US Telco Support > Frontier Communications > [DSL] Congestion Issues -- Anything to try before calling?

[DSL] Congestion Issues -- Anything to try before calling?

Could also be some noise on your line causing the condition. Do you notice at all times or just a particular time during the day? Either way I think you will have to deal with Frontier on the issue.

Last week it struck me as congestion, as it happened the worst on Friday evening. This week, however I'm not so sure as it's just as bad Saturday morning (even as early as 8am) as it was 12 hours ago.

reply to SuperSpy
I wouldn't rule out some form of congestion, it is 10:40AM locally and I am getting 4Mb down 2Mb up on a 12/2 setup.

Yeah the big packet ping test really looks odd to me. I can't see a way that would be a natural pattern.

reply to SuperSpy
Turns out there's a short in my line. I should have known: back when the tech initially installed, I asked him to run a fresh drop from the box, as the existing house lines were a disaster. When I inspected the line (after the tech left, and everything was working fine), I noticed he ran a line half from the box, and half from my house, then spliced the two different wires together with tape :facepalm:

I never brought it up with them as the DSL was working as advertised. Tech support says with the margins on my line (when it's working), I should actually be able to get at least double the speed I'm currently getting!

Guess I'll find out Monday how much speed I've been missing all these months.

I guess the tech was lazy or in a rush and him doing it that way will work but he should have say schedualed you to get it all replaced. was this the black flat outside wire?

The half towards the box was, the half towards the house was gray and looked like normal cat5/6 UTP.

Not sure why he would run the cable in that fashion. Poor workman ship like that eventually causes problems. Please let us know when it is replaced if your problem was corrected.

reply to SuperSpy
Called again to ask for an update on the tech arriving (they said one was dispatched ~4 hours ago) and they now say the issue I reported is more widespread than just my line (and likely not my spliced drop). They promised (uh huh) to call me back when they resolved this issue to see if my specific line was still having problems.

So I guess I'll wait and see if my line magically starts syncing at a higher rate and go from there.

reply to SuperSpy
Now they are saying it's a capacity issue due to high volume of customers in the area (which is what I suggested to tech support in the first place) and they have no immediate time frame for getting it resolved.

Every day this week my connection quality has gotten worse and worse, even though my sync rate is the same.

I pressed the chat support rep about their initial diagnosis of me having a short in the line, and they acted like they weren't going to act on that issue as if resolving the capacity issue would fix my shorted line. :confused:

Guess all I can do now is wait... (and continue to bug them for an ETA)

Yes, it is frustrating but keep pushing until you get results. Good luck and keep us advised.

reply to SuperSpy
Called again and support was super busy (and of course my cell phone was acting up -- got disconnected twice while on hold and once while on with a tech), but they said they would schedule someone to check my line out again within 24-48h.

I pressed him about my sync speed, saying the person I talked to earlier in the week said I should be getting higher speeds with these margins. Sadly he acted like he had no idea such a test existed, instead offering to do a ping test =|

So I guess I wait again.

Have you tried calling your regional manager? Here is a link that may be useful:

»www.frontier.com/customerservice/8/

Ooh thanks! I'll give that a try next week if I don't see any improvements.

reply to SuperSpy
A little history, I've been getting readings similar to this:

»i.imgur.com/bbtFEDz.png

So they sent techs out again while I was out and reported no issues all the way up to the access panel on my house. So out of curiosity, I took a line and ran it direct to the maintenance jack on the access panel. Rebooted the modem and got this:

»i.imgur.com/NtFQiSL.png

So there is definately a problem with the connection between the access panel and the wall jack. Quite odd actually because the wall jack is on the opposite side of the wall from the access panel, with no other lines or connections on it. It's also brand new, as it was part of the DSL install (I had them ignore all the old lines in this house and run a new connection from the telco box).

My question (which I asked unsuccessfully from tech support) is why hasn't my downstream changed? I pay for the 'max' package, which is supposed to be max line speed up to 7 MBit. Tech support told me that I shouldn't see any better speeds because the margin and attenuation numbers only refer to line stability and not line speed (huh?) And that I would have to talk to customer service to inquire about my line speeds.

Is there any chance of truth to that story? Everywhere I've read about ADSL tech indicates attenuation of 8 is an excellent signal and should come with huge speeds. In fact, looking at the numbers most speed calculators show, they estimate my DSLAM is 570 meters away. Which coincides quite nicely with a large unit up the road with a 'Frontier High Speed Internet' sign in front of it.

Is your filter located in the NID?

NID?

EDIT: I don't believe there is a filter inside. The box was installed new as part of my DSL install so I don't see a reason why they would put a filter in there. I have no other devices attached to my phone line (it literally goes NID -> exterior wall -> interior wall -> wall jack -> dsl modem) I shouldn't have anything like that.

reply to SuperSpy
So another round of calling and explaining my issue with tech support and customer service (who both kept passing me back and forth) and I finally got lucky and ended up talking to the same customer service rep twice in a row (between trips back to tech support to tell me only customer support reprovision my line), and the person set me up a ticket to get my line reprovisioned.

So once again, I'll see how it turns out tomorrow evening. Hopefully with the numbers I'm seeing from my modem, they will shoot for the sky. =)

reply to SuperSpy
So somehow after all this dealing with support someone actually reprovisioned my line DOWN to 1183/445 (from 1788/445)

So after countless calls and chat sessions with customer support and tech support, and being told that theres no way I can get over '1 Meg' on my line (downstream margin 17/attenuation 7.8 as of this post), I finally got on the phone with someone willing AND able to talk to me about provisioning. They admitted the 1 M quote is likely either old information or simply wrong (as I've argued) and have put in an order with the engineering department to do a proper line test and reprovisioning.

I'm told this may take as long as Friday, and that the customer service rep would personally get back with me when it's finished.

So again I wait. Hopefully for the last time, this time.