atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Bonded DSL mess

Thank you all for the input. Couple of things to note.

We have talked about going to cable, it’s on the table, but the fees associated with switching (early termination fees, installation fees, etc) are prohibitive. Not impossible, but it makes it a bitter pill to swallow. The owner and I have discussed it, if we can get CCI to waive the ETF somehow, we may make the switch.

The latest thing I tried, before reading these posts, was to connect only one PC to the gateway via Ethernet. I turned the WiFi radios off, so the only connection would be this one PC that has very low network usage, and after a day or so, the same thing happened, DSL sync is up, internet is out.

At this particular moment, I have left it in that state so the tech coming tomorrow can see it.

If I had my way, we’d switch to cable, I’d port the phone to Voip.ms, and call it a day.

I will ask the tech about the ip pool situation and see if exhaustion is the problem. This did all start with COVID.

I will try the one pair test if it continues to be a problem after tomorrow. I don’t want it to resync before the tech gets here.

I will post an update once I have more.

I can't see it as an exhaustion of your IP pool, rather an exhaustion of your service providers capacity.

I would get an attorney to draft a letter giving them a time limit to get this resolved or the situation will be considered a breach of contract and no ETF will be due.

-Hal

I reached out to the first tech that came out. He seems like a really decent guy, who cares about doing a good job and wants to do right by people. We've had a little bit of texting dialog, and he reached out to me this afternoon.

He had the CO tech look at the circuit and said 'It looked terrible'. He said he'd make sure he got the ticket and would see me tomorrow, and apologized for the situation.

I'll report back tomorrow afternoon as far as what changes were made and what, if anything, we find.


Hal, if this doesn't get resolved, that is exactly what I may do. (Assuming I can't badger them to drop the fee myself.) I have to tread somewhat carefully, though. I don't want the service canned before I can port the phone number away. The bar has had the same number for like 30 years or something. I'd never hear the end of it if that number got lost.



This is exactly what is happening, but now that the CO tech says the circuit looks terrible.... I'm not sure



I know it isn't our IP pool, clearly the one PC test bore that out. The only two IP's on the internal side would have been the router and the PC. This is why the above statement by ffej010 resonated with me. Maybe our CO is tapped out.

Chris, sometimes a business has to suck it up and pay the price for good service. With cable so cheap now a days. just have them move over.

Unfortunately we are a food service business that has been hit really hard by the pandemic. Right now we are barely breaking even. The biggest hurdle is the ETF and the Installation fees. The actual service is fairly comparable in price.

This is their last chance to make it right, and they know it.

The tech was out today, and through his talks with the CO tech, they found the programming in the DSLAM (they called it "the build") was done very poorly. He got into the technical details a very little bit with me, but that's way above my pay grade. Suffice it to say, the CO tech completely scrapped the build and made a new one from scratch. Everyone is certain the problem is not a physical circuit or hardware problem. I mentioned the scenario (and even showed him this thread) of the provider running out of IP's and he didn't seem to think that was the problem, though it wasn't completely out of the question. He did mention that everyone working from home, schooling from home, and generally sticking around home, has put their entire network under considerable strain, and the weakness are showing. I liken it to the cartoon of Wile E. Coyote or one of them plugging holes in a wooden boat with their fingers and toes until they've run out of toes and fingers.

Bottom line is this...

If this fixes it, and it stays online without taking a dump every day and becomes reasonably reliable again, we will leave it be. It's not a great service, and we knew that going in, but it is adequate for our needs, as long as it stays at an acceptable level of reliability. If I go in tomorrow or the next day and it's down again.... As Major Hochstetter used to say.. "Heads will roll!"

Bonus points if you get that reference...

Chris. We do a lot of cable sales. Not sure what you mean by ETF and install fees. Usually install chargers are waved for new customers.
By ETF do you mean build fees ?

Early termination fee. We are in a three year contract with CCI.

Things to look for
1. When is contract up
2. Contract terms for CCI not being able to provide service
3. Track and document every time and for how long ckt is not providing service.
4 Est gmod amount of money lost by ckt being down.
5. CCI will not resist cancelation

Depending on who you might switch to, the new provider may do something to help buy out or buy down ETF.

Cable isn't the end-all be-all either. It can be full of problems just as you are currently experiencing....poor plant, exhausted resources, misconfigured services. That really applies to any provider and their plant and setup.