My battle with Earthlink

[Jason Spatafore]

Derek,

I think your best approach will be engage the tech when he's out with 
the suspicion of throttling as being the root, and ask them if maybe 
they are over-estimating the thresholds. 1MB is still a good connection 
but if it's resulting in timeouts, maybe ask them if they can take the 
threshold to 3MB for 2 weeks to see if you have a better experience. 
Once you get that attention focused on the potential issue, most network 
admins (being contacted by the tech) would be curious on why you 
experienced it and will start digging a little more on their own to see 
if it's some other problem that is causing the throttle to choke the line.

Your goal should be to engage and encourage them to look into it while 
being their "test subject" in an "experiment". People typically eat up 
that type of approach since it really appeals to their curious side, 
which is what most-likely got them into network administration to begin 
with.

Remember, the technician is your gateway to the network admin. He'll 
confirm all the physicals for the admin and yourself.

Just my two cents. Very interested in seeing how this challenge works out.


On 02/23/2013 06:31 PM, Derek Trotter wrote:
> The more I think about it, the more I think you're right.  I did some 
> usenet harvesting using encrypted connections and had no problem.  If 
> only I could call earthlink and get in touch with someone in this 
> country.  I'm guessing they don't tell their overseas tech support 
> very much.
>
> On 02/23/2013 05:28 PM, Jason Spatafore wrote:
>> This is a classic example of QoS usage.
>>
>> The VPN connection doesn't experience the problem because the QoS 
>> settings for VPN would have a no throttling policy attached. SSH 
>> would typically be non-throttled as well.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 02/17/2013 08:02 PM, Derek Trotter wrote:
>>> For several weeks I've had a problem with my earthlink dsl service.  
>>> Anytime I'm doing something that uses all or most of my downstream 
>>> bandwidth, all data coming into or going out of my apartment stops.  
>>> At the same time I'm downloading something a series of updates for 
>>> kubuntu and listening to streaming audio, both stop.  If I'm using 
>>> my windows box to download something else, that too stops.  After a 
>>> pause lasting anywhere from a second or two to 15 or 20 seconds, the 
>>> downloads resume.  A few seconds later, there's another pause.  This 
>>> cycle repeats itself until the download is complete or I give up.
>>>
>>> Each computer has two nics.  The problem persists no matter which 
>>> one either machine is using for it's internet connection.  If I 
>>> remove the router, connect the dsl modem directly to either 
>>> computer, the problem persists.  I even went to the closet and got 
>>> the modem when I had dsl from AT&T.  I set it to work with the 
>>> earthlink service and the problem persists.
>>>
>>> Saturday an AT&T technician was here, checked the line from the cord 
>>> that plugs into the dsl modem and says the line is in excellent 
>>> shape and noise levels are very low. This is not surprising since I 
>>> live less than 1/4 mile from AT&T's local office where all their 
>>> equipment is.
>>>
>>> Since I've tried two computers, 4 nics, two dsl modems and removed 
>>> the router, and the problem still persists, I'm guessing the problem 
>>> is somewhere at earthlink's end.
>>>
>>> Tonight at 21:30 EST, an earthlink tech support person from 
>>> somewhere in India called to tell me they had fixed the problem.  
>>> While he was on the phone I tried downloading something else and 
>>> guess what.  The problem was not fixed.  As near as I can tell, the 
>>> dsl connection does not go down.  The earthlink people say it stays 
>>> up.  The lights on the modem that are on when the connection is up 
>>> never go off or blink.
>>>
>>> The man asks me what dns settings I use.  I tell him 8.8.8.8 and 
>>> 8.8.4.4.  He says I should try earthlink's dns servers. To humor him 
>>> I changed the settings on the windows box and guess what.  The 
>>> problem did not go  away.
>>>
>>> Maybe I'm missing something, but it's my understanding that once the 
>>> download has begun, that dns has already done it's job and has no 
>>> further role to play.  One more thing.  If I use a VPN connection, I 
>>> have no problem with it.
>>>
>>> Any idea what's going on?  If you were to venture a guess, would you 
>>> say the problem is at my place, with AT&T or with Earthlink?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Derek
>>> -- 
>>> "I get my copy of the daily paper, look at the obituaries page, and if I'm not there, I carry on as usual."
>>>
>>> Patrick Moore
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> "I get my copy of the daily paper, look at the obituaries page, and if I'm not there, I carry on as usual."
>
> Patrick Moore
>
>
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