Fusion service keeps going up and down

[dumnorix]

I also had a similar problem, and although it took some time, it was narrowed down to be an ATT issue and was resolved. Sonic tech support was very helpful and even gave me a nice credit for all the inconvenience.

If anyone else has problems like this with a new Fusion service, just be patient and it will get resolved. I have had 8 months with no downtime and consistent speed now. Good stuff!

-Samuel

[schadel]

Like emkay, I have old, small-gauge copper wire (about 15,000 feet of it) between me and the Central Office. Still, my Sonic DSL (not Fusion) was stable if slow, until I moved next door in '09. That winter I experienced several episodes of DSL outage lasting a few hours at the most. Tech Support was courteous and sympathetic, but unable to do much since the problem was so intermittent.

The problem recurred this past winter, and I noticed that it was coincident with rainy weather and that there was considerable static on the phone line during those episodes. At one point the dial tone went away and I knew then that the problem was in the line. I went round and round with ATT; they'd test the line, declare it good and close out the repair ticket. But finally I got lucky; the line was bad when tested and the TDR told the tech where to look. There were several intermittent shorts in junction boxes between poles. Oddly, with the bad line, sometimes the phone would work when DSL didn't and vice-versa.

Nerd note: A TDR sends a short pulse down the line and measures the time that elapses before a reflected pulse is received from either an open circuit (e.g. the end of the line) or a short. The propagation speed of the pulse is known, so the distance to the discontinuity can be calculated.

I have no gripe with the ATT techs; they were out there in bad weather and gave me their cell numbers to bypass the cumbersome web & voice systems.

I got a cold call from ATT yesterday and the rep promised me any DSL speed I wanted even after I explained about the limitations of DSL. I think I will switch to Fusion.

I do wonder whether I will get as good treatment from the ATT infrastructure support people if I switch to Fusion. Dane?

[virtualmike2]

I do wonder whether I will get as good treatment from the ATT infrastructure support people if I switch to Fusion.

Once you switch to Fusion, Sonic.net will be AT&T's customer, and you will not have to deal with AT&T personally. Sonic.net has a person who focuses on the AT&T relationship.

In my case, when AT&T had put my line on a bad pair, Sonic.net arranged for a "vendor meet," where a Sonic.net tech was here when AT&T arrived, and the line was cleared.

Based on my experience, Sonic.net will persist long after AT&T would have been willing to give up.

[jej735]

We recently (January 2011) installed bonded Fusion service, and had some difficulty getting it going, as it worked fine initially and then deteriorated -- slow speeds, dropped calls, cross-talk.

After much persistent troubleshooting (including replacing interior wiring), I was able to determine that the problem was the ADSL2 splitters and filters that had been sent by Sonic with the bonded modem: they were defective and causing cross-talk. So, if you are having problems, make sure you test those. Especially the splitters. (I used two standard phones, one on line, to listen for cross-talk without any computers attached.)

Much searching on the web turned up a resource: http://www.homephonewiring.com/
and I ordered two ADSL2+ / VDSL2 (Wilcom PS-36) splitter-filters.

I installed them and our problems went away. (For good measure, I later re-wired the entire house, just to remove that as a possibility.)

I mention all this here so that someone searching for a solution can find this, as though I have seen recommendations about the Wilcom PS-36, I had not realized how effective they would be. Yes, they are expensive -- ~$40 each. But they work really well.

[martyb]

You won't necessarily see Sonic getting better response from AT&T, however. My Sonic DSL line was the first one in a new RT, and it synced to the RT and no further. I told them it was a programming error, but nothing happened until 3 months later when AT&T had their first DSL customer that didn't work. Two days later it was fixed, and Sonic promptly applied for a credit for the previous 3 months, which I got.

Marty

[alexlmchoi]

We recently (January 2011) installed bonded Fusion service, and had some difficulty getting it going, as it worked fine initially and then deteriorated -- slow speeds, dropped calls, cross-talk.

After much persistent troubleshooting (including replacing interior wiring), I was able to determine that the problem was the ADSL2 splitters and filters that had been sent by Sonic with the bonded modem: they were defective and causing cross-talk. So, if you are having problems, make sure you test those. Especially the splitters. (I used two standard phones, one on line, to listen for cross-talk without any computers attached.)

Much searching on the web turned up a resource: http://www.homephonewiring.com/
and I ordered two ADSL2+ / VDSL2 (Wilcom PS-36) splitter-filters.

I installed them and our problems went away. (For good measure, I later re-wired the entire house, just to remove that as a possibility.)

I mention all this here so that someone searching for a solution can find this, as though I have seen recommendations about the Wilcom PS-36, I had not realized how effective they would be. Yes, they are expensive -- ~$40 each. But they work really well.

Yea you are right!

Quick update of my story: two days ago my Fusion started up and down again and I dialed 611 for help. At the beginning my speed became slower every time Michael (the tech) changed the settings. At last, Michael asked me to remove the filter and the speed went up back to 15997kbps (4402ft away from CO), the original speed that I got on Day 1. Besides, he is so nice that he agreed to send me new filters as well.

Now I'm very happy once again and have successfully convinced my girlfriend to switch to Fusion from AT&T.

[tamino]

Much searching on the web turned up a resource: http://www.homephonewiring.com/
and I ordered two ADSL2+ / VDSL2 (Wilcom PS-36) splitter-filters.

Hi jej735,

On your recommendation I ordered two of these for myself (bonded) and one for my parents (single line). I installed my two today and will install the third when I'm next at my parents' house.

I wasn't having problems before, so it's hard to say if it made anything better, but they definitely *feel* well-made. I opened one up and there are these two beefy-looking transformers inside, which it seems to me are heavier than the ones inside the molded plug-in style filters could possibly be. So I'm fully prepared to believe that I now own the best splitters on the market.

Thanks for the pointer!!

[vsp]

Questions about installing a Wilcom splitter:

Can I connect more than one phone line to the terminal block?
Our house has multiple phone lines. Can I connect three of these to the single terminal block or do I need to go through some kind of hub?

Same question on the modem line as well (although this is less pressing because if I want to move the modem, it's fairly trivial to just change the connections at the splitter). I know I can only use one line at a time but it would be nice to have the ability to unplug the modem and move it on occasion. I can easily have dedicated lines for DSL.

Is the advantage of the Wilcom PS-36 over the Wilcom PS-15 mainly future-proofing or is there a current reason to go with the PS-36 for fusion ADSL2+ service?

Thanks for any help here.

[jej735]

Go to

http://www.homephonewiring.com/material ... SPLTR-VDSL

and you'll see a description of the difference between the two. Looks like the PS-36 is the new hot model to get.