Verizon down half a day, then suddenly free speed upgrade?
Chrimos
Enthusiast - Level 2

Well, this is not a complaint or support, but just curious. I hope its perminant and not temporary

Today 13-Oct-11 I found that the internet was gone for half the day. I got up to use the computer at 10am and notice no connection. Looked at the router and notice there was no dsl signal.  Reset the router, even shut it off and still no signal.. Check the phone and there was a dial tone..

Thought to myself maybe its just a minor outage so will be back up later.. not urgent anyways.  You would see the router DSL light turn a evil red color, and then go off, at one point the light stayed red for 30 sec before going out again.  2PM no internet still, I threw my hands up and said, well better stop slacking and get some errands done. Went out and came back about 5pm and the internet was up. I thought great its back..

Then sometime around 8 or 9 PM EST, the internet went down again.. and it had trouble connecting... so I thought to myself.. oh no not another outage.. about 5 min later the internet came back... but this time... I got faster speed then I normally get! I thought to myself AWSOME!!

How much faster did I get?

Normal 1784kbps down

                  384kbps up

Now I remember back then when they offered 3Mbps for the price I was paying, the person on the phone said that the 1.5Mbps was the best I can get for my line.. so I gave up and kept the default one, then after the outage I now got much better speed. I still don't get the 3Mbps.. but I think it was a fair trade... my new speeds are...

 New Speed: 2112kbps  down

                          832kbps   up

I checked the router and notice that the signal noise is the same nothing has changed, just suddenly more speed. I got OVER 2x the upload speed!! and a 300+kbps speed increase! This came after that weird 5 min of downtime we had.. We have more upload speed then what was given to residentials on the website.. ( can't find it now) Residents suppose to get up to 448Kbps upload and business suppose to get up to 1mbps on there ultimate plan but 768Kbps on the plans below that.

I really hope verizon did not make a mistake and everything will revert back to the old values, otherwise I might have to bug and call verizon to give me higher speeds because I know I can take it..

I just wonder if I reached my router limitation.. The router I have is a Westell 327W that is sort of going bad, was going to bug verizon to see if they will give me a new one, but since I got these much better speeds I don't wanna switch it out now Smiley Very Happy

Here are my router stats if anyone is curious:

Transceiver Information          Downstream Path            Upstream Path              

DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec)                            2112                            832

  Margin (dB)                                                   20.5                          10.0

 Line Attenuation (dB)                                  53.0                           31.5

 Transmit Power (dBm)                              17.1                                   11.9

Since technically the 2112 is withing the 3Mb limit I hope I get to keep it, also I hope to keep the upload speed though I wonder if they set it to high since customers are suppose to be limited to 448Kbps? don't get me wrong I love the new upload. Websites and games seem much faster since we have had problem with people playing multiplayer while someone else is trying to load a video.

P.S The westell 327W Is the first or second gen it is only ADSL and not ADSL2 it is the A90 series.

P.P.S. I did a IP lookup and it looks like its about the same location though I don't know where the nearest co-location is so I assume its based about the area where the IP is?

Also anyone know if verizon has a new 2Mb tier setting? I think I read somewhere, they set you to 1.5Mbps tier or 3Mbps tier, but never heard of a 2Mb tier.

I do have old copper phone wires.. still hoping one day I get to at least 3Mbps.. but until then. I am acutally happy with these new speeds, (hope I don't see new charges and hope it don't revert back to the old 1.5mbps or nerf the upload speed. I kinda like having better upload for playing games with others online.) Smiley Happy

Re: Verizon down half a day, then suddenly free speed upgrade?
Robbie_Rotten
Enthusiast - Level 1

Almost the exact same thing happened to me up in Woonsocket. Except DSL came back on at 7pm. First thing I did was check my stats on my Westell W327 A90-327W15-06 (had since 2005):

DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec)     2112     864
Margin (dB)     16.0     10.0
Line Attenuation (dB)     49.0     31.5
Transmit Power (dBm)     16.7     11.9

The margin drops to 14 but the connection speed is still the same!! Was really thing of jumping to Cox (only other choice, if you call it that, in RI), for the past several weeks my speed would drop to below dialup speeds for a few hours a day. I know it's not on my end as they put a new drop from the pole to my house last year replacing the old wire that had been here since at least the '50s!! But if the speed stays I'll stick with Verzion as long as the price doesn't go up again. I noticed they jacked up my DSL portion of my bill $2 again to $33.99 and calling it Internet Extra.

Re: Verizon down half a day, then suddenly free speed upgrade?
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Sounds to me like Verizon might have done some minor upgrading to the DSL network in your area. Your statistics are pretty good for the distance so I would expect your line to keep increasing in speed over the next few days. The proper sync rates for 3Mbps service are 3360 downstream, 864kbps upstream so things are right where they should be on the upload. The speed is higher on the upload and upload simply to make up for overhead on the line. Anyways, keep us in the loop how things go.

As for the second poster, your statistics are nearing the point of no more speed increases, but I'm glad to hear you've gotten an upgrade as well. Let us know how things run for you 🙂

Re: Verizon down half a day, then suddenly free speed upgrade?
Chrimos
Enthusiast - Level 2

I just checked mine.. Its still $29.99 month so I don't know how long it will last either next month or next year. I remember signing up for 2 year contract price.

I hope they let me keep the price for life!... Interesingly enough here is what my internet plan says:

"Your High Speed Internet Extra service is provisioned to achieve downstream connection speeds between 1.2 - 1.5 Mbps. We will periodically monitor your line and set your maximum connection speed to the highest stable rate between 1.2 - 1.5 Mbps. Actual downstream throughput speed (the speed you experience when you download or upload files) will depend on a number of factors, such as the condition of your phone line and the wiring inside your home, Internet or network congestion, and the speed of websites you connect to on the Internet, among others. Actual connection and throughput speeds may vary and are not guaranteed."

The neighboors on my block all have cox mid to high speed plan when they had open wifi.. it was fun going 25mbps to 30 mbps..  the neighboors on the left I saw they have fios because I see the junction boxes at everyhouse.. So technically I think I have the slowest speed in my neighborhood..Smiley Very Happy

 Lol not even 3mbps suppose to be capped at 1.5mbps I have verizon dsl with MSN Premium xD The 1.5mbps was the fastest they had at the time. 

It was verizon dsl or att&t dsl we have both telphone services.. one was $29.99 month the other was $29.95 per month went with verizon for free wireless modem + MSN premium.. Though there was a delivery charge or something on the bill can't remember.

Lucky I didn't choose at&t bloody dsl internet cap... seriously why cap dsl monthly bandwidth which is a dedicated line >.<?!!

If they jack me up to $35 I better be getting >3.1mbps

for $30 up to 3Mbps is a resonable price. I don't mind $30 if I get up to 3mbps higherspeed you should pay a bit more..

I live near a lot of commerical buisnesses so I can get Verizon Fios or Cox cable, interestingly enough these are the only 2 that is in this entire state as far as I know..

Comcast left the area, at&t dsl left also... I got mail from Clearwire but they have extremely horrible review and just as slow as DSL but cost more. Since they rely on cellphone towers for signal..

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Re: Verizon down half a day, then suddenly free speed upgrade?
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

You can get FiOS? If one day the service comes into your budget, by all means jump onto it and leave DSL alone. Higher speeds and far less problems that can occur. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the next year or two you see Verizon contacting you to get you off of the DSL and onto one of their unadvertised speed packages that match DSL pricing.

As far as data limits go? For a Fixed line service, it's all about the money. For Wireless? Well, that's quite a debate but it's for the same reason if a tower is not congested.

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