AT&T DSL → [Southwest] Is AT&T throttling ADSL now?

I posted in AT&T Direct last week but I'm not getting any response.

I'm on AT&T ADSL in Oklahoma on the AT&T High Speed Internet-Pro 3 Mbps plan. Last week I had to upload 12.6 GB of work files to my web server. The last time I read up on this I learned that only U-Verse had caps and ADSL was unrestricted, so I thought this was okay. The next day I noticed significantly degraded upload speeds (what was normally 50-100 Kbps was now 4 Kbps), and a week later this problem still persists.

All downloads seem normal. Uploads, on the other hand, start out at 100 Kbps and within seconds drop down to 4 Kbps. The exception is speed test servers. AT&T lets those uploads through, so they show 390 Kbps up.

I have no idea how to resolve this. If this is throttling, is there a person that can remove it if I agree to curtail use or pay for overages? Do they remove it after a specific period of time? Can I change over to a business plan and not have to deal with this?

Also will it do any good documenting this problem and filing a complaint with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (our regulator)? This affects my work and while I'm okay with curtailing my bandwidth, AT&T is not communicating with me about what exactly they've done to my connection and for how long.

No throttling, just overage charges of $10 for each 50GB beyond 150GB of data transfer, up or down, each month. Any amount of data over 150GB and you get the full $10 charge. You have a problem other than throttling. Call in a trouble ticket to AT&T or post in the ATT DSL Direct forum at »AT&T Direct

As far as the caps are concerned, U-verse has a 250GB monthly cap, but it is currently not enforced. ATM based DSL service has a 150GB monthly cap, but it is my understanding that some localities do not enforce it.

I have never heard of AT&T throttling any standard protocol, or throttling after the monthly cap has been exceeded (you are simply billed extra if you exceed the cap).

I don't know what is causing slow slow uploads to your web server, but it is not likely intentionally caused by AT&T. My guess would be a problem with the hosting service, or a really bad routing problem that is causing timeouts and retransmissions. It could also be a circuit/line problem that is causing errors and retransmissions (that might not be obvious on a short on-line speed test).

Nothing I can find states throttling on the dsl/uverse side, data for smartphones gets throttled though.

Here's the smoking gun right here. I've graphed the upload transfer speeds on two separate transfers. You can see the initial surge at normal transfer speeds for about 2 seconds, then it drops back to 4 Kbps.

What do you all think now?

[12:06:56] Transfer complete
[12:06:56] Transfer: [876,450 bytes | 166.797 secs | 5.131 KB/s]

Nearly 3 minutes to upload 855 KB!

Here is the info David gave me in AT&T Direct (he appears to only have checked out the line condition and hasn't looked at the transfer issue).

-1195
DN CURNMR 13.5 Good
UP CURNMR 20.5 Good
DN ATEN 29.5
UP ATEN 12.0
DN RELCAP 33.0
UP RELCAP 54.0
DN CURBR 3008
UP CURBR 512
DN MABR 8128
UP MABR N/A
DN CV 1 Good
UP CV 0 Good
PROFNM Pro tier 3x512
STATUS IS
CODE FAST

the Line looks good. I suggest using Pathping to isolate any problems with routing. It will only give IP's, but that is where Whois.net comes in handy.

Wow, PathPing is a nice utility. Appreciate the tip. I gave it a try.

What is this 12.83.42.125 and why is it eating 100% of the packets? Or does it not respond to pings? I ran the utility while doing a large upload, and it showed a steady 5 Kbps during all this.


Computing statistics for 275 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
- 0 XXX.Belkin [192.168.2.4]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 1 2ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% 192.168.1.1
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 2 3ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.0.1
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 3 29ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% adsl-70-233-159-254.dsl.okcyok.sbcglobal.net [70.233.159.254]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 4 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% 12.83.42.125
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 5 --- 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% gar26.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.123.16.85]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 6 39ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% be-200-pe02.1950stemmons.tx.ibone.comcast.net [75.149.230.161]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 7 42ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% be-13-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.82.141]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 8 75ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 68.86.85.49
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
- 9 82ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 75.149.228.206
- 1/ 100 = 1% |
-10 73ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% ip-69-163-188-168.dreamhost.com [69.163.188.168]
- 0/ 100 = 0% |
-11 95ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% XXX.dreamhost.com [XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX]


UPDATE: Since everyone seems mystified about ADSL throttling I decided to try upgrading the firmware in my modem (Actiontec GT724R) from 3.0.4.0.12 to .14. So far I'm 5 minutes into a FTP upload and am getting 35-50 Kbps again! Or at least the FTP program says 40,000 B/s, so I don't know if that has to be multiplied by 8 to get kbps... in any case it's normal now.

I'll watch it today and report back.

One day later, uploads still look good. I think the issue is resolved.

12.83.42.125 is one of AT&T's address. Most of their address start with 12

The only case I have heard of throttling is you have been a warned likely 24/7 full bore pig.

Otherwise no a email you were warning before that would ever happen.

AT&T does not throttle. Yes core routers are set to ignore or limit ICMP traffic for obvious reasons. It appears your router firmware update resolved your problem and I'm happy to hear that.

I love how people automatically default to "ISP THROTTLES MEEEE!" Then starts threatening they'll go to the state regulators. It'll be another week or two, and someone will come back with the same complaint.