Posted on 06/12/2014 6:51:39 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
I'll try to make this as short as possible, because I never know when a page is going to load.
As you may recall, I started having connection issues about three and a half months ago. After eliminating every other issue I wound up getting another (rebuilt) computer.
Late last month the same issue began showing up so I returned the computer to the repair shop at which I bought it. They hooked it up to their connection and announced that there was nothing wrong with it.
As recently as last Sunday this thing was working like a top. Now not only will it not play videos, it doesn't even want to load still pictures and sometimes doesn't want to load a page at all. I've been on the phone twice today with my ISP. The first guy remote controlled my computer, checked out my browser, and said it was working great (which it was for him). Then after hanging up I was once again having the greatest difficulty loading pages. I called again and was told there was absolutely nothing wrong with the network. So it's not the computer, it's not the modem (either one of them, since they both have the same problem), and it's not the network. I'm losing my ability to surf the Net at all and apparently there is nothing wrong with anything.
The DSL is sending someone to check out our wiring over the weekend (I'm grasping at straws that it may have something to do with the days of flash flooding saturating the soil and perhaps doing some harm to the phone lines, though we have no problems with the telephone itself). If he once again tells me there's nothing wrong with anything and to take the computer to the shop (been there, done that) I'll simply have to cancel my Internet account. I can't afford to keep paying this for service that's indistinguishable from dial-up.
I don't want to do this. But it looks like that's what it's going to come to barring a miracle. I'm absolutely sick about this. Everyone's jerking me around and disclaiming responsibility, every else says it's working for them, but i can't do anything.
I've been online for seveenteen years, the past seven on DSL, and never had any problems at all until just a few months ago. Furthermore 5/24 was my fifteenth anniversary as a FReeper.
Please don't tease me by asking if my computer is plugged in. Not funny, guys. Don't try to give me advice because I won't understand a word of it. And I don't have any laptops, smart phones, or any such thing . . . just one desktop plugged into one phone jack.
Please forgive my tone, but I am at my wit's end. I hope I will somehow be able to stay online, but if no one can find anything wrong, I don't know what to do other than cancel. And no, we don't have cable out here.
I hope this isn't the end, but if it is . . . well, I'll miss all of you. And I'm well aware of what an unpleasant jackass I am most of the time. Thanks to Jim Rob and everyone else for putting up with me.
If all you have is a modem, try getting a wireless router and hook it up to the modem. Then hook your ethernet cable into the router. Wireless routers have a built in firewall that will protect from being bombarded from stuff from the outside which can slow down your connection.
Our DSL at work used to get VERY sluggish at 10:45 every morning. Slow page loads, timeouts, excessive buffering on video, etc. It was so bad our internet was useless from 10:45 until closing.
Our provider said their wire wouldn't handle that much bandwidth, a mystery since we don't do much business online.
Turns out the neighbor down the street tied into our line and was pirating our DSL. At 10:45 he was logging into some online fantasy game that was using up all the bandwidth.
Note that there's a mis-type in my initial post. It was my modem, not my browser, that was tested and found in perfectly good performance by the technician I spoke with.
BFLR
I really don’t know how to try to help other than to recommend backing up all of your important data and installing Linux. If you have any further questions about doing that, I’ll be glad to answer. If you decide to install Linux, I’ll start sending instructions. Sorry I couldn’t help in another way.
You might also try a wireless Internet provider. Either Ubuntu or Debian Linux should work well with wireless without any manual configuration on your part. You could also try using a cheap hard drive to install Linux on in order to try it first.
To me, it sounds like you have a problem with your telephone line..It could be two to 5 telephone poles away from your residence or more. A poor or resistive connection, or cross connected line will totally and intermittently screw with your DSL performance. I just went through it myself.
I called the phone co, they sent a guy out and he used a meter to locate the fault which was about 500 ft from my residence. He fixed it and I was not told what he found but I have been good to go since..
Do you have some hardwired phones on the line? I had to move my modem to the phone terminal and going with a single hardwired phone base with 5 wireless extensions. The problem was intermittent, but solved after the changes.
When we moved to this current house, the local cable company didn’t represent themselves well, so I decided to go with DSL.
Biggest mistake every. They were about $20 cheaper a month, and for a few months they were fine, but then we started having “freezing” issues with the connection. About 7 months after we moved in here, I had a serious illness that required surgery and recovery. The internet connection was so bad that we would have to reset the router nearly every 15 minutes.
Before my surgery we replaced all of the hardware - modem, router, and adapter for me. It seemed ok for about a day. Back to reseting the router. So we rigged me an extension cord so I didn’t have to walk around the house to reset the modem.
Needless to say, I went to cable, have the same router, never a problem.
I'm on dial up and over the years I've noticed any line noise including very low hums, popping and cracking, or clicking noises means trouble and very low speed service. You could possibly be crossed with another customers line. In that case you would experience issues when they decide to use their services.
Stop making it harder for yourself, get an internet ready phone tommorow morning. If you are still having connection problems I would guess someone. or something has begun acting as a cloud parasite or cloud magnet. Something new is going on in your geo area .
He was never on the internet, but Winston Churchill said “Never give up!”
I’ve had issues in the past with DSL. Remember that DSL is running across copper lines that were never designed for such use, and they can be flaky considering several factors.
Moisture can adversely affect DSL lines and I’ve found from personal experience that this is the primary cause of DSL connectivity issues.
Cable modems are also vulnerable to the elements. I had a cable modem when I live in Florida and one day lightning struck outside of my apartment, hit the underground cable line and went through my cable modem and annihilated my network card in my PC. I actually saw it happen and a puff of smoke came out of my PC case. I removed the Network card and even saw the damage done to it.
That being said, DSL running across copper lines is vulnerable in many spots so perhaps you will get lucky and your service provider will discover the issues you are having are located in the copper runs to you home.
If you have AT&T for your DSL ISP and if they recently sold you UVerse as a reliable Internet connection, or if they have recently increased your internet connection speed, it’s very likely that the wires that are supposed to carry the load for your telephone line and your Internet connection can’t handle the increased speed and load.
AT & T has been attempting to sell everyone everywhere on the benefits of buying UVerse. They have gone so far as to offer very low monthly rates for DSL only, as an incentive. Unfortunately what (some) AT&T sales people have been saying is factually incorrect, untrue, and they are very likely lying if they claim that everyone in your area now has access to fiber optic cables and dramatically increased internet connection speeds versus the slower speeds on old and unfortunately deteriorating cables.
AT & T will send out technicians and it is your right to ask them to send out another one if you experience static on your phone line, or if your internet connection continues to drop off. Use the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. tech visits to verify what the last one said. Be sure to take notes because you’ll need them when you ask to speak to Retention later.
There are a few types of technicians - one who has experience servicing mostly phone lines and has had a career where he “climbed the poles;” there are techs who service only DSL; and there are techs who after a long career of servicing phone lines, now services both. IMHO the best techs are those who have worked for the phone company and are (unfortunately) close to retirement. If they’re in their late 30s, early 40s, there’s not much difference between the various types of techs. What you want though is someone to tell you the truth, and that’s why it’s helpful to request repeated field service calls until they find the problem and fix it.
Techs have the ability to test various DSL connection speeds on *your* line from their trucks. They have out of this world, very cool, heavy duty field laptops and I think you might have to ask them to test your line to see which connection speed will work for your line.
If they tell you the truth, be prepared for some unhappy news regarding internet speed connections, especially if they are from AT&T. What sales people and commercials have been promising has been in many cases impossible to fulfill with no hope of any changes for a very long time, depending on your area. Today’s AT&T is nothing like the reliable AT&T of a decade or two ago except for many of the field techs who will at least give you an honest assessment and the truth.
Sorry this is so lengthy and I hope this helps.
A few years back I signed up for DSL. We had DISHTV.
Line was bad. A tech came out and had to dig up the phone lines. Turns out our line crossed over touching our neighbors line. He separated them and service was good. Some time late talking to our neighbor about what was done (they had to dig her yard) she mention to us about this strange static on her phone in the last few weeks. After the lines were reconfigured, the static went away on her line.
Could be so many things.
You could have many people up line from you leaving you nothing to use.
In Thailand.
He started outside as an installer, spent about 25 years in the old mechanical switch 4-A, and when it went ESS under AT&T he went back outside with Bellsouth into what was called then Special Services working on data circuits. He retired in about 1992 or so. But the equipment then is pretty much the equipment now. A&T bought Bellsouth in our region. Within a year there were very few Ladderback Unicorns out on the streets and it's starting to show.
One or two guys now cover what about two dozen men used to. The two dozen insured maintenance got done and there was sufficient manpower for major outages. AT&T is in all respects a dysfunctional communications company. The customer service robotic line stinks. You don't get a chance to say "hey you have a cable break".
AT&T is likely fixing to go out of the landline business except for providing trunking service {backbone} to cell companies. If the economy picks up within a year most lines will be wireless. Thus AT&T isn't upgrading anything landline they don't absolutely have to. A few years ago the SLICK that feeds our area would die about once a month. Finally they ended up replacing it and about 3 miles of buried cable. A school being served by the SLICK likely placed a huge factor in that though.
Thanks TexasGator. I haven’t looked into getting Satellite yet after hearing your experience, perhaps it’s time.
CVA66snipe, first please give your Dad a hug for me and thank him for his years of service. AT & T and the old Bell companies served my family and our country well.
Thank you for sharing his story here. It is quite remarkable and sad what has transpired since then. I don’t understand why in one decade they were sued as being a monopoly, then decades later after being nearly decimated, they returned and became a monopoly again. It all seems like a waste. I’d love to believe that someday years in the future, fiber optics will replace the old cables, yet it seems impossible today that such a big company would ever invest the money again.
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