CenturyLink..dead horse too?

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   Looks like I'll have to give my ISP a buzz today after work. The youngun was doing some stuff last night so I couldn't play around (testing) like you have to do. (Like disconnecting the router and connecting the PC directly to the modem...).

I've mentioned inconsistent slowness in a few threads over the past few weeks...maybe month.  Sometimes I check speeds at DSLReports...sometimes I just go by how slow pages load. Or the fact that A/V clips won't play.

Last night I did three speed checks at DSL reports. One time so bad it wouldn't complete the test. A second test was something like 32Kb/s.  After rebooting the modem one time...it got up to 132Kb/s.
(I've seen worse.)

Oddly...the majority of the time latency is normal as is upload speed...around 490 Kb/s. 
We're paying for 3,000 Kb/s (3MG) download and I think 512Kb/s upload.  

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Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Topic: CenturyLink..dead horse too? Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 3:49am
	Looks like I'll have to give my ISP a buzz today after work. The youngun was doing some stuff last night so I couldn't play around (testing) like you have to do. (Like disconnecting the router and connecting the PC directly to the modem...). I've mentioned inconsistent slowness in a few threads over the past few weeks...maybe month. Sometimes I check speeds at DSLReports...sometimes I just go by how slow pages load. Or the fact that A/V clips won't play. Last night I did three speed checks at DSL reports. One time so bad it wouldn't complete the test. A second test was something like 32Kb/s. After rebooting the modem one time...it got up to 132Kb/s. (I've seen worse.) Oddly...the majority of the time latency is normal as is upload speed...around 490 Kb/s. We're paying for 3,000 Kb/s (3MG) download and I think 512Kb/s upload.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 3:52am
	Oh...had to laugh while browsing CenturyLink help site last night. I was looking for their specs and TOC's. I did run across an ad on their plan page that said something like.."..consistent speeds, everyday...all day. That's the CenturyLink promise." Hope this didn't meant consistently slow or erratic. HeeHee

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 3:59am
	Just ran an early morning test...pretty normal: 2873 Kb/s down 487 Kb/s up. 32 ms latency. (That's to Chicago...the closest location.)

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 4:22pm
	2188 Kb/s down 484 Kb/s up 72ms latency 3:57 PM 10/14/2011

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 5:16pm
	2879 Kb/s down 471 up 32ms latency (Connected directly from PC to modem..NO router. Tested immediately after rebooting modem.)

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15219	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 6:38pm
	So you're thinking it's the router?

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 6:46pm
	No. Not really. Though I wish I'd done this last night went it got really bad. The only reason I did that was because I was thinking of calling CenturyLink and what's the first thing they have you do....connect wired directly to their modem thingie.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Oct 2011 at 9:28pm
	I'll just have to wait till it gets real doggy again...then hook back up direct to the modem. Just to confirm. And be able to tell my ISP I done did that. It may get poor for days on end...but it's worse in the afternoon and evening and better again in the wee dark hours of the morning. I don't see how that could be the router.)

Randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Location: USA, Georgia Posts: 15219	Quote Reply Posted: 15 Oct 2011 at 6:01am
	Just food for thought, I have heard of one box on a router slowing all connections to that router down.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 15 Oct 2011 at 6:13am
	Yeah....I've seen that here...but not lately. And I can't tell you exactly why not. I remember checking settings in the router....but it's been a very long time. I know it used to, when she'd be streaming something...updating her facebook...it just slowed me down to a crawl. I did check Thursday night when it was slow...and she was checking facebook...she was also waiting forever and a day for pages to load. I've also used inSSIDer to check and make sure there's no interference. And checked network connections. (Just to make sure some neighbor wasn't piggybacking off us. Which they shouldn't since I have the router set up only to allow specific MAC addresses.)

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 6:33pm
	I'm so very grateful that PCNET-ONLINE is a...uh...uncomplicated...site. Even so it might take a minute or so for a page to load. Other graphic heavy sites...rofl...either never load or come up blank when "done". I was browsing earlier and tried to watch a short news video clip. Things went downhill from there. Ran a speed test at dslreports...about 120Kb/s. A second test after connecting directly to the modem gave me about 400 Kb/s. Called CenturyLink. Wow. Sure has changed a lot since the last time I called them...several years back. Got a hold of a real person within a minute. Did some basic tests...got sent over to a tech person. Ran all sorts of tests. I could see where they were taking it...computer problems...maybe a virus or something. Nope. Reset WINSOCK. No changed. Rebooted into Safe Mode w/networking. No change. Reset the modem. No change. Kept rerunning a speedtest at a CenturyLink web page. (When it would complete...always about the same: download and upload speeds pretty close to the same...around 450 Kb/s. To shorten the story: their technicians got on the line running tests...and glory hallelujah...they actually said they identified a problem within the CenturyLink network. Not at my house or PC or even the modem...but "within the CenturyLink network"....but it will take 24 to 48 hours to repair it". What surprised me was the gal who did the initial checks and speed tests was friendly and concerned because I wasn't getting anywhere close to what we're paying for (3MB down).

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22160	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 6:42pm
	Funny how you can spend hours making sure it isn't you and it rarely is. Glad you got it shot.

Bob Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Location: Piney woods Tex Posts: 11087	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 7:04pm
	Oh boy am I ever sympathetic. Your description of incomplete page loadings and the like bring back very recent memories. As an aside - I hardly ever use my land line now that I have the little mobile hotspot and when I did pick it up recently .... it was completely dead, not even a dial tone. Before that I had checked occasionally and the noise was getting so bad it was interfering with voice calls. I'm seriously considering dropping my land line.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 7:10pm
	Well...if you're happy with cell and your hotspot. There's sure lots of folks around here who have dropped their land lines. Latest test...yep...I'd say they have a problem somewhere. (Wonder if it will be "normal" again in the morning...) 49Kb/s down 1541 Kb/s up 1076 ms latency (And yes...those numbers are correct...49 down, 1541 up and 1076 latency)

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 3:47am
	And this morning...as usual...it's back to normal. I tried three different test sites. CenturyLink's site gives better results than others...except oddly for latency or ping. Not sure what's up with that. If anybody else wants to give theirs a whirl...it's speedtest.centurylink.net

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22160	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 5:54am
	To their Dallas site I'm 7.89/.97 with 25 latency. My ISP is consistent if nothing else.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 2:41pm
	Is that close to what you're contracted for? (Can't remember.) And tonight...just tested...slow again. Better than yesterday at this time...but it's still early. LOL

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22160	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 2:56pm
	Yup, I'm paying for 8/1. Not bad at all and my ISP has been remarkably reliable in that regard.

Karl_db Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 29217	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 3:05pm
	Embarq/Century link was quite reliable until maybe the last month or so. Actually...I'm not sure. It's only the last 3-4 weeks that I started paying closer attention and running speed checks. It's possible that times past when it was quirky and I blamed it on busy sites....that it was the same problem. Time will tell....if they get it fixed in the 24-48 hours. That time frame makes me wonder if it's a physical problem they detected somewhere.

Don Watkins Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Admin Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 22160	Quote Reply Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 3:25pm
	I expect it is a physical problem, maybe even at the neighborhood box. Had a big problem with my connectivity with Time Warner one time and it took them forever to track it down to a bad card in the neighborhood box.