Connection Issues

[pwcrickman]

Since early May 2014, my DSL connection drops routinely starting between noon and 1 pm EDT and continues off and on for at least a hour or two.  It will stay connected for 10 - 20 minutes and then drop again which requires a modem reset.  I do not have FIOS coverage in my area so I am stuck trying to keep a constant connection.  Seems strange that this only happens during the late spring and summer months here in MD.  In the fall and winter no DSL problems at all.  I assume it is not a router / modem problem because it is consistently a probem only during mid-day to early evening.  I have looked at the Advanced Settings for my modem (Westell 7500-A90) and they are listed below for further troubleshooting.

Transceiver Information

Margin (dB)   Down Stream: 19.6  Up Stream 13.0

Line Attenuation (dB)  Down Stream: 37.0 Up Stream: 22.0

Transmit Power (dBm): Down Stream 9.8  Up Stream: 11.9

I would like some advice as to whether I should have a tech come out to the house or is it more than likely a substation problem.
 

Thanks for any advice / help.

[pwcrickman]

Since early May 2014, my DSL connection drops routinely starting between noon and 1 pm EDT and continues off and on for at least a hour or two.  It will stay connected for 10 - 20 minutes and then drop again which requires a modem reset.  I do not have FIOS coverage in my area so I am stuck trying to keep a constant connection.  Seems strange that this only happens during the late spring and summer months here in MD.  In the fall and winter no DSL problems at all.  I assume it is not a router / modem problem because it is consistently a probem only during mid-day to early evening.  I have looked at the Advanced Settings for my modem (Westell 7500-A90) and they are listed below for further troubleshooting.

Transceiver Information

Margin (dB)   Down Stream: 19.6  Up Stream 13.0

Line Attenuation (dB)  Down Stream: 37.0 Up Stream: 22.0

Transmit Power (dBm): Down Stream 9.8  Up Stream: 11.9

[pwcrickman]

I would like some advice as to whether I should have a tech come out to the house or is it more than likely a substation problem.
 

Thanks for any advice / help.

[smith6612]

Chances are good here that you will need a tech visit to find the problem, which is likely going to be on Verizon's end. During the afternoon and evening hours sounds like the perfect candidate for a bad splice to show up via expansion/contraction.

[pwcrickman]

I swapped out the modem/router with a new Actiontec one supplied by Verizon and will continue to monitor the connection status. 

Thank you for your reply.

[pwcrickman]

After swapping in the Actiontec router (ModelGT784WNV) I am getting more reliable connectivity however the connection speed seems to have dropped.  I was getting 3360 Kbps downstream with the Westell and now it is consistently 2944 Kbps with the Actiontec.  Why has it dropped?

 

I have include the giganews traceroute and also the transceiver statistics below.  Please let me know if there is any additional information that I can provide.

traceroute to 71.166.*.*(71.166.*.*), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 gw1-g-vlan201.dca.giganews.com (216.196.98.4) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 216-166-96-182.fwd.datafoundry.com (216.166.96.182) 0 ms 216-166-96-178.fwd.datafoundry.com (216.166.96.178) 0 ms 216-166-96-170.fwd.datafoundry.com (216.166.96.170) 0 ms
3 ash-b1-link.telia.net (62.115.42.153) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
4 ash-b2-link.se.telia.net (80.91.245.223) 0 ms ash-b2-link.telia.net (213.155.130.37) 0 ms 0 ms
5 TenGigE0-0-0-10.GW1.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.179.50.233) 3 ms 19 ms 19 ms
6 B300.BLTMMD-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.151.117) 7 ms 5 ms 5 ms
...

10 P1-0.BLTMMD-BLTMMDCH-ERXG05.verizon-gni.net (130.81.44.91) 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms

Downstream Speed:	2944 Kbps
Upstream Speed:	640 Kbps
Retrains:	0
Retrain Timer:	0 Days, 23H:59M:25S
ATM QoS class:	UBR
Near End CRC Errors Interleave:	20
Near End CRC Errors Fastpath :	N/A
Far End CRC Errors Interleave :	0
Far End CRC Errors Fastpath :	N/A
30 Minute Near End CRC Interleave :	209
30 Minute Near End CRC Fastpath :	N/A
30 Minute Far End CRC Interleave :	0
30 Minute Far End CRC Fastpath :	N/A
Near End RS FEC Interleave :	0
Near End RS FEC Fastpath :	N/A
Far End RS FEC Interleave :	0
Far End RS FEC Fastpath :	N/A
30 Minute Near End FEC Interleave :	2549
30 Minute Near End FEC Fastpath :	N/A
30 Minute Far End FEC Interleave :	20
30 Minute Far End FEC Fastpath :	N/A
30 Minute Discarded Packets Downstream :	0
30 Minute Discarded Packets Upstream :	0
SNR Downstream :	19 dB
SNR Upstream :	21 dB
Attenuation Downstream :	35 dB
Attenuation Upstream :	22 dB
Power Downstream	13.1 dBm
Power Upstream	11.9 dBm

[smith6612]

To ger your sync speed back to where it was, or even higher, please ask Verizon to disable the ASSIA optimizer and provision your line for the highest speed the EQUIPMENT, not your package, is capable for. This means, you should get 5 or 7Mbps.

[pwcrickman]

Well here we are a few months later and the speed has dropped again to 1792 kbps.  Why does this service continue to get worse every month?  Are there any plans to get FIOS available in the 21104 / 21784 zip code?  I've read in other posts that Verizon is unwilling to disable ASSIA.  Are there any other recommendations?

[pwcrickman]

As my connection speed continues to dwindle (now down to a constant 2112 Kbps) with daily dropouts, can someone from Verizon Support help me get back to the advertised speed of 3.1 Mbps?  Please let me know information is needed to verify my good connection and dustance to the Central Office.  I have replaced my router twice so I don't suspect that it is the culprit.

[pjsutton]

You're better off making an account at DSLreports.com and posting in the "Verizon Direct" forum - you can connect directly to a person who knows a lot more than the phone reps. Ask them to check your sync speed.