DSL slow at night...what could be the case?

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97tbird

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May 9, 2003
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Fayetteville, NC
we recently upgraded from 3 mbps DSL to 10 mbps, and it seems in the evenings, and at night, the speeds drop to about 5-6 mbps, and come back up late at night...by 11 pm or so..

It's not the wireless (WEP secured) or the router, as I notice this even when I connect the laptop directly to the modem...the tech support (Century Link, formerly Embarq) is confused...idk if this happened even when we had the 3 mbps ...i never noticed it, if it did.

Is there anything one can do? i tried power cycling the modem, and it didn't seem to help.

If anyone has any idea, I'd appreciate any advice. This is frustrating, as the main reason I upgraded was to get Netflix streaming (via blue ray player) in full HD, and as of now, due to the speed drop in the night, we often don't get to see it in HD. It's still very watchable and pretty good quality, but that's not the point...I just don't get why this happens only in the eve/night. (The 1st 2 days after the upgrade, all was fine.)

Thanks IA.

EDIT: same thing just happened. for the last 2-3 hrs (8 pm to 10 pm) the speed was like 4-5 mbps, and i just checked the speed (speedtest.net), and it's back up to normal (above 9 mbps)
 
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Sigh - yeah, that's what I was thinking of...i guess that's the only logical reason, huh?
I was hoping there would something technical that one could "fix"...
thanks.
 
I live in a college town, and for the first couple of weeks in the semester after the students come back, I'll see a certain amount of lag during the evenings.

After a couple of weeks, it gradually returns to normal. For us, it must be load / bandwidth related.
 
Your ISP is probably nearing their capacity. They might also be throttling people to try and control demand.
 
Peak traffic time. I used to see on my Ping graph every night like clock work from 8 to 11 or so the ping time would skyrocket. It would go from under 100ms to well over 400-500ms at peak. It has not done that in awhile, so I would assume they fixed/upgraded something.
I would call them and ask what is up. If you are paying for 10mb service you should get 10mb service.
 
Maybe the modem is all sludged up from using Pennzoil, and it thickens up in the cool evenings to slow down the packets?
crazy2.gif
Do an OCI with only 1/2 MMO and 1/2 Seafoam every 1000 packets and use an Amsoil EaO firewall.
 
well it seems i have the infamous EQ660 series modem, and I have the oldest Firmware version, and found the newest one (centurylink doesn't post them on their website, as Embarq did) online, and downloaded...(i have version ACZ2, and newest is ACZ9) ...lot of talk that the ACZ9 fixes speed drops.

Going to try and update the FW myself and see if it helps...I should probably do it hard wired, and not wirelessly, huh?
 
Originally Posted By: HK_Ace
Did have a similar issue with DSL so switched to Cable- much better and almost never a slowdown....more reliable too.



Same here! CenturyLink was the absolute worst!! Their customer service is terrible, they couldn't fix the service with a service call, new modem, and multiple calls to customer service. I sat on hold for at least 30 minutes everytime I called, and they wouldn't wave the early cancellation fee since I was 8 months into a 12 month contract. I paid the cancellation fee just to get rid of them and it was the best thing I ever did.

My cable modem is excellent. I will never ever recommend CenturyLink to anyone.
 
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
it seems in the evenings, and at night, the speeds drop to about 5-6 mbps, and come back up late at night...by 11 pm or so..
Modem goes out for a coffee?LOL
 
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It's very likely that your problem could be two fold. Heavy traffic seems likely since the service speed seems to pick up after 11-PM when all the kiddies should be going to bed. The traffic demands may be so heavy between 5 and 11-PM that your service provider very well could also be throttling down download / upload speeds during peak usage.
 
Some strange interference problem involving an appliance which is only on during the hours you see a slowdown?

Have you tried connecting the modem directly to the network interface to see if that helps? If it does then that points to an inside telephone wiring problem.
 
Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
Maybe the modem is all sludged up from using Pennzoil, and it thickens up in the cool evenings to slow down the packets?
crazy2.gif
Do an OCI with only 1/2 MMO and 1/2 Seafoam every 1000 packets and use an Amsoil EaO firewall.
crackmeup2.gif
 
Thanks for all the replies.
I am going to do the FW upgrade for the modem and see...

Why do people "bridge" modems? does it improve peformance? if I do it, do I have to change anything on my router, too?
I am interested in this, and have figured out how to put the modem in "bridge" mode, but not sure if that's all, or if there are adjustments at the router, too...
Any input on that?
 
Originally Posted By: 97tbird

Why do people "bridge" modems? does it improve peformance? if I do it, do I have to change anything on my router, too?
I am interested in this, and have figured out how to put the modem in "bridge" mode, but not sure if that's all, or if there are adjustments at the router, too...
Any input on that?

If I'm not mistaken, your EQ660 isn't just a modem. It is actually an ADSL gateway which means it also has a built in router and firewall capabilities. By putting the EQ660 in bridge mode, you're basically just letting it be an ADSL modem and passing off all routing and firewall functions to a separate device (external router). So, you are offloading the EQ660's CPU so that it can concentrate on just being a modem. This, at least in theory, should improve its performance.

I can't remember if there is anything in the router that you need to change. Most likely the router will figure it out on its own.
 
upgraded the FW on the 660 (found on the web) successfully. Saw 9.98 for the 1st time just now...right now is about when things start getting slow...


QP: you're right; it's a router and a modem. I am going to research a bit online and see if there's anything to be done with the router when bridging the modem.

If anyone knows how to (if needed) change the router settings for this, please post. my router is a Linksys WRT54GL
 
well I found this, but i don't understand the sentence just before step 1 (underlined):

The 660R includes its own firewall/router, which has been known to have issues for some LAN configurations. If you have your own router/firewall, you can use these instructions to bridge the Embarq 660 series modem, and use your router for the firewall.

Connect your PC direct to the 660 modem, and obtain via DHCP or set the PC IP address, to a 192.168.2.x subnet like 192.168.2.2.

1. Open Internet Explorer and type 192.168.2.1 in the address bar.
2. Type in the default password 1234 and click Login. Click Ignore if prompted to change the password.
3. Click on Diagnostic listed under the Maintenance menu.
4. Select the Network Layer option and click the Release button.
5. Click the button labeled Change to bridge Mode.

Once the modem has completed the change, a message stating "Current operating mode is bridge mode" will appear on the screen and you can exit the set up/browser.

Once you have finished that, power off your DSL modem, and power off your router. Then power on your modem, and wait for the DSL light to stay lit, and then connect and power on your router. By doing it this way, you're making sure the router pulls an IP and you should be able to get online.

The modem internet light will no longer work in bridge mode...this is normal.

Step 4 is the important step, if you do not release the IP BEFORE bridging the modem(WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? HOW DO I DO THIS "RELEASE" THING?), then the router may have to wait until the lease expires to pull a new IP. If you followed the above directions and still can't get online, log in to your router and see what IP it's pulling. It should no longer be a 192.168.2.x IP but it should be a public IP address. If it is not, then release and renew from the router's web gui and you should pull an IP and get online.

Now you can configure the router port forwarding or DMZ for your game or network service.

AND THEN I FOUND THIS LINK...THIS ONE SOUNDS SIMPLE, AS IF I DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING WITH THE lINKSYS ROUTER....(THIS LINK ALSO EXPLAINED THE "RELEASE IP" PART):
http://oliver.schinagl.nl/~oliver/660-MEBridgeconfiguration.pdf
 
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Sounds like you are doing double-NAT.

You have two options:

1. Set the modem as a bridge and use PPPoE on the Linksys router

2. Leave the modem be and disable DHCP on the Linksys, plug the modem into one of the LAN ports, essentially turning it into an AP.
 
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