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madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

New to CenturyTel...experiencing slow speeds

Greetings all,

I just changed over to CenturyTel DSL from cable (slow and expensive cable). I am signed up to receive "up to 10mb," but all of my speed tests indicate that I am only getting around 1mb/s at best (often much slower). I have set up my Westell E99-610014-03 Revision N DSL modem to be a bridge and have it connected to my D-Link DI-524 wireless router.

I dunno why my speeds are so slow...maybe I set up something incorrectly? Even before I configured the modem to work with my router I connected it directly to my computer via ethernet and still only got ~2mb/s (my best speed so far). I hope somebody out there can help me out!

Thanks in advance.

seagreen
Mod
join:2001-05-14
out there

seagreen

Mod

Please post your transceiver stats.
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

I'm sorry...I am new to these forums as well and I am not quite sure what transiever stats are...but here are the numbers from my modem's config page:

DSL Connect Rate (Down/Up) 12474 Kbits/sec by 894 Kbits/sec

I have reset the modem and I am no longer using the router, just to bring things back to basics. My speed is still as slow as it was when I mentioned it in the OP though. I should mention that I will be having a CTel tech come out Monday morning (though I would love to solve this problem before that).

tstolze
Premium Member
join:2003-08-08
O Fallon, MO

tstolze

Premium Member

Your modem is syncing at the proper rate, if you could give us the rest of the modem stats like this:

Downstream Upstream
Rate (Kbps): 12542 894

SNR Margin (dB): 10.9 9.5
Attenuation (dB): 41.0 18.4
Output Power (dBm): 12.6 1.4

What speedtest are you using?
Try one of these and post the results for us,
»speakeasy.net/speedtest/
»speedtest.net/

Looks like you are running wireless, this will limit your speed depending on your wireless signal. If you can connect straight to the modem/router and run a test for us.
Thanks and welcome to the Centurytel forum!
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

More stats:

Transceiver Revision: 5.2.2.0
Vendor ID Code: 4
Line Mode: ADSL2+ Mode
Data Path: Interleaved
Transceiver Information Downstream Path Upstream Path
DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) 12474 894
Margin (dB) 25.5 12.0
Line Attenuation (dB) 11.5 3.0
Transmit Power (dBm) 9.7 12.3

Speed tests:

This is weird because one of these tests shows good speed...

Speakeasy.net (San Francisco):
Download Speed: 8924 kbps (1115.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 756 kbps (94.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Speedtest.net:
Download speed: 4.83mbps Upload: .75mbps

Bandwidthplace.com:
Download speed: 1.31mbps Upload: 159.8kbps

seagreen
Mod
join:2001-05-14
out there

seagreen

Mod

Since your location says you are in WA you should use closer speed test centers for the best results:

»www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ (use Seattle)
»speedtest.sea.acsalaska. ··· reports/

tstolze
Premium Member
join:2003-08-08
O Fallon, MO

tstolze to madraptorman

Premium Member

to madraptorman
The line stats look really good, as you have noticed some speedtest sites are better than others.
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

Here's the Seattle speedtest result:

Download Speed: 9571 kbps (1196.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 746 kbps (93.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

So...is DSL really that dependent on location? This is the first time I have used DSL.

I guess the problem is, when I switch to using my wireless router and try to watch Netflix on my Xbox 360...I still get the lowest video quality, which indicates a slow broadband connection. Is there anything I should be careful of when I hook my wireless router to my modem? I know that 10mbps should get me close to the highest quality video streaming, certainly not the lowest quality.

seagreen
Mod
join:2001-05-14
out there

seagreen

Mod

As you'll probably find out over time one speed test doesn't mean much. It's a snapshot of a moment in time.

There is more information here that you might find helpful:
»DSL FAQ »I think my DSL is too slow!

Have you done speed tests through that router? Are they more-or-less equal to what you get with your PC hooked directly to the modem?

tstolze
Premium Member
join:2003-08-08
O Fallon, MO

tstolze to madraptorman

Premium Member

to madraptorman
The issue does not appear to be with your DSL.

I would guess you have a weak signal to your 360. You may try and change your wireless channel in your router to 1 or 11, this may help. Small location changes can make a big difference in signal strength/throughput.

I have little experience with the 360, does it have a signal strength meter?
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman to seagreen

Member

to seagreen
I did a few speed tests through the router, and the results weren't as good as a direct connection, sometimes as low as ~600kbps. But maybe I should try again...when I did those tests even the direct ethernet connection results were slow. Maybe it just took a while to get up to speed?
madraptorman

madraptorman to tstolze

Member

to tstolze
I'm not sure that the wireless router has a bad signal, and it was very close to the 360. I should note though, the 360 itself isn't wireless, I have it plugged into a wireless bridge.

I guess if the problem isn't DSL there is something I need to configure better on my router?
madraptorman

madraptorman

Member

Okay, I have the modem and router working together again, and while speed tests are generally better than I described in the OP, I still cannot get a decent video quality out of netflix (and even when I do the video tends to freeze and the quality gets throttled down anyway).

I have the modem working as a bridge and not doing any DHCP, and the router is configured to handle PPPoE. I am not sure where the bottleneck is but any suggestions would be appreciated.

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-nanoHD

moldypickle to madraptorman

Premium Member

to madraptorman
don't use netflix as a speed test right now. service is still very young and unreliable. google it and you'll see how many people are getting throttled randomly it seems.

when i still had netflix, it wasn't worth a damn on a wifi signal either. streamed nearly perfect on the switch, but once it went across my wireless bridge, it died and would stop and start all day.

if you REALLY want to stream netflix and movie content, it may be worth for you to look into some 802N gear. i know that G is already faster than your internet, but my experience has been far better on N gear with streaming media.

dsldude08
Premium Member
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI

dsldude08

Premium Member

Well, I use NetFlix just fine on my 10MB connection. But I have had random issues with my wireless router (wired and wireless) when streaming videos and speed test issues. Have you tried to plug the 360 directly into the router/modem we provided to you and tested it that way yet? Also, we do provide wireless routers in case you didn't know...
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

Right now I have just decided to plug my 360 directly into the router. Usually I can stream things at four bars, but right now my speed seems to be very low again for no apparent reason.

I had a CenturyTel technician come to my place last week to check the speed, and at the time the speed was very good, so it seemed like there was no problem. But tonight, I have been running a few speedtests from Seattle and my speed is very bad, usually around 1.5 - 3.0 mbps...is this normal? I don't know what would be causing my speed to drop so drastically.
BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI

BigVe

Member

Oversold.I have same problem at night(4PM-10PM) when more people use internet.I'm lucky then if i get 500-600 down.
madraptorman
join:2009-03-28
Cheney, WA

madraptorman

Member

I thought DSL was less subject to high traffic than cable? Something about the line not being shared or somesuch nonsense..

If this is the norm then I guess I can accept it, but I am surprised that my speed right now is less than half the rate I am paying for.

chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL

chd176 to madraptorman

Member

to madraptorman
It's a myth while you do have a direct line to your RT or CO the bandwidth is all shared at some point, with cable it's at the node with DSL it's at the RT/CO. We had some overselling issues here a year or two ago.

satcomlink
Premium Member
join:2001-01-15
Breaux Bridge, LA

1 recommendation

satcomlink to madraptorman

Premium Member

to madraptorman
It is a bandwidth issue. They will have to build another DS3 or OC3 pipe probably to correct this. Looking at the outage board I don't see any slow speed issues in WA.