DSL Connection Speed

[ABEsolutely]

I posted my problem on a more suited forum but never got any response. I thought it was worth a try here. I'll just paste my post:

I've had 1.5 service for about a year. I called Windstream to upgrade me to 3.0. That same afternoon I was getting 3.0 speeds. I was happy. The next day, I was back to my old speeds (around 1300kbps download), and it's been that way since. I've called them several times and they've had technicians check things out and even sent one to my home. He tested all kinds of things. But specifically, he tested the speed at the NID and said it was fine. He tested the speed in my kitchen (which happens to be connected in series at the back of the jack in my bedroom), and after a few minutes said it was fine. Then he tested the one in the bedroom and said the jack was bad. Well I tried my modem on the kitchen ("good" speed) jack and saw no change. 1300kbps. I hooked my modem directly to the NID and saw no change. 1300kbps. So I'm hooked back to the original jack, in the bedroom. It's the "bad" jack. 1300kbps still. Here are my current numbers from my modem's manager stats:

DSL Status

Status ATU-C Current Tx Rate
(bits/sec) ATU-R Current Tx Rate
(bits/sec)
UP 3579000 383000

I know it's hard to read, but it says the current rate is 3579000 down.

My latest reading of SNR is 20.0 and the atten. is 30.5.
I'm not sure what Rx blocks (53422) and Tx blocks (53423) are. But from what I've read, this all looks good. Right?

Windstream says it's the house wiring. But I had the upgraded speeds for an afternoon. I've rebooted the modem and router several times, hooked the modem directly to the computer and to the NID. I don't know what else to do. It can't be my wiring can it?

Any ideas?

[Unassisted]

The fact that it worked for a matter of hours makes it unlikely that the wiring would suddenly go bad... unless it's been rainy and you've got water in the connection somewhere or if something like a yanked cable or a staple damaged a cable or connection. If you can rule those out, I think you're right to be suspicious.

Can you plug the modem into your outdoor box, connect it to the computer with a long ethernet cable and bypass the house wiring for a test? That would help you isolate whether the house wiring is at fault.

[ABEsolutely]

The fact that it worked for a matter of hours makes it unlikely that the wiring would suddenly go bad... unless it's been rainy and you've got water in the connection somewhere or if something like a yanked cable or a staple damaged a cable or connection. If you can rule those out, I think you're right to be suspicious.

Can you plug the modem into your outdoor box, connect it to the computer with a long ethernet cable and bypass the house wiring for a test? That would help you isolate whether the house wiring is at fault.

thanks for your reply. that's actually what i did. since i have a laptop, i hooked the modem directly to the outdoor box (NID) and directly to my laptop from the modem. i bypassed the house wiring and the router and still got the same speeds. it wouldn't take a while to get up to speed or something, would it? i tried a few different cables and even did a reboot on the modem after i connected it directly. i'm thinking that it has to be a phone company problem unless i had to wait a while or something. would you agree with that?
...although the modem's management software says it's getting 3.0. i'm going to call windstream, but you know how fruitless that's going to be.

[SeeinRed]

thanks for your reply. that's actually what i did. since i have a laptop, i hooked the modem directly to the outdoor box (NID) and directly to my laptop from the modem. i bypassed the house wiring and the router and still got the same speeds. it wouldn't take a while to get up to speed or something, would it? i tried a few different cables and even did a reboot on the modem after i connected it directly. i'm thinking that it has to be a phone company problem unless i had to wait a while or something. would you agree with that?
...although the modem's management software says it's getting 3.0. i'm going to call windstream, but you know how fruitless that's going to be.

Phone wiring can be very strange. There could be a short somewhere that could be intermittent. it could be behind a wall plate or in a run of wire that has a nick or crimp in it. The most common time for a problem to show up is after an upgrade or installation. Not immediately, but a couple hours to a week afterwords. Usually this is because the problem is amplified with higher usage.

The other thing I would say is that it could be that you are in a high traffic area. DSL can be slowed by traffic. The data companies don't like tell you that, but it does happen. Especially in areas with older systems. My sister had a really bad experience with that. A local phone company told her it was her wiring that wouldn't let her connect or slows her speed. She asked them to come out an look. They didn't find anything conclusive but did a little work, which they charged her a good bit for, and left. A couple days later she was back to not being able to connect or connecting at a really low speed. The company sent her a new modem, still the same result. After she called and said she was switching to cable internet, they said it was because she was in a high traffic area, which is quite nice of them since she had already paid for the trouble calls. Needless to say, she doesn't deal with that company any more.

Now, I don't know anything about Windstream, but I wouldn't jump on fixing the wiring in your house until all other options are explored. If connected correctly out of the NID, it should work correctly assuming there isn't any problem with the wire before it enters the NID. If you don't have much experience with phone wiring, I wouldn't mess with the NID however. If you don't isolate the incoming wire and connect directly to the modem while the house wiring is disconnected, you aren't truly testing the incoming wiring. A short can still affect the connection directly out of the NID if it is present within the house. Phone wiring is all interconnected and works as a complete circuit. One short in the circuit can affect the whole circuit.

[ABEsolutely]

Phone wiring can be very strange. There could be a short somewhere that could be intermittent. it could be behind a wall plate or in a run of wire that has a nick or crimp in it. The most common time for a problem to show up is after an upgrade or installation. Not immediately, but a couple hours to a week afterwords. Usually this is because the problem is amplified with higher usage.

The other thing I would say is that it could be that you are in a high traffic area. DSL can be slowed by traffic. The data companies don't like tell you that, but it does happen. Especially in areas with older systems. My sister had a really bad experience with that. A local phone company told her it was her wiring that wouldn't let her connect or slows her speed. She asked them to come out an look. They didn't find anything conclusive but did a little work, which they charged her a good bit for, and left. A couple days later she was back to not being able to connect or connecting at a really low speed. The company sent her a new modem, still the same result. After she called and said she was switching to cable internet, they said it was because she was in a high traffic area, which is quite nice of them since she had already paid for the trouble calls. Needless to say, she doesn't deal with that company any more.

Now, I don't know anything about Windstream, but I wouldn't jump on fixing the wiring in your house until all other options are explored. If connected correctly out of the NID, it should work correctly assuming there isn't any problem with the wire before it enters the NID. If you don't have much experience with phone wiring, I wouldn't mess with the NID however. If you don't isolate the incoming wire and connect directly to the modem while the house wiring is disconnected, you aren't truly testing the incoming wiring. A short can still affect the connection directly out of the NID if it is present within the house. Phone wiring is all interconnected and works as a complete circuit. One short in the circuit can affect the whole circuit.

thanks for your help. what i did was unhook the cable from the jack on the customer side of the NID and hooked my modem directly in that jack. i'm pretty sure that disconnected the house wiring and made a 'homerun' for my modem. then when i got the same slow speeds, i thought it has to be something BEFORE the NID. i wouldn't be surprised at all if there was wiring issues within the house (it's 40+ years old with a lot of easy-way-out stuff done to it). but i thought i'd get the upgraded speed with the house disconnected and the modem hooked up directly.
oh--and we're definitely not high-traffic. we're about as low-traffic as you can get, out in the country. and that being the case, it took a while before DSL was even available here. i wonder if we're speed-deficient because of our location and they're just not telling us.

[Roy Tucker]

Do you have a different system besides your laptop to test speeds with?

That seems to be the common denominator in all your testing.

[ABEsolutely]

Do you have a different system besides your laptop to test speeds with?

That seems to be the common denominator in all your testing.

Good point. Yes, I've tried the speed tests with the desktop that's normally hooked directly to the router. I'll try NID-to-modem-to-desktop and see what I get.

[ABEsolutely]

Good point. Yes, I've tried the speed tests with the desktop that's normally hooked directly to the router. I'll try NID-to-modem-to-desktop and see what I get.

So I got the same speeds. I even tried my old modem (same thing as the current one). I'm guessing there's nothing else that I can do. I guess I'll have to call the support # again and waste an hour. Does anyone know a way to call and get to talk to an actual technician? If I can get the support guy to send a real technician out, they usually just look around down the road and report back that everything is good and close the ticket.

[Roy Tucker]

So I got the same speeds. I even tried my old modem (same thing as the current one). I'm guessing there's nothing else that I can do. I guess I'll have to call the support # again and waste an hour. Does anyone know a way to call and get to talk to an actual technician? If I can get the support guy to send a real technician out, they usually just look around down the road and report back that everything is good and close the ticket.

When I've had trouble calls before, I try to get the technician's phone #/email and then make sure I keep it. Otherwise, you just have to endure walking through their procedures in order to finally get a real live tech. Most level 1 techs have pre-written decision trees they have to walk down and arrive at "call tech" before they will do so.

And if and when a tech does come to your house, I'd watch him over his shoulder and make him *show* you what he is doing and make sure you understand what it is when he says everything is "just fine". I would also show him how you are testing speeds on your laptop and have him agree/disagree with the results and explain why.

I also assume your systems are up to date for all prerequisites hardware and software.

Raw network download speeds are wildly variable. Just curious, how are you measuring it?

[ABEsolutely]

When I've had trouble calls before, I try to get the technician's phone #/email and then make sure I keep it. Otherwise, you just have to endure walking through their procedures in order to finally get a real live tech. Most level 1 techs have pre-written decision trees they have to walk down and arrive at "call tech" before they will do so.

And if and when a tech does come to your house, I'd watch him over his shoulder and make him *show* you what he is doing and make sure you understand what it is when he says everything is "just fine". I would also show him how you are testing speeds on your laptop and have him agree/disagree with the results and explain why.

I also assume your systems are up to date for all prerequisites hardware and software.

Raw network download speeds are wildly variable. Just curious, how are you measuring it?

Oh I know about the calls. I just LOVE having to go through their ordered list of things to try first. I try to be nice, but I usually just end up asking if they can look up why I called previously.
When the tech was here, I was right over his shoulder the whole time. I bet he loved that. At every jack he tested, his little device would count until it found a good connection. Then it would test that connection. At both of my jacks, it took quite a while to connect. It did a lot of counting. He kept saying, "Hmm--still not getting anything." Then when he did get something, he would say that it's not right. So I was surprised when he thought it looked good in the kitchen (which was wired directly off of the bedroom jack). And that's after he tried and tried at that kitchen jack with NO results, let alone GOOD results. And then he tells me the bedroom jack is bad. I don't know. I'm getting tired of it all.
Everything on my end is up to date. I'm thinking it just HAS to be their outside-the-house problem now. I just don't know that I can convince them.
Oh--I'm using the speed sites that they gave me to test my speeds (speedtest.net and speakeasy.net/speedtest)

[919191]

I had similar problems for about 11 months ago. Verizon kept telling me it was the DSL modem- they sent a new one 6 or 7 times. They rewired the house. Used a whole house filter and added a dedicated DSL line. They checked the connections on several poles in the area. They even had some outside contractor work on it. They changed something out on there end (they claimed). Finally, one of the outside contractors found some kind of bolt up on the pole that was shorting something out or something like that. I never did understand what that was all about, but that fixed the problem.

[ABEsolutely]

I had similar problems for about 11 months ago. Verizon kept telling me it was the DSL modem- they sent a new one 6 or 7 times. They rewired the house. Used a whole house filter and added a dedicated DSL line. They checked the connections on several poles in the area. They even had some outside contractor work on it. They changed something out on there end (they claimed). Finally, one of the outside contractors found some kind of bolt up on the pole that was shorting something out or something like that. I never did understand what that was all about, but that fixed the problem.

Good to know that I'm not dreaming or stupid (at least in this case). I'll definitely bring this up when I take the time to call them.