Five months of ongoing timeouts and connection loss

[nomad8u]

SE PA area. Problem started back in January with bursts of high ping times and timeouts on an old white Westell model with a WRT54g bridged to handle the routing. After several support calls a new Westell 6100 was sent but failed to resolve the intermittent problem. It seems to be aggravated by wet weather but also happens during dry periods just not as frequently. Around March tech support sent another Westell 6100 claiming the first one went bad. Problems continued intermittently as they've always been.

After a couple more calls to tech support they claimed the second Westell 6100 might be causing the problem and sent an Actiontec GT704WGB. Before getting the Actiontec installed our phone quit working (clicking noise and cross talk) but DSL continued to function with the same high pings and time outs randomly. This was last week and we were finally able to get a phone tech last Thursday (still had the Westell 6100 hooked up) to come to the house. Several hours prior to his arrival our phone started working and talking to the tech he said there was a line problem found and fixed.

While the tech was here, he put a splitter in line and ran a home run for the DSL to help us eliminate any possible filter issues and see if it would help with the intermittent DSL problems. I have also replaced the line from the NID inside with a new cat5e run. Yesterday (Friday) we had a bad rain storm lasting several hours (over 1.5in of rain) and the DSL has been garbage since.

I broke down today and pulled the Westell 6100 and my Linksys WRT54g out of the DSL line and finally installed the Actiontec GT704WGB and it's as bad or worse than ever. I've collected as much info as I can to try to shed some light on this if someone know how to interpret what the results are and can help, that would be awesome. I'm at my wits end with Indias tech support route and after 5 months I don't know what else to do.

Reverse traceroute during problem:

I x'd out my IP on the last hops.

06/2/2012 10pm

news-europe.giganews.com

1 vl201.gw2.ams.giganews.com (216.196.110.2) 0 ms 0 ms 0 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 9 ms 7 ms
4 cr2-ten-0-8-0-0.NewYork.savvis.net (204.70.195.22) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
5 er2-tengig-8-8.newyork.savvis.net (204.70.224.249) 87 ms 87 ms 87 ms
6 0.xe-9-2-0.BR2.NYC4.ALTER.NET (204.255.168.89) 94 ms 94 ms 94 ms
7 0.ae2.NY5030-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.NET (152.63.18.74) 110 ms 96 ms 88 ms
8 ge-7-1-0-0.PHIL-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (130.81.20.139) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
9 A4-0-0-1723.PHIL-DSL-RTR7.verizon-gni.net (130.81.11.234) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
10 pool-xx-xx-xxx-xxx.phil.east.verizon.net (xx.xx.xx.xxx) 1736 ms 1714 ms 1593 ms

06/2/2012 10:03pm

news.giganews.com

1 gw1-g-vlan201.dca.giganews.com (216.196.98.4) 2 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 g3-0.bb1.dca.giganews.com (216.196.96.62) 25 ms 54 ms 0 ms
3 xe-8-0-7.ar2.iad1.us.nlayer.net (69.31.10.97) 4 ms 1 ms 1 ms
4 TenGigE0-1-0-0.GW7.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.179.50.73) 5 ms TenGigE0-2-4-0.GW7.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.179.50.93) 0 ms TenGigE0-1-0-0.GW7.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.179.50.73) 0 ms
5 0.xe-0-1-0.XL4.IAD8.ALTER.NET (152.63.37.93) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
6 0.ge-11-0-0.RES-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (152.63.30.10) 0 ms 0.so-9-3-0.RES-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (152.63.37.122) 0 ms 0.xe-15-1-0.RES-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.NET (152.63.3.54) 0 ms
7 ge-7-1-0-0.PHIL-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (130.81.20.139) 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms
8 A4-0-0-1723.PHIL-DSL-RTR7.verizon-gni.net (130.81.11.234) 11 ms 9 ms 8 ms
9 pool-70-16-xxx-xxx.phil.east.verizon.net (70.16.xxx.xxx) 1206 ms 1339 ms 1661 ms

news-europe.giganews.com

1 vl201.gw2.ams.giganews.com (216.196.110.2) 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 208.174.49.145 (208.174.49.145) 31 ms 0 ms 0 ms
3 cr2-tengig-0-5-1-0.frankfurtft3.savvis.net (204.70.207.209) 7 ms 7 ms 6 ms
4 cr2-ten-0-8-0-0.NewYork.savvis.net (204.70.195.22) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
5 er2-tengig-8-8.newyork.savvis.net (204.70.224.249) 87 ms 87 ms 87 ms
6 0.xe-9-2-0.BR2.NYC4.ALTER.NET (204.255.168.89) 94 ms 94 ms 94 ms
7 0.ae2.NY5030-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.NET (152.63.18.74) 105 ms 88 ms 88 ms
8 ge-7-1-0-0.PHIL-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net (130.81.20.139) 88 ms 90 ms 88 ms
9 A4-0-0-1723.PHIL-DSL-RTR7.verizon-gni.net (130.81.11.234) 88 ms 88 ms 88 ms
10 * * *
11 * * pool-70-16-xxx-xxx.phil.east.verizon.net (70.16.xxx.xxx) 1802 ms

Snippets of ping times to yahoo:
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=76ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=94ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=137ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=40ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=420ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=973ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=1410ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=1995ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=3076ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=2058ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=114ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=141ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=49
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=50
Reply from 98.139.183.24: bytes=32 time=309ms TTL=50

TRANSCEIVER STATS:

Inside house (10pm 06/2/2012) around the time of the above traceroutes and ping snips.

DSL Status
VPI: 0    
VCI: 35    
DSL Mode Setting: Auto    
DSL Negotiated Mode: G.DMT    
Connection Status: ShowTime    
Speed (down/up): 1792/448    
ATM QoS class:     UBR
Output Power (Downstream/Upstream): 11.9/17.3 dBm    
Attainable Rate (Downstream/Upstream): 8352/1064 Kbps    
HEC Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 1/0    
OCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0/0    
LCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0/0    
SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream): 29.8/22.0 dB    
Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream): 49.5/24.0 dB    

At NID (tested a couple hours prior to inside test above)

DSL Status
VPI: 0    
VCI: 35    
DSL Mode Setting: Auto    
DSL Negotiated Mode: G.DMT    
Connection Status: ShowTime    
Speed (down/up): 1792/448    
ATM QoS class:     UBR
Output Power (Downstream/Upstream): 11.9/16.8 dBm    
Attainable Rate (Downstream/Upstream): 8160/1052 Kbps    
HEC Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 1/0    
OCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0/0    
LCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0/0    
SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream): 29.8/22.0 dB    
Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream): 49.5/24.0 dB    

[Bron5]

I have been having the very same problem for about the same length of time here in the RIC VA area.  Line checked, no issues.  Before this started my service had been fine.  For last several months, awful.  100% sure it is at Verizin end, not my end.  Have triple checked everything here numerous times.  Good luck but Verizon seems unable to do anything about it or they just don't care.  One rep tried her best to help and escalated the issue.  But as soon as it settles for awhile they decalre it solved and then, of course, it goes wacky again soon after.

It had been happening all over in many different areas.  Strange.  Just look at the forums here and you will see quite a few having this problem.  And imagine the thousands who would never bother to come here to post.  I don't know what else to do but look for an alternate service provider which will be a pain, but I can't continue this way.

Good luck!

[nomad8u]

@Bron Thanks, luck back at you. I agree there are many here with issues and that's usually what you see on a community forum such as this. I guess this is my "record" of things done to try to resolve the problem while I deal with it.

Mostly it's community members here from what I've seen that try to help and sometimes it seems you get lucky and something jumps out at someone that finally helps to get a problem resolved. I've been with VZ DSL for at least 8-10 years now and NEVER had issues like this until this year. I feel like they're trying to abandon their POTS/DSL subscribers and push wireless and Fios business. Heck, I've got Fios internet/phone available but have no confidence the service will be much better when there's an issue if browsing the Fios forum is any indication. Plus it's more expensive for me as well.

For now I'll continue bugging "Bangalore" and calling in phone problems and might start trying to bug corporate as well until I get something fixed. I'm pretty well convinced the issue is on their end (CO or in-between) as I've tryed to eliminate all my inside potential problems AND I can duplicate the issue at my NID. Meanwhile I'm learning a bit more about how all this works.

[nomad8u]

After several hours of going back and forth with connecting at the NID and back inside replicating/verifying the timeouts occur on both sides I've had the modem back up for 5 hours and am seeing several HEC and OCD errors on the downstream side. Anybody know what those errors mean? Other stats still look good. System log shows many DNS errors but believe them to be from the timeouts when ping shoot up to 2200-3800ms and then times out  Syslog.

 6/3/12 9:20pm

Model: GT704-WG-B    
Firmware Version: 30.17.0    
 
DSL Status
VPI:    0
VCI:    35
DSL Mode Setting: Auto    
DSL Negotiated Mode:    G.DMT
Connection Status:    Showtime
Speed (down/up):    1792/448
ATM QoS class:     UBR
Output Power (Downstream/Upstream):    11.9 / 17.8 dBm
Attainable Rate (Downstream/Upstream):    8224 / 1060 Kbps
HEC Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 384 / 0    
OCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 3 / 0    
LCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0 / 0    
SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream): 29.4 / 22.0    
Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream): 49.5 / 25.0    

[smith6612]

Each time you've had Verizon look at the issue, did they ever say where the problem was? It certainly sounds like something is over-subscribed if you're seeing intermittent issues. You've got an awesome phone line there, cleaner than many so it is by no means the physical ADSL connection between your modem and the DSLAM. Something worth checking would probably be the Wireless since you do mention it. Just throwing it out there as that's always a possibility and is not unheard of in some areas, but it's also possible there is latency being caused from upload usage (backup software?) or from something just chewing up bandwidth.

But, I can't place the blame on your end. As long as you've done everything to ensure there isn't usage on your end when the connection isn't operating right, then we're fine. Those errors you marked, by the way are just fine. As long as HEC and CRC errors aren't climbing at a steady rate, you're fine. One or two every few hours is normal. FEC are corrected errors due to Interleaving, which for your line seems to be a low value caused from normal bursts of noise. HEC errors are caused when a line is unable to communicate with the DSLAM effectively for a period of time, indicating the speed was too high for the line at the moment that measurement was noted. Again, just burst of noise. CRC errors are uncorrectable errors, and they once again, happen when noise bursts occur. These result in transfer stalls and real-time packet loss.

I see you are on a Redback router, which could be getting overloaded from time to time. They are older, legacy routers that Verizon is trying to phase out in favor of higher capacity Juniper ERX routers however they also do need to keep Redbacks in service for particular DSL lines that see issues with Junipers (such as mine), at least until proposed fixes on the engineering and provisioning end are pushed through. If them problem is intermittent, there could very well be overloaded at the edge router. from the Interface to the ATM network towards your DSLAM and not the ones attached to the switches taking it to the backbone. It could also be excessive load on the router itself, though according to the traceroute this isn't the case. Excessive load on either the router's backbone uplink or CPU would present high latency to the router.

There's also a chance for issues at the DSLAM, especially if it is serving out speeds higher than 3Mbps but doesn't have the backplane capacity or uplink to the rest of the network for those higher speeds. On older remotes, such as the Litespan and Catena systems it isn't uncommon for this kind of problem to happen especially on a remote serving large or dense neighborhoods. While I'm not in tune completely with how the DSL network was designed, I know a bunch of remotes in this area do not serve speeds higher than 3Mbps, and the connectivity to them is quite dated; Most run OC3 (155Mbps) or OC12 (622Mbps) fiber but are demuxed down to T3s/DS3 lines (giving a whopping 45Mbps/45Mbps) which has caused some issues with congestion on some of the remotes in my area. So, congestion if you're on a remote is likely.

Let us not forget the fact that there might also be equipment trouble happening and it's one that requires a lot of monitoring to catch. Anyone who has experience with working on Telco equipment typically knows what to look for even if a problem is not happening, so while I'm not calling the techs incompetent, these types of problems can take some time to find, and it's best to have someone during the evening watch equipment where it's most likely to crumble under load during peak usage.

The DSL network is ultimately being left to rot based on what I've been able to obtain both from reliable media sources, numerous forum discussions, and some private conversations with some contacts I have in Verizon. FiOS is the big concern, and people have noticed DSL performance dropping since FiOS has become available in Central Offices. While it doesn't seem that Verizon is taking bandwidth away from DSL, it seems the DSL network is getting loaded down further as demand not anticipated back when it was designed gets placed onto it, and upgrades are being skimped on due to DSL being seen as a dying, no-longer capable platform. While it still has life left in it if cared for, it's going the way of the copper Telephone business. They're keeping copper phone up and running enough to make sure it works per regulations but that's about it. If DSL no longer becomes Viable, then so be it. Any upgrades seen are going to be those lucky enough to be near a CO and fed out of it too. Old remotes will be fixed using what is available, since much of the gear is manufaturer discontinued (doesn't mean parts are not available), and capacity will be boosted slightly if lines are seen running past 90% utilization (which is very bad. 80% max is the rule of thumb) for 15 out of 30 days in a month. Any upgrades will ultimately be an LTE-to-the-Home service, which is not going to work nicely based on my own technical experience, and the LTE service will result in a deployment of Fiber to the Tower, which leads to no benefits to you in the long run as services become more demanding, despite efficiency being key and poorer service.

TL;DR: I've got someone who can look into this issue for you. They're out at the moment but if it's possible to wait a week or two I'll get you in touch with them and you'll get fixed up. Also, expect a speed boost from him to 3Mbps on the spot, and 5Mbps if the equipment allows for it, granted congestion at a trunk isn't an issue.

FYI:

As a technical person I understand I'm not paying for a business-class connection with a Service Level Agreement and a guarantee of X or Y. I understand my DSL line will have problems every now and again, and that does hold true. Routing failures for most of the day on a random summer day due to a failure in New York City (where all of my traffic pipes to), oddball issues where my line speed is cut in half and latency is 300ms higher than normal, or occasional congestion (maybe once every few months) resulting in degraded speeds on the last mile, but that is it. I do expect a level of service out of any connection though. Some food for thought:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54

I'm on an old Redback and a remote installed back in 2001. Yet, my service works. There's not many DSL users where I am since most have gone to Cable, but having the resources I have, I'm able to get problems that show up fixed within a day typically. I cannot be placed onto a Juniper router as that will break my line and get me upset (as it did two months ago, which I had a contact of mine move me back to the same router), and I only pay for 1Mbps but I also have a Landline. So, yeah I do expect some quality of service on the line, rather than nightly or constant problems.

Regardless of what happens though, only half of my CO is built out with FiOS. The other half (the half I'm in) has DSL. There's a skeleton build of FiOS out where I am, but that's been sitting around for about a year with very little progress towards getting the first connection online. There's a Fiber Distribution hub walking distance from me installed exactly 11 months ago. It's not connected to anything. Just sitting there up on the poles. Sad seeing it there not being used, with the fiber cabling going into it not connected to a thing.

[nomad8u]

Ah.. I was hoping you'd stop by and chime in. Thanks!  I spent a couple of evenings browsing the forums looking at others' issues and was always impressed with not only your knowledge but your willingness and consistent help to many who post up with issues. I'm gonna have to give you a Kudos on this as it's the best I can do and people such as yourself and several of the other regular "assistees" I've seen help here are what really make these forums/communities the great resource that they are.

As I have a technical background in electronics and electro-mechanical I was able to blow through a lot of good information on what to check and get all my potential infrastructure issues on my side covered before going any farther (replacing my old lines with new cat5 and new jacks, getting the tech to put a splitter in and run a home run for the DSL line). But I don't have much knowledge in the telecommunications end and DSL. Your info helped a lot with shedding some more light on that as well as reading other posts.

I saw the Redback router in the reverser trace and had gathered from other reading that they're older units. I have no idea what if any upgrades will be done at my CO. I am in fact fed from a CO and that fits in with my attenuation numbers as I'm about 2 miles away. From the numbers I estimate between 12-13000 feet on the wire.

A short update since Sunday. Yesterday my wife received a call from a US based tech from the Chronic Intermittency team (I think that's what she called them) and after looking at the line the nice lady was a bit perplexed as I was as the numbers look so good on the line. She was able to determine after several steps with my wife, that we might just be saturating the 1.7Mb we were provisioned at and the modem was just giving up the ghost and timing out eventually. She opened the pipe up to 3Mb and it's gotten MUCH better since yesterday. While it tightened us up quite a bit on the Margin (I was a little surprised at how much the Margin dropped with only doubling the rate) it appears 5Mbps would easily be doable barring no other line issues. What I was most favorably impressed with though was that the nice lady promised to call back and stay with this issue until resolved. She's off for a couple of days which will give us some time to see how much better this one change has improved things but she did call twice yesterday (a call back followup after the original call and bumping up the provisioning to see if she was on the right track). That certainly helped boost my confidence level with Verizon's support a bit...

New transceiver stats 6/4/12 actual stats were taken 6/5 with 54hrs uptime.

DSL Status
VPI:    0
VCI:    35
DSL Mode Setting: Auto    
DSL Negotiated Mode:    G.DMT
Connection Status:    Showtime
Speed (down/up):    3360/832
ATM QoS class:     UBR
Output Power (Downstream/Upstream):    11.9 / 11.6 dBm
Attainable Rate (Downstream/Upstream):    8320 / 932 Kbps
HEC Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 522 / 0    
OCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0 / 0    
LCD Errors (Downstream/Upstream): 0 / 0    
SNR Margin (Downstream/Upstream): 17.1 / 9.0    
Attenuation (Downstream/Upstream): 49.5 / 24.0    

I also found it interesting that the upstream output power dropped so much. It appears that modem was getting a workout at 400Kbps. Downstream held the same.

I'm not ready to mark this resolved yet but it does appear the lady was correct in her assumption that we were saturating the connection as a primary root cause. Interesting...

What I still find a bit of a puzzle is our online habits haven't changed (always run virus/trojan protection as that was one item the tech queried due to the activity she was seeing based on what my wife had running at the time) and yet this didn't crop up until the beginning of this year. We primarily run 2 desktop systems and I use a laptop wirelessly occasionally (yes, I did kill the wireless on the router for a day in troubleshooting). My usage is primarily browsing and email and my browsing is mostly forums and finance based so not a lot of high bandwidth usage there. The wife does have an online game she's played for years and does use Skype and Teamspeak during her gaming, but her gaming habits/use hasn't changed over the years either. I do run the Network Meter Gadget on Windows 7 on all PCs so we can monitor our rate dynamically but it's hard to aggregate that info when we're both online to see the total bandwidth we're pushing. I've watched her sessions as well as monitoring mine and she was by no means in constant saturation. I was surprised at the constant "chatter" Skype puts on the line even with no ongoing conversations. I suspect some congestion at the DSLAM might be in play here as well. We'll see how it all shakes out in the end. I'd certainly like to get the bump to 5Mbps if it's doable and think that might just buy us a bit more life until we finally have to cave to Fios.

[smith6612]

Ah yes. Skype. That is a noisy program especially if UPnP or port forwarding is set up for it. If connections are seen as fast enough Skype does in fact utilize your connection and make the computer a part of a Super Node (as it's called). When I arrange for LAN parties, often time I wind up blocking services such as Skype due to how limited the LAN's Internet connections tend to be. When you've got 70-100 computers sharing some random connection, perhaps even a phone on a 3G Network that is attached to the network to provide Internet service, you can't have people Skyping, pulling down files on P2P networks or Steam, or so on and so fourth. Basically, the connection's good enough for some online play and for connecting to services such as Steam, but besides that it gets choked easily. Very few locations have strong connections capable of taking abuse of that many computers and not causing issues for everyone. The routing gear set up at LANs never has issues.

This may have very well been a case of upload saturation which is something that should normally be checked (network usage in general). If your WRT54G from Linksys has DD-WRT or other third party firmware installed onto it, they often include real-time bandwidth monitoring graphs which can let you track overall net usage. I run an ActionTec MI424WR Rev. D (one of the routers used on Verizon fiOS) with DD-WRT and it does exactly that. Programs such as Vent and Teamspeak shouldn't use a ton at all unless you're hosting a server from home, and the same goes with games that are generous on refresh data.

Either way, certainly keep an eye on it and see if your speed drop down a bit and the loss returns with no applications such as Skype running. Your upload seems to have taken a small hit since proper sync is 864kbps up, but at your distance I suppose there's nothing to complain about since the line's running well. If you request ADSL2+ 5Mbps and higher will certainly be do-able. Don't expect an upload boost however, it isn't going much higher I'm afraid without some stability issues. Also while watching, take note of any router changes if you happen to notice a different name or IP for the edge router. The lady from Chronic support may have moved you to some different gear by adjusting how you route.

Oh yeah, some food for thought from a nearby business:

Transceiver Statistics
Transceiver Revision  4.4.9.13.1.1
Vendor ID Code  4D54
Line Mode  ADSL_G.dmt
Data Path INTERLEAVED

Transceiver Information Down Stream Path Up Stream Path
DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) 2528 640
Margin (dB) 14.6 14.0
Line Attenuation (dB) 56.9 31.5
Transmit Power (dBm) 18.8 11.9
FEC Errors 533527 227
HEC Errors 17811 88
CRC Errors 5757 0

Three miles of copper and it's trucking along holding sync for 19 days through all sorts of DSL-killing conditions. The copper trunk this line is running through is old and has lots of other noisy circuits in it (T1s mainly), but I had it manually bumped up to a set speed and had optimization disabled, coming from 1.5Mbps/384kbps. The line was in worse shape two years ago which I helped to get fixed. It's coming right out of the CO so it's quite a haul back, but if I get the line moved to an ADSL2+ DSLAM it will get 3360/864kbps without a doubt. It holds 3360/768kbps on the sync with 6dB margin and FastPath.

Yeah, lots of errors but like I said, old, noisy trunk. It is noticably quicker on the higher speed and things are a bit more comfortable with the higher speed. Also, there's never cases of congestion on the line so it performs consistently.

Also, on an ending note thanks for the feedback. Positive or negative I do appreciate it!

[Bron5]

@nomad84, good, looks like you're getting some help.

You said " I feel like they're trying to abandon their POTS/DSL subscribers and push wireless and Fios business. Heck, I've got Fios internet/phone available but have no confidence the service will be much better when there's an issue if browsing the Fios forum is any indication. Plus it's more expensive for me as well."

That's exactly my worry.  They are supposed to be bringing FIOS here to my building in 3-4 months (has been delayed many times), but I worry about verizon service now after this experience and whether it would be any better.  So it's either Comcast or FIOS and I'm trying to make up my mind as I suffer through these DSL issues.  It did seem to get a bit more stable over the last week or two, but still have the issues.

I think it very well may be a case where they are just skimping on mainteneance, equipment repairs and upgrades as this is a dying service for them.  But maybe they'll get it fixed.  Let's hope.

For awhile it was fantastic - always full 3 Mbps and no problems...ah, the good old days. 😉