Slow DSL Babylon, NY

[hwkeye1011]

While I am the first person to state an issue I also like to acknowledge a job well done. After my internet access was basically non-existent this evening, I called tech support again.  While I was skeptical at the start of the call when the gentleman stated "there appears to be an inside wiring issue" a comment I have heard before during previous calls. The gentleman did not stop with the initial diagnoses of the suspected problem and continued to investigate. After resetting all my internet connections and further testing he was able to find the actual cause of the issue "a faulty micro filter."  My internet speeds have since climbed from 0.32 - 0.42 to 2.71 - 2.80.   I wish I had written down the gentleman's name as he fully investigated the problem and appears to have resolved the issue something none of the other techs have been able to do.  To the unknown tech that was able to resolve my DSL issue "KUDOS" to a job well done!

[BillB9]

Seven weeks and counting, and my speed continues to hover around 2.5Mbps (though once or twice it has inexplicably and very briefly - like one cycle through 3 ISPs on speedtest.net - jumped to roughly the expected 10Mbps). The good thing is that everyone at Vz with whom I've spent hours and hours (on the phone and in person) has been friendly, knowledgeable and (most importantly) articulate - I'm getting quite an education in phone technology. I now know that the 'single piece of equipment' capable of handling my promised 10Mbps DSL is a router known as Juniper in Garden City, Nassau County, to/through which my local Babylon CO connects. I've now had (in sequence over several weeks) a port switch in Babylon, port switch in GC, router switch in GC (ummm - but isn't there only one possibility?), F2 pair switch (about which neither I nor Michelle, my new best friend MCO in Rhode Island, knew about), F1 pair switch (both here in Babylon, I think), and another port switch in Babylon (hmmm - aka DSLAM?). There was an unsuccessful attempt by the latest tech visitor to switch me to an older slower router in GC known as the 'Redback', but to his & his MCO's surprise and puzzlement, I immediately got a 'service has been suspended' error, and they switched me back to Juniper. Michelle & I are trying to get permission from the Forums to start a new thread (generally verboten - 'flooding') to try to get anyone with my problem, especially & particularly nearer to GC than I, to respond to that thread so she & the MCOs might have a better handle on the problem count and geographic distribution to answer the question: Is Juniper to blame?

[smith6612]

I'm surprised Verizon tried moving you to a Redback on a 10Mbps package. Verizon is putting the Redbacks to End of Life as they are old routers and have been taking them offline for some time now. The Juniper ERX series of routers that they are much faster in comparison to the Redbacks when it comes down to how they operate, and are typically more flexible. Lately in some cases it's been found that the Junipers have been seeing some higher loads in some areas that causes slower speeds, but it's pretty much a guarantee that anything beyond 3Mbps is going to land you on a Juniper. Fortunately Verizon keeps at least several Junipers in an area for the edge, so they should be able to move you off to another one if needed.

[BillB9]

Smith6612: They tried the move to Redback in an attempt to see if the slowdown in speed would continue even if I were not on the Juniper, and downgraded my speed to match the Redback (they were not trying for 10Mbps). It has also been stated repeatedy by more than one of the numerous tech support folks with whom I've been talking that there is a single! Juniper in the Garden City CO for both Nassau & Suffolk counties. Of course, that seems to be contradicted by a router switch that had been scheduled and worked in that CO, but having seen none of the details of that switch in my account records, it's not impossible that the work order was closed out w/o any action if it was belatedly realized there was no other router to use! I tend to believe the single Juniper assertion both because of the number of times its been asserted and because none of the MCOs have disputed it by trying anything other than moving me 'down' to the Redback. The saga continues...

[BillB9]

Finally! The issue has been resolved! I'm now consistently getting roughly 9.5Mbps download speed (my older laptop yesterday even registered a couple of 10+ results) and 0.91 upload. The MCO team in Rhode Island were relentless in their investigation, and the 'packet loss' they detected was in fact the problem, caused by some cards in the Garden City CO that had not been rebooted in far too long (2100+ hours). The work order to power down/up the rack with the cards went in Monday (3/4) and the work was done that night; since Tuesday my results have been essentially identical across 3 ISPs at speedtest, and at speakeasy. Kudos and boundless thanks to Michelle & Jeff in RI for their patience and perseverance! Anyone else notice their 'promised' 10Mbps speed suddenly restored?