Ongoing Intermittent DSL problems

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I have this intermittent VDSL problem that will appear randomly where the download speed will drop right out and it's enough to kill streaming or downloads and I have been fighting with the ISP to resolve it and I'm getting frustrated and wanted to know if anyone here has had similar issue so hopefully point me in another direction to try something else to remedy the problem. The DSL connection light and I.P. address don't drop, just the speed drops down to almost nothing for a few seconds to a few minutes and then it resumes back to normal speeds like nothing happened.

Further information and things I have tried:

1) Company has come out themselves and with Bell (who own the lines outside my house), and tested the line, changed the pair of wires in use between me and the box, and moved me in the box to another section just in case.
2) It happens whether the modem is set to Fast or forced onto Interleave mode.
3) It happens with wired clients (direct into the modem), wired into my switch and wireless clients.
4) The ping time never changes and usually is 9-10ms.
5) ISP has replaced the modem a few times and upgraded me to another model in hopes that would fix the problem.
6) The upload speed always remains where it should be so that to me would prove the lines are fine and it's a network issue on their end with the Downstream channel(s) (Maybe?)
7) I took the modem out of bridged mode and put it back into routed mode which is the default and tried it without my PFsense router in the equation. (Same problem)
8) Tried setting up a smart plug on all my network equipment including the modem to turn it off for 15 minutes each night and then back on to see if that made a difference to the reliability (nope)
9) Tried a static I.P. address in case it was something with that. (I highly doubted this but just in case)
10) Signal to Noise Ratio is excellent according to the ISP and Bell (who own the lines) and at no time do I loose connection with them at all when tested for over a week without a reboot.

I would change to Cable Internet in the area however it's really old infrastructure for that system here and my neighbours which were on cable just switched to DSL because it was such a problem. The DSL in our neighbourhood is Fiber to the node.

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Neither my ISP or me can figure this out and it seems like we have tried everything. Thoughts?

When I'm encountering the problem this is what the speed test looks like:

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When I had Bell, always had similar issues.
Finally moved to cable and enjoy 150/10 speeds with 14 ping consistently.
The Bell portion of your connection is your problem imo.
 
Danno, really? that's interesting. Thanks for sharing that. I'm thinking others using DSL might not notice it because they don't have as many devices running on it and don't use it heavily like I do for work, play, streaming etc. I really wish that they would get FTTH here. I guess I might be doomed until then because the cable service in this area is terrible at best. I had this before DSL and as I function as the I.T. guy for my neighbours on the street I can tell you it's still a problem with most of them having switched to DSL.
 
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Just a shot in the dark . Yew a new cable from where the modem plugs into the telephone system , to where Bell's network interface box . I would try Cat6 and use one of the pairs , probably the pair with the tightest twist .

Now plug a computer directly into the modem W/O switch . router , etc. .
 
I had Cat-5e originally from the Bell box on the side of my house to the modem (dry DSL loop) that I put in 6 years ago myself as there was no phone lines in this house when we bought it, the ISP put in a Cat-3 thereafter trying to solve the problem. It's not the easiest place to run wires to but I have tried going back to my Cat-5e line and back to the Cat-3 line when the problem seems to exist.

I had them replace the overhead wiring from the bell box on the side of my house to the junction on the pole where I'm connectedr and then from there they changed me to another pair of wires going back to the junction box in the street where the fiber connection is. They also changed me to a difference punch down spot in the box on the street and on the pole junction to rule that out as well.

I think that the SNR both tested by Bell, the ISP, and as reported by my modem along with the upload speed never dropping proves the line is good or that would also be a problem.

I have also tried a wired client into the modem directly not running security software or firewalls etc. to eliminate that as a possibility. No change.

I really believe it's something on the Downstream channel in their network infrastructure that is freezing up briefly and nothing on my end but I can't prove it.
 
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Originally Posted by cpayne5
I'd recommend posting over at DSLReports.com

They have an open forum where you can solicit help from other users, but also a "Direct" forum where your ISP has reps that help people directly.
Open: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/teksavvy
Direct: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/teksavdirect

The forum also allows anonymous posts, so no need to register for an account if that's a barrier.

Awesome, thanks!
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If I were to move the first item would be how is the internet and are there more then one provider.

Crazily I have access to the following:
1) DSL
2) FIOS
3) Cable Modem

I wish you the best, DSL is flaky compared to Cable.
 
I had cable at the place I lived prior to this house and it was fine. I transferred the service to this address and it was nothing but issues. I then moved over to DSL and it was great until now. I wish we had more choice but it doesn't work that way here with there only being a few main telco's and all the ISP's that are smaller running on one of these few telco's networks and essentially just reselling the service.
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Originally Posted by StevieC
Danno, really? that's interesting. Thanks for sharing that. I'm thinking others using DSL might not notice it because they don't have as many devices running on it and don't use it heavily like I do for work, play, streaming etc. I really wish that they would get FTTH here. I guess I might be doomed until then because the cable service in this area is terrible at best. I had this before DSL and as I function as the I.T. guy for my neighbours on the street I can tell you it's still a problem with most of them having switched to DSL.


OK, if your neighbours have all switched to DSL, are any of them having the same issue? You'd all be synched to the same DSLAM assuming you are using the same ISP.

Is the only phone line the one that goes to your modem or did you run some actual phone feeds for POTS service in the house at the same time?

DSL can be very reliable if the line is clean. Back when I was on ADSL2+ I was running 99% RCO for more than a year with zero outages. My experience with VDSL2 with the same ISP was similar, though I could no longer use my Cisco HWIC and used their provided Comtrend modem bridged to the ISR I was running at the time.
 
They aren't savvy enough to know if theirs is intermittently slowing down. I had it in mind to ask my one good neighbour if I can use his Wifi for a couple nights (he's on Bell) and see if it happens with his as well. Haven't had the chance to ask him yet.

The line I'm using is a dry DSL loop and only feeds the modem. Our home phone is VOIP (ported an old cell phone number to this, that's why I have it)

The lines inside the house are new and according to Bell tech that came out and tested internally and externally (seperate occasions) said it's excellent even under load. (SNR as reported by the modem confirms this) They even monitored my line at Bell for 24 hours and at no time did the line status change so they throw it back at TekSavvy.

Also I would think that any line issues would also affect the ping times and/or the upload channels but these are fine when the problem occurs. Just the download channels are affected.

Until now it has been flawless but in the last year (or so) is when it started happening and now it's becoming more and more of a problem and happening often.
 
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Originally Posted by StevieC
They aren't savvy enough to know if theirs is intermittently slowing down. I had it in mind to ask my one good neighbour if I can use his Wifi for a couple nights (he's on Bell) and see if it happens with his as well. Haven't had the chance to ask him yet.


OK, because that's going to be a huge clue here. Depending on the configuration, if you are synch'd to a remote (versus CO) traffic would be routed differently depending on the provider. IE, your traffic gets routed to Teksavvy's system at the nearest hop, not Bell's. In a CO-synch scenario it is not uncommon for smaller ISP's to colo their own gear within the Bell building. That's how Nexicom is setup here, so if you are sync'd to the CO, you are synching to their DSLAM, not Bell's, so you are never on Bell gear. However, it sounds like you are synching to a local Bell-owned fibre-fed remote based on your earlier description, so your traffic likely diverges at the nearest Bell CO and is routed accordingly.

Originally Posted by StevieC
The line I'm using is a dry DSL loop and only feeds the modem. Our home phone is VOIP (ported an old cell phone number to this, that's why I have it)

The lines inside the house are new and according to Bell tech that came out and tested internally and externally (seperate occasions) said it's excellent even under load. (SNR as reported by the modem confirms this) They even monitored my line at Bell for 24 hours and at no time did the line status change so they throw it back at TekSavvy.


OK, when you say lines, you mean line right? As in there's only a single feed from the NID and it goes straight to your modem?

Originally Posted by StevieC
Also I would think that any line issues would also affect the ping times and/or the upload channels but these are fine when the problem occurs. Just the download channels are affected.

Until now it has been flawless but in the last year (or so) is when it started happening and now it's becoming more and more of a problem and happening often.


Not necessarily, as it can be frequency dependant. VDSL2 is fault tolerant and can quickly recover so it is possible (albeit, not likely) that something is impacting the downstream channels briefly causing the speed to drop off, then recover, while having little impact on IMCP traffic. Not saying it is probable, but possible. On the other hand, if you can confirm a neighbour is having a similar issue, then you know for certain it has nothing to do with you and is a provider issue.

Is the issue pretty predictable? IE, is there a certain time it happens that you could see it happening, and contact a neighbour on the same service to coordinate them testing their service?
 
Yeah that is what I was thinking would help prove where the problem exists or at least point further in another direction - Neighbour.

Line, yes 1 line from the NID into the modem. Direct. No filters on the line anywhere (because there is no home phone service) and no other extensions/jacks.

I hear what you are saying on the Upload/Download channels. I just figured the probability would be a whole lot unlikely is all.
 
Some squirrel nibbled on that 75 year old copper lines. How many pair cable feeds your dwelling? Can your service be moved to another pair in the bundle? Have you noticed this issue when it rains or damp?
 
Originally Posted by Oildudeny
Some squirrel nibbled on that 75 year old copper lines. How many pair cable feeds your dwelling? Can your service be moved to another pair in the bundle? Have you noticed this issue when it rains or damp?

They have done this already.
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No change on weather conditions.
 
Originally Posted by StevieC
Yeah that is what I was thinking would help prove where the problem exists or at least point further in another direction - Neighbour.

Line, yes 1 line from the NID into the modem. Direct. No filters on the line anywhere (because there is no home phone service) and no other extensions/jacks.

I hear what you are saying on the Upload/Download channels. I just figured the probability would be a whole lot unlikely is all.


Typically, even with VDSL2, the provisioning is asymmetrical, so the downstream channel is wider than the upstream. This makes it more likely to be impacted by a noise event. That said, I highly doubt that's the issue, it's probably at the Remote or further upstream. If it's the remote, it should impact more than you.
 
Since posting this and conversing with those in this thread I have posted in the closed section of the DSL reports forum and Teksavvy jumped right on it and responded. Within a few minutes of that I got an e-mail updating my ticket that is this problem ongoing and now they are monitoring my line and my modem from their end until we resolve this (level 2 support it was marked).

They have remotely reprogrammed my modem with certain parameters and have asked me not to turn the power off or reboot until they say it's ok. (I disabled my smart plug that reboots all this stuff)

I was also told I might see a slight speed decrease as they will be constantly sending/receiving data from the modem while they monitor it.

Hopefully they come up with something. Anyway, fingers Crossed.
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