Slower DSL speeds

[stimpson]

Been noticing my AT&T 6 Meg DSL speeds have been slow lately. Run speediest.net and get around 2.5-3.5 depending on the time of day. Called them today and they ran their line tests and said all is within tolerances. They recommend that I bridge the modern and router to increase my speeds a little. Is that true?

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[Ilya]

A lot of various factors can cause the DSL slow downs:

1. Problems with the phone lines. For example, if you (like many of us) have been getting a lot of rains lately, that could have affected the quality of phone lines. Is the sound quality on the phone as good as it used to be?

2. Do you have a DVR, a Roku box or some other video-streaming components hooked up to the Internet? Are you sure they are not consuming half of your bandwidth?

3. Even though DSL is a dedicated connection, the bandwidth is not guaranteed. The pipe on the other end is actually shared by many subscribers and in certain cases it can get overwhelmed if a lot of people are doing video-streaming for example.

4. Finally, I've heard AT&T has started doing throttling: artificially limiting the bandwidth of some subscribers who use Internet "too much". I hope this is not the case though.

 

[stimpson]

We have had lots of rain in the past few months. Way more than normal. I went back to look at older tests and the speeds were in fact better before the rains began. Also, what are your thoughts on the bridging thing?

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[Frank Jr.]

Mine is PPPoE, not bridged. Have you tried restarting you modem?

 

[Ilya]

I doubt that your router is the limiting factor, though you may want to check/replace the cables if they are suspect. Also, occasionally the DSL filter goes bad and needs to be replaced. Do try power-cycling both the modem and the router, as suggested above.

Sometimes Wi-Fi can be slowing down things, but you can easily check for that by connecting your computer to the router (or even the modem if you know how to do that) directly with the Ethernet cable and running the speed tests.

You can also run some diagnostics, like Ping or Tracert commands, if you are familiar with them. For example, from DOS command line run:

PING yahoo.com -t

(instead of yahoo you can put some other site that responds to ping) - this command will run until you stop it with Ctrl-C. It will tell you how many packets are lost. If you get a lot of lost packets, then you have a problem somewhere: bad connection, noisy line, or something else. Though the problem may not be on your end. Tracert command can help you figure out where exactly the packets are lost. Just google Tracert for detailed instructions.

 

[Ilya]

We have had lots of rain in the past few months. Way more than normal. I went back to look at older tests and the speeds were in fact better before the rains began.

Rain can slow down the Internet at least in two ways:

1. It may affect the quality of phone/DSL lines.

2. It keeps more people at home, so they use the Internet much more than they would on sunny days.

 

[stimpson]

Mine is PPPoE, not bridged. Have you tried restarting you modem?

Yes.

I doubt that your router is the limiting factor, though you may want to check/replace the cables if they are suspect. Also, occasionally the DSL filter goes bad and needs to be replaced. Do try power-cycling both the modem and the router, as suggested above.

Sometimes Wi-Fi can be slowing down things, but you can easily check for that by connecting your computer to the router (or even the modem if you know how to do that) directly with the Ethernet cable and running the speed tests.

You can also run some diagnostics, like Ping or Tracert commands, if you are familiar with them. For example, from DOS command line run:

PING yahoo.com -t

(instead of yahoo you can put some other site that responds to ping) - this command will run until you stop it with Ctrl-C. It will tell you how many packets are lost. If you get a lot of lost packets, then you have a problem somewhere: bad connection, noisy line, or something else. Though the problem may not be on your end. Tracert command can help you figure out where exactly the packets are lost. Just google Tracert for detailed instructions.

I did bypass the router. Same results. I'll try Tracert. Thanks. Fellas.

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[Frank Jr.]

This may be more trouble than it is worth but at least you could rule out your house wiring. Well sort of..... If you can bypass the house wiring by connecting directly to the NID and then test your speeds. For a good article click here

 

[mike123abc]

If you can talk to the modem directly (usually has a 192 number) there is usually a diagnostic/status screen that will show the connection speed. It will give an uplink and downlink connection speed. If it is only connecting at 3.1mbit that is all you are going to get no matter what you do to your router. If it is connecting at a low speed, try connecting the modem outside at the network interface and see what you can get. That way you can see if it is the in house wiring. If it is still slow it is something at the phone company.

 

[stimpson]

This may be more trouble than it is worth but at least you could rule out your house wiring. Well sort of..... If you can bypass the house wiring by connecting directly to the NID and then test your speeds. For a good article click here

If you can talk to the modem directly (usually has a 192 number) there is usually a diagnostic/status screen that will show the connection speed. It will give an uplink and downlink connection speed. If it is only connecting at 3.1mbit that is all you are going to get no matter what you do to your router. If it is connecting at a low speed, try connecting the modem outside at the network interface and see what you can get. That way you can see if it is the in house wiring. If it is still slow it is something at the phone company.

Thanks fellas. I'll try that when I get a chance.

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[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I also have ATT DSL & I've found that rain does slow down the speed. I have a Netgear DSL Gateway & my speeds stay between 6000-(yes,even)7000mbit.

 

[stimpson]

Tech to troubleshoot in the AM.

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[stimpson]

It was a bad modem. All is good now.

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[Frank Jr.]

It was a bad modem. All is good now.

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Post your speeds now that the modem was replaced.........What modem are you now using?

Just curious.

 

[stimpson]

The original was a Speed stream. The replacement is a Westell.

 

[Frank Jr.]

I am not one to claim one modem is better or faster than another, but if you can get your hands on an old Netopia modem give it a try. I have had Westell, 2wire and a Netopia. I started with AT&T aka Bellsouth over 6 years ago with a Westell that died after about 6 months. They replaced it with a Netopia that works great. I had line issues later on that was no fault of my modem and the technichian that showed up gave me the 2wire. Just for fun one night I removed the Netopia and installed the 2wire and lost about 2 megs down. I put back the Netopia and consistantly kept over 6 down. Your upload is better than mine has ever been.

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[stimpson]

I am not one to claim one modem is better or faster than another, but if you can get your hands on an old Netopia modem give it a try. I have had Westell, 2wire and a Netopia. I started with AT&T aka Bellsouth over 6 years ago with a Westell that died after about 6 months. They replaced it with a Netopia that works great. I had line issues later on that was no fault of my modem and the technichian that showed up gave me the 2wire. Just for fun one night I removed the Netopia and installed the 2wire and lost about 2 megs down. I put back the Netopia and consistantly kept over 6 down. Your upload is better than mine has ever been.

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I'll try and track one down. I have a few old National Guard buddies the still work for SBC. Maybe they can find one for me. We both have D-. How sad are we. Thanks for the info buddy.