Is verizon screwing me over?

[merc141]

For the past week my internet connection has been ridiculous, random disconnections, a dozen times every day or so, making it difficult to do anything online. I started to think it was a configuration problem (of course same computer nothing changing at all there is no way I did anything to cause a problem) so I started poking around the web interface to see if anything was wrong, didn't find anything so I call verizon and they were saying there was an outage in the San Bernardino area so I was thinking thats what the problem is, I will be patient and wait until they fix the issue.

Fast forward to today, apparently they "fixed" the issue but I still am having problems. I can't even watch a youtube video without it stopping in the middle, constantly. All I know is still a problem. I check the router and find it is configured differently. Previously it was:

7104 Kbps down/ 864 Kbps up

but now it is set at:

896 Kbps down/ 64 Kbps up

what the hell? I didn't make any changes personally. I have not made any changes to my account, services, or what plan I made. It is the basic DSL I have had for over a year now. I have had no notice of changes to my plan, and paying $60/month I am wondering if it is worth it. Is it legal for companies to make changes to a plan so drastic as this?

If you question the accuracy of these numbers, I literally cut and pasted all the settings from the router's web interface (before I called and realized there was an outage in the county) so that when I reset the router I knew exactly every setting. Also is this a reasonable amount to pay for this service? Input on this would be very welcome.

My plan is supposed to be for 3.1 to 7 Mbps

 

[klank]

If your DSL line is experiencing issues like line noise, etc. the modem/router will usually self train down to a lower speed to stabilize the connection.

I would call Verizon again and have a tech do a line check.

 

[JPF_]

If your issue is just with Youtube or buffering/streaming in general.....most likely its the website itself.

Youtube.....hell they are becoming a monster in regards to throttling users. You could be on a 200/200 connection and still have buffer time somewhere.

There was a fix for it that you could change via run cmd.......maybe google around for it?


edit: How're you testing your speeds? You should use the ISP provided speed test. Because your speed offered by an ISP is only from your house to their local servers. Not from youtube to your house, or facebook to your house etc etc....

 

[felt]

I have Verizon fios in the west Covina area and it was having major issues last weekend, it seems better today.

 

[cyclone3d]

Have you tried unplugging your modem/router for a few minutes and then plugging it back in?

It could be that while they were having issues it throttled down and or reconnected at a lower speed.

If it has not been disconnected and reconnected since then, the speed will have remained at the slower speed.

 

[The Lurker]

Can confirm the youtube issue that has been stated. I have FIOS 60/30 in NYC area and youtube is unwatchable after 6pm.

 

[Nate7311]

Verizon and Youtube/Netflix is an ongoing issue for a while now. I remember reading a Slashdot article a while back about some peering issue between Verizon and someone else causing those two services to have sketchy performance.

 

[RocketTech]

How're you testing your speeds? You should use the ISP provided speed test. Because your speed offered by an ISP is only from your house to their local servers. Not from youtube to your house, or facebook to your house etc etc....

Yes and no. Depends on the SLA and advertising. if they say "Internet speeds as fast as x" and you are getting x<80% from an internet site capable of transferring at the speeds of your connection, you have a case. If you are bouncing off Bob's server in upper nowhereistan and complain of slow speeds/pings, you're on your own.

Using the ISP provided speed/test page is a good troubleshooting tool, but speed on an ISP's network and speed to the first hop off their network are two different things. The ISP's network is not 'The Internet'. I've gone around and around with CenturyLink on this- I live in KS and they were using Level 3 for backhaul to ( I think) KC or Lenexa. I could hit their servers at full speed, but as soon as I left their network, speed fell by 80% (from 10Mb to <2Mb). The <bad words> told me to call Level 3 and complain. I told them what I thought of that.

Anyways, your target is most useful for troubleshooting where the slowdown is happening, not necessarily if it is happening at all. YouTube is not a good indicator of anything except fail, due to caching agreements, peering, 'we hate YouTube today' traffic management, etc. Use a publicly available and vetted test site.