Good! Be persistent! If you complain enough times, someone's bound to find the real problem and fix it.

Keep in mind that most cable services are 'best effort' and if you're testing during higher traffic periods, you won't get your maximum rate. This is due to the nature of the shared service as you're operating generally in an oversubscribed Frequency/Time-division multiplexing environment.

Complicated to explain... but it boils down to - don't expect it all the time.

Yes and no. Regardless of what speed the computer tests at, the modem itself should always receive the exact speed it is set for. The allowance for speed is only when you are running a speediest from the computer itself, and even then there is a threshold for normal. A full speed at modem and a slow speed at the computer leans towards the issue being the server/port/etc (or possibly the pc, but that's usually the last option I look at). If the modem itself is not getting its set speed, then it is the line.

Fixing the interwebs for people is what I do, day in and day out. And its a job that I'm very good at.

Network Engineer for Cisco, so yes I as well deal with such daily.

Most Residential connections are linked into a shared trunk into the DSL carrier network and the BW the customer actually receives is variable due to oversubscription. This causes all sorts of fun when dealing with Voice and Video amongst other things across such. While it is possible for a customer to get dedicated bandwidth, this is rarely exercised properly or implemented fully, even if the customer pays a premium.

Network Engineer for Cisco, so yes I as well deal with such daily.

Most Residential connections are linked into a shared trunk into the DSL carrier network and the BW the customer actually receives is variable due to oversubscription. This causes all sorts of fun when dealing with Voice and Video amongst other things across such. While it is possible for a customer to get dedicated bandwidth, this is rarely exercised properly or implemented fully, even if the customer pays a premium.

Sure, go and talk with them. Just be aware that DSL/ADSL or Cable, it's still a shared medium upstream of you regardless in 90% of cases, regardless of what marketing fluff they try to sell. It'll vary depending on the provider, but the oversubscription ratio ranges as low as 2:1 to higher than 10:1 in most cases. Further, the bottleneck could be a misconfiguration issue or a problem upstream. Water in the line, damaged lines and cross-talk are all other issues one could possibly encounter - regardless of medium - that could reduce aggregate bandwidth.

Yes, an assumption - but a safe one. 90% of troubleshooting is operating on knowledge and assumptions regarding an unknown client's network. See what happens when you open your mouth to shoot someone down before confirming they have half a clue about the technologies involved?

The more you know.

And here you make the assumption that I track Gen regularly when in fact I am aware of her in only a peripheral sense. I caught this particular journal as the Title stood out amidst the sea of journal spam on FA I generally delete without reading.

Consumer Education efforts are never wasted as even if it is of no use to you or Gen directly, others who may read this may actually learn something or help override poor assumptions. So while it may be 'irritating', its still worth posting about.

Keep working with the techs, but be ready to speak to someone past initial level 1/2 support regarding this issue. Most of the techs are rack-and-stack personnel without access to or the knowledge to troubleshoot anything but the most common Layer 1 and 8/9 issues.

Also, try to use something other than speedtest.net or one of the other speed-test websites out there. They're generally not accurate as there are far too many hops between you and them. The issue is likely just a couple hops out from your router at most - you don't need to be traipsing across the 'net and introducing more uncontrollable variables into the equation. If your ISP has their own test utility, generally it's better to use that as it's alot more local and thus accurate.

Further, track the issue. One blip on the horizon does not mean a real problem make, and the data gathered may help the engineer you ultimately end up working with (directly or indirectly) more rapidly resolve the issue you're dealing with. This'll mean testing at different intervals daily to establish a pattern. One of the first questions a good engineer should ask with a customer is 'What proof do you have?' - not to cause issue or belittle the customer, but to try to determine what and when a possible issue came up. Being a Cisco Network TAC Voice Engineer, this helps tremendously when a customer can actually provide this data - even if it ultimately isn't related to the problem directly.

Settle in and be patient - you're not the only issue they're likely dealing with on their end, and more than likely not one of their most prominent as it sounds like you have some connectivity rather than none at all.

I am just waking up, it is my day off so I actually got to sleep in for just a tiny bit. yay. I'm not going to add anything to what I've already said, other than to let you know that I am honestly not trying to offer advice, I'm trying to offer assistance. I work for the provider as a support specialist specifically for internet services, and it always troubles me when I see a situation like this that has required more than one call and one tech. To me this is more than me offering what resources I have to a friend, this is also me, as a representative of the company trying to reach out and provide better service.

ps: love the icon. makes me giggle every time.

Make sure you document the amount of time you've NOT had the service speeds as promised for both upload and down. You're owed a refund for the service disruption. If you don't ask for it, they won't offer it most likely.

Also, I'm ready to fill as Emergency Filler Content as needed.

I so, so know that feeling. *hug*

Good luck. I hope they won't be fussy about it.

If tomorrow's tech does not solve the issue, please contact me.

Give em hell Gen!

A service like that, express service for a greater uplink band, -is- guaranteed, make em do what they guarantee. That tier of service is typically for those who run a business on that internet connection, and need the uplink for sending content to customers. Ohh wait... that is -exactly- what you are doing =^.^= You'll get em straight for sure, your attitude is spot-on! =^.^=

Best of luck! The only company that has ever brought me to tears with their horrible service was my old internet provider. Hopefully no tears will be shed (or curses shouted lol) and you will have everything running smooth again.

When I lived down south in Savannah, I had to deal with Comcast for my service provider. For awhile the internet was spotty at best, and more bandwidth-dependent services like XBox Live would only stay connected for 10-15 minutes at a time. When I finally complained about a half-dozen times they came out to check the hardware: turns out the modem was defective. The repair guy said he had to go pick up a new modem from the warehouse, but never came back.

When I called up the next day to see what had happened, they told me that the repair guy had put into the system that I requested my service be cancelled outright, so they had shut off my internet access completely. I was livid by this point and told them I wanted a functional router that would actually give me the speeds they advertised, that I thought I was paying for all this time. They apologized and immediately scheduled another installation.

The guy arrives -- a different guy this time, and this guy looked like it was his first day on the job. He brings in the new modem (admittedly a brand-new one, hadn't even been taken out of the bubble wrap)... but then after looking at my connection, he claims that the wiring is the problem, not the modem. He then proceeds to drill a hole in the wall of my bedroom in order to run a new line from the main cable directly into my apartment. To top it off he doesn't even hook up the modem; he just goes "You know how to use a computer, right?", leaves me with a Comcast self-registration kit, tells me to activate the modem myself, and leaves.

The beautiful part: when I ran the software for the registration kit, it stalled out halfway through the activation. At first I was even more angry... but then I realized the internet itself was turned on, but it hadn't been tied to my account because I hadn't had a chance to enter the info yet. So I essentially got free full-speed internet for the rest of my time there thanks to a glitchy activation kit.

When I returned the cable box along with the modem when I moved, they looked at me weird. "Why were you renting a modem all this time but not using internet?" I just shrugged and walked away.

tl;dr: Comcast sucks, but their incompetence makes for some great loopholes.

Sounds like your bandwidth is provisioned on the port level and not the account level. I remember when Bellsouth (now AT&Fail) switched from port provisioning to account provisioning (based on PPPoE login).

There's a possibility that it WAS updated in the central system and not pushed out to the DSLAM yet.

Good luck getting the issue fixed; I hate it when it becomes impossible to speak to someone who knows what's going on!