Looking for some advice (Verizon DSL)

[GlobalFear]

Ever since I've had the service connectivity has been fairly sporadic. (Although it has been getting steadily worse) But, the connection is great until it gets to be around 5 pm. Then all goes to hell. Web pages take 3 or 4 clicks to load, IRC times out every 30 seconds, and sometimes speeds drop to 10 kb/s. It usually resolves itself after a couple of minutes only to repeat the process in a couple of minutes.

Troubleshooting I did on my end:
- Placed modem and router on wooden surface for good ventilation (Room temp 72 - 74)
- Confirmed PPoE settings
- Removed router (Direct connection from one system to modem
- Tried a direct connection to 4 different computers (With firewalls disabled)
- checked drivers on all systems
- Ran new phone line and recrimped ends. All phones on filters as phoneline is split where it comes into the house. At the split everything but the dsl line is ran through a filter.

My theory - Their network simply can't handle the increased traffic that occurs after people come home from work.

What techsupport did (3 calls)
FIRST TECH
- Went to the setup page for both the router and modem and confirmed settings
- Ran linetest
- Told me to call back

SECOND TECH
- Went to the setup page for both the router and modem and confirmed settings
- Ran linetest
- Told me to call back
- Said he would investigate with his central office.
- Was competant

THIRD TECH
- Went to the setup page for both the router and modem and confirmed settings
- Ran linetest
- Was insulted when I told him the last two techs did the same thing and that he needed to stop reading from a fucking manual.
- Ran speedtest. Was getting a third of my normal speed.
- Said he would run another line test and left me on hold for 20 minutes before I hung up.

None seemed to grasp that I couldn't call back whent he problem occured as I have to wait on hold for a half hour

Modem.: Westell 6100
Router: Netgear WPN824

Any opinions or suggestions?

 

[Rabid_FOX]

I would ask to speak to a tech that is a level up from the ones that originally take the call. See if they will let you file a network trouble ticket to have you local CO checked.

 

[Nostradamus]

Sounds like a capacity problem with that CO. If ou say it gets bad around 5pm that is generally when people are getting home and hitting the Internet for downloading, games, etc. The techs obviously have checked your line out and it is ok, have they been on the line when the problem started? I would start collecting evidence like traceroute logs showing ultra high latency starting at their network hop and ping tests showing dropped packets. Then once you've gotten that information call up and ask to speak to either a senior tech or the manager (senior techs can usually actually help more than managers who will just assign them the ticket later).

If you sound like you know what you're talking about, but still be respectful, then the techs will work their ass off for you. However if you call them out and start yelling to get it fixed then its like yelling at a brick wall. Put yourself in their shoes, would you want to go the extra mile for someone who talks down to you??

 

[GlobalFear]

Well 6pm and so far so good. Got 40 minutes left on a download. (Crosses fingers)
Maybe the second tech actually did something on his end.