ID:181286
 
so i'm currently using a DSL connection from AT&T. i don't know much about it, i'm not the one who set it up. it's a very weak connection; has a very constant speed of 20kb/s. however, i've noticed that every once in a while the connection will suddenly reset on its own, and be much faster- 100-150kb/s, sometimes even faster. this occurs during the night, lasts for about 8-10 hours, and then (around 7 am it seems) it suddenly resets again and goes back to its sluggish 20kb/s. what i mean by "reset" is that it simply dies very fast and then comes back up about 1 second later. generally when my connection dies for any reason, it takes much longer than that to get it back into a working state, so these resets seem quite strange.

these occurrences are several days apart. sometimes it's 1-2 weeks before it happens again. what's happening? could it be a bandwidth cap/download quota? it seems to reset back to the slow speed even if i don't do anything intensive with the connection- just light browsing for 30 or so minutes.

in general, 20kb/s seems much slower than what i should be getting. i figure the "fast" speed is actually supposed to be the norm, and there's some sort of problem constantly holding it back. i'd like to figure out what it is, but i don't know where to start
Do you have access to the router? If so, please screenshot all the DSL settings / status screens it has. If in doubt, screenshot it anyway and we can just glance it over.

The problem is I don't know what kind of network AT&T runs in your area.
In response to Stephen001
http://imgur.com/GOvz5

that's all the settings i could find, and i ran its full diagnostic out of curiosity and it didn't have any trouble. it also appears to have an "IP Tests" section including NS lookup and trace route if you'd like those

the setup also includes a "fast ethernet switch"
In response to Zaole
What a useless router. Do you have problems with say .. steam downloads as well?
In response to Stephen001
indeed. with steam i get consistent 20kb/s speeds with the exception of the "fast" occurrences. i haven't encountered anything that doesn't behave this way
In response to Zaole
Have you ever tried connecting a computer directly to the modem to see if you have the same problem? This is a good way to prove or eliminate router problems. Also, it is possible that this could be some type of throttling done by the ISP to limit bandwidth when there systems are under heavy load.
In response to Soldierman
Have you ever tried connecting a computer directly to the modem to see if you have the same problem? This is a good way to prove or eliminate router problems.

the modem is in an entire 'nother room from my computer + the router, and i don't really understand the setup at all, so i don't know how to connect the computer directly into the modem without undoubtedly completely messing things up

Also, it is possible that this could be some type of throttling done by the ISP to limit bandwidth when there systems are under heavy load.

indeed, but the slow speed happens 99.5% of the time, so either they're under heavy load all day every day, or we're getting gipped. i've read before about possible reasons i have this issue is due to all sorts of DSL-specific problems like improper grounding, bad wire setup, etc which could be solved by a "POTS splitter", but said fix is a bit infeasible in our situation, and i don't even know if it's the actual problem anyways
In response to Zaole
A POTS splitter being a DSL filter, I assume. Plug into phone line, plug phone + DSL into it, magic happens.
In response to Zaole
Zaole wrote:
Have you ever tried connecting a computer directly to the modem to see if you have the same problem? This is a good way to prove or eliminate router problems.

<s>the modem is in an entire 'nother room from my computer + the router, and i don't really understand the setup at all, so i don't know how to connect the computer directly into the modem without undoubtedly completely messing things up</s>

scratch that, the modem in the other room isn't even connected at all (nor is the phone). it was used in our previous setup, and i just assumed it was still being used. i think this router is actually a combo modem+router. i've tried messing around a little bit, plugging the modem+router directly into the computer instead of through the ethernet switch, but my random experiments seemed to yield no change at all
In response to Zaole
Do you have anything like this between the phone socket and your router?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5675173/ ADSL-Filter-Splitter-With-Cable/ Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518|cat:5675173|prd:5675173

You should.
In response to Stephen001
Stephen001 wrote:
Do you have anything like this between the phone socket and your router?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5675173/ ADSL-Filter-Splitter-With-Cable/ Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518|cat:5675173|prd:5675173

You should.

nope. i'm looking at what i assume is the phone socket (there's a thin gray wire from the router to it) and there's no filter. however, it seems like the filter is just to allow both phone and internet use unhindered, but we don't even have any phone service
In response to Zaole
No, it splits frequencies to remove the phone range from the ADSL range. These things are meant to be split.
In response to Stephen001
I'd check to see if someone is stealing your internet... Also, contact AT&T, as a fellow customer, I can say, if the rep gets an attitude, ask to speak to a higher up, changes their attitudes mighty fast, XD. Anyways, yeah, check what your connection speed is supposed to be, if its seriously lower, call them and explain the issue.