fyregirl

Thank you coolbuster, I'll take a look at it! I did read an article yesterday that talked about MTUs and adjusted the size down until the point at which they stopped fragmenting, about 1280 down from 1400. It really hasn't had any affect I'm afraid. I'll keep on it though. Terrier, all that.

Actually, truth be told I'm not the 'unloading' type. I do intend to keep calling them back until the mystery tech gets back to me, but I am a usually a believer in more flies with honey. I'm not above asking for a supervisor though if it gets far enough. Of course, it's sometimes frustrating when you get a different person and personality on the phone every time you call. It would be nice, and more effective I think, if one could start a rapport. However, I guess that's just how many places handle their support calls these days. And that's a whoooooole other conversation.

Thank you for the reply and the welcome Mudmanc4. You asked: "What is your network layout as far as routers and or switches?" The network layout is pretty simple. The phone line from the DSL jack goes into the modem from the ISP (which is also the phone company so double whammy) and it's connected to a D-Link 801.11g wireless router. It could probably stand to be upgraded but I dont' think it's causing the issue. Two of the computers run wirelessly from that router and the third, my work computer, has a direct ethernet connection from the wireless router to the computer. I do notice some slowdown on the router speed further across the house but for the most part it seems to be running at 54kbps which I think is standard for that router. "I would as you say " light a fire " , chances are, there is a line issue. Your DSL speeds should not be fluctuating that much unless there is other internal network activity " slurping " up the bandwidth." I do notice that when I VPN into my office, the speed on that computer goes WAY down but it doesn't seem to change the fluctuations on the other machines in the house. Also, this issue occurs even when the work computer is not connected to VPN so I don't think that's "slurping" up bandwidth to a degree it would be a problem. That said, I'd sure like to know if there are any ways to speed up the VPN speed. A traceroute shows that my office is sending the data through 19 jumps to get it there and back. "If the lines inside the house are properly installed, and clean, and you know this as a fact, as the ISP is not liable for this, your phone company would be if you have this insurance." We're not sure about the inside lines, but the ISP is also the phone company and we do have the insurance. THey should be able to fix this no matter if the problem is inside or out. "Just keep on them about this, persistence pays off. " Plan on doing just that, thanks. I am glad to see an agreement with my thought about the actual lines. I put in two calls today and the "local internet technician" is supposed to be calling me to make an appointment and come out. They're going to love me until they get here. Thank you for the thoughts and if anyone has ideas about VPN speeds I'd love to hear those as well!

**Apologies for the length, but please read on with my advance gratitude** I just moved out to the stix from Boston and am on my roommate's DSL service now. He upgraded his service with the local (and only available) service tand it should now be a 1.5m download, 512k upload. His original set up was that the DSL came in one jack and was apparently running through all jacks in the house. He uses a wireless router that's an 801.11g. I understand that usually has a speed of 54kbps and it's been fluctuating a little bit but staying near that. This, plus the fact that my download test results don't change much when wireless or wired into the LAN make me think the router isn't the issue. Last week, the ISP came out and moved the DSL jack up to my office. They said that now the DSL would be coming in on only that jack and not through the whole house, which should improve the speed. It has not. When I next called, tech support told me to do a series of DL and UL speed tests over a few days time and my results averaged 307kbps download and 432kbps upload. The service should be, as I said earlier, 1.5 and 512. This issue is with all the computers in the house, not just mine. On a Mac and a PC. Tonight it got worse than ever at one point: :::.. Download Stats ..::: Download Connection is:: 93 Kbps about 0.1 Mbps (tested with 97 kB) Download Speed is:: 11 kB/s Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Main) Test Time:: 2008/11/11 - 10:01pm Bottom Line:: 2X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 93.09 sec Tested from a 97 kB file and took 8.5 seconds to complete Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 17.68 % of your hosts average (taconic.net) D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-7864ZNEGS User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) [!] My feeling at this point is that the only possible issue could be with the actual lines outside the house. I believe this since everything else seems to be working and because moving the jack didn't help matters. I know that when they moved the jack that's all they did in terms of rewiring and they went around the outside of the house. I need to light a fire under the ISP because call after call has yielded no results but I was hoping to get some input as to if the general opinion is that my theory sounds right or there are other thoughts so I can really give them a *direct* piece of my mind and get them to fix this! I telecommute through a VPN for work so we can't switch over to satellite service and are stuck with this ISP, so it MUST get resolved. Any advice, any thoughts? Help!! Signed, Lost in Upstate NY