[SLL] Nationwide Internet: melting down?

[Ken Meyer]

Not to mention the "dial-tone quality" demands of the Comcast VoIP phone
service.  I've found that the CS folks really snap-to when I mention their
trying to sell me phone service over a pathetic connection.

Note that the TacLUG list has been having a very similar thread that started
with someone complaining about his Nationwide service (at first I thought it
was about a national outage, given the dramatic magnitude of infrastructure
breakdowns these days).  However, others in the area who had DSL service
over Qworst copper said that they were not having any problems, so the idea
that these are global problems attributable to Qworst is, I think, still
pretty hypothetical.

Who is your provider, Brian -- Charter?  Do you have a commercial account
with static IP and permission to run servers?  If so, what does it cost?
How fast?

I recently went through a spate of Comcast drop-outs, which now seem to have
gone away after a service call that replaced some cables, but what really
may have fixed it is my taking the digital converter box off the splitter
near the computer (analog connection from the splitter to the little TV
works fine and apparently doesn't drag down the internet).

The service guy did say that this location was near the far end of the loop,
and S/N was marginally low.  As subscribers increase, you also get less of
the pie.  He said he could install an amplifier that would cost me, but who
wants "loud" noise?

Several recent downloads stuck right around 1 Mbps, even in the wee hours,
but when I ran speed tests at broadbandreports.com, it was 6 Gig down and
about 800 Megs up, which I think is what they advertise and was right in the
upper middle of their statistical plot.  Maybe they give big QoS to the test
sites :-P

Dynamic IP is quite stable, but when they are working on the network, it may
change several times in a short period; and it seems that this is likely
after a service call.

CS folks are pretty universally friendly and chatty, and don't seem to be
trying to meet a calls per hour quota -- and they are local in Lynnwood or
Tacoma (I think).  They mostly talk a good game, but one said that it would
reset the system if I reversed the Ethernet cable end-for-end -- say what?

Of course, Comcast residential doesn't allow servers, theoretically, and
even wants you to pay for additional connections, which is a real crock.
And when I call about an outage, they always ask early in the conversation
whether I am running a router.  I'm not sure of the proximate significance
of that query.

Ken M.


-----Original Message-----

From: linux-list-bounces at ssc.com [mailto:linux-list-bounces at ssc.com]On
Behalf Of Brian Lane
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 7:53 AM
To: linux-list at ssc.com

Subject: Re: [SLL] Nationwide Internet: melting down?

Tim Maher wrote:

> Okay, my "Nationwide Internet" DSL service went out again today (at
> 4pm), and after listening to the "hold music" for an hour, I was given
> the usual explanation -- everybody in "my area" is affected, and
> they're working with Qwest to determine what's wrong.
>
> I'm totally fed up with this crappy reliability, and ready to switch
> to a more reliable DSL IP -- or maybe even to cable. When I posted a
> similar message back in July, Ralph Sims reported that he uses Qwest
> DSL, and had never had an outage. But IIRC he's in Shelton, so his
> experience may not be relevant to what I'm seeing in Seattle (maybe
> they ran a dedicated fiber optic cable right to his house? 8-} )
>
> Question time:
>
> 1) Did any other Seattle DSL customers have an outage today (8/9)?
>    If not, what ISP are you using?
>
> 2) What more reliable ISP would you recommend? (I'm easily satisfied --
>    all I need is one (non-RBHL) static IP address, and permission to run
>    some standard servers.

I'd suggest giving cable a try. I've been using it over here in Port
Orchard for around 5 years now and there have been minor problems, but
nothing as bad as you are describing with DSL. My theory is that since
cable internet shared with cable TV users the response to outages is so
overwhelming that it forces them to act quickly :)

Brian