 Review by TheDreamer 
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 7.8 years, 1945 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Manhattan,Riley,KS
 $35 per month
 about 6 days
 AT&T
 "Didn't take long to get service, more reliable than cable."
 "Has been slower than expected"
 "Slow and steady does the job"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Because of the problems of getting service with Cox established, I decided to see about alternatives for broadband access.
I checked a number of different companies...most of which offered DSL of some type. But, there were also questions on whether they could actually get me service to my location or not. But, since I had phone service from AT&T....and I kept seeing this promo when I visited Yahoo!....I decided to just do it.
I wasn't worried about Cox coming through, because I had at one time wondered what it would be like to have two broadband connections. And, now I know.
I ordered service on July 25th. They later emailed that my service would be active on July 31st. The modem arrived that day (actually it arrived on July 28th, but I work for a living...so I had to get UPS to redirect it...) I was up and running later that night.
I could only order 1.5Mbps/384kbps, of course, I wanted faster :..( And, what the modem says I'm getting is about 704kbps/384kbps. I guess I'm kind of close to that....except for the one evening...the thunderstorm....when I was only getting about 26kbps....
OTOH, when Cox was down last night (August 3rd)....with a few adjustments I could still access some of the outside world. Though since Kansas State University also uses Cox....
FWIW, pre-qual reported me around 8000 ft (crow fly I'd guess I'm about 6500 ft).
20060814 0700 Update: around 1:40 am on the 13th, my DSL connection started constantly reseting. After a couple calls, they concluded that there's something wrong with my service and they've scheduled a tech to come out and look. Hopefully, they can do it without me being home....though I might be home because there's a puddle in my living room.
Meanwhile KSU now also has a 'backup' connection from AT&T....though due to better peering on AT&T most of the traffic is going on that (even from Cox).
20060814 1500 Update: A guy from AT&T showed up in response to the trouble ticket, but my connection had returned around 10:30 this morning. He explained that some card in the box near by had gone bad Sunday morning and they didn't get it properly replaced until this morning around 10:30....
20060917 0030 Update: around 1700 on the 16th, my DSL connection started experiencing significant packet loss....and while my upstream is pretty good (when the connection isn't reseting), the downstream barely registers (the speed test page won't load completely, so I can't clock it)....but it is probably worse than the time I was getting slower than dialup download speeds (but ~384kbps up). Interesting that it is only about a month since the last time this happened.
Should I call AT&T to having them send somebody out again....or should I just cancel.
Though in the couple of weeks before this latest outage....the modem was reporting 928kbps for downstream....
20060917 0950 Update: after forcing myself to go to sleep without any working Internet.... Shortly after my previous update, my Cox connection went down as well...cable TV was out as well...and it meant that I couldn't easily call the DSL support number. Since the phones around my place are digital service via Cox, while the landline is just a cheap line powered phone I have in another room incase I should ever need to call 911.
Anyways, this morning the modem was reading 1024/384 for sync rate, so I tried running a speed test....and the connection reset, but came back with a sync rate of 1440/384. Though my measured speed is only like 640/284. Perhaps there is hope though.
Meanwhile the speadstream spectrum tool here says my estimated downstream max rate is 1456 (estimgated upstream max rate is 690).
Wonder if when my contract is up, if AT&T will be able to offer me better than 1.5/384?
20060920 2300: Well, things have been running intermittent since my last update...good for a few hours bad the rest. Finally decided at about 2040 that I would call AT&T and maybe get a ticket going. But, first they had me go through all the nonsense trying to prove that it must be my fault that after working for so long that it had to be something at my end. Ignoring that I did all this a month ago, only to have them make me miss a day of work and come out and say..."oh yeah, we just replaced a line card 30 minutes ago...."
In the end, they said to that I need to call local repair and open a ticket (ignoring that every prompt that asks if my issue is with DSL tries to pass me back to the DSL support number) Eventually, I do get through...and they want to test my line....which I authorize. A few minutes later they call back to tell me that they can't find my line to test it....but they were able to call me back....
Meanwhile, there's a separate ticket with DSL as well....and they do something on their end....and it kind of works now...except it is slow....about 300kbps up/down. The downstream speed is below the level that I'm paying for, so hopefully they'll continue to work between the groups and get things working again...
Sure wish though that in the support menu system, there was a button that says I'm an Electrical Engineer / Systems/Network person that already knows the issue is with them and that's the only reason I'm finally calling them...so just fix it now.....and stop acting like I'm an idiot, when your busy trying to hide that you can't keep up at my level.....
20080508 - A few months back the DSLreports spectrum analysis tool reported much improvement in my line, but I wasn't able to order upgrade is speed online. This morning while browsing the AT&T site, I found that I could order upgrade...two additional tiers. spectrum tool reported 311x/690. So, I ordered 3.0/512 (instead of the 6.0/768)...for $30/month (my old 1.5/384 plan had gone up to $25/month quite some time ago....but the modem was only give me 768/384)
20080509 - This morning I woke to find my DSL modem reporting a speed of 1984/512. The spectrum took is now saying I 'could' get 35xx/818. Maybe I should've ordered the 6.0/768 tier (for $35/month).
I graph the SN margin/Line Attenuation along with up/down speed from the modem in cacti....so I see that my SN margin has dropped quite a bit, and Line Attenuation has gone up a little. So I see it started shifting gears around 5:20am.
Using the speed tool, I still can't get the reported speed. But, there is a proportional improvement. But, latency has dropped quite significantly. Better than cable now. Well under 100ms, maybe I can switching one of my VoIP services to using DSL.
20080512 - Since it is still with in the up to 5 business days for order completion, I guess they will continue to slowly inch up my speed and improve my line. Starting to make me really think that I should've gone for the 6.0/768 tier, since it looks like they might even be able to achieve acceptable levels for that.
This morning, sync speed was 2496/512. Spectrum tool reports an estimated downstream of 4044 (upstream 818). And, cacti shows a slight improvement in SN margin, with no change in line attenuation.
Perhaps I'll revisit 6.0/768 when I start my new contract (hopefully I'll hear about that soon....)
20080903 - Took the plunge and upgraded to the 6.0/768 tier....next day my sync rate changed to 6016/768. And, pretty much, it was done.
20081023 - Still bothersome that DSL sells sync speed, which isn't real speed....which tends to be ~4.8M/500k. Makes it hard to compare with cable (especially PowerBoost skewing the speedtests) But, it works. Lately the connection seems to drop briefly every other day, usually in the early morning. SN is around ~8, atten 49.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of AT&T Southwest |
|
AT&T Southwest
