Verizon DSL → [Modem/Router] DSL Modem broken?

Hi Everyone it has been a while. Posting from another internet at the moment.

Anyways, I am having issues with my Westell 7500. The problem is the internet went out about 12:30 AM, and it is still down. Checking the Modem stats basically tells me I have no DSL signal at all. It shows NOT AVAILABLE on everything. Usually when I see this I thought the telephone wire was loose.

I tried another telephone cord and different jacks throughout the house and still the modem is not picking up a signal at all. The telephone works. I am still able to make outgoing calls and still got incoming calls fine so I know it is not a phone issue.

This DSL modem/router is only 4 years old. This was to replace my Westell 327W that lasted 8 Years. If anyone can recommend other ways to troubleshoot or to see if there is an internet outage somewhere I would appreciate it. Otherwise asking for a new DSL modem from Verizon during the holidays might take a while to arrive.

update: I somehow did manage to get a signal for about 2 minutes. Signals were pretty good. However when I turned it off and put the phone back on to try again. The modem was not able to grab a signal, tried the same jack that I was able to get a signal about 5 minutes ago.. Still no go.. Looks like Direct forums here I come. Hopefully I get another free modem because I don't think anyone local unless second hand sells DSL modems..

First of all the 7500 is an old modem!

And it doesn't sound like a modem problem but a problem at the CO somewhere...

Well just got off with Chat that direct told me to use... Yep, they said something going on inside the Central Office and it is a Saturday, ticket was put in. I don't know if they actually staff anyone inside the CO on the weekends. I know where the office is located and it is an actual decent size building. Hoping it is not something that they use to push me to FiOS I can wait until Monday if need be. The telephone at least still works, I can make outbound and get inbound calls still. Using a friends phone as a hotspot at the moment.

Yep, something is up at the central office. I really hope its just a bad connector and not failing equipment although having been on this equipment for 12 years seems pretty good.

I can't tell if someone is working on it in the office or if the equipment is deciding to work ever so often. At random times I see my DSL modem fully sync but almost 2 minutes later it crashes and takes another hour or two for the service to come up and take a breath before crashing hard again. When it did come up the stats actually looked pretty good.

I would have liked an extra DSL modem just in case this one went bad, but they said something wrong at the CO so that has to be solved first.

DSL Speed: 3360 down 704 up
Margin(dB) 14.5 - 11.0
Line Attenuation: 54.0 - 31.5
Transmit Power: 18.8 - 11.9

Lucky we have OTA television and offline game consoles to keep us busy for the weekend. Might do some shopping for supplies after cleaning up this snow.

The picture is the one I grab hopefully I can post this before it crashes again. It is just within the 3 Mbps range, can't go farther because of distance.

Glad you got things sorted out.

Having a spare modem is a useful trouble shooting tool. DSL modems are standards based so you ought to be able to get one on eBay for short money. The latest and greatest version of the spec is ADSL2+. It has been around for years so should not be a problem finding a compatible modem.

/tom

Just out of curiosity, why don't you want FiOS? Many people have and love it, and I know tons of people on this forum would do anything for it.

Why the resistance to FIOS? It's far superior and won't have the same issues. And "no service during a power outage" is not a good enough answer - since they provide you with a battery backup and batteries that can be replaced.

I always say ... if you are without power for so long that any battery back ups would die, it's probably time to fire up the generator for the fridge and freezer (and for the well where I live), so why not just tie in the ONT to that, too?

It looks like they fixed the issue a bit early, the DSL was off and on all afternoon yesterday and after 5:00 PM it looks like they were working on the issue a bit more or at least was able to find out what the issue is. So far running almost 24 hours of full up time:
Active Status: 0:23:37:27

I guess it helps that it is CO inside a main building with Fios equipment and not a remote terminal out on the streets. It was cold and snowy yesterday.

Although I am extremely curious on what the issue was, never had a problem with DSL other when I first ordered the service. This would have been the 2nd major issue in 12 years of service.I am sort of a cheapskate, The only thing cheaper is Dialup, but that would ruin the actual use of a phone. I am $30 a month for basically until some act of god knocks down telephone poles and ruins the copper line or the CO gets converted to all fiber.

This state I believe Verizon had quite a reliable infrastructure. I know the techs in this state for both Verizon and the Cox are actually pretty good. I met random techs a good 5 - 6 years ago and they really know there stuff and the ones I met did the jobs properly. I guess because they were not contractors but actual employees of the company? They did not have contractor signs on the trucks.

To sum up:
1. I am cheap
2. Our infrastructure is still in pretty good shape.
3. We still have some older techs who knows how to work with Copper stuff.
4. This house was built in 1938. Forget about Ethernet wiring. Most of our house is still 2 prong and our electricity is grounded through the copper water pipes. The cost of hiring an electrician, and a plasterer for the walls just to get the house up to safety code and to be able to get the house Fios and up to date is not in the budget.

Also you have to be careful where you plug stuff in because the owner of the house when it was built daisy chain electrical outlets together. One 40 amp fuse may connect to 3 or 4 rooms in the house depending on which side of the room you are in. So try setting up a window AC in every bedroom in the summer.

We found out the hard way with circuit breakers that trip. That is how we know they are on the same circuit. LED lights and these flat panel TV does help since they use less then the old stuff so it gives us some buffer room. Before we would turn off lights just to make sure we have enough wattage to run something.

VZ doesn't need to use your interior wiring for FiOS. What they can do is install an indoor ONT near your computer (wherever you have the DSL router now), drilling a hole for the thin fiber cable to enter the room through the wall.

From there they can tie into your interior phone wiring, plugging it in like a phone. The router would plug right into the ONT with an ethernet or coax cable.

This is the indoor Alcatel-Lucent ONT:

Main utilities are in the basement and the modem/router is upstairs on the second floor. but 12 years of reliable service 1 modem and 2 major issues I would say it is a pretty good record of reliability.. No congestion's no packet loss, service has been rock solid since they got it working in the central office.

I know they are converting CO's into fiber. They are doing the major one downtown first. I think in a few years after they finish with that one, we might be the next CO to get converted since my CO covers the other half of the city.

I find it hard to spend more money on faster speeds that we don't really need. Basically everything that needs to be downloaded can be done overnight and next morning because everyone is at work. At night its just causal websurfing with a youtube video here and there.

I tried watching a video between 480p and 720p on youtube once and could not tell the difference at all. You can be surprise how much you can do with a 3Mbps connection. especially if you are not a heavy streamer. You can do almost all games just fine since games themselves once downloaded don't use up that much bandwidth at all especially online latency is in the mid 30's to mid 40's depending on what is being used throughout the day. Someone streaming a video may bring it up the ping but nothing that I notice that would cause frustration.

Maybe by the time I get the letter of being forced into fios they will bump up the speeds some more? I remember when 25/25 was the standard. I am watching the television ads, first it was the 50Mbps plan, then the 100Mbps plan. Now they are doing the 150mbps plan bundle..

Also P.S. Why does Fios voice cost $30 more when added to internet.. Another thing that drives me crazy is that they don't tell you the after promotion price of internet. They tell you one year is $50, what is the regular price? $70-$80 after promo? You wonder why people thinks they are getting scammed and ripped off when the promo ends. If I can see the everyday price at least it won't be like turning into a blind corner.

When ordering online the actual price off contract/promo can be seen if you select the "no contract" option.

One of my friends has the 25/25 tier. Started out $45/mo during the first year promo and is now consistently $55/mo. No phone.

I could use more bandwidth than what my current DSL line provides (7/1) but Comcast is charging way too much right now for service. When you have many users trying to stream and surf and game at the same time it really pushes the limits of DSL.

If I could have 10/1 that would be perfect, really.

Agree that you can do a lot with 3 Mbps as I have it - but I have NO other options. Also, 480 p vs. 720 p on YouTube doesn't look much different on a computer but it definitely does on a TV.

Well, that worked for almost a month. Down again since 7 PM had to put in a ticket this afternoon when a friend visit so I can tether off his phone..

No DSL signal again. Unavailable on everything and showing 0 for speed. I can make calls and get calls just fine which is odd, I wonder what could be wrong with the internet portion of the line.

Maybe the DSLAM finally broke and since you are the only one refusing to switch to FIOS, they decided not to fix it

Looks like they were able to get me back up. However I am only syncing at 1.5Mbps profile. It is not the worst in the world, Although at one point I did get a 2112 profile so a 2 Mbps profile. I guess they are just testing and monitoring the line to see what happens for a day or two? The signals should be good up to 3 Mbps. The download attenuation went up from 54.0 to 56.0, but the upload went down compared to my older screenshot. I hope the ASSIA optimizer will kick me back up to 3 soon. 1.5Mbps will work, assuming only 1 person watching a 480p video and not downloading anything.

P.S. I did ask if I can get a new DSL modem, they told me only if my old one died . So no luck in getting an extra DSL modem in case this one goes bad. Its almost 5 years old so hoping it should be good for 2 - 4 years before they decide to convert my CO to fiber.

Right, the DSLAM "broke". Let's go with that.

Well, they can break. Most of VZ's DSLAM stock in central offices will be 10+ years old. The common Alcatel 7300 was high-tech in 2000, today it is a dinosaur, yet still one of the better DSLAM's in VZ's inventory.

Since OP is on ADSL1, it is safe to assume service is probably off of an early AL7300 with only ADSL1 cards, possibly 15-17 year old equipment.