US Telco Support > Verizon > Verizon Online DSL > anyone speedtest >5Mbps

reply to Packeteers

Re: anyone speedtest >5Mbps

'grats! Hope it stays like that

i woke up this morning, and the line is still Fast-7
and my downstream margin(db) improved to 11.2
i hate to say "the squeaky wheel gets the grease",
but i hope posting my saga here helps others to
focus on what is possible if they stay persistent.

getting a recent modem and Fast-7 line is exactly
what i ordered and am paying for, no more or less.

while it's certainly true that Verizion is limited in
what it can provision based on your distance taps
loops and port types at the CO, it's become clear
to me that Verizion may be holding out on some.

telling me they had no 7 ports, then they had it
but it was wait listed by Month, then getting the
7 the very next day, tells me someone is full of it.

I'm probably still foolish for not going to TWCable
which is faster and cheaper in my area, but I'm a
sucker for quality(Latency) over quantity(Speed).

reply to Packeteers
*sigh* I knew this was too good to be true.

while my line was stable and fastpath all day,
i didn't do anything that required much speed,
so when i tried to stream video and noticed
it was sluggish, i ran a speed test and found
i was actually getting under 2.0 all day long.

i had tech support in India make a note of it,
of course, they have no way to test my speed,
all they can to is monitor line quality and read
my transcever settings and their provisioning.
i did the usual PC and Modem power cycling
and that didn't matter either. I have made
no changes to my PC at all over the last day.

i'm also back on my old subnet.

i'll see what phantom changes happen tonight,
and test again on Sunday, and if the speed is
still under 2.0 i'll call India to open a trouble
ticket so when the Network guys come in on
Monday, they can provision me once again

I don't think the outage is related since I've been
running a Ping Graph histogram at 10sec interval,
and at no point did I see any variation in Latency.
also my speed jump from 2 back to 7 in the last hour
suddenly occurred without any router power cycle,
as though I was being throttled, then suddenly was
let loose to enjoy my full provisional speed.

Sun Feb'6 +5GMT my hourly speed history;



you can see the clear jump back up in speed after 1am.
it's Sunday morning, ping graph shows no packet loss,
transceiver says 10.0db download, but that's still good.
i'm not sure how/why testmy.net registers over 7 while
other test sights peg me at 6.7 which is what i expect.
i'll uncheck the "express" option to get more accuracy.

this really sucks... i spent all of last week getting latency/speed
now i'm gonna spend the next week getting speed consistency,
which they can't test for remotely... my luck is running out.

computer ID changing means I had to power cycle my
modem in hopes of stabilizing, and they assigned me a
different public IP - obviously, not of that helped at all.
so far I've jumped between 3 different subnets

reply to Packeteers
Seems like Verizon likes changing service for no reason. My service has not been changed again, however I keep waiting....

I've been monitoring my service for a few days now, primarily using Verizon's speed test in case there are problems - I do not want to give them any reason to question the validity of the tests. The speed has fluctuated; max about 6.6Mps but slowly degrading over 1-2 days down to 1Mbps range until I reboot the router. Immediately after reboot speed regains 6Mbps range.

I did just receive a new Westell A80-750015-07 ADSL2+ (10/100) wireless modem/router which I have yet to setup. No instructions, not enough ports. I already have a linksys/cisco gigabit wireless router which I have no intention of getting rid of but wonder if the new Westell modem would hold the line better or increase the speed. Probably not.

Keep us posted on your interleave saga, and if you do switch let us know!

I actually avoid Verizon's speedtest for fear it's biased.
Verizon's techs in India are recommending speedtest.net

I also randomly verify my results using;
»linksys.speedtest.net/
»/speedtest?flash=1

Many other speed testing sights actually use;
»speedtest.net/
just with different flash graphic variations.

The advanced speed test here looks interesting;
»www.ispgeeks.com/wild/index.php
but I don't use cause i'm uncomfortable with Java,
and they don't have servers in the NorthEast for me.

just be sure to uncheck "express" option with;
»testmy.net/auto
as that seems to help increase it's accuracy.

reply to Packeteers
Thanks to the wonderful work Mod sashwa is doing by providing free Line Monitors (no dslr points required) I noticed someone in my area has been suffering packet loss around the same timeframe on Sunday that my speeds were fluctuating, leading me to suspect this may have been a Verizon area problem, not just my own line. So I won't call Verizon to open a trouble ticket just yet, and continue to monitor latency, packet loss and speed on my own, and update this thread with any significant changes.

6pm Sat (Feb'4) - Noon Mon (Feb'6)

reply to Packeteers
Tue Feb'7 8am;

Verizon local CO tech called to say they are moving me to a
"less congested router" while maintaining my 7-FastPath.

so I guess the myth that DSL speeds can vary less than Cable
because you are not sharing your bandwidth - truely is a myth

since I now know techs can't run speedtests, I gave this one my
quickstats link, and he confirmed seeing the prime time dropoff
in speed, and may use it as a reference over the next day or so.

10 minutes later;

I'm now changed over and power cycled my PC and Router.
still FastPath-7 6.7speed and not only did my public IP totally
change, but even the 2nd hop at the CO router change too,
so I must truely be on a totally different(newer) provision.

considering Verizion is losing more aDSL customers than gains,
especially in my area where TWCable is so price competitive,
it's unlikely this newer router I'm on will ever get "congested".

I also noticed my Latency to far off servers is down by 10%
so a game server in Germany I used to ping at 150ms is now
showing 135ms - just in time for my clan's castle seige

reply to Packeteers
this last 48 speed test history clearly illustrates how my
"computer id" changed = being on a completely different
router/IP from Verizion, and you can see how my prime
time congestion slow down has cleared up ever since.

after 4 provisions, my local network techs got it right;
1. 7mb 2. FastPath 3. Packetloss 0% 4. Consistency
if it remains this way a few weeks, I'll stay the year.
i hope some of this helps others get what they want.

I'm glad sharing my saga can help others.
i suggest increasing the test download to at least 10mb,
since the lower default size may give less reliable results.

since you bumped my thread, I'll post the
text to a letter i wrote to Verizon's CEO.
I'll post any reply I get, but I'm not really
expecting any - just wanted to Vent

those proficient in business letter writing
may find reading this painful, but just know
this was a first draft since i had no plan to
invest much time in such fruitless endeavors.

Re: aDSL Provisioning feedback
To whom this may concern,
I’m sure you have a lot of smart highly paid people on your staff telling you why Verizon keeps losing copper based Internet customers, and perhaps you don’t really care because they may not be nearly as profitable as your wireless service plans. Regardless, I thought I would take a few minutes to comment on how you nearly lost a faithful wired internet customer of 8 years.
Way back in 2003 when residential customers were still delighted with 56k modems, I was one of your very first 1mbps Internet service customers. In 2007 I dropped my plain old telephone voice service, and remained as a DryLoop customer at 3mbps. In 2009 I changed from interleave to lower latency fastpath, and just now in 2012 changed to 7mbps speeds with my contract year to start in March.
During this entire decade Time Warner Cable has been begging me to change to their ISP service, especially since my Coop building negotiated a Bulk rate contract with them. In 2011 they were offering no contract second year (not first year promotional) pricing of $30/mo for broadband 10mbps or $50/mo for wideband 30mbps, and since my contract with Verizon was expired on my 3mbps at $40/mo, I was compelled to reevaluate which wired ISP I should use.
It took me a long struggle involving a dozen calls over a week to tech support, billing, provisioning and even a pointless premise visit (which I cancelled the day before, but the tech showed anyway). I finally got the 7mbps speed, fastpath latency, and throughput consistency during prime time hours that I wanted, to get value out of my next year contract with Verizon, but this result was enjoyed only after a titanic struggle that most of your customers would not suffer, or even know how to quantify or explain, so they would simply cancel aDSL and change over to a far cheaper - far faster local CableTV competitor.
Many like me still see continued value in copper pair aDSL in terms of speed consistency and low latency when compared to a coax cable based internet, but your own people and/or procedures fail to deliver on that advantage to your existing fat profit margin customers.
The real problem and root cause of all my headaches began and was further agitated by the local network provisioning department who incorrectly evaluated my line speed potential to billing, did not order new customer side equipment, re-provisioned without new equipment support thereby wastefully ordering an unnecessary and expensive premise visit, re-provisioned yet again to a clearly over congested router, then finally got it right on the Fifth try over a week later - all due to careless procedural issues, not any technical flaw or limitation in your network or existing copper plant.
Most suspect customers in New York City will NOT get FiOS after 2014 in areas where Time Warner Cable already offers wideband docsis3, but that is no excuse to treat your remaining over charged copper customers as third class citizens. Please do a better job delivering all available local central office aDSL potential to your remaining loyal wired customers on the first or second try. My recent well documented odyssey is, in my opinion - a case study in what Verizion is doing procedurally wrong.
Respectfully,

reply to Packeteers
As far as I know, every Verizon DSL tech is supposed to run a NXTT line check at the start of every call.

They get a quick report with basic info like Noise Margin, Max attainable bitrate, attenuation and current modem reported speed

Also having access to a lot more detailed info.
Now, having a tech that actually knows how to use that info is useful.

They can also run a live switch traffic reports to see what activity the modem is showing, and most techs are nice enough to show you that info when you share your screen with them

reply to Packeteers
"Packeteers: since you bumped my thread, I'll post the
text to a letter i wrote to Verizon's CEO."

I am not sure what you mean by "bumbed my thread", I certeainly hope you do not mean anything negative, on the contrary you have opened my eyes a great deal and I owe you much gratitude and respect. If "bumped" means more awareness, great!

My results since my "bundling" (bungling) have been mixed, and with your support will read your letter and enhance your campaign by writting a letter of my own. My experiences have been similar and knowledge has grown reading your posts...the degredation and line quality stats of my connection I often wondered about until a power outage or until forced reboot are now becomming clear - DSL is not reliable for me.

reply to Packeteers
In case anyone noticed that I'm now using TWCable, here's why;

Re: billing doubled customer call records
Re: tech support doubled call records
To whom this may concern,
I thought I would take a few minutes to comment on how you finally lost a faithful wired internet customer of 8 years - due to your own record redundancy blunders.
In early February 2012 I struggled with Verizon over several matters stemming from a common desire to upgrade my aDSL speed from 3Mbps-FastPath to 7Mbps-FastPath. This effort required dozens of calls to both Billing and Tech support because for some odd reason “your left hand did not know what your right hand was doing”. Basically I would call Billing one day, and the next day they had no record of my call, so I would give the same or updated instructions again, only to discover on the third day the Billing person I spoke to had no record of my updated call, and was still dwelling on the day one issue.
I noticed the same duality of record keeping while calling tech support, when one day they knew the record of my problem, while another day they had no record of the problems I had reported, and had to start all over again with me. After noticing this apparent schizophrenia in your record keeping, I now realize what a mess your company really is when it comes to supporting your existing wired aDSL customer base. You actually have 2 different databases in both billing and tech support. One set that seems to reside offshore, since the call taker invariably has a foreign accent, and another set of records that serves the domestic call center.
I won’t bore you with the many iterations and technical details on how such a duality records interfered with my ability to get my 7Mbps aDSL line provisioned properly, or how I called to cancel (spoke to an Indian) a home premise visit, yet your expensive Union technician showed up the next day anyway - so instead I’ll focus on how your own mismanagement dropped me as a customer - even after I clearly and repeatedly indicated that did not want to leave!
While struggling with Verizion to get my provisioning correct, about February 1st I called billing (spoke to an American) to cancel my service mid February which was the end of my latest billing cycle. The idea was if you could not get my provisioning correct during those two weeks, I would be gone. During the second week, when it appeared provisioning was making some progress with my line, I again called Billing (spoke to an African) to move my mid February service termination to the end of February, since after that I would be committed to a year contract, so basically I was giving Verizion more time to get my provisioning right.
Now here is where it gets interesting... about February 13th after my provisioning was finally done correctly and went a few days stable, I triumphantly called billing for what I hoped would be the last time (spoke to a Russian) to remove my end of month service termination order, add some notes describing my service contract, and update my credit card information. He assured me the records were correct, and my service would not be discontinued or re-provisioned anymore - yet on Wednesday February 15th at 1pm EST my Verizon aDSL internet service abruptly ended.
Since my home phone is VoIP I had to go next door, borrow my neighbors phone to call Verizon billing (spoke to an American) only to be told that half my previous calls regarding moving and cancelling my termination orders were not on record, and that my origianl mid February order to cancel was acted on despite my call to move, and later call to remove the termination order entirely. Now if I wanted my service back, I had to start all over again as a new customer.
It is crystal clear to me now that when aDSL people call the same call center number, they can be routed to departments with completely autonomous billing and support records, which not only lead to exasperated and confused customer relations, but in my case led to dropping an 8 year loyal customer who certainly did not want to leave once your service finally got my order right after a 2 week struggle.
Needless to say after confirming how divided and untrustworthy your own internal record keeping can be, I got Time Warner Cable Broadband a few days later, and am unlikely to ever trust another Verizon service again.
Respectfully,

reply to Packeteers
Shoot, I wish I read your post before verizon messed up my service today.

I was having a issue with packet loss on my 7mbps fastpath dsl line. So I called techinical support who said they will make a change at the CO to plug me into a new port there.

Long and behold when I see my speeds in the office are now 5mbps down and no fast path.

Now I have to raise hell to get me back on 7mbps and hopefully fastpath.

many tier-1 techs in India don't even know the difference between FastPath and Interleave*, so I found the only way to insure you get FastPath properly ordered from your CO's provisioning team is to speak to a more experienced India Supervisor. Also in fairness to Verizon, FastPath is only possible on a low noise last mile of copper, so a premise visit may be needed to clean up your line before they can give you 7-FastPath again -OR- the packet loss was due to your router becoming over congested, which means you have to ask to be wait listed when another 7mbps port opens up on a less congested CO router (you must call Monthly to stay on top of that request). I'm only saying this based on recently learning how Verizion works internally after my own recent headaches. regardless - don't "hope" for fastpath - ask for it. you are luckier than I was when I started my speed upgrade - since in the beginning I didn't even know 7mbps was available in my CO until I kept insisting on it. according to one tech I spoke to, some CO's have 10-15mbps ports by now, though they are extremely reluctant to provision them.

*I just got off a fruitless support text chat with a TWCable tech support rep, who didn't know the difference between Dynamic IP and Static IP - so it seems that ignorance as bliss is common to the front line support people of this industry - LOL

reply to Packeteers
I got the indian support dude to put me back on fast path, it was instant. Very happy camper once again.