I realize this is the electronics.repair group and not a computer group, but my question is really about wire.
Long story short: I've had 1.5 Mbps DSL for years. I found I could upgrade to 6.0 Mbps service and did. Earthlink sent me a new modem. New modem would only get 1.5 Mbps. Two hours on the phone to India and we gave up and they made a trouble ticket to AT&T to check the line. The AT&T line guy checked the line to the box on the side of the house and said it was perfect.
I disconnected the house and plugged in a single 30 foot telephone cord from the AT&T box directly into the DSL modem. No change, 1.5 Mbps.
Today the guy from India calls and tells me the AT&T guy said the problem was in the house wires. I said, nope... I disconnected the house and ran a direct 30 foot wire. He said, "Oh well, the problem could be in that 30 foot wire."
Just a sanity check here before I call them back and start yelling, that's an absolutely absurd statement isn't it?
Not completely. I "could" levitate if all of the quantum particles in me decided to move upwards at the same time. The probability is pretty damned low but it's non-zero, therefore "could" is technically correct.
If you tell them that you ran a second cable directly from the NID to the modem and STILL get the same results, then the probability that it's on the phone company wiring is pretty high, approaching certainty.
On the other hand, there's a non-zero probability that I'll suddenly levitate AND do a loop-dee-loop ...
I had a problem with AT&T DSL for over 2 years. Their India based tech support is the worse I've ever seen but if you can get bumped up to someone in the U.S. the chance of talking to a knowledgable person is quite high. It sounds like you are probably too far from the switch for 6 Mbps service. My problem, as I surmised from the first, was the wire pair was faulty. They put their meter on my wire pair over and over and said it was perfect but what they were measuring was leakage between the two wires. The problem was a poor connection on one of the two wires. Changing the wire pair after all that time cured the problem. Chuck
It's not *absolutely* absurd. Just highly improbable.
Just so you can be sure... I'd suggest re-doing the test, with the DSL modem plugged directly into the demarc connector using a short 6' cable. If necessary, run a 30' Ethernet cable and a 30' power extension cord, so that you can move the DSL modem right next to the demarc. Ideally, plug a laptop computer directly into the DSL modem's Ethernet port, so that you can eliminate your home Ethernet wiring from consideration.
Try this with two different 6' phone cords.
If you still get low bandwidth (and I strongly suspect that you will), call them back and start yelling.
I've found that the phrases "Connected directly to the demarc, with the house wiring completely disconnected" and "I tried two different cables, with identical results" work pretty well. This sort of test result pretty much eliminates the house, and your own equipment, as the source of the problem.
Another thing to consider: there are a couple of different ways to check the connection bandwidth. One is to perform an actual end-to-end bandwidth download test.. it's the surest way to measure your true download speed, but can be subject to a bunch of confounding factors (e.g. whether your home Ethernet wiring has problems that are causing dropped packets, whether the ISP's backbone network or DSLAM is saturated, etc.).
The other way is to log into the DSL modem's administrative interface, and ask for the line statistics. It should show you the actual on-the-wire data connection rate, and the number of data frames which are being dropped due to transmission errors.
If the DSL modem itself says taht the line rate is 1.6 megabits/second, when the modem is jacked directly into the demarc, then you *definitely* have line problems that AT&T should fix.
If the DSL modem says that you've got a higher line rate, but you can't actually download at more than a fraction of that rate, then the problem lies elsewhere (maybe in your house Ethernet wiring, maybe in the DSL modem configuration, maybe at the ISP end due to some sort of data throttling or over-subscription of their backbone).
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If you had the problem with the 30' cable also, that means it is on the phone company's side. I HATE dealing with foreign tech support!!! They are almost always incompetent and always imply you are stupid and don't get what is going on. Why must we outsource everything from the USA. And people wonder why there are no jobs here.
Did you read the fine print in the agreement with EarthLink?
For that kind of speed you need to have Fiber near by..
Also, these so called High Speed packages many times involves using special software from them and the question remains!, Are you really getting 6 Mb ?
I'd love to but I just don't have the 30' Ethernet cable.
But, I just tested the 30' phone line with a meter and it shows continuity between all the connector blades and it draws just 2 ohms on each wire, so it's looks fine. I reconnected the direct connect and am running on it now. Still no change 1647 download 644 upload.
The AT&T guy connected a laptop to his box and ran his tests with that. He said the line was good.
I keep getting the feeling that the Earthlink software didn't upgrade the line to 6.0 Mbps.
Look, don't feel bad, I'm being forced higher rates to pay for a speed that I'm not getting. Most of the time, I just get above 1 mb, they raised my $rates and told me that minimum speed is now 5 mb, I still don't get any faster through put than before and there is no packages for me to get it cheaper..
It's a monopoly and unless a shit load complain, they get away with it. P.S. I went through the BS like you, the service tech check the signal in my area and said "Well, thats the speed", didn't change my bill how ever.
On Thu, 29 May 2008 00:15:19 +0100, Eeyore put finger to keyboard and composed:
That was my first thought.
The OP could interrogate his modem and determine the attenuation on his line. The following is what my modem tells me:
====================================================================== Local Tx. Power(dB) : 11.12 Remote Tx.Power(dB) : 18.6 Local Line Atten(dB) : 50.0 Remote Line Atten(dB) : 25.5 Local SNR Margin(dB) : 31.5 Remote SNR Margin(dB) : 24.0 ======================================================================
I would repeat the above test with and without the 30ft cord.
This is my ISP's blurb on the subject:
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It includes a graph of speed versus attenuation (which is related to the distance from the exchange).
One more thought. Let's say the OP was originally on a 1.5Mbps/256Kbps asymmetric service. I suggest that the OP now uploads a big file to his web space via FTP, or emails a large file to himself. If the upload speed is still capped at 256Kbps, then that would indicate a DSLAM configuration problem.
- Franc Zabkar
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A lot of people in the UK find this when they go over to ADSL broadband on a BT line. They expect to get 8 meg, and can't understand that unless they are within about a half a copper mile from the exchange, the chances of getting this are slim to zero, no matter how much they pay. My broadband service is provided by a cable company and is rated at 20 meg. It pretty much achieves this most of the time. The cable operator is able to offer packages at various speeds, and because the actual speed of the cable backbone is potentially limitless for all practical purposes, given that the ultimate limiting factor is how often they upgrade their equipment, they are able to deliver what the customers are paying for. The speeds are capped by them in their equipment, so are independant of the actual network.
My service started off life some years back at 1meg when the 'standard' was
56k. It was then upgraded FOC to 3 meg, when they upgraded their equipment. There have since been free upgrades to 10 meg, and then a while back, 20 meg.
If you do have a problem though, it's the Indian call centre, with accents that you can't understand. It is of absolutely no use at all to tell them that you are computer savvy, and fully understand rebooting computers and modems and routers. They go through all this bull anyway, and you are still no closer at the end. I once lost all my internet service, and when it had not come back on after several hours, I called to see if they had any issues. After going through what was not happening, the guy assured me that the cable in my house was faulty. In turn I assured him that it wasn't as the FM radio signal that I have delivered with the internet service, was exactly the same strength at the tuner, as it always was. There then followed a long exchange where he insisted that they do not provide FM radio signals on the network ...
Fortunately, I have a very old friend who works for them, so most of the time, although I don't like disturbing him at work, if I have a problem, I just give him a call, and he gets it resolved in minutes, by phoning one of his mates in the appropriate department. I guess I have been spoiled now with this level of 'service', so I don't know what I will ever do in the future when he retires ...
I wish we could do away with call centers in other countries. They are always clueless and just end up making everyone angry. I think I might rather have no support than have to talk to a call center that wastes my time and doesn't do anything to solve my problems. At least with no support I couldn't be angered by the support staff arguing with me telling me that something must work if I did what they told me to do. I explain I did everything they told me to do an it doesn't work.. They say it will work.. I explain it doesn't. They say again it is impossible.. It must work if you did this.. And of course no one there has ever actually repaired anything so they don't know that there can be more than one cause for certain symptoms and that the book is not always correct.
If you ever need to get a cell phone unlocked NEVER use GSM Liberty
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They only have a call center in India and refuse to actually help you or refund your money. I got screwed out of $30 by them.
Sorry for the rant..... I guess I'm still steamed about my ordeal with this company.
You can't do the required test with an ohm meter. First of all, the telephone wire from the phone company is twisted pair, and intended for long runs. The flat silver satin, or similar wire isn't twisted, or intended for DSL use. It is soft wire made for lots of flexing and use at audio frequencies. Anything above that is just a crap shoot. DSL is RF, not audio and the cable behaves differently. The attenuation is a lot higher than the proper twisted pair cable.
If you don't have a long ethernet cable, see if you can borrow a laptop with an ethernet port. If the bandwidth is still low you need to find out how far you ae from the phone company's DSL equipment. The longer the run, the higher the losses, and the lower the usable speed.
Another problem ids that non twisted cable can pick up RF from other sources, and degrade your signal. That causes more lost packets, and lower usable bandwidth.
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On Wed, 28 May 2008 17:54:55 -0500, "Dallas" put finger to keyboard and composed:
The Earthlink web site doesn't indicate what upload speeds are available on the various plans. However, if your upload speed has improved, then it would appear that the DSLAM has been adjusted to your new plan.
Here in Australia my ISP's 1.5Mbps ADSL plan has an upload cap of
256kbps whereas the high speed plans have an upload limit of 820kbps.
- Franc Zabkar
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I have DSL. I got great results from my local phone company here in Chicago, Illinois, by calling the repair bureau and after getting stonewalled by a proper USA English-speaking person who was obviously reading from a script, I said I might have to do some testing on the line myself and that if anything did get blown up it would not be my fault as they had refused to do the testing.
I immediately got transferred to a supervisor who told me all the bad things they could do to me if I blew up their phone lines. I said I was not threatening to blow up their lines, just that I would maybe have to do some testing if they did not do it.
They were on the scene the next day and replaced a faulty drop line from the pole to the house. Everything's now working great.
Darn... now you've injected doubt on this end of the testing... the 30' connector is flat silver cable.
I'd like to rule out the wiring after the Phone Company box as the source of the problem, so a couple of questions:
#1 I called AT&T DSL sales (they own the line) this afternoon and they checked two sources to confirm I can get 6.0 Mbps service. She couldn't give me the actual distance, but she said (with great confidence) that she could "guarantee" 6.0. If I can get 5.0 - 6.0 Mbps service to the box and I run the 30 foot flat silver connector wire from the box to the modem, is it likely that the 30' cable could reduce the performance of the line from 6.0 down to 1.0 - 1.5 Mbps?
#2 If I got 30' of twisted pair cable from Fry Electronics and ran it from the Telco box right up to the modem, would that serve as a 100% test to prove that the problem wasn't in my house wiring?
Use some cat 3 or cat 5 wire to run the DSL to the modem. I had to do that at a freind's business to improve the data rate, when the original was four conductor station wire. (Old fashion four wire, with no twist.)
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