George_C
join:2005-03-21
Mississauga, ON
| Daily Connectivity probs, Late evening & nights
Hi,
Since last Tuesday evening (March 15), I have had next to no internet access in the evenings and overnight. Access returns to normal during the day. To be more specific, I have "some" connectivity, but throughput crawls down to next to nil. When this happens, I cannot download mail from pop servers, cannot browse the web as web pages try to load but time out. But strangely yahoo messenger connectivity stays on longer, connecting and disconnecting. The status page of my router keeps saying "connected". (During those periods when DSL is not useable, I can still connect to my ISP via Dial-up. )
Since January, I have been getting my internet via DSL from Look.ca. For 5 years before that, I got my DSL internet from Echo-Online (www.eol.ca), which was taken over by Win-tel (www.wintel.ca) late last year. Yes, there were previous down times with eol, which increased in frequency during its last months and with win-tel after they took over. But nothing as cyclical and regular as I have been encountering during the last 5 days.
I called look.ca (on the 17th) and told them about the situation. They told me they there were too many users using the same bandwidth in my area, (the "greater Toronto" area, or more precisely western Mississauga). It would take two weeks to fix.
I am totally confused, and have some questions, and comments and I wonder if someone can straighten out my understanding.
1. Does the DSL provider (look.ca), or similar providers have any control over the local "bandwidth" available to customers ? I thought all the lines were leased Bell lines. In principle then, my situation should also be encountered by my neighbour who uses Sympatico Hi-Speed, or whatever. He didn't.
2. If the problem lies with Bell, is there any Bell (or other site) that gives the status of their leased lines that would show the local status of the lines, (throughput ok, or not, overused, underused, etc). If the problem is limited to Look.ca, or individual DSL resellers, then their
Network Status Page (»www.look.ca/page.asp?intNodeID=2581 ) that keeps on saying "Currently, all systems are functionning normally." is misleading or a downright lie. I told that to the look agent on the
phone, and he said that he agreed, but its up to the manager whether to disclose that info or not. What I am not clear their claim is "We know the problem, but it originates outside our system, so we don't have to
write about it", or "Yes, it is our problem, but it doesn't apply to everyone, so we don't have to acknowledge it".
3. I thought that the difference between DSL and Cable broadband thoughput was that with DSL , throughput was a function of distance from the "central office", whereas with Cable, throughput is inversely related to the number of users who share the network. Look.ca's explanation seems more consistent with Cable, than with DSL? I am not
moving closer or farther from the "central office" from day to night, so what could be happening? One thing they said, "there was a problem somewhere in the Toronto area", and they had to "divert users to an overloaded circuit". [This is a rough paraphrase, not a direct quotation]. What does it mean?
So, is Look.ca giving me the runaround, or is there any legitimacy to their explanations.
Any explanations, and advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
gc | |
dpression
@look.ca
| switch company,, that's what i would do
I have the same problem for last 2weeks..with look.
I called them several times and it seems whenever there's a problem they ended up blaming on bell.
talking to level 1 tech support takes you nowhere,, u must know better than them. i am getting tired of this connectivity problem and down speed,, and really getting annoyed by their tech support which is not supporting at all but bull shiting. | |
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