6 Aug 2005 (Sat)
(Prior to this date, our DSL service, though capped at the minimum rate, was fairly reliable for about 5 years.)
11:00 - Multiple disconnects, noise, lines being crossed suddenly noted on the voice line. DSL (old 384 kbs capped service) was totally kaput. Called 611 to report line fault. (No DSL report given because the problem was so gross on the voice line.) Automatic system says the problem "will" be fixed by Monday at 6 pm.
~14:00 - SBC lineman arrives and tells me they had been doing major surgery on the cable that feeds our neighborhood. As I understood it, they cut the main copper line to our Central Office (about 2 miles as the crow flies) and redirected it through a new junction box. Obviously our line was not properly reconnected. He went away and the gross faults were soon fixed. Before he left, he mentioned (on my direct query) that he thought there was "LiteSpan" (fiber) connections present in the new box. That was the first hint that my chronic DSL trouble could be fixed.
As it turned out, our marginal copper-based DSL was being pushed over the edge.
29 Aug -- 2 Sept
Our DSL modem would lose sync intermittently during the heat of the day. Evenings were generally OK. The modem indicated as low as 3 dB noise margin, with a high FEC error rate, just before losing sync.
3 Sept (Sat)
Checked out home wiring, testing at the telco entrance with the house isolated. For a while, it appeared that if I called the home number from a cell phone, the ringing voltage would jolt the DSL back to life for a time. Did that inidcate a loose connection somewhere that could be "welded" by a current burst? I have heard of such things. In hindsight, the DSL signal was so marginal that any small perturbation would cause loss of sync.
16:00 - First call to 1-877-722-3755. Got through to Asia and claimed intermittent loss of sync. The rep was reasonable, I thought, though of course I have to prove that my diagnosis is correct by parroting back the state of the modem lights, etc. Got a trouble ticket.
5 Sept (Mon)
Jason called from SBC/ASI and told me yes, I have a weak signal and high error rate. He scheduled a tech visit.
6 Sept
Tech arrived. Fortunately, sync was out at the time. He fiddled in the telco service entrance and (maybe) at the neighborhood junction box. DSL sync came back. Marked "problem solved"...
7 Sept
10:30 - Lost sync again, as before. A ring current fixed it for a bit, but it was mostly out of service until about 17:20 when it came back for the night.
8 Sept
10:50 - Lost sync again. Had to call the 877 number again. (I hate making support calls!) Repeated my story from scratch and got another trouble ticket. Noted considerable scratchy noise on voice line.
9 Sept
am - Call from ASI about tech visit. I ask about SBC upgrade and/or LightSpan connection. He says he has no info, but I should ask the lineman when he comes.
~14:00 - Lineman comes, checks levels, twiddles in various junction boxes, DSL returns. Didn't know anything about LightSpan / RT. Tells me the modem may be bad. My 5260 reports 2 or 3 dB less noise margin than his test set. (Later discovered he charges me $60 for a "customer's fault" service call. Thanks!)
10 Sept
10:10 - Lost sync again. Checked with my modem at service entrance - no sync there.
12:00 - Called 877 number. Gave life history to voice response. Transfer to India. Sorry excess call volume. Hang up.
12:10 - Called 877 number. Answered all questions. Hang up. India is out to lunch.
14:00 - Purchase ActionTech modem/router at CompUSA. It's the only DSL modem on sale there as far as I can tell. This modem is better because it reports DSL signal quality on its control web page, much better than the 5260. Yes, the ActionTech sees ~4 dB better margin than the 5260. Is this "real" or does it reflect a different calibration or algorithm between the two units? The ActionTech does seem to hold sync longer than the 5260.
11 Sept
< 12:52 - DSL lost of sync discovered. Called 877 number, gave history, call dropped. Waited, did it all again! This is the fourth time this weekend. I am getting the message: don't bother to ask for support today. Called 611 and reported noise on voice line. Can't hurt?
17:10 - Sync returns
19:40 - Sync lost again on 5260, but ActionTech can sync.
19:44 - 5260 is OK.
12 Sept
09:25 - Lost Sync
09:50 - Set up Linux script to monitor noise margins and errors every 2 minutes on the ActionTech. Good is up to ~6-10 dB, fades to ~3 dB during the day.
16:30 - Checked with 611 - my noise problem had been "fixed" already. Sure...
13 Sept
09:00 - margin fade begins (according to monitor)
10:36 - "final" loss of sync
11:14 - Called 877 again. Gave history anew. Got another ticket.
14:00 - (quick) Got call from ASI. Talked about modems. He claims ActionTech is an AOL modem, and AOL has gone out of the DSL business. He gives a list of modems I could buy that would be more supported. Went back and forth about my history and what my options were. I said I was about to quit SBC. Did they care? Some more discussion. He did not know anything about LightSpan/RT upgrades. I said I didn't think this was going anywhere, can I speak to a supervisor? Magic words.
~16:00 - Called by the supervisor. Seems knowledgeable, for once. He did some checking with special info sources and found that yes, an RT system had been installed in my neighborhood, and if I wanted I could order a changeover to that system. I should expect about 10 days of service outage. I said yes!
16 Sept
10:00 - My DSL login stopped working - no PPPoE authentication. DSL link was still there at normal margin levels. Fortunately, my SBC/Yahoo dialup account continued to work.
(During the week, I received a phone call from an SBC computer saying thanks for my order and my stuff should be arriving in the mail soon. Nothing ever arrived.)
26 Sept
14:36 - Since I had heard nothing for some days, I called ASI's repair number to ask about status. The first time, the person on the line knew nothing about my situation and said I have to talk to "provisioning". The provisioning guy said it wasn't his problem and transferred me to India for "self install help". I said I was looking for my PPPoE login information - username and password. India has never heard of PPPoE. The guy started to tell me how to install my (non-existent) SBC install CD in my (non-existent) Windows XP computer. I told him this was not convenient, since SBC had not provided any install disk. He persuaded me to change my SBC/Yahoo password - which was unnecessary. I had to hang up on the guy.
I noted that so far as my modem could tell, I still had the same copper circuit as before.
I called the ASI repair number again and asked for the supervisor, but it turned out the fellow who had answered was an old CT SNET hand and could really help me some. While we were discussing what our options were, an SBC lineman breaks into the circuit and says he's at my local RT box ready to make a switchover. We had a nice 3-way chat for a couple of minutes. [This was the "old" telco culture!]
The ASI(?) lineman did the switchover and came to the house to check his handiwork. Indeed I now had ~30 dB SNR and a connection that would carry up to about 10 Mbs if I wanted to pay for it. That's the right stuff. I am now in the "green zone" (about 5,000 feet) where DSL life is good.
Not so easy!
The truck left, and I went inside to enjoy DSL. The modem reported wonderful numbers, but my @snet.net login and my newly changed password did not work. (There were valid on my dialup.) How to get connected for real?
Call the repair number again and ask for the same fellow I had been talking to. My new contact says, well he doesn't know any "Pete" -- there are 400 people working in his room. [New telco culture!]. I try to ask what do I need to do next. He says that SBC may not have finished the provisioning. They have until midnight to complete that. So sleep on it, and check in the morning.
I didn't find that too satisfying and started browsing via dialup. I came across a clue on BroadbandReports.com (and later, an SBC Help page for Mac OS X) which tells how to log in to a special PPPoE account to do a manual registration via a web browser. I didn't expect much, but I tried the PPPoE info, and it did work! Why not try the registration? First thing I recognized this was a non-standard web page that did not render correctly with Firefox. Turning to WinXP running under VMware and Internet Explorer, I found I could go through the process and register myself. After that, my normal PPPoE login info worked in the DSL router. Apparently, "registration" associates a given newly provisioned DSL port with a (possibly) existing Yahoo identity. This is nowhere explained in any material I received. (I received no material.) The procedure is normally handled by installation CD. (I received no CD.)
So finally, all is well at my location. After 17 phone calls over a period of 6+ weeks (and 40+ hours of my time), I am getting ~1,100 kbs throughput, which is normal for a 1,500 kbs sync rate.
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