Slow DSL Speed Problem Solved

[c0lnag0]

All,

I've been having similar experiences to a lot of people on this forum:  upgraded my Verizon DSL plan, great speeds during the day, lousy on evenings/weekends.  I finally got things working, and wanted to let those interested know of what I saw, what I did, and where I'm now at.

So, a bit of history.  I upgraded to the 4 - 7 mbps plan, but only saw 3 mbps max on a good day.  I did the typical modem checks to make sure my modem was seeing everything OK.  Finally saw that my router settings were not maxed out.  Once I fixed it, my speeds jumped up to 6.5 mbps, but back down to 0.8 mbps during prime time.  I also used my non-PC devices to do some performace checks as well (primarily, using my TV, Wii, and XBox to do an instant download from Netflix, and watched how my video quality changed during playback; all of them suffered, which meant it wasn't a virus or malware on my PC causing the slow performance).  Contacting Verizon tech support did nothing; they told me the basic stuff that everyone gets.

On advice from a different thread, I joined the forums over at www.dslreports.com.  I posted my problems in the Verizon Direct forum, specifying everything I had seen (including my poor performance with my Netflix instant downloads), and my belief that my slow speeds were due to oversaturation of the lines.  I also requested to be put on a different edge router that was not saturated.  He agreed with my analysis, and had me run a set of speed tests (www.speedtest.net), ping tests to www.verizon.net to look for lost packages, and a tracert to www.verizon.net.  Once I provided my results from these tests, he set up an appointment for the CO to send out a tech.  I never saw anyone, but I did get a phone call from Verizon letting me know that they "fixed the problem at their end" (I don't know exactly what they said, because my daughter got the call, and I found out about it hours later).

Bottom line is that I went from 0.8 mbps in the evening to 6.5 mbps.  Not quite maxed out to my plan, but it's pretty close.  I will probably do some more tests on my end for noisy phone lines, optimization of my router, etc.  But I'm pretty happy with the response I got from Verizon, and I suggest that anyone else with similar issues give the Verizon Direct forum over at www.dslreports.com a try.  They seem to know their stuff over there.

Good luck,

Joseph