DSL Transfer Rate Monitoring

Did a search and didn't find any reference to this specifically. One post reply suggested this type of question be posted in the networking section, instead of the software section. Couldn't find that section so I'm posting here. If my post is in the wrong section, please move it.

I have two identical PCs running Win 7 and I have two identical modem/routers so that when A T & T tells me it's my router I can tell them I had already checked that possibility by switching it out with an identical one.

Anyway, here's the situation and I apologize for the length of this post. :-o

For the past month I've been having trouble with completing downloads due to errors and bit rate speed variations from .65 to zero (0) and everything in between, most common .35 - .15. When there are prolonged periods of bit rates dropping to zero (0), I get time-outs, reset and error - retry messages.

I have a very slow AT & T DSL (.7 Kbs). I've had three AT & T technicians (plus one who brought his boss with him) and one said it was my modem (too old - bad firmware - Netopia 3000) and he installed another newer modem/router (AT & T 7550), gave it a speed test and recorded .65 Kbs.

After he left I notice over the next few hours that it didn't "fix" the problem and the next technician installed a "house" filter in the line coming into the house and told me there was a problem with the underground cable from the switch (1 mile away) to my house and that he had called a cable repair technician.

The cable repair technician tested the cable and said there was no problem, but that the house filter that was installed, in effect, double filtered the input to the modem/router. He removed the filter going to the modem/router and said the modem/router was not working correctly and had me put the "old" modem/router back.

He did a couple of speed tests and got .65 - .6 Kbs readings and declared "problem solved."

Later when it started acting up as it had been since the beginning of my troubles (about a month ago) it occurred to me that except for the substitution of the in-line filter with a "house" filter, nothing had really changed.

All of the technicians asked me why I only had A T & T's low speed DSL and suggested I up-grade from .7 to 1.5.

I have the low speed because I don't need anything higher for what I do. E-mails, a few web sites (one the check weather in the morning) and a couple of downloads of audio books from Audible.com and occasional shopping (Amazon, eBay, etc.).

All asked how long I had been using their DSL and the answer is since I moved to the mountains of North Carolina 3 years ago. This last month is the first time I started having "download", web site access and E-mail problems.

All of these problems have been intermittent. Example, I can go for hours trying to download a 100 Meg Audible book file and experience interruptions at various points in the download from 20% to 85% complete requiring that I restart. Then on my fifth try, it completes, not problem.

Naturally, I think it's A T & T's DSL service.

I'm not very knowledgeable regarding how DSL service works and I'd appreciate it if someone would direct me to a web site that explains it, in non technical terms (if possible).

I would also like to install a DSL monitor (software) that logs the bit rate activity over time so I can show it to the next A T & T technician that comes out and tells me that it's not a problem with their service and it must be something in my system. The speed test approach is only a snapshot of a point in time. Over the past month, I've done many, many, speed tests using two different web sites and I recorded everything from .65 to time-outs and two Latency Test Errors (whatever they are).

Thanks for any help, suggestions and patience (reading my post).

 

Your problem is exactly the same as mine. But I have to assume you mean your speed is 0.7 Mbps, not Kbps. I too live in the boonies (WV) and there is no internet service available but DSL through the phone company. The "advertised" speed, and what I'm billed for, is 4 Mbps. I'm lucky to get 0.6 Mbps, and when I first moved here, I couldn't even get that. The problem is the way DSL works. The farther away you are from the source, and the more people using it at the same time, the slower it will be. It has nothing to do with your router or computer; it is what it is. Unless the phone company upgrades its equipment, that's all it'll ever be. My phone company has already said they have no intention of upgrading DSL service in my area because there aren't enough customers to justify the cost. I suspect you'll find the same thing.

 

secretcodebreaker or C0rhHusk3r, do either of you have cellphone coverage?

 

No, I do not. Most people who visit don't either, regardless of who their carrier is. Personally, I neither have nor want a cell phone.

 

C0rhHusk3r - Thanks for that reply. A T & T never told me that. They just kept asking me why I didn't get a faster speed.

I was talking with a technician at Best Buy (the only place around here that sells computers, etc.) and among other things he told me that A T & T puts a device that adjusts the DSL speed at the point where it enters a specific line to your house. It's in the switch box, usually about a mile from your house (which in my case is at the bottom of the mountain about a mile away). So if that device is not working properly, (slowing down the DSL speed) since I have only contracted for the slow speed (.7), the actual speed of the DSL can vary.

I have a download program that shows me the actual speed, second by second, of the current download and the other day for a period of about five minutes I was watching it go from .65 to .85 like a ticking clock. One second up to .85, then the next second down to .65, then back to .85. Then it went back to varying all over the spectrum, spending a lot of seconds a zero (0).

I was thinking, if such was the case (a device in the switch box that slows down the DSL malfunctioning) I would ask the technician to replace that device. My voice line was dropping dial tone off and on back a couple of years ago and the technician replaced the device that connects the line at the switch box and my voice line had worked perfectly since.

Of course, there is nothing I can do about how far away I live or the number of people using the service, but the number of homes that the switch box serves is low (less than 50). At least 1/4 of them are summer homes and that may be the reason that this speed problem is showing up now. May is considered the beginning of the summer season here in NC.

Eldon - Yes, I have very good cell phone coverage being up the side of the mountain facing the local towers. Much better than I had in Jacksonville, FL (flat terrain, lots of trees).

 

Then why don't you get a mobile modem? I live in a big city and except for one friend, everybody I know use mobile modems! In South Africa ALL Cellular Service Providers are also Internet Service Providers.

I'm paying less than $10/month for 4 GB Data and a 21.6 Mbps modem. Surely SA can't be ahead of the US in this regard? Or am I missing something? Also, your phone should have a modem - 5 years ago I had a non-smartphone that had a 1 Mbps modem.

Here's a website where you can test both upload & download speeds for free.

www.speedtest.net

 

secretcodebreaker...

This is a really interesting topic that I guess takes us all back to the DSL days. My first connection was 2.4 kb/sec as ridiculous as that sounds.

Don't know why, but I developed the belief with bouncing DSL download rates that the problem was with servers that were giving higher bandwidth connections a priority over lower rate connections. When I finally boosted up to 14.4 kb/sec, the standard had bumped up to 56 k, and I found at that time that I was running into exactly the same problems you seem to be having.

Hope you get it resolved. Having downloads actually time out is a really bad situation with DSL...

By the way, you can change the default gateway used for your connection in the connection properties. I have the connection here on one PC set to one of the popular Google ones dns addresses, which is 8.8.4.4. It does seem a little bit faster to me. Maybe it would be worth a try. I used the utility found here to find the fastest gateway:

https://code.google.com/p/namebench/downloads/detail?name=namebench-1.3.1-Windows.exe&

it's called namebench. Hope this helps...

 

Thanks to all for the replies.

I had never heard of a mobile modem, so it's something I'll have to research. I can access the Internet through my cell phone but that (for me) is prohibitively expensive. I'm on a TracPhon $100/year plan that gives me 400 minutes, which I never use up.

When my DSL is working at it's rated speed (.7) that is all I need for what I do. E-mails, checking weather, downloading audio books, shopping on Amazon and eBay (using PayPal).

I'm probably "on-line" for a average total of less than 2 hours per day.

So my objective is low price (living on a pension) and A T & T offers an excellent first time user price that over time increases. I'm not sure what they are charging me now since they stopped sending out itemized monthly statements, but (ah...the big but) they are the only company that offers any Internet connection service in my area of Haywood county North Carolina.

Strangely, about 24 hours after the last A T & T technician "fixed" my problem, which was basically to undo everything the other techs had done (so I'm back to exactly where I was before all this started) I started getting very good download speeds (in some case up to .85 for brief moments) and I haven't had a time-out since.

Thanks again for all the replies. I've been depending on MajorGeeks since 2006 to provide solutions to problems with my PC and they have always come through.

 

Here's a picture of a Mobile Modem. Ask you service provider.
I feel so bad complaining about my slow internet. If I could do it for free, I would send you my previous mobile modem.