts along with some others' posts. There's a lot in the mix relating to the Alcatel equipment and the Junipers and what is really going on that I haven't stated in posts, but yeah, it isn't a very pretty picture and Verizon's been informed of it for a while. They do have a few options to fix it, but their proposed fix, short of finding a way to get someone off of a Litespan platform or moving a line back to a Redback router (which can be done to your line if one is available), is to take FastPath off of the line which apparently bandages the problem. Then you start running into latency issues when downloading which is a sign of a bandaged issue (This shows up when your downloads cause the latency to blow past 200ms to the first hop, a sign of Software QoS and not a physical link limitation), and initial latency to the edge router jumps up by 20ms on an idle line due to Interleaving.

The problem stands out the most on Windows Vista and Windows 7 because unfortunately, short of getting Verizon to fix the problem on their end, which can be quite a task if you don't know where to go to (I do, fortunately so I can guide you there if you wish to get off a Juniper, since it probably is your issue if you were switched recently), there is no way to work around it in Vista or Win7. This is just by nature of the OS. Microsoft took out the ability to edit Receive Windows, so ultimately the lowest window you really get is determined by the OS, or 65535 bytes if you disable Auto-Tuning all together. At least in Windows XP (and older) and UNIX-based machines, you can work around the issue by setting the Receive Window to some stupidly small value, but the problem still exists none the less. Either way, it's a bandage fix to do things on your end or for Verizon to mask the underlying problem with a software setting on their DSLAM.

As far as the Enhanced Package goes? You won't get more than 1.5Mbps out of that line. If you're going to stick with DSL, I would consider dropping your package to the basic 1Mbps/384kbps package since that is where your sync rates lay. No sense paying extra for what can't be provided! The tech who stopped by was correct in where the issue lays. You're not getting errors on the line, meaning it's running stable. It's just lengthy and/or old and deteriorated. But whatever the case is, it's tough knowing the exact cause without knowing what lays between the Juniper and your modem.

[Lew4700]

My story is worse.  I am on a 3Mb plan.  For the past couple of months, I have been getting extremely poor response in the evening.  It is reasonable during the day, and excellent late at night.  But at about 8-10 pm it is consistently horrible - routinely 300Kb down and yet  700Kb up.   Sometimes as bad as 100 Kb down.    And every night by 1 am it is back to what I expect - 2700 down and 715 up.    I am essentially getting 10% of rated speed.

I am testing with two computers with hardwired Ethernet connections, one XP the other Win 7, so having XP doesn't help.   

And yes, I have rebooted my computer and power cycled the modem. 

The second time I called, somebody was supposed to call me back within 24 hrs.   A few days later someone called, left a partially unintelligible voicemail, and no way to contact him. 

I have tried to explain to the support desk that I have a batch of pdfs showing the results of the Verizon speed test.   They just want me to spend more time calling back yet again when it is slow.  I'm sure they will want me to stay home for a day while they come out and verify that the problem is not at my house.   Clearly they have a saturated line somewhere, and they should not need me to help them find it.

I have been a DSL customer for 10 years.  It's good when it works, but the support experience is a Kafka story.  I am also a Verizon shareholder, and from that perspective, this plus other recent Verizon experiences are scary.

[KH-OrnEsh1]

I'm sorry you are having difficulty. An agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information or to help you resolve your issue.

---

@Lew4700 wrote:

My story is worse.  I am on a 3Mb plan.  For the past couple of months, I have been getting extremely poor response in the evening.  It is reasonable during the day, and excellent late at night.  But at about 8-10 pm it is consistently horrible - routinely 300Kb down and yet  700Kb up.   Sometimes as bad as 100 Kb down.    And every night by 1 am it is back to what I expect - 2700 down and 715 up.    I am essentially getting 10% of rated speed.

I am testing with two computers with hardwired Ethernet connections, one XP the other Win 7, so having XP doesn't help.   

And yes, I have rebooted my computer and power cycled the modem. 

The second time I called, somebody was supposed to call me back within 24 hrs.   A few days later someone called, left a partially unintelligible voicemail, and no way to contact him. 

I have tried to explain to the support desk that I have a batch of pdfs showing the results of the Verizon speed test.   They just want me to spend more time calling back yet again when it is slow.  I'm sure they will want me to stay home for a day while they come out and verify that the problem is not at my house.   Clearly they have a saturated line somewhere, and they should not need me to help them find it.

I have been a DSL customer for 10 years.  It's good when it works, but the support experience is a Kafka story.  I am also a Verizon shareholder, and from that perspective, this plus other recent Verizon experiences are scary.

---

[Mr_McLovin]

My latest Line Quality/Ping Test Results from DSLReports.com:

Test (From Central USA)	Loss	Min Latency	Avg Latency	Max Latency	Pass Fail
basic ping 10s of 40 byte packets, 2 per second	0%	67.6ms	68.2ms	68.9ms	pass
low bandwidth stream 10s of 512 byte packets at 56 kbit	6%	80.6ms	81.4ms	83.2ms	warn
medium bandwidth stream 10s of 512 byte packets at 128 kbit	3%	80.6ms	81.4ms	82.7ms	pass
higher bandwidth stream 10s of 1400 byte packets at 384 kbit	4%	104ms	105ms	106ms	warn
your first hop ping stream of 40byte pings to 130.81.35.241	0% loss	45.4ms	You are 22ms to your first hop	pass

1 minute MTR (hop loss analysis) from Central - USA
Hop	Host	LOSS	Rcv	Sent	Best	Avg	Worst
0	ae-1.bb-c.slr.lxa.us.oneandone.net	0%	60	60	0.33	0.39	0.77
1	te-2-1.bb-c.ms.mkc.us.oneandone.net	0%	60	60	0.78	0.87	1.16
2	64.209.105.233	0%	60	60	13.96	24.57	211.76
3	0.xe-8-2-0.BR3.CHI13.ALTER.NET	0%	60	60	14.13	17.41	91.52
4	0.ae3.CHI01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.NET	0%	60	60	14.47	20.11	110.79
5	P15-0-0.NYCMNY-LCR-01.verizon-gni.net	0%	60	60	42.21	43.62	117.10
6	P8-0.NYCMNY-GRCYNYGC-ERXG01.verizon-gni.net	0%	60	60	44.33	44.68	45.81
7	pool-#############.nycmny.east.verizon.net	4%	58	60	79.46	80.36	81.39
fail

1 minute MTR (hop loss analysis) from West Coast - USA
Hop	Host	LOSS	Rcv	Sent	Best	Avg	Worst
0	???	100%	0	60	0.00	0.00	0.00
1	ge-2-0-0-0.c01.sjc.bb.megapath.net	0%	60	60	0.87	8.99	150.35
2	ge-6-16.car2.SanJose1.Level3.net	0%	60	60	0.94	17.46	188.32
3	ae-3-80.edge1.SanJose3.Level3.net	0%	60	60	2.09	3.77	45.34
4	mci-level3-10g.SanJose3.Level3.net	0%	60	60	2.18	4.32	27.62
5	0.ge-2-1-0.SJC01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net	0%	60	60	3.03	10.65	115.44
6	P15-0-0.NYCMNY-LCR-01.verizon-gni.net	0%	60	60	89.07	90.55	140.60
7	P8-0.NYCMNY-GRCYNYGC-ERXG01.verizon-gni.net	0%	60	60	91.31	91.70	92.94
8	pool-###########.nycmny.east.verizon.net	10%	54	60	126.17	127.21	128.54
fail

Still waiting on the results from Verizon's Line Test. If it fails, this would be the third time. Smith, I checked my account, and I am on the HSI basic plan, so that must've been changed from last year. If you can try to get me changed to another router, I would appreciate it. My download speeds are all over the place, from a high of .542 to a low last night of .125 mbs. As it is now, this service really isn't usable for me, since I can't even watch streaming video from  Youtube.com, etc, and the webpages stall while loading. I'm already looking into another Internet Provider just in case there's no resolution possible for this.

[smith6612 · Accepted solution]

I can't personally modify how Verizon routes things on the network end of things, but I will direct you to someone who does have the ability to do this and who will get to the bottom of this issue (includes checking for faulty equipment, router changes, DSLAM changes). Check your PMs on this forum. The person I'm sending you to will ensure the job is done right and you're happy before calling it a day. Be sure to thank him once you're done 🙂