Originally posted by: Ainaas
I realize this is a bit tangent to the current thread content, so I apologize if it ruffles anyone's feathers. I live in Indiana and have SBC DSL (started before SBC bought out Ameritech actually). We've always had 768/384, but our max sustained download speed has never topped 40 KBps (so ~320 Kbps). If you do one of those online distance testers (an approximation I realize) we're well within the ranges for full speed, but obviously we're not getting it. The first DSL modem we got was labeled "Extended Range", but that was burnt out by lightning or something, and we recieved an exact replacement, but wasn't labeled "Extended Range." The speed has been the same on both those.
What do you guys think we should do? I will call my dad and tell him to re-negotiate for the $15 a month plan so at least we get a decent price for not-alltogether-terrible service, but SBC hasn't ever really been responsive when I complain to them about the speed. I'm asking about alot of variables here, but do you guys think it's the modem, our distance from the switching station, the DSL hookup at our house, in-house phone wiring, or something else I can't think of? Should I call SBC and ask for them to send tech's out?
The only way to tell distance is from SBC themselves. And they usually wont. But what did the online thing say?
If you really want "extended range" SBC dsl modems you can find them on ebay, or I think I have one I'm not using anymore. They are usually only good if you are like say 7000-10,000 feet or more from the CO or RT. If you are pretty far in other words.
There are other things to check as well. Like you can check in your NID on your side to see if you have a little tester module inside the NID, those screw things up. I forget what they are called. Usually the dsl installer removes them when they come out if they are present. Thats a rare but possible thing to check for.
You can also install a home run, I did that. Turned out to be very easy since my home had CAT5 wiring for phones anyway. For me, the problem turned out to be my crappy Linksys NR041 router holding me back. Of course my problem was that I was paying for 6mbit and only getting like 3 or 4 mbit.
Oh and check your MTU, make sure its set properly. Usually SBC has PPPoE connections and those need 1492 MTU.
And some modems can give you line diagnostics as well if you want to get really technical.
This site has a lot of information
http://www.broadbandreports.com/
One of the things I love about that site is that it has a SBC support forum, where the official SBC techs can check your lines and stuff. Since you get answers from the upper level techs who actualy KNOW stuff and have access to your information, generally you get useful help and support from them. Rather than calling the clueless morons at the 800 number.
When I initially ordered my 6mbit upgrade, I asked a question of one of the techs there because my upgrade was a couple days overdue (the download portion). He responded within an hour, on a friday afternoon, just before he was due to leave for home. AND he fixed it. Great service. For technical issues, you can't beat the SBC support forum over there with actual official SBC techs.
Most of the time you can get more and better info from those forums on that site than you can by calling the 800 number. Like for instance when comcast had all those DNS troubles just recently, you could find instantly how to work around it on that forum. Whereas if you called them they didn't know what the problem was. Lots of people talked to 3 or 4 ppl on the phone who didn't know and couldn't help them. When the workaround was quite simple, and the problem affected a huge percentage of comcast customers.