Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dsl and isp

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.

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?

Is Big Brother Surfing With Me?

watercarrier — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:56:56 -0800

Very strange DSL behavior - Is it Big Brother? I've been dealing with this daily now and after extensive research - I've pretty much concluded that something or someone is surfing with me. But maybe I'm wrong and it's something else.

For about 2 weeks I've been experiencing very weird ISP behavior. Dial up problems, weird error messages, disconnects and just plain slow surfing. My machine is a clean machine - no viruses, adware - trojans or cookies. No cache older than a few hours either.

All surfing, streaming, downloading were effected during these lags. I've run Hijack This and nothing seems out of the ordinary except 2 exceptions - which are

AF891CD7E25B}: NameServer = XXXXXX
O17 - HKLM\System\CS1\Services\Tcpip\..\{470F728C-8ABE-4657-B74C-AF891CD7E25B}: NameServer = XXXXXX

(I've x'd out the addy)

The only remedy that seems to work in this situation is CMD
netsh winsock reset catalog - and restarting. Then it works perfectly.

I'm running XP Pro on a pretty new machine. No network. I've run diagnostics and there don't seem to be any problems with the network card or the modem. The cable is fine as well. I've run msconfig and taken out anything that could be a problem or culprit. I've set up new dialers. Currently I have only 2 things that I can see running at start up - one is the AV and the other is a desktop clock - both when disabled did nothing to present the above mentioned problems.

I tried firewalling and disabling firewall - same results in both instances.

I've tried accessing the web via a different machine and had same exact issue. It's not the puter - it's the line. ISP will not admit to any fault or problem only mentioning that there have been some *problems on their end and the issues should be cleared up now*.

Should be mentioned - trying to surf via proxy gets me disconnected.

Could this be some kind of filter placed on my line by the ISP that only the complete reset rids me of (albeit temporarily)? I am currently out of the country living in a war zone where there have been cases of close monitoring. So this isn't completely out of left field.

Is there anyway to find out what/who is messing up my internet connection via tracking software and is there anyway I can track someone who is tracking me?

DSL speed takes a dive

diode — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:30:27 -0800

My non-profit uses a DSL service best typified as a mom and pop operation in our small city. The ISP recently switched their upstream provider and our DSL speeds got an immediate burst in speed and quality. Now it's back to being pokey again. What's the best way to see what's going on in a network sense? Our ISP is apparently owned and managed by one guy, his accountant and a helper/administrator. Our access has been relatively good on the DSL side, since the circuit is provided by Qwest, but is characterized by frequent DNS outages. Nevertheless, our nonprofit seems determined to stay the course and keep our 1.5/768 mbps DSL with this ISP until the heat death of the universe.

A few weeks ago the ISP owner had the bright idea of switching upstream providers for his connectivity. He gave his clients about two hours notice and then tried switching all his circuits over the weekend. Carnage and consternation ensued.

Our DSL circuit, once restored, was a lot cleaner in terms of speed and quality of service than previously and we were mollified. Now though, the circuit speed seems to be degrading again and we are getting about 220kbps download with poor quality.

We run a SonicWall with VPN to several locations. Citrix is running in the VPN. Our remote users definitely notice when the circuit slows down.

My question: what's the best way to get a picture of what's happening? I would think the ISP is overbooking his circuits again. How can I collect some evidence that will give me a clue what's going on?

Since the office here has 20 or so users, it's possible there's some sort of bandwidth suck going on here which is reducing total bandwidth coming to me when I do a speed test.

I could potentially mirror the Sonicwall's switch port and run Wireshark on it to see traffic. Or perhaps there are some useful network tests? Any help appreciated.

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?

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.

Broadbandfilter: How can I get internet setup without a current phone number (in SF)?

gramcracker — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:05:11 -0800

Gah! Broadbandfilter! Moving to a new apartment next week (in SF). What broadband provider, and how do I search for it without a current phone number? (Cable vs. DSL vs. FIOS vs. Wireless?) Cable is Comcast obviously; DSL looks like it can be from any number of providers, but I need a phone line first to verify. And then there's Verizon FIOS and Sprint or Verizon Wireless available as well. Need service earlier than Google rolls out its free product in SF.

Any experience with FIOS or Wireless? Good, bad?
I used a nearby restaurant's phone number to checkout availability of DSL in the area, and it looks like I'm close enough to a CO to get it. Anyone know the cheapest phone line I can get--or "naked DSL" without a phoneline--or a cheap DSL + phone line package? (Have Cingular wireless, could I do their "triple package" thing?)

Any advice, especially SF-specific, would be greatly appreciated. We're students, so we'd like to stick to the ~$40 per month range. Thanks!

LegaleseFilter: How does AT&T's new DSL privacy policy compare to my current provider's?

jxpx777 — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:21:04 -0800

LegaleseFilter: How does AT&T's new DSL privacy policy compare to my current provider's? Obviously, lawyers or other such persons will be most helpful here. I have been contemplating ditching my current internet service provider due to poor performance and reliability. The only other real option for me is AT&T Yahoo! DSL. I was just about to pull the trigger on the switch until I heard about AT&T's updated privacy policy. In reading the two policies (Charter and AT&T), I can't really see that my current provider's policy is any more restrictive than AT&T's. But, I wanted to check with my MeFi homies to see if someone with more legal training than I have (and any would be more than I have) can outline the differences. Also, explaining if those differences are in theory or if they would actually make a difference in the real world would be helpful as well.

Current provider's policy: http://www.charter.com/privacy/InternetPrivacy.aspx
AT&T Yahoo! DSL policy that would apply to me: http://help.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=8620

Why don't ISPs compete on upstream bandwidth?

shivohum — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:25:51 -0800

Why don't DSL and cable providers compete on the amount of UPLOADING bandwidth they offer? It seems to me that broadband ISPs are trying to one-up each other with respect to download speeds, but with the increase in applications like photo-storage websites, ordinary users gain more than ever from being able to upload faster. Why don't DSL and cable providers try to increase their upload speeds (and heavily advertise this increase), which are, if I'm not mistaken, still typically much lower than download speeds? Is there an economic reason? Legal problems?

ADSL 2+?

grahamwell — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 05:14:28 -0800

Broadbandfilter: Does anyone have experience of "ADSL 2+"? This advertises speeds of 22MB over regular copper (in the UK). Is it for real? 22MB - Wow! so I signed up as soon as I could. The ISP is UK Online (they would not have been my choice otherwise). I had to buy their ADSL 2+ router (a Netgear DG834GT). I duly installed and waited for the miracle. It didn't happen, speeds were hopeless, about half a meg downstream (upstream was pretty impressive though, at about 800 K). Then we got into blaming the line (they pointed at BT, BT pointed at them). "Local Loop Unbundling" means that the buck stops nowhere. In fact UKOnline couldn't wait to downgrade my service back to regular ADSL which has now happened. OK, fair enough but I feel defeated. Should I have tried harder to get this technology to work? Is anyone using it successfully? how was it for you?

Broadband connection options?

luriete — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:43:25 -0800

This has been asked before but the answers I need are a bit more specific. I bought my home (1920s bungalow) here in Sacramento 3 years ago, and the previous owners had DSL - in fact the DSL port in the house is exactly where I need/want my broadband connection to be. So - I just got an Airport Express card for my powerbook and a Airport Extreme basestation: do I want DSL or cablemodem? I use satellite for TV, not cable, and am not going to switch any time soon, so bundles are out. I am not going to run a website and need no static IP. Insanely high speed is not necessary, just something a hell of a lot faster than my current 56k. Prices? Service? Will SBC give me a deal on DSL since the install is already in place?

Secure WiFi from 1 miles away?

BrodieShadeTree — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 14:02:53 -0800

Wifi networking question. My brother lives 1 mile away, nearly direct line of sight as I am up on a hill. I can get DSL, but his house cannot. Is there a cheap-ish way to get hi-speed into my house and create a secure wifi network to span to his house as well? (MI)