10-30-2000 Contacted by JS (ASI?) a manager who says that their Engineering people are too prone to disqualify DSL connections like mine. I am in the Green Zone, 9000 ft, and they "must" make it work. I say yes, I still want the service. She has to re-initiate the paperwork and then she will "see" about getting me bumped up in the queue. The first normally scheduled date is Nov 20.

11-9-2000 (?) Called back because I had heard nothing. Left message. Had return call from J who works for JS. My install is scheduled for Nov. 20. They are very interesting in my getting service.

11-15-2000 On a lark, I reinstalled my cable modem and discovered there was signal. Lock-up seems solid compared to previous experience - less that 60 seconds or so. Now I have to replace my Linksys router, which I had sold after SNET told me I was not worthy of service - at 50% of purchase price.

11-16-2000 Router arrives. This evening the modem would not lock up for several hours. Looks like there was not so much improvement, after all.

11-17-2000 Modem signal is back, router installed and things are working again.

11-18-2000 1.5-2.0 hr of outage in evening. (missed 3 emails)

11-19-2000 Using SNET's ATM speed test, I get ~315 kbs transfer rates, indicating "trouble" by SNET's own standards. (http://dsl-speed.snet.net) I also see 9-25% packet loss rates on pinging to ns1.snet.net and other sites.

[Of course, my service is not "installed" until tomorrow, 11/20...]

11-20-00 > 18:01 drop out - observed at ~ 18:10. called ASI DSL trouble at 877 274 3282 - ticket # CT013146 technician will call... "OK to test line" service back by ~ 19:00 (missed 1 email) 321 kbs measured, 7% loss in 50 pings.

11-21-00 email diagnostic missing: 0130, 0430, 0530 (but ping log is OK!) Note: fromwhom.log on carbane showed no problems - email is unreliable. [Carbane is my Linux box at work.  I have set up a monitoring cron job on my home Linux box that writes logs to carbane.]  I called ASI trouble # to check on ticket - still outstanding, will get call. (I.e, they didn't fix it last night?) Measure 0% loss (50). 314 kbs speed.

11-21-00 Alarm co. called reporting power failure at house ~12:30. (No carbane updates since then.) "John" from ASI called - beep 203-xxx-xxxx - will visit `>5:30 pm tonight. He says it sounds like Telco has not conditioned the line correctly. will not visit after all. (traffic delay) Will report need for better conditioning gave name of boss for Branford area = PG 203-xxx-xxxx.

Found that power failure lasted ~ 1 hr, and Linux machine did not come back by itself. Found modem in sync at about 18:30, but then lost sync ~18:50 until ~20:00. At 18:40 measured 7% packet lost & 111-118 kbs throughput!

11-22-00 Missed the 01:00 carbane check (email/log) 07:20 - 315 kbs, 0% loss 17:53 lost sync lost email/logs for 18:30, 19:30--21:30 @00:49 (11-23) 45% packet loss, 313 kbs

11-23-00 02:00 - 03:00 missing 13:30, 19:00 - 20:00 also 21:54: 0% loss, 315 kbs

11-24-00 08:50: 0% loss, 312 kbs

11-25-00 A good day

11-26-00 Started long download, then lost sync at ~15:10, came back steady only by about 22:30 - 23:00. 0% loss at ~23:00.

11-27-00 Called 1) ASI help line (?) 1-800-274-3282 (busy for quite a while) Tracy told me my entry was "technical", so transferred me to the the technical line, 1-877-420-2364 "ASI Northeast Digital Service Center (very long hold time). Beverly tells me SNET is in the field since 10:29 this AM improving the line equalization. They found a fault, etc. (Same story as heard previously ...) 20:10 0% packet loss, but ~ 260 kbs throughput (apparent congestion problems.) 21:55 had gotten slowly less responsive, then lost sync entirely.

11-28-00 Since ~ 05:30, no successful traffic. At ~08:00, found modem synced up but no PPPoE connection. Tried disconnect/connect several times with no luck. Is my account disabled? Using SNET dial-in, everything works. At about 8:50, modem came to life. But after about 11:30, there were no more records stored in the carbane log. Came home ~ 18:30, found orange tag from ASI "sorry I missed you" - ticket # CT013146 / Tech # 33J - call 1-877-420-2364 for another appt. - except ASI woman says no trip is necessary - they will call Telco to try again. May take a couple of days. Modem lost sync ~ 18:30 also. Summary down time: 05:30-08:30, 10:30-21:30, 22:30-24:00

11-29-00 315 kbs, 0% loss (-c 50 ns1.snet.net) 21.7/24.4/27.4 ms

11-30-00 Died about 17:50 - came back around 21:15

12-1-00 Happy day.

12-2-00 Another happy day.

12-3-00 OK

12-4-00 Died at ~19:45. (Connection dies at times of max. online traffic?) Called 877-274-3282, transferred to Beverly of ASI NE. She says that our trouble ticket was signed off today "with no problem seen". Obviously 0 bps is a problem. New ticket is CT014450. They will send ASI to check at side of house, then call Telco.

Back briefly at ~21:40, then again at 23:40.

12-5-00 Outages (2) between 17:30 and 19:00.

12-6-00 Glitches (change of IP) between 18:30 - 19:00 and 19:30 - 20:00. Noticed momentary loss of sync (a minute or so) around 20:00. Could it have been correlated with switching house lights? (Not likely) Again, a glitch at 22:20.

12-7-00 Happy.

12-8-00 Down at 17:00 Called ASI to talk to Sharon, renewed the issue with existing trouble ticket. She says her standard is 384 kbs / 20% (distortion? loss rate?). I was getting 256 @ 100%. She would leave a note for her foreman. Read http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/sdf/h/b/hburgiss/dsl/survival/trouble.html -- very useful! suggested interference in the house is probably the issue. Found that our high-power dimmer strings (600 w each) in dining area will kill ADSL when set mid-range, which is a common setting in the evening. Turn off (or full on) and ADSL comes back...  This could easily have been the source of all my loss of sync problems.

The same web site indicates that normal throughput is typically 80% of the DSL signaling rate, so my "315 kbs" is what you would expect from at nominal 384 kbs signaling rate, which is what SBC/ASI/SNET guarantee.

12-10-00 I have replaced the offiending dimmers and have not seen any further loss of sync.  Still watching.

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