....that I do renders to occupy the time while loading Web pages!  I was shocked
to realize how one habit had reversed itself to adapt to an adverse situation.

My DSL quite often runs at less than 5% capacity--or to put it another way, less
than half the speed of dial-up.  That's if it's running at all; it crashes at
least once a day.

No one seems to know why we have such appallingly shitty service.  Worse, no one
seems to care, including other members of my household.  (One seems to be in
denial that there's any problem at all.)  (Name another product where customers
blithely accept a MTBF of less than 24 hours.)  The DSL service(?) provider
calmly washes its hands of the problem.

I just wish I knew what to do or who to turn to.

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I have the same constant problem. I live in a house with a roommate; she has a
wireless Belkin router, hooked to her cable service; I get my 'net through a
wireless card. Things NEVER seem to work correctly. Sometimes the signal coming
IN to the router disappears entirely. We've begun blaming it on the (crappy!)
cable/internet provider. Have to blame someone!! It *couldn't* be anything
WE'RE doing, of course. ;-)

Must be related somehow to the global economic meltdown; isn't everything???

Ken W.

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"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
>  It *couldn't* be anything
> WE'RE doing, of course. ;-)

My brother first blamed it on my computer.  But when I travelled to Maryland
with it last year, I got screaming fast service, faster than I thought
possible.  He was also not aware that everyone else, not just I, had glacial
service.

Then he tried blaming the tree that Hurricane Omar knocked down onto the
telephone cable.  But this blatantly ignores the years of bad service we had
*before* the storm.  In addition, during the few short hours that the tree lay
on top of the cable, the service was faster than it had been in months;
evidently, the tree didn't do all that much damage.

Post a reply to this message

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cousin Ricky [mailto:ric### [at] yahoocom]
> Then he tried blaming the tree that Hurricane Omar knocked down onto
> the
> telephone cable.  But this blatantly ignores the years of bad service
> we had
> *before* the storm.  In addition, during the few short hours that the
> tree lay
> on top of the cable, the service was faster than it had been in
months;
> evidently, the tree didn't do all that much damage.
> 

Sounds like there are too many users for your ISP's infrastructure.
Sure, they might advertise that you can get speeds up to X, but divided
between all their users you'll usually get a lot less.

During the storm some users got off their computers (or were forced off
due to power outages or something), leaving more bandwidth available to
you.

If you can show that you consistently get much lower speeds than they
advertise, you might have a case to force them to either relabel their
service to give an accurate representation, or to upgrade their
equipment.

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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Get a good ISP, make sure the installing tech doesn't go until u test 
the speed in www.speedtest.com after that download some 100MB (if u have 
  multi Mb connection or 10MB if u don't) to test sustained speed.

Possible solution:
  Turn off Windows Firewall (if u use it) and download 
personalfirewall.comodo.com (freeware, with and optional payed extended 
security) select Defense+ type install, don't install th Antivirus, let 
it install Safe Surf, configure The zones(intranets, DNS, etc. try to 
add the localhost (127.0.0.1) in the Stealth Ports Wizard to avoid too 
much asking from Security+). Is a great firewall, but don't take the 
word of a pirate for it, look for urself:
http://www.testmypcsecurity.com/view_results.html
http://www.testmypcsecurity.com/view_results_xp.html
http://www.testmypcsecurity.com/view_results_vista.html

Post a reply to this message

"Chambers" <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:

>
> Sounds like there are too many users for your ISP's infrastructure.
> Sure, they might advertise that you can get speeds up to X, but divided
> between all their users you'll usually get a lot less.
>

Yeah, I think that might be the explanation in my case. And it can only get
worse, which is sad. It's amazing to me that the infrastructure/fiber optic
cables/whatever that feed my neighborhood--and that were upgraded not 'too'
long ago, according to my ISP--are already maxing out, it seems. Or else they
just lie-lie-lie to their customers, hoping nobody will notice.

KW

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Kenneth wrote:
> Yeah, I think that might be the explanation in my case. And it can only get
> worse, which is sad.

Can you switch providers?

> It's amazing to me that the infrastructure/fiber optic
> cables/whatever that feed my neighborhood--and that were upgraded not 'too'
> long ago, according to my ISP--are already maxing out, it seems. 

More likely it's your ISP's link to the rest of the world. How fast can you 
transfer data from your neighbor?

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
   see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:

> Can you switch providers?

Yes; we're thinking of doing that. Switching to the (only other!) ISP/DSL
available here, Verizon. (A U.S. east coast provider.) But I wonder if we're
just switching one set of problems for another.

> More likely it's your ISP's link to the rest of the world.

Is that a common pitfall of all ISPs? The technicalities of it all are *way*
over my head.  I'm wondering if there is an independent web page somewhere that
rates ISPs on their perfomance/bandwidth stuff, MTBF, etc.

Ken W.

Post a reply to this message

Kenneth wrote:
> just switching one set of problems for another.

Probably, but speed likely won't be one of them.

>> More likely it's your ISP's link to the rest of the world.
> Is that a common pitfall of all ISPs?

No.

> I'm wondering if there is an independent web page somewhere that
> rates ISPs on their perfomance/bandwidth stuff, MTBF, etc.

Most of the speed test sites (like www.dslreports.com) will provide 
summaries and averages from tests from various ISPs.   Or you could talk to 
your ISP and escalate the problem.

Run a few speed tests at different times of day to some of the closer 
cities, then call them up and ask why you don't get anywhere near the 
promised speed to nearby cities, and tell them you'll be switching if they 
can't fix it.  They may just escalate it to someone who gives a crap.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
   see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Kenneth wrote:
>> just switching one set of problems for another.
> 
> Probably, but speed likely won't be one of them.
> 
>>> More likely it's your ISP's link to the rest of the world.
>> Is that a common pitfall of all ISPs?
> 
> No.
> 
>> I'm wondering if there is an independent web page somewhere that
>> rates ISPs on their perfomance/bandwidth stuff, MTBF, etc.
> 
> Most of the speed test sites (like www.dslreports.com) will provide 
> summaries and averages from tests from various ISPs.   Or you could talk 
> to your ISP and escalate the problem.
> 
> Run a few speed tests at different times of day to some of the closer 
> cities, then call them up and ask why you don't get anywhere near the 
> promised speed to nearby cities, and tell them you'll be switching if 
> they can't fix it.  They may just escalate it to someone who gives a crap.
> 

My ISP has a company politic that "guarantees" me 80% of the speeed at 
pick hours even though I'm paying for 100% of it. And yes I think you 
are with a ISP provider that saturates indiscriminately it service for 
greed purposes.

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