LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| reply to Ernest House
Re: Am I getting the run around by Earthlink on Covad lines?
1st, Bellsouth owns the lines, they are your ILEC.
2nd, find out if you even have an issue, I would bet your loop is clean, and you just have a distance issue, so the only fix for that is to move. Talking about changing ISP's isn't your answer.
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Lightning Bolt Technologies |
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Ernest House
Premium
join:2008-08-17
Boca Raton, FL
 ·AT&T DSL Service
1 edit | OK. Thanks. So to recap, if my neighbor has Bellsouth 3.0 service on the same COVAD lines as my Earthlink 3.0 service on COVADS lines and my DSL is down but theirs is up and my tests show a 1db noise margin variance from indoor and NID connection and 0 variance in attenuation, what is the problem? |
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LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| Again, if your neighbor has service with Bellsouth, then Covad isn't even in the picture.
2nd, you are trying to make things much more complex then they really are. Have you even had your ISP run the test yet. If not, there is no reason to talk about anything else. You are getting to the point of beating a dead horse.
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Lightning Bolt Technologies |
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Ernest House
Premium
join:2008-08-17
Boca Raton, FL
·AT&T DSL Service
|  LBDSL...Thanks for your patience...I don't want to beat a dead horse but I hope you understand how mind numbing it is to deal with EL TS
I have not been able to get EL to run a test other than what they do from their call center and they have never ever suggested it was a loop distance issue.
However, with help from you and Dr Olds:
1) I have measurements on the relatively low impact on SNR of my house wiring versus the NID to DSLAM.
2) I understand the system enough to measure REIN faults and manage low SNR so as to challenge their knee jerk answers
3) Convinced them last night that the Noise Margin & Attenuation are marginal enough that if there is a drop, they will put an order in for a local test.
Now all I need is a thunderstorm to come through the area 5 miles west of me which has been a pretty sure fired condition for a 30 minute drop.
Thanks again. |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| quote:
Now all I need is a thunderstorm to come through the area 5 miles west of me which has been a pretty sure fired condition for a 30 minute drop.
This leads me top believe their is a wire issue - water getting into the wire during heavy rain - especially if they are buried.
If it is a wire issue and the water is getting in before the NID - then it is a ILEC issue and EL will have to get BellSouth to fix the wire. |
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Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
 ·T-Mobile US
| reply to Ernest House
Look at Docs post carefully and note the the attenuation bouncing by as much as 4 dB.
The higher readings are not too good but that varation to me screams loop trouble aka. a copper problem...
FWIW a 3 dB change is the same as halving or doubling the power measured and is a large change 4 is even worse.
Wayne
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If you cannot fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician.
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Ernest House
Premium
join:2008-08-17
Boca Raton, FL
·AT&T DSL Service
| After EL fixed their configuration problem of having my service set to 6M, the fluctuations and instability went away. I don't see a correlation to rain and storms any more.
EL TS closes a record after 14 days. After 21 days, the DSL dropped and wouldn't resync. Since EL TS said they would blame the modem if I had the problem again, I replaced their Netopia with a D-Link ADSL2/2+ modem on the lark that it would deal better with a low SNR situation. I also put on a Belkin High Speed Modem cable. That modem reports different stats (see attached) and the Attenuation reported has not once been below 60. SNR typically is 9-11 but I notice that it tends to slowly degrade over a couple hours and the modem eventually resyncs. When that happens, the SNR is high again. Rinse and repeat.
Does this still smell of a loop problem? Do I call AT&T or EL?
TIA |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | You call EL no matter what - they will contact AT&T if needed. |
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Ernest House
Premium
join:2008-08-17
Boca Raton, FL
·AT&T DSL Service
| EPILOG:
Short answer. I get only lies and excuses from EL TS and their english is universally poor. Their DSL service is unreliable and tech support is powerless.
It's over. EL went down last Sunday night for two hours. Using dialup, I checked and no outages were reported. When I called EL TS, they once again did nothing but take all my information again. After 20 minutes of that, I asked them if there was a network problem because I had DSL sync but the ATM tests failed. After being on hold a couple minute, EL TS said there was a problem in my area and that their top network technicians were working on it. End of story. DSL was up in the morning and I researched new service.
What I learned in the course of researching DSL providers in my area is that Earthlink uses Covad's Central office equipment and network infrastructure but they all use the same lines to the house (I assume DSLAM included). Earthlink is low on the totem pole and it takes a long time before Covad and AT&T will get to EL's trouble tickets. Case in point, before I got my AT&T, EL went down on a Wednesday, wouldn't open a ticket until it was down 24 hours. EL TS does not know what's going on and they have to work through too many middlemen.
In contrast, every call to Covad and AT&T was a person with excellent english and competent in their answers. In the end I ordered AT&T. Thanks to everyone who jumped in to help me understand what was what in the network. |
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