Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dsl and internet

I can't reach one single website from home. no problem using any other connection. what gives?

krautland — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:54:30 -0800

I can't reach one single website from home. no problem using any other connection. what gives? whenever using my dsl at home, a particular website is either extremely slow to respond or completely unreachable. (site in question: daringfireball.net - it is, my isp assures me, not blocked, which they don't do anyway.)

I have a t-mobile surfstick here: no problem reaching the site. I have an iphone here: no problem reaching the site as long as it's not connected to my wifi network. I have spoken to the owner: no uptime issues. still I can't ping it and traceroutes get lost around uunet in sf. I called the isp to inquire and they assure me they have no problems reaching the site either. their technical staff called me back twice and even came out to check out the line. they were very confused and so am I.

there is not much else to say about this particular dsl connection. it's pretty solid, all ports seem to be open, only ichat has sometimes disconnected and then right again reconnected. I fixed that by changing my wifi channel. nothing else seems out of whack to me and thus I'm asking you. oh yeah, all browsers. I'm running os x.

so what could it be?

DSL Dead, On Schedule

Mid — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:52:04 -0800

My DSL stops working every Sunday afternoon for about 4 hours. WTF? Like clockwork, my DSL goes down every Sunday afternoon between about 2pm and 6-6:30 pm. My DSL box connects and re-connects over and over, but the network fails after only a minute or two during this period. Other than this window, it seems to work fine all week.

I truly dread calling SBC/AT&T about this. I know I am going to spend an hour on the phone getting various suggestions like "reinstall your System software" or something.

Does anyone have thoughts on what this might be or how I can fix it (or get it fixed)? Thanks

Picking a good plan

pulled_levers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:10:11 -0800

In need of a cheap high speed internet/cable package shared among 7 college girls in MD and not sure where to start. Help! Six other girls and I will be moving into a house in College Park, MD 20740. A friend of mine has looked into Verizon for a plan. Unfortunately, she says that that particular plan only works with flatscreen TVs which we do not have.

I have looked at comcast as well as reviews of comcast saying that they are overpriced with not-so-great customer service.

After looking at some DSL vs Cable sites, it seems that cable is pricier but has faster connection. Because the internet will be shared among seven girls, I wanted to know whether or not paying for cable will become a necessity and if we should go for a package that has a minimum of X MBPS.

I would prefer a high-speed internet service coupled with a fairly basic TV cable plan. I am worried about internet being too slow if shared between so many girls. I am also bringing a wireless router to the house (will the internet company I choose help me install that at all?).

I am feeling slightly overwhelmed because we are moving in in two days and classes start on Monday. Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Undercharged for DSL and land line. Now what?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:42:29 -0800

Telecom has undercharged me for DSL and land line service the past couple months. Is this going to bite me in the butt? If so, when and how severely? Back in December last year, I signed up for DSL internet service from my local telecom on a "first six months free with two-year commitment" promotion for longtime residential phone service customers. In the spring of this year, before the six months were up, they mistakenly started charging me for DSL, and I had to call them several times to get them to adjust my bill.

They rectified it and then some: since then, they've been crediting me on every billing cycle for more than the amount of the DSL charges, so that my total bill, including land line phone service, has been ridiculously low. The six month free period ended in late June, and I should now be paying around $70.00 per month for the two services. My July bill came last week: the erroneous credit is on it again, and my total amount due is about a dollar.

How likely is it that they'll discover their mistake? If they do, are they likely to bill me for all of the charges I should have been paying during the time they've been crediting me incorrectly? If they do that, do I have any recourse, since it was their error? Should I a) notify them of their error, b) simply start paying what I think I actually owe without comment, or c) continue paying the exact amount they're billing me? Thanks.

DSL in two locations with one line.

CliffDiving44 — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:22:29 -0800

Questions about dual modem/router connections on one dsl line. Some friends and I are trying to get wireless and wired internet in an office away from the house, where the modem and router currently are. This office has phone jacks, and has been previously used with a modem and router to hook up to the internet. My question is, with the dsl connection that my friend has, would it be viable to hook up the phone jack in here to a separate modem, and that to a separate router, and have internet in both the house and the office? Or would I we have to purchase another phone line for a separate dsl connection for the office? Of course, another option is running an ethernet cable out here to the office, but that would be a lot of work and not the first option we would like to choose. Thank you for the answers!

Do other computers fear the Chicago Machine?

burnfirewalls — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:34:12 -0800

My DSL is slow...but only when connecting to servers outside Chicago. What gives? I'm located in Chicago. I have a3mbps down/512kbps up plan with my DSL provider, who rides on AT&Ts lines. When I do a speedtest on a server located in Chicago (or download files from it) I get around 2.43 downstream/0.43 up. When I connect to a server anywhere else (including Milwaukee or St. Louis) my speed drops to 1.4 downstream/0.32 up. My DSL provider claims that their line tests show that everything is okay, and so does AT&T. They want to dispatch a technician, on my dime, to diagnose the problem. The rate they quoted sounds like it will add up to a few hundred dollars.

I've removed every extraneous device - I just have my main computer hardwired into the new DSL modem that my provider sent me. Because I get full speed to servers in Chicago, it doesn't sound to me (who is admittedly a n00b at networks) like it's a problem with my local circuit. Is it possible that this is a problem on my end? Is it worth it for me to fork over a few hundred dollars for the technician to tell me that the problem is upstream?

Info source on bandwidth caps & download quotas?

kidbritish — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:40:09 -0800

Is there a website that tracks ISP's bandwidth caps and download quotas, and presents the information in an up-to-date and easy-to-read format? I'm especially interested in USA.

What's the downside to VOIP?

middleclasstool — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:07:11 -0800

What is the current state of VOIP? VOIP was never an option for us in the past, as it requires an internet connection, and we're on DSL, which until recently required a phone line.

But now AT&T is selling DSL without requiring phone service. Looking at it, I can get our current level of DSL service plus unlimited Vonage phone service (including call waiting/forwarding/id and voicemail) for what we're paying now for just basic phone service (no long distance, we've been using cards since getting burned by a crooked long distance company) + DSL.

But I'm thinking there's a catch. Like bittorrent will kill my phone service (or vice versa), for instance. What are the ugly trade-off realities of going to VOIP for your home phone line?

Help me with my internet annoyance.

zardoz — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:37:04 -0800

I sometimes have trouble with downloading via torrent: surfing becomes a slow crawl/not an option. I have a broadband DSL connection and I'll often download torrents via Transmission on my iMac.

The problem is with torrents: with either Transmission, or uTorrent I can go for several days, even longer than a week, but then suddenly surfing pages on a browser will slow to a crawl and then stop. Torrent downloading may or may not stop at that point, but eventually it stops too.

When this happens I unplug my DSL modem, plug it back in, wait a minute or two, and then I'm firing on all cylinders, torrent downloading and surfing are good for another week or so.

So how can I avoid this step? Settings in Transmission? Hack the modem?

Everybody provides every service now.

Acari — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:22:13 -0800

Canadian phone/cable/internetfilter: what combo of services are cheapest? The scenario:
Two people moving into a new place in Edmonton, mostly calling each other [or not, neither have cell phones right now] and local calls almost exclusively. Cable TV is not a requirement, although even the phone company provides that service now.

Is it best to go with a dsl/landline package from Telus?
A cable internet/digital phone package from Shaw?
Internet from [somebody] and VOIP [with Vonage? somebody better?]

Having two cellphones on a family plan and [magical internet from whoever] sounds like it provide the most convenience for us, but there are also a zillion cell phone providers to sift through to figure out what the best deal would be there.

Our total phone usage is currently quite low [maybe 20 minutes/month each?] but that might creep up with cell phone ownership. The kind of calls we make are mostly of the this-is-my-current-location-i-will-see-you-at-X-o'clock type, and would be served equally well by text messages, but voice calls are necessary for contacting older relatives.

What I'm looking for is someone who has been down this road and can point to the glaringly obvious solution that I haven't even considered yet.

High speed internet in the sticks?

youcancallmeal — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:21:25 -0800

How can I get DSL in Barre, Vermont? Alternately: is satellite internet really that bad? So, my boyfriend and I are moving to an apartment just south of town in Barre, VT and the lease says that Verizon services the place. The Verizon website disagrees. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another provider I should be looking for?

If we can't get DSL... I've heard bad things about satellite speeds. Is it still that bad? We mostly just use the internet for surfing, general youtube watching, some TV streaming, XBOX/Wii playing, etc. Will it choke?

How to investigate an ISP

vilcxjo_BLANKA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:50:37 -0800

How do I get information on the reliability and competence of an ISP? I have not changed ISP in a decade, but I think it's time. I currently have Speakeasy DSL. Speakeasy's customer service and reliablity is great. But it's DSL, so it's slow and expensive, and I'd like to switch.

My town restricts me to three vendors: Comcast, RCN and someone called Galaxy Internet Services. (This is Brookline, MA.) I'm pretty sure Comcast and RCN are incompetent, but I'm not sure about Galaxy. I have searched for reviews of them, but without very much success.

I don't need any software from them, or anything else except a digital dialtone. I need to run a mail server, a web server, an ldap server and my own DNS, though I could remove the DNS. I'm paying about $100/month for DSL and phone now, and would like that to decrease. I could do away with the phone service if doing away with it is cheap. I could pay a per-minute phone charge if that is cheaper.

Has anyone had experience with them? I'm particularly interested in fiber optic service, and not in wireless or in DSL service.

Thanks.

An unusual intermittant wireless connection

Dr.Enormous — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:17:39 -0800

Our laptop loses wireless connection, and only changing a wireless setting on the router fixes it (any setting). What could be going on? My wife has a laptop running XP Home SP2 and a Linksys wireless card, connecting to our Verizon DSL via the Westell model 327W router they gave us. The router is currently not set to distribute IP addresses, for purposes of port forwarding, has 128-bit WEP on, and we get good signal with nobody else using the same channel nearby.

Every so often (ranging from once an hour to one a week), the connection gets lost. Restarting the computer, unplugging the router, trying to fix the computer settings...nothing works. Sometimes, if I re-enter the key in ASCII instead of Hexadecimal, I can connect to the router but not the internet. But if I enter the router admin and change any wireless setting at all (or even change one and change it back), the connection is immediately restored. Obviously there's some sort of "computer talking to router" problem here that gets reset, but I'll be darned if I know where to even start looking.

Reliable, faster internet access from an apartment in Beijing.

bleecker — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:29:14 -0800

Will be moving to Beijing and would like to have high speed reliable internet service in my apartment. We'll likely be living in one of the US or HK developed apartments along Chao Yang park. I've worked with DSL connections in serviced apartments in Beijing and Shanghai and was not thrilled with the throughput (70kbs) or reliability. The Great Firewall is not an issue as far as completely blocking sites, but I'm sure it affects transfer speeds from the US sites I'd be accessing. I've done some digging and have come up with:

1. Dual DSL lines and a load balancing router: wouldn't really increase throughput of a single connection but might help with simultaneous transfers and reliability.
2. Satellite internet: Pricier and legally shadowy. No guarantee that I could even put up/properly direct a dish.

Are there any other options I should consider? Are there "commercial only" options that may be possible?

Bonus question:
Is there some way I could increase the likelihood that I would be able to create VPN connections to the US. (In my experience, I was able do so with 1 out of the 2 DSL connections I used in China).

More than one DSL connection in the same house?

Dreamcast — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:52:28 -0800

Is it possible to have more than one DSL connection in the same house? I've been sharing a DSL connection, and have decided I'd rather just purchase my own. Is it possible to have more than one DSL connection in the same house? Would I be charged an additional fee for anything (I don't know if they'd need to install a separate line or not, and if that'd cost me money)? This would be with Verizon, if it matters. Does anyone have any experience doing this, if it's possible?

I could call and ask Verizon, but I don't have much desire to talk with their customer support.

Additionally, since we also use Verizon phone services, would the "discount" also apply (one package is usually $35 a month, but only $30 a month if you have an existing Verizon phone service)?

Why can't I open webpages?

k8t — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:49:00 -0800

ADSL working but HTTP not working. I just got an ADSL connection (in Armenia, provider is Beeline, only documentation is here and is in Armenian. 256k though. Woo!)

I can use all sorts of applications pretty well (iTunes downloading podcasts, Flickr uploader, Outlook for mail, gChat, etc.), but I can't do anything HTTP. I open Firefox and can sometimes get a mobile page to load and I can search Google or Yahoo and see the results, but I can't open "normal" webpages at all. I tried IE and Opera but the same problem occurs.

I tried getting into the configuration page for the DSL modem, but doesn't look like it'll work well.

Also, suggesting updating firmware for DSL modem or something isn't possible. I am on really bad dialup otherwise.

Why would this be? (And yes, I've called tech support. They are less than impressive. They only introduced this service this month and aren't exactly supporting it.)

I am running Vista. I have tried to turn off all firewall-related stuff that I can possibly think of.

Any other ideas?

Home internet networks over large distances?

zaebiz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:48:45 -0800

I have a wireless router in my house. 150 metres away I have a shed where I want to be able to use the internet on my laptop. There are electricity outlets in the house and in the shed but not in between. How do I get the signal from the house to my shed? For example are there battery-powered boosters that I could lay between the two places and recharge them at night? Can I buy a more powerful router? Can I buy some sort of signal magnifier to attach to the router? Or .... is it crazy to run a telephone cable all the way from the ADSL port in my house to the router in my shed? Any other ideas?

Is magicjack VoIP worth getting?

exlotuseater — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:42:56 -0800

Anyone familiar with MagicJack? I've just recently seen ads for Magicjack, another new VoIP service. It's ~$40 USD to purchase the jack which includes a year of free local and long-distance, and then $20 USD/ year for continuing service. The "jack" plugs into pc usb on one end and has an analog phone jack on the other end. The reviews have been generally positive, but I'm skeptical.

Anyone have any experience with this particular service? Will it work over DSL, or does VoIP only work with cable?

Thanks for your help.

Best option for internet provider in San Francisco?

jcruelty — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:51:56 -0800

What's the best option for high-speed internet access in San Francisco? (Moving from Castro to Potrero Hill, would like to ditch Comcast if there's a good alternative.) Apologies if this has been covered somewhere-- I googled around but there's too many hits to make sense of. Basically I want to know what people recommend for fast reliable internet service in San Francisco. We've been using Comcast (cable modem) but I don't like the company and don't need cable TV, just internet. I'm not entirely averse to staying with Comcast but I'd like to know the alternatives. Is DSL comparably fast?

I'm running a wireless network through a Belkin Pre-N router, don't know if that matters.

High Speed Internet In Chicago?

AceRock — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:14:35 -0800

High speed internet in Chicago? I'm moving on the 1st, and my new apartment building is not wired up for RCN. I loathe Comcast, and so I am looking for alternatives to provide me with high speed internet access in my new place. Anybody have any recommendations? How is AT&T's DSL? How is Speakeasy nowadays? Any other options I'm not even aware of?

How do I switch to VOIP in Ottawa?

valleys — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:58:38 -0800

I need help understanding how to switch to a VOIP service, with bonus points for recommendations about an ISP in Ottawa that can provide dry loop DSL. My ISP (Primus) keeps pushing their VOIP service, so I assumed that they now had dry loop DSL available. They don't - the customer service agent recommended that I switch to a different ISP to get dry loop DSL, then come back to them for VOIP!! Not gonna happen.

But, I still want to VOIP somehow, and realise I will have to switch ISPs and give up the email address I've had for 8 years. I can live with that. So, which ISPs can you recommend for me to get dry loop DSL in Ottawa? I think Sympatico can, but the whole reason for getting VOIP is to get away from Bell. I also don't want to go to Rogers for cable internet. (Primary motivation is to save money over my existing Bell bill.)

Next, I need help understanding how this would all work, as I've not found any clear guides despite a lot of looking. Important: I want to keep my existing phone number.

Is the process:
- apply for dry loop DSL on my existing phone line/number from a new ISP (would this kill my regular Bell phone service? that would be ok - I have a cell phone I could live with for the time there was no access on the main home number)
THEN WHEN IT'S ACTIVE
- apply for VOIP through Vonage or whoever, using the existing phone number?

Am I missing something? How long should all this take? How long would I be without phone service? What other information should I know?

What's the Latvian for "is this DSL and if it is can we do the whole wifi thing, and oh yes, what's in that locked box?"

mdonley — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:59:59 -0800

How, exactly, am I connected to the Internet? This is in Latvia, by the way. Here's what I can tell you. Today a tech from Balticom Internet (which you can examine at balticom.lv if you feel up to deciphering some Latvian and Russian) stopped by after someone at work ordered a connection for my apartment. He worked for about an hour - I'm not sure if all of that was work, or work and cigarette breaks - in a little box just outside the the front door that I can't open that looked like it contained some sort of connection to something; I didn't get a good look when he was in there, though I did see a largish gray box emblazoned with the Lattelcom symbol, which I presume is for landline phones, which we don't have.

From my computer, a standard-looking Cat-5 cable goes out a hole in the concrete wall next to my front door (things are a little homebrew in my charmingly post-Soviet apartment) and into the box. I didn't see if the Cat-5 cable went into the Lattelecom box or somewhere else. There were a variety of cables running to this box from the other apartments on our landing, I think.

The ad for the service we purchased said we'd get speeds of up to 10 MB/sec; it seems at least as speedy as my cable internet back in the States, which was advertised as 3 MB/sec.

This would all be fine, but my housemate and I both have laptops and we'd like to be able to use the connection simultaneously and via wifi. We don't have a modem or anything in the apartment - just the end of the network cable and the configured settings on my computer (which the tech wrote down - things like IP addresses and DNS servers).

So:

- Is this DSL or something else?
- What is at the other end of the cable running from my computer and into the box?
- Can we plug a wifi router into the end of the cable and both be on that network, or do we need the modem itself - which we don't have - to connect the router to?

If it matters, he's got a Dell Inspiron 8600 running XP and I've got a Macbook running OS X 10.4.10. I'll try to answer any questions you have.

Paldies!

Cheap Broadband in Albany, NY?

cahlers — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:47:35 -0800

Can someone suggest cheap ($15/mo) broadband in zip 12208? Verizon DSL 768kbps is unavailable there. I'm looking for DSL at 768kbps download speed in Albany, NY, comparable to what's offered by Verizon Online for $14.99 in other markets. Apparently this package is not offered in the zip code where my parents live (12208). They have never had broadband before, and now are looking to obtain it, after using dial-up for many years. However, they have a limited budget and could not pay more than around $15/mo. They do not need download speeds of higher than 768bps; however, I don't think paying $10/mo for 50 hours of Verizon dialup is worth it.

My parents do not need DSL per se, only broadband. However, they do not have cable TV, so bundling w/ cable is not an option. If a company offered cable broadband at around $15/mo, that would work for them too.

I have searched DSL Reports and Google without success.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Why does my DSL blink on and off when in bad weather? How can I fix it?

needs more cowbell — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:50:01 -0800

Why does my DSL blink on and off when in bad weather? How can I fix it? It's not as straightforward as it seems... When it's raining--or even overcast and about to rain, or drizzling--my DSL goes out. But it doesn't totally go out--it'll work for a few seconds and then cut out, work for a few seconds and cut out. Resetting the connection or turning the modem off and on does nothing. My landline phone service is fine the entire time.

Last time it rained, I did some troubleshooting. I tried plugging the modem into the MAIN phone jack box outside the house and got a fast, perfect connection. When I tried it inside again, the connection was just as bad as before. Every phone jack inside my house was equally bad. And as usual, soon after it stopped raining, I got a perfectly decent connection with the modem plugged into an inside phone jack.

Questions:
1. Why does this happen?
2. How can I fix it besides trying to run phone wire out my window to the main outside jack? (Besides the inconvenience, in order to use the outside jack I have to disconnect the phone access to the rest of the house, and there's no space for a splitter inside the box.) The phone company is not so helpful, and if it's a problem with my wiring, it's not their responsibility anyway.

I've tried to look at the phone wiring in my house to see if there's a weak point (though I don't know why that would only make problems when it rains). It's definitely old, but it's hard to access and there's wiring for two lines plus an ancient alarm system (also hooked up to the phone line), so it's difficult to follow. I'm hoping there's something I'm overlooking that's easier to fix.

Testing the health of a broadband connection

hodyoaten — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:36:40 -0800

Is there a software program of some kind that will automatically monitor and analyze the health (i.e. transfer rate and up/down status) of a broadband Internet connection? Ideally like to see statistics graphed over the course of a week or so, tested every 1 to 15 minutes, so I can see what kind of quality I'm getting. I'm not sure if any software like this exists.