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wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

Ongoing Qwest DSL problems Des Moines IA Area

OK I've been reading here long enough and its time to find out what’s going on. I live in Ankeny Iowa and starting 3nd year with Qwest DSL.

The last three months have been H*** trying to keep online. Line techs have been out 4 times, I have made 2 calls in the past two days. I am 1.6 miles from the Qwest switchgear as the crow walks...

ActionTec GT701 modem, only phone wires in the house are connected to the modem. When I check the modem status its most of the time showing 5000 / 700 average. Reset an average by me 2 times a day. But the problem is I can't load webpage’s or do any speedtest including the Qwest speedtest.net show downloads at less then 1 Mb and uploads .2 or so.

I can use my Blackberry Tether and go online with the exact same computer and load pages 3 times faster!!
Called yesterday and asked if I could get switched to a new gateway, the nice lady in India did something on her end, took 10 minutes or so and bingo things were up to speed! She said it would take 30 minutes or so for them to do the connection?

Needless to say nothing ever got changed. Called again today referenced the Repair ticket number, India tech could not access the ticket and I go through the whole D*** list again and nothing is done!

Do I just call MediaCom cable and just give up?
Pringlescan
join:2007-01-05
Des Moines, IA

Pringlescan

Member

Do you have a router or are you plugged directly into the modem? If so and you haven't already, directly connect to the modem bypassing the router.

It could also just be the modem. Try switching it out for another one.
djweis
join:2006-04-02
West Des Moines, IA

djweis to wmgeorge1

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to wmgeorge1
There is now another DSL provider in Ankeny if you wanted to try that.
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1 to Pringlescan

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Yes I am long time DSL ( & cable) and internet user... and yes I've tried it with a direct connection and more or less done everything on my end. Why would the modem that is connected at 5120 / 780 be slow to load pages and not show faster speeds than dial up on any speed test be the problem?

If I thought spending $75 - $100 on a new modem would fix, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Pringlescan
join:2007-01-05
Des Moines, IA

Pringlescan

Member

said by wmgeorge1:

Yes I am long time DSL ( & cable) and internet user... and yes I've tried it with a direct connection and more or less done everything on my end. Why would the modem that is connected at 5120 / 780 be slow to load pages and not show faster speeds than dial up on any speed test be the problem?

If I thought spending $75 - $100 on a new modem would fix, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

The modem may connect out to the service at listed speeds, but the modem could be faulty in not allowing traffic out or in. Also sometimes if you have a firewall, those can interfere with one modem and not another. Try windows in safe mode first. If no go, try just to get a cheap modem to check.

Also try a ping test or a traceroute. Post a screenshot of results.
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

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Well I saw the ads, and I think they just purchased an existing company. Found what I found out online they have not changed much from the older company...except the name, same service .
djweis
join:2006-04-02
West Des Moines, IA

djweis

Member

That might be someone else, my company has put equipment into Ankeny to provide DSL and telephone service. www.internetsolver.com
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

I will check it out, thanks.
wmgeorge1

wmgeorge1 to Pringlescan

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to Pringlescan
Thanks I will try that.
Pringlescan
join:2007-01-05
Des Moines, IA

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Is it a real ISP, or a company that has leased bandwidth from another ISP?
djweis
join:2006-04-02
West Des Moines, IA

djweis

Member

We're very real. We have our own equipment in the central office there with our own backhaul and routing.
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

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Click for full size
I did a Tracert to MSN.COM Attached I hope someone can look and see what the deal is, I am concerned about the timeouts.

Boss302_1970
join:2009-12-11

Boss302_1970

Member

Id be willing to bet its the actiontec modem get a cisco 678 off ebay, it sure did fix my issues
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

Click for full size
OK here is one more screen shot (last) and I shows the tracert to hotmail.com which for me is a 30 - 60 second if all load.

Why is it going to chx-edge-03 which I assume is Chicago, when I understood the main Qwest server route for this area is Kansas city?

Yes I know 8 am is a busy time but its like this most of the time.
nickphx
join:2009-10-29
Phoenix, AZ

nickphx

Member

the timeouts happen to me when i traceroute to hotmail from cox and from a few servers at different datacenters. it could be that hotmail/msn just filters that type of packet.
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

It is interesting to me and I wish I was smarter on all this, Qwest traffic for MSN and Hotmail all go to Chicago and looks like that is the big slow down.

When I did the Traceroute to Yahoo.com it goes to Chicago on a different route / server and then on to San Jose CA very fast with no time outs. I have Yahoo for a home page instead of MSN and it seems much faster over the past few days.

To me (who is willing to learn) it seems not to be a modem or connection issue but an routing issue via Qwest?

I am the only one in the greater Des Moines area or central owa with a problem??
Pringlescan
join:2007-01-05
Des Moines, IA

Pringlescan

Member

said by wmgeorge1:

It is interesting to me and I wish I was smarter on all this, Qwest traffic for MSN and Hotmail all go to Chicago and looks like that is the big slow down.

When I did the Traceroute to Yahoo.com it goes to Chicago on a different route / server and then on to San Jose CA very fast with no time outs. I have Yahoo for a home page instead of MSN and it seems much faster over the past few days.

To me (who is willing to learn) it seems not to be a modem or connection issue but an routing issue via Qwest?

I am the only one in the greater Des Moines area or central owa with a problem??

Doubtful if your the only one, but it might be isolated to a very few. I would still try a different modem.

I get the same trace route when I try hotmail.com as you. However I don't have connection issues at any times. I still think your connection issues are modem releated.
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

Suggestions for a Modem? And I see the thread already here. I'd consider the older Cisco 678 as someone suggested, but what if someday.... (I'd hope ) they go to a faster than 7 M?
Turbocpe
Premium Member
join:2001-12-22
IA

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The timeouts on the 2nd hop are normal for the GT701 with certain firmware and a certain setting (Firewall, I believe). Those timeouts would not be the issue despite that is where the modem would respond.

I would be surprised if it's the modem as the GT701s are known to be decent modems (modem only, router part is different).
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

No Firewall enabled in the Modem or my Cisco Linksys Router, BTW same issues without the Router. The firmware in the 701 is the latest according to QWest.

At one time I had the Modem bridged as I needed for a stand- a-lone webcam, but same issues.

msj
Premium Member
join:2004-05-21
Fort Collins, CO

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Can you post your wan status? Perhaps you are connected at 5120, but you are getting lots of errors and retries. Another possibility is that your connection is constantly resetting. The fact that you are not connecting with the maximum speeds you are configured for is a good indication that there are issues with your connection.

Does your throughput change at various times of the day? Have you tried a speedtest at 3AM?
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

Click for full size
Yes, slower at peak times, almost unusable. But Speed Tests of any kind off the peak only show between 1 and 2 Mb. After they first came out in January I was getting over 3 and sometimes over 4 Mb. Recent techs who came out said I am to far away and just be happy. (I am 1.6 walking miles) Excuse me, I've had Qwest for starting 3nd year, Never ever had it this way!

I am shopping for a new modem right now, but still looking for answers.

BlueMist
join:2011-01-24
Cookeville, TN

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I live in the Davenport Iowa area and have not had connection problems with either MSN or Hotmail. True my tracert checks show the same failures when they hit Chicago but my web sites come up right away.

I am not using the Qwest assigned DNS values but have configured the following values.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Which might be the difference between having the web pages working normally for me rather than reflecting the tracert results.

Try configuring the above DNS values and see if that helps clear things up for you, either in the modem (like I did to support 4 machines) or in your PC itself.

My modem is a D-Link 2640B which Qwest don't support but it will work just fine provided you manually configure it. The automatic configuration mode kept incorrectly trying to use 0/35 VPI/VCI rather than Qwest's 0/32.

msj
Premium Member
join:2004-05-21
Fort Collins, CO

msj to wmgeorge1

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to wmgeorge1
said by wmgeorge1:

Yes, slower at peak times, almost unusable. But Speed Tests of any kind off the peak only show between 1 and 2 Mb. After they first came out in January I was getting over 3 and sometimes over 4 Mb. Recent techs who came out said I am to far away and just be happy. (I am 1.6 walking miles) Excuse me, I've had Qwest for starting 3nd year, Never ever had it this way!

I am shopping for a new modem right now, but still looking for answers.

That connection looks pretty marginal. Very low S/N Ratio, lots of CRC errors, etc. So, although congestion could also be a problem, I think most of your problem is the connection itself. Since you've already had technicians out to check the connection I guess they feel there isn't anything that can be done. Your distance doesn't seem that extreme, i.e. I'm surprised things are so bad.

I assume that since technicians have been out that the problem is not your house wiring, since they should have been able to determine that fairly easily. I don't know what if anything has changed, but I doubt a new modem is going to fix this. Unless you can get a technician who can find a solveable problem you may just be stuck with bad service unless you switch to another provider.

This may be a long shot, but I once had major connection issues that turned out to be a bad line card in the DSLAM. If you do get another techician out you could ask to be moved to another port in the DSLAM and see if that makes any difference. You could also ask to be put on a different wire pair. How old is your home, i.e. when was the phone wire to the house installed? You could ask the technician to test your connection at the pedestal (after disconnecting your house connection). There's a possibility that the wire from your house to the pedestal has degraded or has been damaged in some way.

Do any of your neighbors have Qwest DSL? Do they have the same problems you are seeing?
wmgeorge1
Premium Member
join:2011-03-29

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

The only Telco wire in the house still hooked up is connected to the modem. Since a long, long time ago I worked for a short time for a phone company I know a little about how things work. I am also a master electrician among other things, now retired. I ran commercial service calls most of my life, I would have been fired years ago if I treated a customer like Qwest treats theirs.

When the service tech's were out I suggested switching to the other pair in the underground, and checking at the post. But since my line speed is within spec's they did nothing.

Nice people but know little about the line errors or just don't care to do anything. I am at a loss of what to do. Hoping a new modem will make a difference.
wmgeorge1

wmgeorge1

Premium Member

Re: Ongoing Qwest DSL problems Des Moines IA Area Solved!

Well I got the new Qwest Motorola 3347-02-100Q today... a eBay purchase and wow! I am back in business, even better than it was 4 months ago. I think my complaints got me on a new DSLAM, and the new modem... I will need to learn how to read error status like my old ActionTec.

I am now getting very close to 4 Mbps download from Chicago on Speedtest.net which is far better than the way less than 1 Mbps I was getting.

Thank You one and all who posted here, especially to the ones who suggested it might be the modem.

Anonxxxx
@hds.com

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Re: Ongoing Qwest DSL problems Des Moines IA Area

If you think you have to reboot the modem a lot with Qwest, install Mediacom
dmaul3300
join:2002-12-03
Des Moines, IA

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I live in Des Moines and also have issues the past month or two (especially the past few weeks). I have the 7mb connection and went to download some music and it felt like I was on 56k. I did a speedtest on speedtest.net and got .34 download .67 upload. I continued running tests and averaged 2-3mb download.

Until the last couple of months my tests were normally in the high 5 - low 6's. I called Qwest and they said the gateway I was on was full so they moved me to a new gateway. I still have problems. I called them again and they came to look at my line inside and outside my house but couldn't see a problem, though they could see from the tests I ran while the tech was here, that my connection was slow.

They upgraded me to 12mb and now am getting about 5-6mb but it is still slow as i should be getting close to 10mb in speed tests. I haven't got above 8mb. They came out to my house this afternoon while I was at work and were supposed to do something on my line, but I get the same results. They had me run tests on Qwest's site and I got speeds of 151mb, 125mb download. I normally get close to 50mb. I asked the tech, how can I get 50mb download on a 12mb connection? He didnt know what to say.

I am currently using the Motorola 3347 modem. Qwest has been working on this issue for the past several weeks. I went ahead and bought an Actiontec q1000 modem hoping that would solve my issue, but get the same results. I have also tried a different network cable. I have my Qwest modem hooked directly to my pc. The only other device I have hooked up to my pc is a small webcam (besides the keyboard,mouse and speakers). My computer is up to date. I use Kaspersky
for my virus software (my pc is clean) and use the windows firewall. I ran malware bytes and my pc doesn't have any malware on it.

I will call them again tomorrow and see what they say. The person I talked to on the phone said my pc might not be compatible. I am running windows 7 ultimate edition with a 2.8gzh processor and 3 gig of ram - 1 terabyte hard drive and have tried firefox, google chrome and ie9 and get similar results on each browser. I looked around in the windows 7 network settings as well as the router settings and didnt see any settings that I could change that could help me.

I am not sure what to do. As I mentioend up until about 2 months ago, I haven't had any issues. The only thing I have done in the past couple of months is run my windows/virus updates. I guess it is possible one of the updates is the culprit, but I would assume that more people would be having the issue.
Technicholas
Premium Member
join:2010-11-11
West Des Moines, IA

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We are on the same gateway I also have these same issues some websites just sit there and load and traceroutes so the same thing hmm?
CenturyLink
join:2009-03-09
Boise, ID

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Hello all, Steph from Qwest here,

Please feel free to email me at talktous@qwest.com (Attention Steph) with your bill phone number/account number, billing address and best contact number and I'll have a technical support specialist take a look.

thank you

Stephanie Lake
Manager, Talk To Qwest Team

"At Qwest your account information is confidential and protected by law, so I need your permission to access the account.”