AT&T DSL not working - now what to do?

[pinkytoe]

We have had the fastest DSL service AT&T offers for several years now and have rarely had any issues with it other than the price mysteriously creeping up over the last year. Now at $60 a month. It has served our needs though up until about a month ago when it began to halt or not work at all for hours. The service guy came out and said something about squirrels and it worked for one day before it mysteriously began slowing down again. It is now basically useless and we have to make a decision. Obviously AT&T would rather DSL customers switch to their higher U-Verse and it wouldn't surprise me if this is one of their tactics. Like so many older folks, we just need the basics on a budget and not lightning fast streaming capability at a much higher price. Our only other option in this hood is Time Warner cable which I hear is just as evil. Google will be here shortly but at $130 a month it is out of our budget. This is all so frustrating...do I waste time on another service call or cave and pay the higher U-Verse price? Seems like their tactics should be illegal.

[Birdie]

I had a similar problem with my ATT DSL and had to replace my modem. That corrected the problem. Did the tech check your modem?

[rodeosweetheart]

I had a similar problem with my ATT DSL and had to replace my modem. That corrected the problem. Did the tech check your modem?
Modem is a good idea. We replaced ours with a better, faster one.
But we also had to replace our satellite internet provider with DSL because of throttling, where they slow you down on purpose. (That's the extent of my tech knowledge, unfortunately.)
Can you call them and ask them to test your system?

[ApatheticNoMore]

There are no other alternative DSL providers in your hood? I find this hard to believe. Now they will all run on the AT&T backbone probably (because they own the basic infrastructure) so it might not help much to switch DSL providers (it might well be cheaper though). New modem sounds worth a try regardless.

I pay $24 a month for slow DSL (it can occasionally be slow for video, but I use the internet mostly for textual reading and communication, VPN into work, occasional online shopping, and the occasional researching an image or something - so it mostly suffices for me).

[awakenedsoul]

pinkytoe,

I pay $50.00 a month for A.T.&T. U-Verse. I had an issue after the last storm. They came out and replaced my power source. There was also a power line down up the street.

I hope you work it out and find something affordable. $130. sounds way too high to me, too.

[sweetana3]

Hubby said that DSL is a shared service and it can be someone on your "loop" hogging the access. In our case, it was a part outside that had to be repaired. Note that one problem took four visits with the final technician finding the "real" problem and fixing it. Modem maybe. So his best suggestion is to keep calling.

[creaker]

I had DSL back when the phone companies were forced to let 3rd party providers use their lines. The lines for my DSL connection were stolen (as in they took my active lines for their own use) - twice - by my phone company. And each time it took them forever to fix it.

I could believe AT&T would let a service they don't want you to use to degrade into uselessness.

[Alan]

Hubby said that DSL is a shared service and it can be someone on your "loop" hogging the access.
Actually, DSL is not shared, Cable is shared. DSL runs across telephone lines at a higher frequency than voice communications, enabling it to co-exit with voice data. The telephone line is a home run from the residence to the telephone exchange and the most common problem associated with DSL is distance since the signal fades beyond 5000 or so feet.

If your problem was repaired outside, I'd guess that it was something relating to the filter or POTS (plain old telephone service) splitter which separates the operational frequencies.

[iris lilies]

pinky, same thing here. We had DSL until 6 months ago. AT & T wanted to move us off the service and offered U-Verse at a good deal. We were formerly paying $70.00/month for DSL and phone service, now we pay $51.00. That will go on for a year and then the price will shoot up, I suppose. DSL was not terribly reliable (probably on-purpose from AT & T.)

But then, our U-Verse failed last week and they were here for many hours fixing outdoor lines, now it's up and running again. The fast speed is nice and enables us to have effective Wi-fi. And now we are piling of the electronic devices. ack.

[SteveinMN]

Keep calling. Whatever you're paying them for that service, why pay for what you're not getting? Or maybe take a side tack and ask for a good deal on U-Verse since they can't seem to fix the DSL.

[ToomuchStuff]

A bad filter is a known problem issue. How many do you have (if more then one, you can test them one at a time)?

[pinkytoe]

It's a mighty fine day as we're back in business. The tech said that one of the nodes (bundle of wires in a long tube) up on a pole had been invaded by squirrels - again. When he opened it up, he said one actually popped out. He said it was full of nesting materials and one big mess. Not sure what to believe...but it now works. We don't have a phone line so that rules out some issues.