Any numbers from Albany?

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
17 posts Page 1 of 2
by aidandunne » Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:11 pm
Hi.
I'm getting fusion dsl in albany (which is so much better than AT&T on every level .. they are still trying to get me back; the letters make for entertaining reading) and I'm wondering if anybody else on the forum is using this CO. I ask because my DSL is running a bit slower than I had hoped ( based on some graphs I've seen of attenuation vs distance ). I'm 7.529ft from that CO and getting barely 5mbps down and about .6 up, and I'd like to see what others in the area are getting; perhaps it's a line problem at/in my house..
thanks
ad.
by dane » Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:25 pm
That does sound a bit slow, you should ring support on 611 and talk to a support specialist.

-Dane
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by stefanl » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:21 pm
I'm in Berkeley (Sacramento & Gilman area), and I'm on the same CO.

I typically get 3Mbps/1Mbps or so. However, I spoke to Sonic.net techsupport about frequent DSL drops, and we had to lower the maximum speed.

Currently, my Netopia 2210-02 router reports that I am getting 1319/986 (kbps), which is surprisingly low.

I am over 5000 feet from the CO, but I forget the exact distance. Here's a map which will allow you to view the nearest CO for your district:

http://www.broadbandreports.com/coinfo


Even if my DSL is subpar, I'm still happy with the price. Better then AT&T. Since Sonic.net is at the same CO as everyone else, and DSL is served over the same phonelines, other DSL providers would probably give me the same speeds, but with bandwidth caps.
--
Stefan Lasiewski, stefanco.com
by aidandunne » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:06 am
@stefani. I think if you email or call sonic support they can help you out. I talked to a guy at Sonic yesterday evening ( very nice guy, and extremely competent ) who ran different diagnostics on my line and was able to boost the download by 500 kbps, and he stabilized it a the expense of latency. Since I'm synced at 6mbps and I'm getting 5.5 and he wasn't able to run the full set of tests ( alarm system hardwired to the phone system at my house prevented accurate voltage reading ), I'm happy with the results. You might be far from the CO, but distance isn't the only factor vis-a-vis speed and they might be able to fine-tune your line to get you a few more kbps.
@dane, thanks much for taking the time to respond; not many telcos have CEOS willing to do that!
by peralta » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:33 pm
I am at Peralta & Posen and I'm getting 13.8 mpbs down and .91 up. (According to http://speedtest.sonic.net/ookla/.)

What's a CO and how does one tell how far away it is?
by farmerbrown » Sat Jun 11, 2011 6:26 am
peralta wrote:I am at Peralta & Posen and I'm getting 13.8 mpbs down and .91 up. (According to http://speedtest.sonic.net/ookla/.)

What's a CO and how does one tell how far away it is?
I'm also curious to know what a CO is.

I'm in Richmond and just tested (thanks for the link, peralta): 2.56 Mbps download, 0.75 Mbps. Is that good? You'll have to tell me.

General comment on Sonic forums: Discussion often assumes that the user is very familiar with specialized terms like "CO," "ping," and many others. Please help us out with a glossary. Let us know where to find the Sonic Fusion FAQs. As more and more nongeeks like me join for Fusion/Fiber, we are going to need access to this stuff. It will save me embarrassment and save Sonic.net support time in the long run. Thanks for your very responsive service, as always.
by aidandunne » Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:37 am
Hi.
I'll try to answer some questions, but I'm not an expert in this field so , sonic techs, feel free to correct please:

A CO is a central office; basically a building in your neighborhood to which your phone line is connected; it acts as a connection switch to the internet for your DSL. Distance from the CO is one of many factors that determine your dsl speed. It's a fixed parameter so I woudn't worry about it; your maximum speed is dictated by this distance but after that it's really just used for ballpark estimates.
Peralta, sounds like you live right on top of the CO since you are getting pretty nice speeds!
Farmerbrown, no need to be embarrassed, I write software for a living but don't pretend to understand broadband tech in detail so I'm happy to leave it to the sonic techs. 2.56mbps is a decent speed for basic internet stuff, but you probably won't be able to ( for example ) stream HD netflix with that speed. I'd give sonic a call and just ask them if they can bump up your speed; the support people are great and are happy to chat about the technology while they diagnose your line. All you'll have to do is sit back and press the buttons they ask you to press. If they can't increase the speed you can be assured that they've done about as much as anybody can do to sort out the problem; having (unfortunately) experienced tech support from the 2 big internet providers in the area, I believe Sonic have the best trained and the easiest to work with.
I found a glossary of terms :
http://www.real-knowledge.com/broadban.htm
also, DSLReports is a good resource:
http://www.dslreports.com
hope this sheds some light.
by virtualmike » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:52 pm
farmerbrown wrote:General comment on Sonic forums: Discussion often assumes that the user is very familiar with specialized terms like "CO," "ping," and many others. Please help us out with a glossary. Let us know where to find the Sonic Fusion FAQs. As more and more nongeeks like me join for Fusion/Fiber, we are going to need access to this stuff. It will save me embarrassment and save Sonic.net support time in the long run. Thanks for your very responsive service, as always.
Note that many of the people participating here are not Sonic.net techs; many of us are members/customers just like you.

Speaking solely for myself, when I'm trying to express an idea, it's difficult for me to stop at each term to think, "do I need to define this for everyone else?"

I've been writing on technical topics for more than half my life, so many of the concepts and phrases feel so "common" that I often fail to remember that some people may not be familiar with them.

OTOH (that's "on the other hand," now often used in texting, but in the 1970s, was used when people were typing live on a system that cost $$$ per minute to be connected), I really doubt that anyone will be upset if another participant here asks for a definition or clarification of a term.

Not to mention that the Google is your friend. :ugeek:
by stefanl » Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:37 pm
Some followup after my earlier post.

I spoke to Sonic.net and spoke to a great, patient tech named Tessa. We went through several rounds of tests, and determine that my DSL filter was at fault. We replaced the filter, and my speed is now 2.6Mbps up/1Mbps down. Not spectacular, but better.

Turns out that I am actually about 10,000 feet from the CO, which is much further then I expected. From what I read at http://www.broadbandreports.com, this distance will hinder speeds higher then 3-4Mbps. This is a far cry from the 20 Mbps that is advertised for Fusion Broadband. Do these numbers sound right?

My next step will probably be to replace a chunk of the house phone line, including my side of the service entrance. This is an old building, and some of the phone lines are old.

-= Stefan
--
Stefan Lasiewski, stefanco.com
by thulsa_doom » Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:00 pm
Hello,

I took a quick look at your line and it looks like aside from fairly high attenuation you've got some kind of noise between the 50th and 100th tone (approximately 206 - 412kHz) on the line. I'm curious whether that persists when your modem is connected directly to the MPOE by a short phone cord, as that kind of symptom can crop up as the result of defective wiring. Plugging in directly at the MPOE eliminated internal wiring as a possible location for such a wiring problem.

As for the speeds at 10,000 feet, it's pretty variable. but from the attenuation we currently see on your line 4mbps would be on the optimistic side.
John Fitzgerald
Sonic Technical Support
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