Background: over the years, I have had a fluctuating issue with a weak DSL connection from my ADSL modem to AT&T’s CO (central office) in my area. This resulted in continual errors on my modem and at times the service would just drop off and then come back up. My speed would change often and was never consistent.
So recently, my DSL connection totally dropped for four days. Apparently an AT&T tech messed with things a little too much and knocked out my DSL service attempting to “fix” someone else’s phone line that another tech had messed up (a sort of domino effect). Of course this all happened right before the Fourth of July holiday weekend and so another tech finally came out the Monday after. He got me back online, but the connection speed was the most degraded it has ever been. But he made the decision to switch me over to a “digital line” (update – AT&T tech terminology, not mine, that is simply what he told me – A.K.A. an RT line, digital port, whatever) to get me a much more solid connection.
Well today my line was finally switched over to the digital line after getting along with a shoddy, limping connection to the CO for a couple of weeks. The switch took about 1 second. And the results are quite stunning as far as stability is concerned. Whereas before, my average max download speed was around 2500 to 3000 Kbps, now the sustained max download rate is 8128 Kbps. In addition, whereas before I was getting millions of connection-related errors, now I literally have zero. It would have been nice 5-6 years ago if at least one of the dozens of tech’s I talked with could have recommended this switch to make it stable, but oh well. So goes technology.
So if you are on AT&T DSL (a non-uverse customer with regular old DSL) and you have a flaky connection that drops on and off, you might call and see if they can switch you over to a digital line. I didn’t even know that was available until this tech said something. As a result of this switch, you can then upgrade your DSL connection bandwidth to the maximum connection speed offered at present: 6 Mbps down / 768 Kbps up. This is very good to know if you are beating your head against a wall trying to get them to fix the reliability of your connection.
Chris
You talk about “switching to a digital line.” How were you connected before? And what part of the country are you in?
I have had ATT for only 3 months and my dsl drops 6-12 times a day, possibly more, for about an average of 1-2 minutes at a time. I have had 3 of their basic modems and two different tech’s have been out here 3 times, still no fix. The last tech gave me a new 2wire modem and the same problems exist, so the issue wasn’t the modems and I have a feeling for most people who are also having connection problems with dsl only, it’s not the modem that’s their problem, it’s ATT. It’s Tuesday Aug 11th and a tech is suppose to be here before noon today, the fourth visit by one in less than 3 months.
I down and upload torrents, so when I’m surfing and I notice a slowdown I open my bittorrent client and can actually see the down/up speeds slowly drop, and when they reach 0 the red light on the modem blinks and the fun begins. This has nothing to do with torrents though, I have had my dsl drop many times when I’m not downloading. I’ll bookmark the page and comment back after this 4th visit form the tech, I have a feeling I’m already digital but I’ll ask. They checked from my phonejack to the box on the house, no issues. They checked from the box on the house to the street, no issues. They checked from the street to the closet powerbox?, no issues. They checked from the powerbox? to the closet ATT Office which is less than 1 mile away, no issues. This leads me to believe ATT is having known issues and they’re not allowing their tech’s, most of whom are contracted and not actual ATT employee’s, to tell the customer about the real problem. I have talked with many who have dsl mostly through other companies but some with ATT, and they rarely if ever loss their connection just once! I dropped Charter because their signal dropped a lot and they raised prices, if ATT cannot fix this isue I will be forced to go to clear wire or a local provider who charges more for less.
David Westerfield
That’s a great question Chris. I’m not a telephony guy so I’m not sure exactly how I was connected before. On DSLReports.com, many techs have referred to it as an RT connection or digital port. I don’t have a clue because I’m not a tech with AT&T. But whatever they switched me to now has fixed all the problems and it is as stable as it has ever been. Also, I’m in Fort Wort, TX.
Frank Provasek
Just realized this is an old post, but I will reply anyway. Also in Ft Worth with AT&T since 2003. I was right at the 2 mile limit from the central office, and while I signed up for 3 Mb service, I never got more than 1100 kB, with many errors and resets. After years of complaining, they fixed it by “reprovisioning” me to 768kb..which really meant 500 kB due to the weak signal. The 2 mile limit is now solved by the RT . That’s a remote terminal, which looks like a traffic signal control box. A high speed digital line carries data to the RT, and DSL over copper goes from the RT to the homes, but they have RTs ever 1/2 mile or so , so nobody is more than 1/4 mile from a mini central office. The RTs send out a narrow range of IP addresses, just like a router . I was instantly able to get 6Mb service with a 20 db signal improvement
Peter
I’ve had a constant disconnect problem for over a year. After having several techs out here, got one who went thru the neighborhood wiring and found what he called a “wet spot”. This was where the copper wiring was getting wet especially after heavy rains. This now makes sense to me because I would hear a faint hum on the voice line but I thought that’s just how the line is in the neighborhood. The tech rerouted my line around the wet spot and no problems. I found this site after searching att dsl connection problems.
Rafael
Let me explain what you guys are talking about. The Change To a Digital Line is Actually a DSL change to a “Fiber Optic” Feed. AT&T Refers To It as DPG Which Stands For Digital Pair Gain also referred to as R.T., which means Remote Terminal. Now Problem Number 1. If Your Distance is Too far From AT&T’s Central Office you are going to have problem after problem with your DSL Connection. The sales department has No clue how far you are from the Central Office. They are trained for sales, not service. The sales rep will offer the highest speed they can sell you regardless if DSL will work at your home Or Business or Not. R.T.’s are “NOT” available in allot of area’s, so you are stuck with 100 year old technology the copper loop. If your distance is far the system “Should” automatically put you on DPG with your DSL Order but that does not always happen, or simply DPG is not available. I encourage you to ask DSL maintenance if an R.T. Is available. If so they can make the request for you. But be prepared for bad news as well. You may be told you too far from the Central Office and never should have been a DSL Candidate to begin with. AT&T has now implemented speed minimums of 768k this makes it even worse for Homes and Business’s not close to the Central Office. The Fix and savior for 2010 is AT&T U-Verse. U-Verse is on a Fiber-Optic Network, but guess what it comes as a package. You must have Telephone/DSL/Television package thru U-Verse. You cannot just pick DSL, it comes as all or nothing. People simply need to be told the truth can DSL work properly and be dependable at your location or not. It has nothing to do with Economic status of a neighborhood. It’s all about Distance and engineering of an R.T. Network. 90% of all consumers have other options available if DSL does not work. It looks like it’s all about who has the cheaper service. But in my opinion it does not matter if it is Cheap if it does not work! If your DSL does not work, do not put up with it. Ask about loop distance and R.T. availability. By all means these questions should be directed to tech support, DSL Maintenance, Or DSL Repair technicians and never marketing!
I hope this sheds some light on your Mystery. And good luck with your DSL!
David Westerfield
Thanks for the clarification. They have put the U-Verse infrastructure in our neighborhood now. However, they have yet to send us anything letting us know it is available. Not sure what I can do to get that going. Thanks Rafael!
Ryan Douma
I just wanted to reply to the part about U-Verse as a bundle. I currently have U-Verse Internet only, No TV, No Phone, or another ATT product. So you can get them separately. I did start out with the TV and internet together but cancelled the TV part and kept the Internet, so maybe that has something to do with it. It could also be because I am on one of the High-speed tiers that only U-Verse has, that they let me keep the internet only. However, no matter the reason, you can get the U-Verse services independent of each other.
Rafael
When U-Verse is available in any neighborhood, it is usually marketed to death. Door to Door Sales Reps along with Door hangers and mailers. You can always call marketing to place an order. U-Verse DSL is Normally Reliable since it is based on a Fiber-Optic Feed and not an End To End Copper Loop.
David Westerfield
Thanks for the info.
Bob Cowen
I just switched from Earthlink to AT&T and my DSL service is up & down like a yo-yo. I did not get the TV service, just local & long distance (copper, not VOIP). I suspect I’m suffering from the identical problem. The service reps on the phone take you through the same steps to trouble shoot the problem and by the time you’ve done a few steps, their network is working again so the “problem is resolved” in their minds.
The symptoms look like the line has dropped and then it will re-awaken after a few minutes. I don’t know whether my powering the modem and hub off/on does the trick or rebooting the PC; perhaps is just a coincidence.
When U-Verse became available (zip code 48331), their door-to-door reps & mailings carpet bombed the neighborhood.
Mitch
We switched to AT&T DSL when we moved recently. We have a Motorola Modem for AT&T but not matter what brand of router I hook up to it, wireless or not, only one connection is serviced at a time. We got a bundle with Direct TV (U-Verse is not avaiable in our area) and the direct TV requires an internet connection to work. If I plug an internet cable into the direct TV box I cannot use any other computer on my server.
I have called AT&T Tech service a number of times and they want me to open router to change DIP swithces which I do not want to do voiding warrenties on equipment that works fine in my office and has been working up until I switched to AT&T. The most recent calls are routed to India where they want $99 to talk to a tech to fix “my problem” on a service that has never worked since it was installled. They have told me AT&T services only work on AT&T equipment which I find ludicreous.
Any suggestions
David Westerfield
Mitch,
You can only connect with one DSL connection at a time, if that’s what you’re asking about. To resolve this, you need a router/firewall in which you can connect multiple machines, including the satellite receiver, with CAT5 cables. Unless I’m misunderstanding your problem …
Sam
Interestingly enough, my dsl line did not start deopping out until AT&T started PUSHING for me to switch to u-verse in my neighborhood (at a MUCH higher cost, I might add). It’s not just my connection having this problem, most of my neighbors are having it too. Methinks the “slow/dropped” dsl is an internal at&t issue- a way to pressure people into forking out more money. Sorry folks, some people JUST CANNOT AFFORD it.
J Mucha
Same here lots of rebooting last few months after ATT U=Verse tried to sell it. Told old DSL grandfathered at 1.5 no upgrade no longer available . only can change to U-Verse internet half prce 1ST YEAR 50.00 after that
Chris`
So call and cancel after a year. They will be quick to drop the price again.
wwhiterosess80
when I have called numerous times on a monthly basis….the att workers that have come have all told me that the problem is NOT with my house or my connection that the problem is in Georgia which is ATT main location in this area….but in a few days the problem continues…im going today to comcast and seeing if they have internet without att and i dont care what i pay because right now im paying for no service because when i get home there is no service! its highly frustrating! when i need the service the most…its not functioning. WHen I needed it to work because I have something to do for work its out!
jenna
Sam, you may be right because I’ve had no major problems with my DSL until last summer when the orange U-verse flags start appearing on my street and the neighborhood. I have been overloaded with flyers and none solicited phones call from ATT about the converting to U-verse. I have no used for the U-verse package. After that I started to have connectivity problems. Now it is worst than ever, there are hours without services and sometimes it does not come by online until after 7PM or 10PM.
James
Things must be a hell of a lot different in Texas, because here in California AT&T U-Verse is a horrible service. Constant dropping of internet connections, wildly varying speeds, and massive slowdown during peak hours.
I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
David Westerfield
Yikes! Sorry you had such a bad experience man!
Ted
I and two of my neighbors started having troube a few months ago as the upgrades for U-verse started. After three tech visits, the root cause has still not been found. U-verse isn’t heated up yet so I can’t switch. Other neighborhoods around have it so I’m hoping to get is soon if the price is ok. If not, I’ll have to look for other alternatives.
sam
Nope- same in TX. THat’s where my family is and they have the same issues. It appears to be same problems all over the “U-verse”.
Zeb Stack
I have elderly PC clients in West Cola SC. One of them is 94 year old who does genealogy research on line. She uses her PC heavily and I just upgraded her to an AMD dual core with 4GB of ram from a P4 with 512mb RAM. She also purchased a wireless printer and wireless router to go with it as well as a new viewsonic table-g after seeing mine (by way it is great). Oh, did I mention she has a DSL line from AT&T. Every thing works great except her email at att.my.yahoo.com. She cannot connect to it and DSL drops out. Also cannot reach any ATT site. We can go anywhere else on web. Same with tablet. Any comments or suggestion?
Mildred
I have a love/hate relationship with my DSL service from AT&T. Lately, I hate it more than I love it. Sometimes the service will go out for five minutes, then come back, then go out after working for a few minutes and leave me in limbo. Worse yet, I get the dreaded Broadband link error message from which I cannot escape by using the back button or reload button on my browser. I have been interrupted while instant messaging, completing job applications and playing my beloved Sorority Life. My 14.95 introductory offer is set to expire in a month, at which time I will have to pay 47.95 for inconsistent DSL service. I think not! I guess it will be back to the library for me. *sigh*
Sheila
Has anyone EVER recieved a response on how to FIX these ATT problems? 6-7 years of misery for me also! all day long…..new modem sent out from ATT and still issues. no u verse available yet where I live….I am rural…but not really…but that is what they use for an excuse.
David Westerfield
Have you tried asking them if you’re on a digital/RT line like I mention in the post? This worked for me when I had ADSL.
Armistead
Switched to ATT DSL, with a Satelite package from Direct TV. I lost my connection several times a day. No way you can online game with it, get through a few maps and on comes the red light. Strange, it didn’t do this the first month…that much, now it’s about twice an hour, enough to mess you up.
I’m going back to TW, saving a few bucks ain’t worth this headache, tech came twice, found no problems.
Blues
Wow I have been reading looking to see if my particular issue over the last few days was being talked about.It seems it is.I have a regular old DSL ,had it for years old modem died and I bought a Motorola (little silver box) all was good no problems ran at about 680 kbs for years.Six months ago my DSL slowed down to half of that.Four days ago it stated dropping out.Today I called AT&T after I did all the reboot and line checks.I got the automated dude ..lol..went through all that crap and finaly got a real person who after asking what my lights were doing said my modem has failed.A friend calls and asks whats up I tell him a bit about whats going on and he says oh yeah that happened to me they ran that U-verse through my area and my DSL did the same thing as yours.He said flip the red and green wires.they flip them out in the field to mess with your connection by changing the polarity.so you’ll get the U-verse upgrade.So I opened up my wall box flipped the red and green wires let the modem log on and did a speed test.I am at 1.7 mbs.Some of you should consider testing your phone jack.I’m just say’n.
🙂
Cali girl
Hi – I just read through all the posts here and think I found the answer to my DSL issues! I have had AT&T DSL for years and about 8 months ago I started having modem issues. I purchased a new 2wire modem and still am having dropped connections. i am interested in what you are stated, “He said flip the red and green wires.they flip them out in the field to mess with your connection by changing the polarity.so you’ll get the U-verse upgrade.So I opened up my wall box flipped the red and green wires let the modem log on and did a speed test.I am at 1.7 mbs.Some of you should consider testing your phone jack.” Can you detail further how to flip wires? Thanks for your reply!
Cali girl
Dallas
Whoever made the call to do that and the service reps who actually do that should be fined and go to prison.
David Westerfield
Can you explain?
att sux man
It’s called a rolling blackout. AT&T will never admit it but they are doing it. Also, make sure you have a filter on absolutely every phone, faxline, etc that connects to the wall. Older wireless phones and some new interfere with the DSL. It just drops while you are on the wireless and then go try to use the dsl and you may have no connection.
WDF
I have had the same issues with ATT service recently. Constant loss of connection. Download speeds are supposed to be 6mbps. We are getting an average of 2.0 when we do have internet. ATT cannot (or will not) help. The people on the phone talk to me as if I am a complete idiot. They ask me if I have my modem near a TV, refrigerator or large metal object. I have even been told to move the modem 6 inches up and see if the issue is resolved. HA!
I have dealt with being hung up on, disconnected, told to pay an extra $75+ to have them look at the issue. I am fed up with the nonsense. I am looking into other options now.
It is really sad to see it come to this. We have been with ATT since we were married 15 years ago. I have had internet service with them since 2004.
We had Uverse in our apartment a few years ago. It was FANTASTIC! We cannot get Uverse at the house, so we settled for the fastest DSL service we could get. I am paying $70/mo for service that is as bad as dial-up was.
I am looking for anything that will allow my husband and I to work from home in peace.
Bassman
Maybe a class action lawsuit should be brought against AT&T. Everytime I receive a phone call offering U-verse I end up losing my DSL service and experience all kinds of connection problems. The first time they called I told them I was very happy with my DSL provider, then immediately after that I would lose connection on and off. They seem to call right around holidays and soons I hear them on the phone offering Uverse I know my DSL is going to start acting up again. That, in my estimation, is criminal.
Rob
I had the same issue with AT&T Aris/DSLmodem it always rebooted. then I found the problem. I went to modem config page ( just type http://192.168.1.254 Or look on the side of your modem for the advanced config page address )and disable IPV6 under home network tab then IPV6 . You don’t need it just IPV4 will work fine. The second solution was I moved the cat 5 cable away from all electrical wires and It works fine now with no reboots.
hope this helps.
Rob
FatrCat
I, too, have spent years battling with dropouts and erratic speed issues, and can attest to there often being problems which att might prefer you did not know of, as well as warn that issues a repairman might fix today may surprise you and return in a flash.
When I first bought my home and got service it was horrific, losing all service sometimes for several days at a time. Eventually a CSR commented that I was on their “ETIR” list…explaining that ETIR meant “every time it rains”. Our lines were in terrible shape, much do to squirrels damaging the insulation; just in the 75′ span of my lot, a year of repair calls resulted in 13 patches, looking like trash bags caught on the wires. Frustrated not only for myself but also in concern for my many elderly neighbors should we ever need an ambulance/fire crew, etc. I hounded them with a vengeance. It took six years, but we finally got a new trunk line in and problems cleared up…for a while. Suddenly I had a serious drop in speed, dropouts of connection, but no rain or weather to be the cause. After several days of support calls going nowhere a repair ticket was put in and a lineman sent out. He found my issue was a section of degraded line between the main box for my block and the next main box down the line. His fix: swapping line pairs, giving one of my neighbors without DSL the degraded pair in trade for their cleaner set. Back up to snuff, but a few months later we were doing this again; the repairman mentioned likely I was the unlucky victim of a swap this time, and warned it would be getting worse. How? Because the lines incoming to my block are in a conduit passing under a main street and it seems that there is no way they can bring new lines, to replace or in addition to existing, through this pipe and could expect no change until a new feed was run which would only be installed at such time the city was widening the street, i.e. waiting until somebody else foots the majority of the costs involved. And so it has remained for the past 5 years, calling repair to play “switcheroo” whenever I’ve been bumped out again, with increased frequency as more and more neighbors have picked up DSL. For several years I had even added another line to my service, hoping to protect a good lineset that way. I recently tried to do so again and was told there wasn’t a free line available, but I should check back in a few months as it looked like they were scheduling some major improvements soon. I told them they might want to revise their notes on that work, as I knew just what it referred to, and it was more like 18-24 months away…when the nearby main thoroughfare is scheduled to be widened and updated. Leaping technology + an aging infrastructure + a weak economy= serious frustration for the ‘wired’ consumer.
J. Patrick
Hate to bring this up as it’s way after the fact. If your technician used the term RT line then you misunderstood his meaning. An RT line simply stands for Remote Terminal Line. He was switching you from a line probably fed from the Central Office, or CO line, to the Remote Terminal Line. More than likely the RT line has only recently become DSL capable hence the reason you were on a troubled DSL pair for so long, there was nothing else available. Your CO pair is probably longer than it should be and inevitably older cable, possibly pulp core or air core or even a mixture of both. Now that the RT is equipped with ADSL technology you are dealing with a shorter loop and newer gel-filled cable pairs = less attenuation, and stronger SNR which in turn adds up to a higher data rate, less attenuation, and higher SNR which leads to little to no errors. Just be glad you weren’t on the RT pair the entire 8 years without DSL at all. They should’ve dropped your DSL rate down to 1-1.5Mbps and you would have had a much more stable connection and burnt out less modems with less line errors. Slower by a bit but more stable by far.
Also, the person that said it was a fiber optic line you switched to. That would be known as PON, passive optical network, and would have required a new drop to the house, new ONT Optical Network Terminal, premise equipment to convert from optical to ethernet etc. Not a 1 second change at all.
Your error stats mean nothing without the line signal stats. You should have posted the stats before and after. SNR, Attenuation, etc.
Glad that you are satisfied with your new service but your story is based on misinformation and relayed as more misinformation to the general public. Happy hunting!
Jason
Patrick
Hi,I have been going through the same problems here in central Florida !I have the main Panel box to service this area only 75 feet from my house! Att has sent me a few modems over the years . None of them did anything to boost my Upload speed. I have Dsl 6.0 .The download is not the problem here. 6.0-8.0 Down. Upload MAX IS ONLY 150K-420k ! I found info last year on another site that says ,All of the South East USA from Georgia area down to south Florida has a Cap on upload speed because of all the new Smart Phones ! Att says to get U-Verse and things will be much better ? Neighbors say it is trash and not to get it !If you call Att and say that you are going to switch to Cable? They will ask you to talk with a DON’T LEAVE PERSON.LOL She said she would cut my Dsl bill $15.00 per month to make me happy . I am still going to try and find a way to get a faster upload. Att also has a CAP on how much you can download per month here! They do not let you know this till you get a high bill. I will post back when I find a way to get a faster speed. Great site !
Bryan
Thank you for the clarification.
Heidi
I just spoke to an ATT tech, he says he has no clue what DPG or RT is. He recommended I call sales and see if I can switch to U-Verse. A Tach visited my home today and told me I needed to call and request a DPG upgrade, last year a tech visited my home and said “your service is copper, it needs to be upgraded, I will call and request an equipment upgrade, you will be thrilled with your connection speed once that happens” well, it never happened. this is the 2nd tech who told me I needed to upgrade my equipment and ATT Tech support refuses to acknowledge that such a thing exists. I am FRIED!!!! Internet and Phone is EXPENSIVE, my phone only rings with sales calls (because they sell your information to everyone) and my Internet connection does not work! ATT SUCKS!
Lineman
Has anyone checked the wiring in there house ? A bad splice or loose jack can drop dsl speeds and cause lots of errors. I was at a house where the modem was getting 3 megs and a max speed of 3 megs and after replacing the old line from the 60 with three splices on it with a new piece of cat 5 cable the line speed went up to the 6 Meg’s he was paying for and had a max line speed of 13 Meg’s Your dsl is only as good as the weakest link.
Inga
We went on vacation in May and ever since we got back the Internet has been useless. It drops in and out, it is slow, and some days it plain ole doesn’t work at all. We have made almost daily calls to tech support. The first few times they magically reset the system and things were ok for the rest of that day. Eventually that hat trick stopped working so they told us the problem was in our modem. We bought a new modem, and two days after we could have returned it, the same problems started again. Another two calls today and they still say the problem is the router/modem. We’ve had enough and demanded they sent someone out, no luck. We then requested a credit for the 5 days last month without any service, no luck. A technician from the Competition is coming out next week to change our service. Goodbye ATT it’s been hell having you!
Wayne Springer
had ATT uverse service installed in our remodeled house in oct 2012- Awesome install service with good communication. Super tech.
Am only <500 ft from fiber terminal. Great speed, no tv disruptions and did not get phone. Very Happy- Sheffield, Alabama
Donald G
David,
You have created a link to sanity. As with the other stories you have brought to light, I have had nightmare issues with my ATT DSL for the last seven years. the system stops working for minutes to hours to days. Early on the excuse was woodpeckers degrading the lines. Then in my new house the phone wiring was not good enough and I installed a dedicated CAT 5 connection. That wasn’t the solution either, Tech Support required a new modem/router. That didn’t help. As time went on I felt I was loosing my mind as I have another location which has been served by Frontier for 15 years with no problems. In the last episode,
tech support has again required that I get a new modem/router with the same results. I am currently getting readings of my download speeds of 0.15 Mbps and uploads of 0.11 Mbps using Speakeasy only because the ATT DSL speed test gets hung up in the Latency test with an error (three times.) As this slowness/disconnect progresses year after year, I begin to question my sanity, and it is good to read that I am not alone in either going bonkers or getting bad ATT service. Thank you for your site.
David Westerfield
No prob! Thanks for visiting!
Jason Horath
There are a multiitude of reasons for failed dsl sync or cycling modems. Most times it IS hosue wiring or more than likely a failed splitter setup. Most inside wiring issues can be proven and resolved with a whole house filter and if needed a cat5 homerun to the modem location. But sometimes even this is not enough, customers failed to realize that you are cramming thousands of web requests bits and byte down a set of wires designed years and years ago to barely carry voice. I have had un-shielded speakers mainly PC subwoofers that cause modems to roll errors so fast the modem can’t keep up and eventually reboots. After months or years, or more rarely, days the modem corrupted by heat from over performing and the error rate and cyclic rate finally gives up the ghost. You get a new modem and start the terrible cycle all over again. Don;t be afraid to move things around. Things to look for IF the telco has proven good quality data signal to your home: Microwaves, speakers, power neutrals loose or poorly bonded to ground, improperly installed filters or no filters on any device plugged into the phone system at your house. Split pairs, some homeowners save money by wiring the house themselves, more than not they think the red and green at the NID should match so they split orange to red and green to green, due to twist differences it creates a slight unbalanced pair and totally different field of noise from each split pair with different twist rates. Uh, power supplys, mainly surge protectors…. alot of junk out there. DO NOT PLUG YOU MODEM SPECIFICALLY YOUR PHONE CORD TO THE MODEM INTO ONE OF THESE!!
There’s so much. I’ve heard stories of car washes with unshielded backflush motors installed and every night at 7pm the carwash would cycle the motors and the power field created by the unshielded motor would create a noise field or strange induction that would bleed into the telco office across the street and BOOM nobody had DSL for a few hours. Odd, yes, rare, perhaps but it happens.
First off, make your telco show you the test results. Not for just 5 minutes of testing either. It takes a modem time to build up enough errors to fail unless it’s really bad but 90% of the time repeat troubles are a sign of failed troubleshooting and techs cut short on time to fast to say it tests good cause they are pressed for time due to company constraints and time lines.
Once they can test for 4-24 hrs and show you no errors or little to no errors at the jack then start looking at you surroundings.
I am available for consultation if needed.
Also be aware… most companies have and do experiment and fail with equipment upgrades software and hardware failures can and do cause ALOT of errors and problems.
Sorry for the poor sentence structure and English.
Jason
David Westerfield
Dude! Crazy about that car wash.
Jason Horath
It is crazy! I wish I would have been personally involved in that resolution. Those are few and far between but it goes a long way to show how one persons upgrade can affect us all and we are all responsible (or should be)for not only our immediate surroundings but also think about those around us in a larger scope. It amazes me everyday the things we find that can and will cause issue with totally unrelated systems.
everett rice
I have Uverse, I had regular DSL and had problems for years. I switched to Uverse and guess what, NOTHING CHANGED
David Westerfield
Happened to a few neighbors of mine. I asked for the RJ-12 connector instead of coax. Not sure if that’s the difference between my connection and theirs, but it may be worth investigating.
Jason Horath
Some customers have been probably been forced to switch but lack the same OSP upgrades as other areas. Fiber to the neighborhood reducing loop lengths and placing equipment closer to the home cuts out alot of issues. Also if one neighborhood is green and has truly been U-verse upgraded as new construction chances are in highly populated areas that they ARE on fiber to the home but others may still be trying to push similar bandwidth and services over that bandwidth while still operating on copper.
joe
Hi i am a dsl tech. There are 2 ways we provide dsl to customers. The 1st is straight out of the central office to the customer premise. Your speed is based off of how far you are from the central office. The further you are away the slower the speed you can get. The max distance from the central office is 17000 feet. The other is the rt which stands for remote terminal. The remote terminal is located out near the customers neighborhood. This unit now becomes the central office and we can go 17000 feet from there. 90 percent of the time the customer doesnt have the option of both ways of being fed from us. Its one or the other. Here are some tips for you if you are having issues. The 1st is to make sure your line from your modem in your home to our network box on the side of your home is a dedicated line. What i mean by this is that the wire from the phone jack on your wall only goes from that jack straight to the network box on the side of your home without going to any other jacks in your home. If you have phone service and internet at your home we can install a filter in the network box on the side of you home and split the signal there so you are getting max internet performance. Another is to make sure that the wire is a cat 5 wire. Cat 5 wire is twisted very tight inside so it carries signal very well. If you have the old red green and black yellow coated wire it carries signal very poor. Also a line cord carries signal very poor as well. Like the 100 foot kind you can buy at the dollar store. It is braided wire that is multiple strands and carries signal very poor. I would check for these things first before calling your provider. Just so you know when all the phone jacks are connected in your home and you only have internet all the extra wiring is signal loss. And the signal also bounces back from those extra jacks and creates errors on your service. Once again if you have phone service dont worry just call and we can put in the filter at the network box to resolve that issue. Once you know you have a dedicated jack and are still having issues then call your provider. I want you to know every customer needs to have the dedicated jack to the network box. This will keep your modem from working way to hard to stay in sync. Cause it will eat your modem by over working it. Ive seen this hundreds of times. Now if you have the providers technician out and he says everything is ok then you need to ask how far away your are from the central office or remote terminal. This is very important because if you are right at the end of the loop length for the speed your are paying for then your service may run very poor. The fix for this is to bump down to the next slowest speed. And im sure you are asking yourself now how can that be. And now you need to remember in the beginning when i told you that the speed we give you is distance related. Every speed profile has a max distance for a reason. When you go over the max distance it runs very poor. The fix again is bump down to the next slowest speed. A 3meg service that is proper distance away will out perform a 6meg service that is over distance any day of the week. When you try to get a speed that is too far it takes a lot of errors cause its struggling to stay in sync with your modem.Think of it like this. A smooth lake is easy to row a boat across. A lake with waves sucks to row across. The waves are your errors from being too far away. Some people call in to complain about the service cause it sucks. They may sell you a faster speed which makes your service even worse cause you were already too far away for the service you had in the first place. My best advice is to take care of your end first. Then get your providers teck out to make sure there are no faults on their end. They can check your speed right at the network box on the side of your home. There are many things they can check out on their end. Remember there is a lot of equipment that makes this all work. It doesnt just pop up in the little green box in your yard and connect to your house and work. This is also good information even if you have uverse internet or some other high speed internet that feeds from telephone lines. Hope this helps someone that is having poor service. Another note. If your are an old couple that only checks your email and watches movies one at a time together then 1.5 meg speed is just fine for you. 3.0 meg for a couple who streams video at the same time. If you are a family of four and more. 6.0 meg service and above is for you if its available. Just remember your movie only can play as fast as the actors can talk so as long as your movie doesnt buffer all the time dont waste your money. If your a gamer then your already maxed out im sure. If your service is running properly then the above speeds are a good starting point.
David Westerfield
This is great! Thanks for taking the time comment!
Wolfgang
You know this is so odd. SO many people also having terrible issues with AT&T. I live on a street that is bewteen Google Fiber to the east a few blocks and Time Warner Cable to the south a few blocks and a company called Sunflower Cable to my west and I can get none of them so I am stuck with AT&T and it has been like this for 9 years. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on various Modems, Routers and Repeaters and such and have placed many calls into AT&T and even other companies begging them to come out this way. Nine years now and still no avail. It’s sad that in 2016 AT&T has not updated their infrastructure yet their prices keep going up. We’re paying a little over $100 usd a month here in West Kansas City/Bonner Springs and get terrible DSL which is at best 2.4mb down and 0.300mb up. This is on a good day. The odd thing is my T-Mobile Cell phone gets around 50mb down and 12mb up but has like a 70ms ping. I often use it to tether but they do not allow unlimited data tethering, yet. It just blows my mind that there are issues with companies leaving big holes in areas that do not get covered and such a simple fix. Amazing to me that AT&T is even still in business…. Nine years of this and it’s actually gotten worse… Please can some broadband company come to my neighborhood!!?
Q.A.
Heat is another HUGE problem with this router. As it gets hotter performance drops off fast. I have mine on a wire shelf tilt at 45 degrees to get maximum air flow. the wire closet door must be open or it heats up the closet and problems ensue. the next step is to remove some of the plastic case for better air since the plastic case does not, (unbelievably) seems to have any air holes to cool it. the last step is to attach a small box fan directly to the router to force cooling air across the board. I did this with my old router (a better one than this)
Q.A.
Why is AT&T not upgrading their infrastructure? I have learned from several sources that AT&T has some customers paying exorbitant prices for business grade connection speed. The cheap customers will not pay a lot more for faster service so why unhook others paying (like $1000/month for 3 lines) with cheaper fiber service and let the cheap users in for free. They lose money doing this. So the upgrade is a loser for AT&T. Remember all that copper wire was paid for a long time ago so it’s gravy for AT&T
David Sutherland
In East Texas, former SBC area, AT&T’s “6mb/s DSL” is total fraud. Last I checked no one reports on DSLReport.com that they get anything more than 5.4 mb/s. It’s just a scam. There should be a class action lawsuit.
Kev
So this is basically an advertorial for AT&T uverse.
Yes, AT&T can provide you with better service and are happy to sell it to you.
AT&T throttles DSL and will start forcing upgrades. In the meantime make sure you have a clean connection and your modem is IPv6 compliant and not just IPv4. In the alternative, Charter cable customer service sucks. What’s an innocent consumer to do?
Super Pissed Off Long Time Sufferer
I will never reward ATT by upgrading my service. The only reason I keep it is because my company is paying the bill. I have had too many problems with my dsl connection over the last 6 years to count. It gets better for a couple weeks here and there (no drops, no red light (no service)) then back to crap.. so for the last year I have counted.. well over 250 times I’ve had “no internet”, the red light comes on the BS message about maybe there’s some emergency and the light will go off when it’s back.. yeah.. then why does it come back immediately when I power down the modem and back up again..This doesn’t include the times it pops off and back on again fast enough to not be too noticeable. If anyone knows if I or I and whoever can sue the F out of ATT I would love to do it.. seriously love to do it.. I’m so annoyed.. I can’t even use the wifi with my phone as it’s constantly down and I can’t keep running back and forth to the stupid modem all day/night so I use my cell data package (MUCH faster) and it’s driving me to the limit on that when I haven’t even left the house!!! I quit calling them, I quit complaining, because EVERY time they don’t even bother to try to assist, just try to SELL me something different. If DSL is totally whacked and broken and outdated and not working.. then fine, send me a new modem with instructions and be done with it.. but if you are going to continue to collect the money my company pays for this service then provide the damn service… I really need to switch to another company, and switch my cell phone, and direct tv while I’m at it.. to me, ATT is just about the most evil, deceitful, dishonest, unreliable, over priced, crappy company there is.. I’ve been loyal to them for at least 20+ years and I’m sick to death and of them and so mad I could literally kill them if I ever find out this was a known and intentional act on their part to allow this BS. The only reason I haven’t switched already is because of the way most bill these days with the packages and needing to have special billing so my company can reimburse (that and the landline is hooked up to my home alarm system.. yeah.. I need to just bite the bullet and give ATT the finger… cell phone contract up in November, WILL NOT be renewing that one either.. not after they disabled tethering and made it an additional cost.. that’s just plain greedy.. if I want to use my data by tethering a different device to my phone, I should be able to do that without paying an additional fee, the phone is certainly capable of it.. it’s all just plain GREED..
Jack
AT&T is the only provider in my area other than Satellite which would probably be no better with their latency and reliability issues. I have the fastest speed available in my area, 1.5Kbps, it is U-Verse and it goes down on a regular basis, multiple times a day usually. I don’t bother to call it in until it’s been down at least a full day. Then when I do call it in, it usually takes a couple of calls to get a tech to the house, for some reason they won’t call or show up the first time, about 80% record on that.
The problem is usually at the B-Box which is about max distance from my home. AT&T has been saying they are going to do an upgrade to the service out here some day but I don’t think that is going to be anytime soon. I expect them to sit on their haunches until someone better/different comes along; then I’ll be gone in a heart beat.
I hear a new satellite provider is going to be launching hundreds of new satellites world wide starting in 2018, putting new life into satellite service and at a lower cost and higher speed. I hope it works better than expected!