at&t DSL

© Brooke Clarke 2010 - 2011

Called Thanksgiving morning 24 Nov 2011 - the tech in India tried all sorts of things working with the 2-Wire modem (http://192.168.1.254 ) and the Run System Setup Wizard,
but to no avail.  The DSL is working, the phone on that line is working, but no internet.  Every now and then the DSL LED blinks red but comes back to green.
25 Nov 2011 -  called at 8am and again they figured out that there was an external problem, transfered me to advanced support who said I should hear from someone by 1pm.

1 pm 25 Nov 2011 - Called with trouble ticket # - as was told no one was scheduled, he scheduled someone to be here by 8 pm tomorrow.

7:36am 26 Nov 2011 - The phone that has the DSL is totally dead, no dial tone, so can not be used for dial up.
2-Wire modem LEDs when there's no phone service

If you have lost dial tone and call 411 at&t puts a higher priority on the repair than they do for DSL reapirs.  Called 411 at 8am to report no dial tone and they said then next available tech would work my problem.

10:00am Tech rebuilt everythng from the CO to the Pair Gain DSL box.

Date	Time	Location	Ping ms	Dn Load Mbps	Up Load Mbps	Mode
26 Nov 2011	10:50	San Jose	36	2.58	0.43	interleaved
"	10:52	SF	38	2.50	0.43.	"

19 Aug - The technician disconnected the DSL line (it would have been nice to call first) and ran tests & made a repair.  He later said that the problem was the cable between the fiber optic box at the foot El Dorado Rd. and the crossover box at the foot of my street.  It was noisy and problematical.  He switched my DSL line to another group of pairs and now my DSl is working. 

The modem Internet light turns red and the internet shuts down.  On a call at 9 pm the tech rep in India said he had fixed it by doing a line test. 
About an hour later the same problem reoccurred.  This time I used the phone on the DSL line to call tech support and the line was a mess, that's to say a lot of noise and breakup of the phone menu so bad it gave up and connected me to a human without making any button presses.  The second tech had me disconnect the filter and splitter and connect the modem directly to the wall jack.  Then called back on a different number.  The effect of that was to stop me from hearing the condition of the line.  A tech is scheduled to be here tomorrow between 12 and 4 pm.  if the problem is in my house they will charge me $110.
The modem is fine, but the noise numbers are 3 dB higher than before. 

18 Aug 2011 - Screen shot of modem (192.168.1.254 Broadband Link DSL Connection Details

I've spent the past week on the phone to at&t from 2 to 4 times a day, and many many house per day (support is available 24/7).  Each of the people I've spoken with makes a point of trying to make your experience interacting with them good in the hope that you will give them high ratings on their individual performance.  The problem is that they are not concerned with your overall experience with at&t and therein lies the problem.  Each person is an island and does not care about  your needs.

In the process of fixing the problem the 2Wire modem was defaulted (pres and hold the reset button on the rear panel for about 10 seconds), so the old WRT350 wireless modem is no longer being used.  This required resetting the WEP code in all the wireless devices to the number shown on the bottom of the 2Wire modem.

14 March 2011 - While calling to change the day of the month for my home phone asked about faster DSL and now have the Pro service (3 M b/s) scheduled to start in a couple of days, i.e. 16 March.  The rate for the Pro service is still $14.95/mo.  (probably as part of the promotion.  Note: When the promotion runs out I could switch the DSL service to a different line and get the promo rate again. Note: at&t is very big on making their customers happy. Note:  I can watch Netflix now with the Express service, but the Netflix quality indicator is at poor, not HD and when the scene is dark the image is pixelated.  But when the scene is mostly static the quality approaches HD.  With the Pro service the quality should be HD.
17 March 2011 - It's sort of working.  Data after power cyclying the modem, router and desktop computer.
Date	Time	Ping ms	Dn Load Mbps	Up Load Mbps
Spec			3.0	0.512
16 Mar	4:54 pm	26	1.24	0.43
17 Mar	1:14 am	24	2.61	0.43
17 Mar	7:23 am	23	2.58	0.44
18 Mar	3:05 pm	23	2.58	0.40
22 Mar	Wednesday 2:21am till 10 pm Power outage caused by severe storm
25 Mar (rain)	1:00 pm	62	1.29	0.11
26 Mar	9:00 am	62	1.28	0.11
27 Mar1	2:30 pm	64	1.14	0.11
28 Mar	5:30 am	59	1.29	0.07
28 Mar	11:55 am	61	1.17	0.06
29 Mar	8:30 am	62	1.27	0.06
30 Mar	10:00 am	61	1.22	0.06
30 Mar2	2:12 pm	64	0.93	0.11
1 Apr3	12:23 pm	26	2.53	0.44
2 Apr	6:56 am	28	2.59	0.34
DSL Connection Details DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair) Protocol: G.DMT Annex A Downstream Rate: 3008 kbps Upstream Rate: 512 kbps Channel: Fast Current Noise Margin: 13.0 dB (Downstream) 18.0 dB (Upstream) Current Attenuation: 55.5 dB (Downstream) 31.0 dB (Upstream) Current Output Power: 15.2 dBm (Downstream) 12.4 dBm (Upstream) DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {IFTN} Specific: {0xFB70} PVC Info: 0/35

Note 1: Sunday 27 Mar - there was a clip on form hanging from the front door saying "Your service has been repaired . . . "  But it's worse than before.
Needed to spend more than a half hour on the phone to get a new trouble ticket after a line check showed "No Signal".
They are scheduled to be here today (Monday 28 Mar 2011) between 8 am and 12 noon.  Noticed DSL LED was blinking red around 5 pm
Note 2: Wednesday, while waiting for the service tech to come and swap the modem noticed the DSL LED was blinking red so tested after it turned solid green.
Note 3: after the DSLAM card was configured.  An 8 hour power failure set the card to factory defaults.

	Prior to opening the box tree branches needed to be trimmed back.
	Tempo Sidekick T&N being used to check quality of line.  If the noise and balance are good for analog phone the line should (?) be good for DSL.  Truck drove back to Cross Over box about 5:30. Using a hand held xDSL tester on the phone wire unplugged from the 2Wire modem shows an available speed of 3.7 Mbps with a 1.5 interleave factor, i.e. the reason for the slow conenction is the Central Office (CO) has degraded me to the Express plan (not the Pro plan that I'm paying for.
	Sunrise Telecom Sunset xDSL tester This was used at the demark (outside the house) and at the end of the cable that was unplugged from the 2Wire modem.  In both cases it shows 3.7 Mbps available speed and 1.5 interleave factor.
	about 6 pm: Called (800) 288-2020 and complained about slow DSL (1.2 Mbps DN) and they said I was part of an outage. Need to call back after 4 hours (10 pm) and give them the outage number. I asked Lou of my service was being degraded because of the outage and he said, No it was not.  So the outage excuse does not make sense.
29 Mar 2011 - spent the morning talking to at&t support located at some central location who rebuilt the head end software.  This was done two times. The outage given yesterday as an excuse was no longer an outage today, i.e. no change. A service tech was supposed to be here between noon and 8 pm.  Got a call at 5:38 saying no tech today, but tomorrow between 8 and 5 to see if there's a problem with the 2Wire modem.  Note they can not run diagnostic tests on the modem remotley.
30 March 2011 -No Show, no phone call
31 March - Scheduled for 8 am to noon - no show, no call
31 March - Scheduled for noon to 5 pm - No Show, no call
1 April (April's Fool) - Scheduled for the morning (after 8am) & a call from a supervisor just after 8 am - 9:20 IE8 http://192.168.1.254 Broadband Link (view details) DSL Connection Details DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair) Protocol: G.DMT2+ Annex A Downstream Rate: 1536 kbps Upstream Rate: 131 kbps Channel: Interleaved Current Noise Margin: 24.0 dB (Downstream) 6.6 dB (Upstream) Current Attenuation: 54.6 dB (Downstream) 27.9 dB (Upstream) Current Output Power: 12.4 dBm (Downstream) 12.4 dBm (Upstream) DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {IFTN} Specific: {0xFB70} PVC Info: 0/35 ----------------------- Power outage caused DSLAM card to revert to facotry setting. -------------------------- DSL Connection Details DSL Line (Wire Pair): Line 1 (inner pair) Protocol: G.DMT Annex A Downstream Rate: 3008 kbps Upstream Rate: 512 kbps Channel: Fast Current Noise Margin: 16.0 dB (Downstream) 18.0 dB (Upstream) Current Attenuation: 55.5 dB (Downstream) 31.0 dB (Upstream) Current Output Power: 15.2 dBm (Downstream) 12.4 dBm (Upstream) DSLAM Vendor Information: Country: {0xB5} Vendor: {IFTN} Specific: {0xFB70} PVC Info: 0/35

17 Nov 2010 - Tried using the Netflix option on my Home Theater system and after using a laptop to enter the validation code it started with a warning that there may be some problems and I agreed to that.  Watched a couple of movies.  When the scene changes or there's a lot of action in a scene the image quality degrades but the rest of the time it's about like watching a VHS tape except the sound is 5.1 or 7.1 surround and excellent.

26 Oct 2010 - the download speed now seems to ramp up to 160 k Bytes/sec and then stay there, so the performance has improved from what is was when first installed.  The overall experience is far better than the satellite service, I'm sure because of the ping time.

1 Oct 2010 - while paying the first bill that included the DSL service I noticed that the monthly fee was $19.95, BUT when I signed up (and on the flyer included with the bill) the monthly fee was given as $14.95.  After getting the $5 adjustment I asked about getting higher speed service and was told I could upgrade to Express service (1.5 M bits/sec) from my existing Basic service ( 786 k bits/sec) for no additional charge.  Supposed to be effective 6 October.

They said when my Central Office (CO) was upgraded I could get Pro or Elite service.

at&t DSL Service	Download M bits/sec	Upload k bits/sec	Netflix
Basic	<= 0.786	<= 384	no
Express	<= 1.500	<= 384	works
Pro	<= 3.0	<= 512	better?
Elite	<= 6.0	<= 786	best?

Notice the AT&T quoted speeds are the max you can expect, NOT a minimum.
The Starband specs are the minimum speed.

7 Oct 2010 - Powered off the computer, modem and router.  Restarted as follows:

1. Power up modem and wait until the DSL light stopped flashing,
2. Power up the Router and wait until the lights stopped flashing,
3. Power up the computer and ran a speed test:
   Download speed 1.32 M bits/sec, Upload speed 0.32 M bits/sec, ping time 20 ms, jitter 1 ms (S.F. server)
   this is close the the Starband 1500 service that was $99/month, except the ping time is 40 times better!
   

I was using Starband VSAT for my internet connection and have just switched to at&t Basic DSL service.  I'm right on the edge of where DSL can reach, and have tried twice before to get DSL and those time the techs were unwilling or unable to get it to work.  This time it took two service tickets and about a week to bring it on line. 

Speed Tests

	Starband satellite	att Basic DSL	at&t Express
Download Speed	2,000 k bits/sec	608 k bits/sec	1,320 k bits/sec
Ping TIme	800+ ms	100 ms	20 ms

The DSL speed is about 1/3 the sattelite speed BUT the DSL ping time is 1/8 the satellite ping time.  It turns out that the ping time is more critical than the speed, i.e. pages load much faster and email and ftp are much faster (i.e. about 8 times faster).  So ANY DSL connection is much better than a satellite connection.

Satellite Ping Time

The speed of light 186 thousand miles a second and the distance above the Earth of a geosynchronous satellite 23 thousand miles, causes a delay that can NOT be overcome by technology.  When there's any transaction between your computer and anything on the internet  and a satellite connection is involved it's as follows:

• Your signal goes up to the satellite (23/186 seconds),
• Your signal goes down to the hub station (23/186 seconds)
• the signal goes to it's destination via fiber link (a few ms),
• the reply goes up to the satellite (23/186 seconds),
• the reply comes down to your dish (23/186 seconds),

so the total time is theoretically about 500 ms + a few ms. but in actuality there's some satellite software buffering that adds a few hundred ms.

I got the 2Wire modem, but in retrospect it would have been better to get the wired only modem because I already had a Cisco/Linksys WRT350N Router.

Installation Glitch

	I connected the splitter to the wall jack, and a desk phone to the Phone output and the modem to the DSL/HPNA output.  But the phone had a lot of digital noise.  This was fixed by installing a filter between the splitter and the phone.
	The filter feeds a 4-way switch allowing connection to either a PC, FAX or phone.
	The cable from the splitter DSL port goes to the 2Wire DSL modem. The modem can feed a computer is the stock configuration, or in my case a Router after changing to the bridge configuration.
	The DSL modem feeds the Cisco Linksys WRT350N Wireless Router + 4 wired ports

Connect directly between one of the output ports and a computer.
In a borwser input the URL 192.168.1.1/mdc
Enter your password.  If you forget your password click on the link that says something like get a hint to remember your pass word, it that doesn't work click the link that says something like inter the control number.  Then enter the number between the brackets [] on the bottom of the 2Wire modem and then enter a new password like 12345 two times and save changes. 

Now go back to the URL 192.168.1.1/mdc and log in using the passoword.

ATM PVC Search was: PPPoE change to: DIRECT IP

Advanced Configuration Server, Enable Routing (uncheck)
Save Changes.
At this point at&t no longer supports the modem.
To get back to the stock settings press and hold the red "reset" button on the back.  This is different from removing power.

LEDs on: Power, Ethernet, DSL
LEDs off: Wireless, Internet

Connect directly from output port 1 to a computer.
enter the URL 192.168.1.1 (note this is the same as the modem URL)
Under the SETUP tab and the Basic Setup sub tab
change the Internet Setup, Internet Connection Type from Automatic Configuration - DHCP to PPPoE,
change the URL from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.5.1

Under the status Router tab login status click Connect if it shows disconnected

and at the bottom Save Settings.

Power down the DSL modem and the router and wait 20 seconds.  Then power on the router and wait 20  seconds then power on the DSL modem.

Starband VSAT
PC Tech Support