Verizon DSL → slow speed/out of sync: internal wiring problem

just want to share my experience:

started to use Verizon DSL since Sept., and i have been having intermittent problems: slow download speed, or sometimes sync got dropped, and some other times, i got close (~720kb/118kbps) to full speed (768kb/128kb). Called tech support many times and had them test the line for a couple of times, each time they told me the line was very noisy.
they suggested that i move computer to the entry point and disconnect all other devices and do the test. It made a huge diff: tested the line for 2 hours and always got > 700kbps. it is clear that the problem is internal wiring.

BTW, phone line is wired in a house built in 50's and it's obvious that the previous owner or some other non-professional did the internal wiring. there is no junction box outside/inside house. it took me quite a while to locate the entry connection point. i will get new wires this weekend and rewire the house.

happy to find out the problem that has haunted me for 2+ months.

yes, it can be very satisfying to finally find the problem... if only because that is the beginning of the next problem (lol). If your house was built in the 50s, it is probable that your house does not have a junction box because it has not had a serious outside wiring problem in the last 25 years. Before the Bell System breakup, Ma Bell owned everything but the words that passed through the phone. It was not necessary to have an entrance box, because they had to fix it no matter if the line fault was inside or outside. Now, all new houses have a box, and the teleco is responsible only up to that box. The builder or owner must run (and maintain) the inside wiring. On older houses, the phone co. will retrofit a junction box as part of the job if they ever have to come out for a serious line repair, but otherwise they didn't take the time to go around installing them everywhere.

You may find that, although not professionally installed, the previous owner's wires are okay, but the problem is corrosion or loose connections. For example, I had a Bell-installed phone jack on the baseboard of the nook in my old kitchen, but a phone had not been plugged into it for many years. It seems that everytime the floor was mopped, water splashed up into the hole, and after all those years the little wires inside rusted and finally shorted out the service entirely. Coincidently, it was during that service call that they installed the junction box.

Good luck with your wiring project.

dw

Yannow, I have a similar problem. My house was built in the late 40s and also has ancient wiring! I now have Verizon DSL but best speed I get is around 530K on the 768/128 package -- and yes, I've read through this site and tried the various tweaks. I get random lost-sync problems where the middle light on the Westell modem will start to flash again and I'll lose all connectivity.

There are four jacks in the house and the wiring itself looks like three conductors kind of braided together. On the first floor there is a modern-type wall jack in the kitchen and a baseboard one in the living room (which I'm guessing someone just added to the old wiring at one time). But upstairs, there are two of those old-fashioned four-pin-type jacks (these say "AT&T Bell System" on their fronts!). In one of rooms with the jack, my den, is where I have my computer. So, I purchased an adaptor to turn it into a modern-type jack and plugged in the Westell.

I might like to have new internal wiring put in, but is it quite an expensive thing to do? With four jacks spanning two floors, it looks like quite an undertaking to do it myself. Also, there's no 'network entry box' of sorts, just a little black thing in the basement mounted to a piece of wood with four huge screw terminals on it. The wiring is junctioned here.

You guys might want to check the amperage on your electric circuits.

I was having sync problems at random - until a tech asked me how much stuff I had plugged into that wall outlet.

I had a lot of stuff - and he told me that the more stuff plugged in, the less "amperage" there is to go around, and the DSL modems need a good amperage load in order to maintain sync.

I moved my shredder to a different outlet and my sync problem went away.

Preferably move anything you can onto a circuit that has a different fuse in your main and see if that helps.

- FutureMan

At the block in the basement try removing everything until you find the wires for the jack where your modem connects. Leave that one on and the others off. See if that improves your speed and sync issues. If it does connect the others one at a time until you find the bad one or ones. Also make sure your Westell is on the latest firmware. It fixes some intermittant sync issues.

Before I would rewire the entire house (assuming no problems with the phones elsewhere), I would suggest getting a filter/splitter to put at the entry point. Connect a line to the unfiltered side of the phone line and run it directly to the modem. Just wire up the rest of the phone lines to the filtered side. I would think that this would give you the best of both worlds, a clean line to the modem and the rest of the phone lines could be left alone. Also, you wouldn't need to use filters at each individual phone line anymore since they would be filtered at the entry.

Caveat emptor, I haven't tried this, but had expected to have to take this route but my phone lines weren't nearly as bad as I had dreaded. The traditional technique of filtering at each jack and not at the modem had worked for me.