High Speed Internet (DSL) and Dial-Up

[#1]

For the past couple of weeks I've noticed my internet slowing down considerably. A week ago, my internet stopped working all-together, and, after 2 calls to tech support, was brought back up by changing my Westell (6500, I believe) settings to Bridge.

However, I should step back a bit and explain that when the internet first started acting up, it would work perfectly well from early morning until about 7 PM (CST) then the speed and latency would degrade. I ignored this for a while, then instead of the lowered speeds and higher latency, the internet would start cutting out completely (lost internet connection on the router itself). A week of this, and the internet stopped all-together for 2 days.

Called tech support, we changed some settings on the router (took a total of 2 hours on 2 different calls to figure it out...) and it came back up, but ever since, every night about 7 oclock the latency spikes and the speeds drop to painful levels.

I did a speed test on speakeasy and was at ~10 kilobits per second...which, as I estimate, is 0.001 Mbps. My latency is World of Warcraft at this time is over 3,000 - 4,000 ms. Whereas, during the day, I am between 100 - 200 (which still doesn't impress me).

Last night, I did a traceroute just to approximate where I stand:

Tracing route to verizon.net [206.46.232.39]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   153 ms   153 ms   153 ms  dslrouter [192.168.1.1]
  2   189 ms   186 ms   185 ms  L100.FRSTIL-DSL-02.verizon-gni.net [71.113.144.1]
  3    52 ms    34 ms   186 ms  at-4-2-0-1721.CHI01-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [108.57.128.32]
  4   188 ms   191 ms   189 ms  as0-0.CHI01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.20.58]
  5   214 ms   213 ms   215 ms  ge-1-2-0-0.DFW01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.17.106]
  6   215 ms   214 ms   213 ms  so-1-0-0-0.DFW01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.17.66]
  7   101 ms   219 ms   277 ms  so-1-0-0-0.DFW03-CORE-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.20.157]
  8   212 ms   216 ms   214 ms  po1.ctn-border1.vzlink.com [206.46.225.85]
  9   303 ms   214 ms   213 ms  po121.ctn-core1.vzlink.com [206.46.225.18]
 10   216 ms   212 ms   215 ms  206.46.228.130
 11   222 ms   214 ms   213 ms  206.46.232.39

Trace complete.

My router is directly connected to my computer...nothing in between it, such as a wireless router. At this point, the internet was decently bad. Pages were loading fast enough but it was much lower than I expected. I did 10 pings to the Verizon site the other night and the loss was >50%.

I will return with more statistics as I gather them, but right now, I am looking for ideas. At the moment, I can't even stream YouTube videos.

Service plan: 1 Mbps

Equipment: Directly connected Westell 6500

System: Freshly installed Windows XP

[#2]

In a brief moment of uptime tonight, I took a couple snapshots of the situation:

tracert verizon.net
Start	16:00
End	16:00

_____________________

Tracing route to verizon.net [206.46.232.39]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  dslrouter [192.168.1.1]
  2     *     1006 ms   114 ms  L100.FRSTIL-DSL-02.verizon-gni.net [71.113.144.1]
  3  2453 ms     *        *     at-4-2-0-1721.CHI01-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [108.57.128.32]
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5  1328 ms   110 ms    63 ms  ge-1-2-0-0.DFW01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.17.106]
  6     *      300 ms     *     so-1-0-0-0.DFW01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.17.66]
  7  1250 ms     *      116 ms  so-1-0-0-0.DFW03-CORE-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.20.157]
  8   841 ms   382 ms    60 ms  po1.ctn-border1.vzlink.com [206.46.225.85]
  9  4064 ms   225 ms    61 ms  po121.ctn-core1.vzlink.com [206.46.225.18]
 10    88 ms    82 ms   126 ms  206.46.228.130
 11     *     2562 ms     *     206.46.232.39
 12  2712 ms    64 ms  1432 ms  206.46.232.39

Trace complete.

******************************************************

tracert google.com
Start	16:02
End	16:07

_____________________

Tracing route to google.com [209.85.225.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   216 ms   216 ms     1 ms  dslrouter [192.168.1.1]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *     4227 ms  at-4-2-0-1721.CHI01-CORE-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [108.57.128.32]
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *     3705 ms   264 ms  0.ge-1-1-0.XL4.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.65.185]
  6   251 ms   253 ms   252 ms  152.63.65.209
  7   255 ms   253 ms     *     xe-9-2-0.edge3.Chicago3.Level3.net [4.68.110.185]
  8   333 ms   252 ms     *     4.68.101.66
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *     3970 ms    65 ms  209.85.225.99

Trace complete.

Hope this helps.

[#3]

I apologize, the router is Westell Model 6100F...not 6500.

[#4]

It seems the modem has issue(s)

Please consider:

#1 Getting a new modem.

#2 OR getting a RJ-45 WAN port router and then following the directions at http://www.dslreports.com/faq/13600

[#5]

I don't believe the modem is the cause of all my problems. It is unlikely that it spazzes out at the same time every night and then returns to proper function the next morning.

While it might be the cause of my latency, it can't be the cause of the 7 PM to sometime-in-the-AM drop in internet quality/connectivity every single day, without fail.

I'll call tech support, once again, before I switch providers, I guess.