From TNPC issue #4.11...

DSL - Not Always a Walk in the Park

by T.J. Lee
May 31, 2001

Way back in TNPC #2.21 (October 1999) I wrote about my experience getting my DSL broadband connection installed and running. It was really an anti-climatic story once PacBell actually showed up to do the installation. The guy hooked up the router while I installed a second NIC card in my PC. We plugged everything in and it just worked. Turn on the computer and, bingo, I'm connected to the Internet.

As you might imagine, over the last 18 months I've come to expect my Internet connection to simply be working. Not having experienced any problems I got quite lax about my "always on" connection. Needless to say the DSL demons decided that I was ripe for trifling with and they have plagued me with a vengeance.

Earlier this month my connection would just go to sleep and when I'd try to get email or surf the Web I'd get a DNS error indicating I was not connected. The router showed I was in sync, no error lights lit up, but try as I might there was no joy in connectionville.

Fortunately, I had Lee Hudspeth's excellent articles "High-speed Internet Connection: What To Do When Yours Goes Down" (Parts 1 and 2) to fall back on, although the only modem still in my shop was an old 28.8 model. PacBell provides dialup support with every DSL account so at least I was able to get connected via dialup. Getting email was tedious and surfing was positively painful. Once you get used to a high-speed connection it's tough to go back to slow dialup speeds.

What's really troubling is the lack of information that my DSL provider, Pacific Bell, is willing to make available. At first the technical support staff insisted that there was nothing wrong at their end and did I try unplugging and replugging my cables? Reinstall all my TCP/IP protocols? I jumped through their hoops but the connection was still unreliable. The next day a different tech owned up that they were experiencing a problem on their side but that it would be working again in a few hours. And it was. But then last Friday, May 25, I could not connect and it stayed down straight through until Tuesday morning. Down for four days in--according to the PacBell Internet (PBI) Status page--areas covering all of California and parts of Nevada. But some places in California were connecting fine. It would be a much more useful page if it listed which PacBell DSL routers are not working so you could see if the one you connect to was having a problem.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/411/tr.cgi?tjl1

The PBI Status page is misleading as well. They do record the time a problem starts so you'd think you'd be able to see how long something bad has been going on. But the Status page is periodically updated and each time the start date/time is updated to the time of the new update. This makes it look like a problem has only been going on a short while when in reality it may have been going on for days. The technical support people who answer the phone truly try to be helpful but they are working off scripts for troubleshooting, most are not really technically knowledgeable about IP addresses or settings (depending on which call center you're routed to). They walk you through a script and any deviation results in them putting you on hold for long periods of time while they call a real technician and try to get them to explain something to them so that they can explain it to you. I asked them about a credit for the downtime and tech support just suggested I call the billing office and complain.

The bad news is that judging from Lee's and Dan's experiences there is no DSL provider that is not subject to problems of one kind or another. Cable may be more stable but I'll guess that they have the same types of problems as well. Unfortunately it's tougher to switch broadband providers than just your ISP. First, there's usually a couple of hundred dollars you pay up front for your equipment. In my case I paid $200 for the router (what PacBell calls a DSL modem) and a network card. If I go with a wireless broadband service like Sprint I'll have to pay $299 for the dish receiver/transmitter and their assorted hardware. Plus the pain and agony of going through the installation waiting game.

Still, if PacBell can't get the problems worked out I may know more about switching DSL providers than I'd like to. If you have any war stories about changing DSL providers I'd like to hear about them.

You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com

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