Speed is different

[stanley1943]

I placed all the filters and even got a CATA6.0 internet cable directly hooked up into my computer. My speed is only 9mb/s. The speed is definitely a lot faster than DSL-- 6mb/s. However, my uncle lives a block away from me but he is getting 14mb/s with the same service. He is the one who suggested sonic.net to us. I was just wondering what cause such a difference. I thought the distance of 200 feet between my house and my uncle's house shouldnt have such a big difference.
Anything i can do? I see on the moden page an indication of Broadband download:10239Kbps and upload: 1019Kbps. I have fusion and i live in East San Jose (95135). I think it is also good to mention that I am 1000-2000 feet away from CO.

PS: I just switched it 2 days ago

[virtualmike]

This could be due to a problem with the inside wiring (even though you've tried to eliminate that) or with the copper from the CO to your house.

Even though you only live a block from your uncle's house, it's also very possible that the wires to your home route differently through the neighborhood.

I'd recommend calling Support (611) and let the techs run some diagnostics to see if they can find anything.

[georgeharter]

A couple of things Sonic.net doesn't tell you about at the start of service:
First, the importance of having a very clean, noise free line inside your home for your DSL signal. I found that I needed to run the DSL on a separate cable from the point of entry of my house telco lines to the jack for my modem. I have also read that you can do this by using the yellow and black wires of a four wire cable for the DSL and use a duplex jack, but haven't tried that. The Red and Green wires are the normal telephone wires. By using a separate cable for the DSL line it cut the noise dramatically for me (SNR Margin going from 6 to 12 - an inverse relationship to noise) and allowed a significant increase in speed after contacting customer support about the next item.
Second, Sonic.net monitors your line with a signal "optimizer" that reduces your speed to get what the optimizer thinks is a stable connection. This may reduce the speed to your location more than necessary based on some short term event. It dropped my speed from 9.4 to 4.4 and I had contact customer support to restore it to a higher speed after the problem was fixed.
I may have some of the terminology off, but the promise of better documentation some time in the future so the tech savy among us can sort out start-up problems ourselves is still pending.
I should also say that after my problems were resolved I am very happy with the service, reliability and price. I get about 12.3 Mbps download speed now at 4300 ft from the CO with a very stable connection.

[wa2ibm]

I would never use the yellow/black pair from one of the old 4-wire cables. The wiring in these cables is NOT twisted and can result in noise pickup and coupling between the pairs. CAT-3 cable is sufficient for DSL, but it's not as readily available as CAT-5e.

[stanley1943]

I just double checked, my speed is around 10m/s now. I havent changed a thing in the set-up. With cat5 cable, it is set at 9m/s while cat6 is set at 10m/s. The duplex jack was installed a while back with DSL which actually does help if you have wireless telephones. Unless there is some other thing that i missed regarding noise reduction. The house is not even ten years old...i truly hope there is no problem with the internal wiring .
ok....i guess I have to contact support either way.

Couple questions.
I just used the wires that came in the box. I thought that might be sufficient enough to connect the telephone jack to duplex jack to modem, or should i change to another one?

When i type in my IP address into the https address, on the main page of sonic.net, it has an indication of broadband 10m/s on download and 1m/s upload. How are these numbers being measured/produced? Are those number limiting you from going above the stated broadband? Or, does it fluctuates?

Thanks for everyone's input

[dane]

An easy test is to connect the modem to the test jack in the MPOE/NID box on the side of the house, if you have one and it's accessible. Then check sync on the modem interface, with our new equipment this is at http://gateway.sonic.net/

If the performance at the test jack (without the house wiring connected) is far better than at the jack in the premise, then you've likely got a wiring issue in the house.

[stanley1943]

ahhh...i'll definitely try that out..Thanks