US Telco Support → FairPoint > [speed/latency] Massive network slowdown every morning after 2am

Re: [speed/latency] Massive network slowdown every morning after

Cable over decaying copper wires, no contest.

Cable has it's flaws. It's RF based and any cut in the shielding on the lines in the 'node' you are in can cause problems.

I have heard of bad sump pumps (Portland harbor), Buck shot in the line (yarmouth), Rubbing of the cables on the pole (Presque Isle), water in line (bangor)..all degrading the signal of internet into customer's homes.

I second the opinion above. It might not be the fastest, but it's reliable.

Not for me it isnt..i mean if all i ever wanted to do was browse web pages i guess it would be, but i like to stream movies and watch a video once in awhile too unfortunately im unable to with Fairpoint unless you want to wait 5 hours to watch an hour and a 1/2 movie while its buffering.

According to TWC i am qualified to get the 50/5 ultimate plan. And asking on the TWC forum avg ping times to google are 40ms from Maine. I know some company just ran about 50 miles of Fiber from Belfast to Augusta last summer not sure who it was for or if its even active yet..i can always dream.

Also i did finally speak to someone from Fairpoint again today...basically i was told they did do some stuff in Maine to switch things around i said well whatever they did nothing changed on my end. I asked what the deal was and he said its a problem for everyone and every company in Maine not just Fairpoint..i dunno if i really believe that, but whatever. I asked what he thought the outcome would be or if they could fix it. He said he doesnt have a time frame and it really comes down to how much money they want to spend. The thing that put me off the most was when he said "yea we can spend a bunch of money and upgrade the lines etc. and get the problem straightened out and in a few years things will probably be just like it is again now because more people will be using up the bandwidth" I respect his honesty i have nothing against this man personally its the fact that Fairpoint wont put the money in to their system when they know its very poor compared to the rest of the country and its maxed out for its capabillities. To say that yea we can fix it now but once people realize its good more people will sign up and start using it and it will be bad again sounded crazy to me. Yes it might be true but isnt that what you want if your a company? you want more customers right..then your suppose to keep up on the upgrades. Dont just keep selling a service you can barely even maintain now and is degrading by the day..thats bad business. At least in the end I got some closure to my problem I was told that it was a congestion problem during peak hours just like i thought it was throughout this thread. He couldn't promise me anything and said he wished he could but i ended the conversation feeling the same way i did when this all began....helpless.

again, talking from my time in a call center envoriment, when I picked up the phone the first 30 seconds i could tell tone and what you wanted me to say. If I was in a fighting mood, i would lay the polite smack down and tell you what was really happening. if I was in a passive mode or what you were asking for was not unreasonable..I would give in.

saying that I'm not sure what the issue is for you. I can tell you that the person you talked to on the phone most likely has no idea either. There are very few people in a company like FP or TWC that actually know what is going on..the rest are there to pacify us the customer.

Anyone is 'qualified' for the 50/5 plan, their network is not limited to distances from a POP or anything like FP.

One customer said to me as they disconnected.
I would rather drive a pinto that got $0 maintenance, for years a time then drive a fancy lambo that needed expensive repairs every month.

To be clear, I don't work for any ISP at this time, I have no ill will to the people I worked with. Just the technology in my area seems to support dsl as a better choice.
I hope TWC is a better choice for you.

My cable wires were replaced about 10 yrs ago, fiber at the main road. The copper, that degrades is the original as far as I know, been in same house 46 years.

I was told recently that FairPoint just cut commissions on there sales staff, things can't be good.

After two years with Fairpoint, I've had it. 300+ ms ping times and .3Mbps downloads is unacceptable. I was getting the same download speeds from TWC, for half the price. I've called, reported it, but a month should be plenty of time to fix a local problem. If its a network issue, that's not going to be fixed any time soon.

If same issue on different carriers..i would suggest looking at your home network. DSL and Cable use very different technologies, one is radio based other is atm based.

but you are having the same issue on both? The only common ground is your equipment.

It is VERY different technology for both company's when the signal leaves your home.

Why do you keep saying its the equipment when it's different equipment? Cable and DSL uses different equipment.

westell 7500 modem with integrated router for Fairpoint. Motorola surfboard modem with WNDR3400 router with TWC. The router used with TWC is now at my kids house using TWC with no issues at all. The Westell 7500 used with Fairpoint works as advertised...and then it doesn't. Different equipment. Its not on my end.

fine yesterday, fine this morning...now

»www.speedtest.net/result/2642022591.png

»www.speedtest.net/result/2666546648.png

A lot of "greek" in the above postings to me.. but I'm in the boat with many here. No other choice for high speed other than dial up here.
I have FPoint DSL 1.5.. very erratic in speeds (not to mention crashes that happen) over the years here. Called them many many times. Still same service. 1.5 downloard one day .15 another.
Assuming my router,lines,etc. are o.k. Do we get slow periods from traffic or heavy useage with this DSL. Is that what I read in the above postings..
At this point I would switch to cable when it comes down the road. That's a no brainer.

Any part of the internet is 'shared' and subject to heavy usage. Unless your neighbors who use the same service are having an issue it is more likely then not local to your home and not a 'global' issue with FairPoint (or for that matter cable when it comes in).

I would suggest bypassing any and all equipment from a router or firewall and go right into your laptop/computer and doing a speed test and testing the line right from the DSL modem.

I resolved the issue. I no longer have fairpoint. I went back to TWC and now have a nice 30 to 50 mbp/s download for $1 more...even at peak times.