said by LordMetrolan:Can you help me a bit with the technology?
My upstream gw IP is 209.179.0.1. I think of that as the access router and the DSLAM is somewhere nearby me but I am an IP guy so I could be wrong. When I trace route to it locally and from the internet the next hop seems to be a Level 3 link. So I am guessing they are CoLo'ed with an L3 router of some sort
Don't worry about the gateway IP, that's all Earthlink's. There is other AT&T equipment you connect through first before even reaching Earthlink and one of their transit providers, Level3.
Yeah, if you're fed from a remote DSLAM (remote terminal/cabinet), which I think you are just by looking at your line stats, then it should be within ~300-400m (loop distance) from your house.
said by LordMetrolan:I am in North Carolina but my connection is being back hauled to EL Atlanta. I dont really mind this, since it makes a mockery of locally targeted ads.
So I am picturing this as house dsl modem -> DSLAM -> Access RTR -> Internet Router. Is that correct?
And if so where would the issue be? Access RTR to IR should be a local LAN connect, right? If it was DSLAM -> AR wouldnt I see issues on my PPP log messages? And why does downing the interface and bringing it back up help?
The reason it is fed all the way to Atlanta is because that is probably the closest Internet Exchange/Carrier hotel where Earthlink gets their customers from AT&T's serving area.
It would look more like this, Modem -> DSLAM -> BRAS -> AT&T LAC -> Earthlink Router -> Internet. (there are some switches in there too but I didn't add them)
Your issue sounds like it's between AT&T's LAC, where every customer in AT&T's serving area is aggregated, and one of Earthlink's multiple LNS links between it. You have no control over which link AT&T's LAC will put you on, and Earthlink really doesn't either, AT&T would have to implement something at their LAC to balance them, that's why reconnecting can land you on a less saturated link.
The only AT&T equipment you'll be able to see in your modem or router logs when you initiate the connection is their local BRAS. It should give you a hostname and MAC address, but after that you wont be able to see anything else until you're authenticated and dumped on a link to Earthlink. AT&T *should* have a specific realm set up for testing where a customer can terminate at the local BRAS, then you could start ruling out which part of their network isn't the problem. (If latency was fine between you and the local BRAS, then it would most likely be the link from the LAC to Earthlink.)