[Dead] SBC DSL 6mbit/608 $44.99/month! (Feb-Mar only) Update: If you got the deal, you keep the speed

[Muse]

Originally posted by: duhh
Basically nobody there can figure out what happened to my order, so it was re-ordered yesterday. Service should be live next Thursday...

Well, that's interesting. I just got an email from SBC telling me that my request for new service would be implemented on 3/16/2004. Only trouble is I have no request in for new service. I just called them and they're cancelling that "request." I'm fine with my old "basic one static ip" account, since they doubled my speeds from 1.3 to 2.7. Otherwise it was $70/mo. or $100/mo. depending on ? I'm $50/mo. now. At 11,800 from the C.O., I guess it's the best I can do unless I go to cable. Not.

 

[Almighty1]

Muse, contact one of the official SBC techs on DSLReports.com who will be able to look up your issue and fix the problem. The distance of 6500 feet is only the distance the crow flies. You need the distance on SBC Engineering records which is what is important and even that changes as it's inaccurate. Failing that, ask for a MLT which tests the electrical signals to determine the actual distance. Are you using filters or are you using a DSL splitter?

 

[toshipics]

i ordered expert plus last week and the activation day is march 19. Currenlty I have using earthlink dsl. I found that the speed of my earthlink line went up to 4.2mbp/501k yesterday . ha ha it is very funny because I am still using 1.5/3xx plan @ earthlink.

 

[SigFawn]

it's a little annoying seeing people complain about only 3 megabit when i barely get 1.5 lol

 

[zerodeefex]

It's more annoying to see people complain about 1.5 as my apartment is far enough away that the best they can offer me is 384.

 

[Insomniac]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Muse
After complaining yesterday evening that my speed had decreased 20-30% since the morning the put in a trouble ticket and I got a call a couple hours later from a guy (left a voice mail message) saying that my line wouldn't support more than 3.2. Today, my phone goes dead - voice and DSL and I'm on my cell phone trying to find out what's up and I see a guy outside my house with a screwdriver at my phone box. He says they are trying to improve my line and they expect to remove a "bridge tap", some kind of "loop" that may be degrading my line. That's to happen within a day, maybe this afternoon. They said I can expect a call telling me they've done this.

The guy came and went who removed the "bridge tap" which they thought would/might improve my connection. I have the same speed now:

2004-03-11 13:05:58 EST: 2724 / 325
Your download speed : 2724328 bps, or 2724 kbps.
A 332.5 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 325282 bps, or 325 kbps.

I called them and talked to a technician for a while. He said that I'm 11800 feet from the CO! I said I went to a site that said I was 6500 feet from the CO and he said sites like that typically use databases but SBC has ways of testing it and mine's 11800 (don't know if he was BSing me there or not) and that's the reason I'm at 3.2 instead of 6.0 and there's nothing they can do about it unless they (eventually) have a remote terminal (uses fiberoptics) for my area some time in the future. He said I could call them periodically and ask if they've done that. He said that as things are if they tried boosting my speed significantly I'd be apt to have frequent drops. So, I guess they have, in essense, capped my line. My speed tests at www.dslreports/stest are very consistently like what you see above.

I'm 10,000ft away and I can even get anything above the Standard Plus package.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Insomniac

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Muse
After complaining yesterday evening that my speed had decreased 20-30% since the morning the put in a trouble ticket and I got a call a couple hours later from a guy (left a voice mail message) saying that my line wouldn't support more than 3.2. Today, my phone goes dead - voice and DSL and I'm on my cell phone trying to find out what's up and I see a guy outside my house with a screwdriver at my phone box. He says they are trying to improve my line and they expect to remove a "bridge tap", some kind of "loop" that may be degrading my line. That's to happen within a day, maybe this afternoon. They said I can expect a call telling me they've done this.

The guy came and went who removed the "bridge tap" which they thought would/might improve my connection. I have the same speed now:

2004-03-11 13:05:58 EST: 2724 / 325
Your download speed : 2724328 bps, or 2724 kbps.
A 332.5 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 325282 bps, or 325 kbps.

I called them and talked to a technician for a while. He said that I'm 11800 feet from the CO! I said I went to a site that said I was 6500 feet from the CO and he said sites like that typically use databases but SBC has ways of testing it and mine's 11800 (don't know if he was BSing me there or not) and that's the reason I'm at 3.2 instead of 6.0 and there's nothing they can do about it unless they (eventually) have a remote terminal (uses fiberoptics) for my area some time in the future. He said I could call them periodically and ask if they've done that. He said that as things are if they tried boosting my speed significantly I'd be apt to have frequent drops. So, I guess they have, in essense, capped my line. My speed tests at www.dslreports/stest are very consistently like what you see above.

I'm 10,000ft away and I can even get anything above the Standard Plus package.

They told me 11800, but I don't know. How can you find out? The site quoted in this thread told me 6500 or so, but it also said my provider was Covad and I don't know what's up with that. I've been with Pacbell and then SBC for over 4 years. I've got 2700 down and 360 or so up. SBC is unbelievably complex and top heavy if you ask me. The left hand never seems to know what the right had is doing. I got a call on Friday from a woman who told me that they were upgrading me to 5 static IPs. I said that's the first I'd heard of that, that I never ordered it, etc. She said the order for dynamic IP (Expert Plus) went in on 3/5 and that it couldn't be reversed (I'd cancelled it while I still had 1 static IP on about 3/11). I said they never installed it, and I was advised to cancel it and I did. She said it's too late, it went through on 3/5. I continued talking to her and she eventually realized that I still have my one static IP, never had dynamic and she said she could and would cancel the order (which would have bumped me up $20/month). Just today I notice an email sent me on that same day (Friday, 3/12) saying I would have my 5 static IPs by 3/16 (today), so I call just to make sure they didn't do that. I'm sick of screwing with these people. When I called tech support I was told they were supposed to have uncapped my service on 3/5 - with NO prodding from me, no input from me, no requests, period. If they had done that I never would have had to go through any of this crap. If I had the money I'd be with Sonic.net. I'm sure you don't have to put up with so much nonsense.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SigFawn
it's a little annoying seeing people complain about only 3 megabit when i barely get 1.5 lol

You're totally right. Fact is, they doubled my speed last week but I really don't notice the difference (1.3 to 2.7). If I did much downloading I guess I would, but for my day to day browsing, downloading email and newsgroup messages, I haven't noticed the difference. Now when I went from a modem connection to DSL (1.3), that was acceleration ....... yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Almighty1
Muse, contact one of the official SBC techs on DSLReports.com who will be able to look up your issue and fix the problem. The distance of 6500 feet is only the distance the crow flies. You need the distance on SBC Engineering records which is what is important and even that changes as it's inaccurate. Failing that, ask for a MLT which tests the electrical signals to determine the actual distance. Are you using filters or are you using a DSL splitter?

I think I'm using a DSL splitter and filters - 2 filters! One filter leads into another. I had this stuff installed when the quality of their filters wasn't so hot so an installer put in a second one to refilter the signal. That cleaned up problems I was having in voice. The two filters are right beside one another right next to the box on the side of the house. From there, the line goes into the house where they have a splitter box - one cable goes from there to my modem (Alcatel 1000), and the other cable goes to a "z-blocker filter" right at my answering machine. I guess they gave me that because I had a problem. I don't remember that (but I made some notes, see below - it was 5 years ago). I have other phones running off of feeds from the outside box - no problems.

Technical note I made for myself on 04/26/1999 - "I was having a problem with my answering machine cutting people off and
then not indicating that even a partial message was sent. I have posted
about this in pbinet.adsl and comp.dcom.xdsl newsgroups. I also have had
problems with my cordless phone not working and uneven volume on my
speakerphone. Turning off the Alcatel 1000 modem stopped these problems,
but I wanted a better solution. I realized that I could probably fix the
problem by buying and installing a DSL filter, but I decided to try and
see if I could get PacBell to fix it. Here's the result of the visit by
a technician today:

I just got my visit from a data comm specialist at PacBell, who came to
troubleshoot my problem. The first thing was a demo from me of the
problem, and that was not difficult. He called me with his cell phone
and tried to leave a message on my answering machine and that process
failed. My machine picked up, but with the Alcatel modem on, my
answering machine would not indicate that a message was left, and the
call was cut off prematurely -- the typical behavior.

Swaping out the splitter did not resolve the problem, as was
anticipated. I told him what I knew about the problem, and he called his
supervisor, who today happened to be a guy out of Sacramento who was not
unfamiliar with the problem and was aware of the filters that solve it.

This supervisor suggested a temporary fix until a filter can be procured
sometime next week. This involved running the voice component of the
already split signal through a 2nd splitter and taking the voice
component from that. This is essentially using a splitter as a temporary
filter, and after wiring this it tested positive. They are going to come
back next week and swap out this arrangement with a dedicated filter."
- - - -
They never came to swap out that arrangement. What those boxes are outside, I don't know. I guess they're splitters. The box I have when the DSL line comes in the house from those boxes has two out plugs. One's labeled voice, the other data. Is that a splitter too?

 

[firebob78]

too bad for me, i only have cable modem. Comcast cable modem i not bad though, considering I'm getting 2.5mbit/s.

 

[Davinci]

is this "deal" still working ?
I live in the SF Bay area and I would consider upgrading if I can get these speeds.

 

[Nightfall]

Yes, give em a call and see if you qualify for those speeds.

 

[Snipersheep]

If you order before March 31st, you can get a free (rather nice) wireless DSL router w/built-in DSL modem.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=1271424

Works with $29.99 packages and the Expert $44.99 package.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Davinci
is this "deal" still working ?
I live in the SF Bay area and I would consider upgrading if I can get these speeds.

See first post for linkage and information. Deal is now over as of TODAY. Hopefully you got in! Also, the word is you will STAY AT 6mbit if you got it.

Quote from the SBC midwest guy:

I was on a call today where high level directors discussed this very issue. SBC marketing is unwavering in there position in regards to grandfathering existing customers. They fought the "big boys" and they won the war. If you are currently downloading at 6mbps provisioned speeds today.... YOU WILL NOT BE REDUCED TO A LOWER SPEED. The ONLY way you will lose this speed and price is if you decided to make a change to your service or move your service.

If you hear anything that contradicts the above, ask that person for their job title. If their jobtitle is anything other than "CEO" or "President", you can consider the information to be "well intended" but incorrect.

 

[dc]

grandfathered! woot.

 

[Muse]

I smell a rat. They told me they cancelled my order for an upgrade. Again and again they told me that. That would seem to mean I still have up to five subaccounts. But I just added a subaccount and it said I have up to ten subaccounts. If they try to bill me an extra $20/month, well, ... they better not!

 

[Devistater]

Today March 31, 2003 I purchased a linksys WRT54G router instead of the NR041 that I was using. OMG, First speed test was 4841/511. Second was 4800/522. Apparently that was my problem all along!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Devistater
Today March 31, 2003 I purchased a linksys WRT54G router instead of the NR041 that I was using. OMG, First speed test was 4841/511. Second was 4800/522. Apparently that was my problem all along!

I kinda think that the _quality_ of your network card(s) can also factor in bigtime.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Devistater
Today March 31, 2003 I purchased a linksys WRT54G router instead of the NR041 that I was using. OMG, First speed test was 4841/511. Second was 4800/522. Apparently that was my problem all along!

I kinda think that the _quality_ of your network card(s) can also factor in bigtime.

Well maybe. 5megabit per second is nowhere near the 100mb per sec that my network can handle. And actually since 99% of cable/dsl modems have 10mb hardware in them, it doesn't matter anyway. If you can transfer files over your network faster than you can d/l on the internet I dont think network card is much of a factor. I suppose it could be if you had some uber sucky network card on a laptop on a 16 bit bus or something heh.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Devistater

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Devistater
Today March 31, 2003 I purchased a linksys WRT54G router instead of the NR041 that I was using. OMG, First speed test was 4841/511. Second was 4800/522. Apparently that was my problem all along!

I kinda think that the _quality_ of your network card(s) can also factor in bigtime.

Well maybe. 5megabit per second is nowhere near the 100mb per sec that my network can handle. And actually since 99% of cable/dsl modems have 10mb hardware in them, it doesn't matter anyway. If you can transfer files over your network faster than you can d/l on the internet I dont think network card is much of a factor. I suppose it could be if you had some uber sucky network card on a laptop on a 16 bit bus or something heh.

I bought a NIC at a computer show, a Dolphin with a Realtek RTL8139C chipset for $6. It's said to be a decent chipset, and that's why I bought the card aside from the good price. I saw an evaluation at a website and the guy said that some of these cards work a lot better than others, though. I guess mine was crappy because it took over 23 minutes to download the same data (total bytes: 335,167,056) that my Intel 21143 chipset NIC (given me by Pacbell when I signed up for DSL almost 5 years ago) downloaded in under 7 minutes. I repeated these comparisons with similar results. I concluded it was a crappy card and haven't used it since. At the time I was using my 1.3 mbps download SBC DSL and no router - straight DSL modem connection to the NIC.

 

[Devistater]

Muse:
It could be the card, but it could be a huge number of other reasons. I had problems once with a very slow network card, turned out it wasn't properly autodetecting the duplex setting.
Little explaination in case anyone needs it: Things like Hubs can only do 100mbps up or down, not both at once. This is called half duplex. Things like switches can do 100mbps up AND 100mbps down at the SAME time and thats called full duplex (which is why you'll sometimes see switches mention a 200mb speed). The network card is supposed to detect what its connected to and set full or half duplex automatically although this can be set in network driver properties in windows. The problem comes if you are hooked up to half duplex equipment and your network card is set on full duplex. It tries to send out packets at the same time its receiving so there are a lot of whats called "collisions" (often shown by red lights on hubs) and the data has to be resent. This can slow down the speed of throughput by a HUGE amount. Once I set my network card to the proper setting, it worked great.

I'm not saying its impossible the network card was at fault (after all, improperly detecting duplex is the fault of the drivers), but its just hard for me to belive a network card can't handle a 1 or 2 MB speed properly. Thats like 100 times worse than max speed Anyway, it could have been the network card or it could have been other things in software/drivers. Guess there's no way to know now.

 

[Muse]

Devistater,

Thanks for that explanation. Well, I still have the card - didn't give up on it. I figured that my testing might not be conclusive, as you've just proved. I did buy another card, though - found an unbeatable deal on a Linksys NIC, and it seems to work very well. I'll keep that Realtek chip card, just in case. Maybe I'll futz with it and see if I can get it working keeping some of those ideas in mind. Based on what you say I have to think the card wasn't configured correctly somehow.

 

[Almighty1]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Devistater

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Devistater
Today March 31, 2003 I purchased a linksys WRT54G router instead of the NR041 that I was using. OMG, First speed test was 4841/511. Second was 4800/522. Apparently that was my problem all along!

I kinda think that the _quality_ of your network card(s) can also factor in bigtime.

Well maybe. 5megabit per second is nowhere near the 100mb per sec that my network can handle. And actually since 99% of cable/dsl modems have 10mb hardware in them, it doesn't matter anyway. If you can transfer files over your network faster than you can d/l on the internet I dont think network card is much of a factor. I suppose it could be if you had some uber sucky network card on a laptop on a 16 bit bus or something heh.

I bought a NIC at a computer show, a Dolphin with a Realtek RTL8139C chipset for $6. It's said to be a decent chipset, and that's why I bought the card aside from the good price. I saw an evaluation at a website and the guy said that some of these cards work a lot better than others, though. I guess mine was crappy because it took over 23 minutes to download the same data (total bytes: 335,167,056) that my Intel 21143 chipset NIC (given me by Pacbell when I signed up for DSL almost 5 years ago) downloaded in under 7 minutes. I repeated these comparisons with similar results. I concluded it was a crappy card and haven't used it since. At the time I was using my 1.3 mbps download SBC DSL and no router - straight DSL modem connection to the NIC.

The Realtek RTL8139 is about the worst card you can buy as it uses CPU resources since it doesn't have it's own processor. Think of it like a WinModem except it's a WinNIC where it's software based and not hardware. The RealTek's don't even do 30Mbps in actual thruput compared to cards from Intel/3Com.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Almighty1

The Realtek RTL8139 is about the worst card you can buy as it uses CPU resources since it doesn't have it's own processor. Think of it like a WinModem except it's a WinNIC where it's software based and not hardware. The RealTek's don't even do 30Mbps in actual thruput compared to cards from Intel/3Com.

Guess I was misinformed, thanks. I thought Realtek chip NICs were supposed to be pretty good when I went to that computer show. I did do some homework, not enough. I think I got that idea reading a review of various NICs at some site. $6 worth of buyer's remorse, could be worse.

I gotta admit, that card looks skimpy. No processor, hmmm.

 

[Almighty1]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Almighty1

The Realtek RTL8139 is about the worst card you can buy as it uses CPU resources since it doesn't have it's own processor. Think of it like a WinModem except it's a WinNIC where it's software based and not hardware. The RealTek's don't even do 30Mbps in actual thruput compared to cards from Intel/3Com.

Guess I was misinformed, thanks. I thought Realtek chip NICs were supposed to be pretty good when I went to that computer show. I did do some homework, not enough. I think I got that idea reading a review of various NICs at some site. $6 worth of buyer's remorse, could be worse.

I gotta admit, that card looks skimpy. No processor, hmmm.

It's only good because it's cheap but when you run any form of Unix or Windows, people who compare the various chips came to the conclusion of what is good and what isn't. LinkSys, Netgear and DLink have changed chips depending on the revision but they should all be decent... The DEC/Intel Tulip was a good chip that was cheap... The Intel and 3Com cards are ofcourse the best out there.