My battle with Earthlink

Sun Feb 24 12:23:18 MST 2013

Good idea, but the technician I see is with AT&T.  The only tech support 
people I talk to with Earthlink are in India.  The AT&T guy is supposed 
to come back tomorrow so I'll mention it to him then.

On 02/24/2013 10:49 AM, Jason Spatafore wrote:
> 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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>
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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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