2 edits | DSL drops periodically after upgrde from 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps Have be using Windstream (formerly Alltel) DSL at the 3 Mbps rate since it became available in my area (July 2006). SNR was about 21 and Attn 25. Service was reliable and often ran for weeks, even months without loss or drop out of service. Provisioning was at 3084/384 (I believe) and set for Interleave.
Recently was told that my area was eligible for upgrade to 6 Mbps service for ~$5/month more. requested the upgrade and after a few days and a few calls the service was re-provisioned at 7200/384, set for FAST and speed tests indicated it was working ok. A check of SNR indicated it varied from about 8 to 12 with an average of ~10, Attn was steady at 26.5. All was fine for about 4 days when internet connection was lost. SNR was displayed a -4. Rebooting the modem (SS 4200 f/w 004-D241-A83) corrected the problem. The SNR had dropped to 6 just before the loss of service. Drop outs continued on a somewhat regular basis. Tried using a different SS 4200 and a Netgear DG384 with the same results. There is a whole house splitter at the NID with a dedicated Cat5e run to the Modem.
Some questions;
1. Is the current SNR/Attn sufficient to support 6 Mbps service? If not can SNR be improved?
2. I realize that this problem may be minor compared to others reporting here but is it too much to ask that the 6 Mbps service be a reliable as the 3 Mbps service was?
3. Since the CSRs in India(?) have not been much help who should be contacted, if anyone?
4. Should I just pack it in and and ask that my service be reset to 3 Mbps?
The main reason I don't want to have to reboot ever 3-4 days is that I often want make use of remote desktop login when away from home.
PS; have checked connections at NID and in house, all seem secure.
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| Here are some answers to youre questions, 1. Youre Attenuation is fine, It is a direct reflection of youre distance from the dslam, Anything from 1-35 is good enough to support solid 6 meg (7.2m) service. 2. Youre SNR however is a little low, It should be between 13-20 db. The SNR is the strength of the signal coming off of the dslam and is proportional to the Attenuation. 3. No its not too much to ask to have reliable 6 meg service. 4. the WIPRO (India) helpdesk is completely useless, ask to be transferred to the Tier 2 helpdesk (US based). 5. Dont pack it in just yet, Low SNR troubles are the easiest DSL troubles to fix, 99% of these types of troubles are resolved by the field techs (like myself), by changing dslam pins, ensuring proper line conditioning, removing bridge taps, or resolving inside wire issues, or swapping out bad modems. Like I keep repeating, over and over. Youre local WS tech is youre best freind! We can resolve alot of issues in a fairly quick manor, if we cant , we find someone who can. So get a tech out to youre house, arrange a appointment time, allow easy access to youre yard, or wherever the NID is located, restrain any loose dogs, and provide a alternate number to reach you if you cant be home.And please dont jump in the tech's face the second he gets out of his truck, we do realize that the customer has had alot of issues, we all know how bad india is to deal with, we all know the runaround and hoops you have to jump through. So a few more minutes of patience will go along way. |
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| @shadowfax,
Thank you for your detailed response to my questions. I will follow up with your Tier 2 suggestion and set up an appointment with a local field technician.
Over the last few days SNR has been in the single digits. The low was 2.5 and the high 7.0. The average is about 6.
I will update this thread when I get some new information.
Thanks agaun and best regards |
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| reply to kringles
@shadowfax,
After submitting a trouble ticket for low signal strength and drop outs via the overseas CSRs they arranged for a visit by the local field techs. The techs arrived today and after some investigation and testing recommended changing the service back to 3 meg service. At that level of service I have a solid SNR of 24.0 and Attn of 25.5. A 6 meg signal levels are around 10 with fluctuation. The techs said that further upgrades are planned or in progress in my area and they would contact me when they though a reliable faster service was available. Not sure they exhausted all possible solutions but they were friendly and quite cooperative. Maybe I gave up too soon but I would rather have a reliable 3 meg service (which I had for quite a while) than a 6 meg service with frequent drop outs. The field techs also contacted billing to get my monthly charges reduced by $5 to reflect the change of service.
regards |
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| reply to kringles
said by kringles:@shadowfax, Over the last few days SNR has been in the single digits. The low was 2.5 and the high 7.0. The average is about 6. If your high water mark for SnR was 7, don't even think about a higher speed. Higher speed = more packets moving which requires a stronger signal to push it. If you are only pulling 7 at 3meg, you won't even be able to connect at 6mb.
One thing to keep in mind is that Windstream buys a lot of little telcos and they inherit some awful infrastructure, often directly tied to why the telco was about to go under when Windstream bought them. Changing the name on the bill doesn't change the path your data takes from DSLAM to NID. If the wire sucked then, it still sucks now. |
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| reply to kringles
Time to update, after downgrading back to the 3 Mbps service on 6 June 2008 have not had any dropouts. Monitoring the SNR/Attn numbers show SNR 22-28 with an average of ~23.5, the Attn is a steady 20. Decided to give the 6 Mbps service another try, called local sales (1-866-971-WIND) and requested the upgrade, it is set up for the 12th of August. Will update thread with the results in a few weeks or so.
regards |
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| Update - after switching back to the 6 Mbps service about the middle of Aug have had solid connection with good speed for about two months. The Attenuation is a steady 20 and the SNR has been a consistent average or ~11.5. Happy with the 6 Mbps service and waiting for 12 Mbps to become available in my area. |
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| reply to kringles
I upgraded to the 12Meg service from WS about 8 months ago as soon as it was availible. SErvice has been rock solid untill 3 weeks ago. Constant connection drops poor ping even to the switch.
Called tech support and someone came out that day to look at my wiring, said it was all fine, and that my speeds were good.
Called again today to find out why it hasnt been fixed yet. After being routed to India and trying to speak with 3 CSRs, I called back and asked for level 2 support as soon as a person answered.
This transferred me back to the states, tech asked for my phone # and called back ASAP. Told him what the problem was and he port scanned my modem and saw that I had a SNR of 11.0 and a Atten of 20.5, which is the reason that I keep dropping connection.
He asked if I would downgrade to a lesser service but I told him that I had been happy with no problems untill recently. He told me more than likely it was a bad pin and he would make a note of it in the workorder.
Level 2 support rocks,intelligent,understanding and very helpful in explaining what might be wrong in my case.
Time will tell if/when it gets fixed.... |
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