How fast are you?

[Bromptonboy]

What the crap? I assume you're on FIOS.

Yes I am.  I am only paying for a 25MB connection.  Not sure what happened on this test.

[Feathers]

Not bad, eh?  Hard to believe actually..

I now know I'm living in the third world. Not sure that private connections like that are even possible over here!

[moyer777]

[Rico]

A bit on the slow side here at home this evening....

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Trying out some new settings to see if I can defeat my internet troubles...still,, Centurylink could fix it easily....

King

[X]

Trying out some new settings to see if I can defeat my internet troubles...still,, Centurylink could fix it easily....

King

what are you suposed to be getting and did you update the bios on your router?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Can't update the BIOS on the router as its a Centurylink supplied router.  Supposed to be getting....gosh, I don't know, its not the transfer rate that's the problem, its the fact that my internet constantly fluctuates between fast and slow speed.  Its the 1.5 GB plan if I remember correctly.  

Just doing 5 speed tests got me a variety of results from 0.5 MB/s to 1.94 MB/s.  Ping constantly fluctuates between 94 to 800 ms.  The connection isn't stable.  At all.  Heck, I had to change settings tonight because my computer couldn't connect to the internet, even my iPhone had to be switched to 3G in order to browse.  

Life of my iPhone:
AT&T Slowdown/issues/totalcrashes: 0
Centurylink slowdown/issues/total connection loss: over 50.  Its a constant unending problem that my skype calls illustrate really well as I'll start green, go yellow, lose connection, and then fluctuate between red and yellow.  Its infuriating.  Heck, sometimes I have to switch to my iPhone's 3G connection for Skype calls because my internet is so bad and those calls are clearer and better.  Its wrong. 

King

[KingIsaacLinksr]

But what is Centurylink's response?  "Its your fault."  "Your obviously not following our instructions that we told you 5 times now".  

This is why I vehemently hate, HATE monopolies.  They don't give a dang anymore.  

Sorry for the rant...

King

[ElfManDan]

The house I'm living in now and frankly their speed really sucks.

[X]

But what is Centurylink's response?  "Its your fault."  "Your obviously not following our instructions that we told you 5 times now". 

This is why I vehemently hate, HATE monopolies.  They don't give a dang anymore. 

Sorry for the rant...

King

Okay, I'm going to give you some advice that they didn't. From what you said, nothing seems "wrong" from their part. Cable loads fluxes all the time depending on who is using the network. You will also get slowdown with anyone using your router at the same time as you are.

So, you have everyone that uses the service competing for general bandwith and everyone in your house competing for more specific bandwith. The speed that any company gives you as your speed is in fact your maximum speed. You won't always reach your max and if they are the only provider, you won't even reach it most of the time.

Here is the kicker. Those people that pay for higher bandwith get priority in the system over those people with slower packages. Their minimum range is higher than your minimum range. Torrents and streaming really play havoc on the stability of your network as well.

After you factor in all of that, do you still have a problem or is it functioning as designed?

[X]

Another question I have is how do they have a monopoly? Are they the only phone and cable company in your area? Usually, most areas have both cable and phone providers. When they do, both try to get into the internet game. Even if it's only two companies, it gives you competition.

Have you looked into other providers?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

We have a DSL connection, last I heard that's not subject to the same problems that Cable lines have.  If I am correct, I have a fairly good idea what is being used of our network, but if someone else is using the same line then I have no idea.  If its just us then no, its not functioning as it should be.  Again, going back to the fact that my internet cuts in and out at random times of the day.  I would know if it was a torrenter killing my internet, its pretty obvious, but unless its another family, its not.  

Centurylink has a monopoly because this town's economy is in decline.  Embarq was bought up by another company who's name escapes my mind and they changed their name to Centurylink.  Effectively killing embarq and the other company from competing against each other.  The only ones left that I'm aware of is Verizon, who's business is very weak here and I think Comcast is the only other one.  Centurylink controls a very large amount of the internet going on in this town and I know this for a fact that when my internet system crashes entirely for the day, most of the town is without an internet connection as well.  I'm afraid I don't know all the companies that are here as the ones who surveyed other options were my parents.  (But I'm fairly sure its a small #)  I could certainly ask them who all is here.  However, because we happen to live just outside city limits, no other companies are willing to provide an internet connection for us.  Even Verizon.  I think only 1 business, maybe Comcast said they would put in a cable line, but that we would have to pay upfront for the cost of it.  Obviously we turned this down.  So yes, Centurylink effectively has a monopoly on this town. 

King

[Feathers]

...still,, Centurylink could fix it easily....

I really, really doubt that unless you have an obvious problem with the bit of cable attached to your house.

I have no doubt that they can fix it but don't underestimate the level of difficulty or cost that may be involved. If the whole town's dropping out it sounds like some sort of serious capacity issue that won't be resolved at the drop of a hat or the flick of a switch.

It's more likely that their customer spport reps are rubbish than that they're deliberately being obstructive alhough if they do hold the local monopoly then their incentive to sort things out will possibly be lower. The government were looking at legislative measures to ensure universal access to broadband internet over here.

[Allen]

Until recently, we still had dial-up. I think that was almost faster.

[Allen]

And I can sympathize with the monopoly thing. Qwest is the only game in town here. They own all the lines. Even if you use another service, they get THEIR service from Qwest.