I'm going to make this as detailed as possible to hopefully find a solution. Alright...here's the story.
I've had Centurylink for 4 years. (Well, embarq for some of it). I've had very little problems. The problems I have had have been resolved quickly.
3rd of July,Thursday, a storm rolls in. Lightning flashes, my DSL light on my modem (PK5001Z) becomes red. I make a phone call, the dude tells me "A tech will be out there Monday" because the 4th is a holiday, i can't be there Saturday, and they don't go out on Sunday. Frustrated I agree and hang up.
I call back ~2 hours later because I could rearrange to be there Saturday. I get the "We are aware of a problem in your area accessing the internet and techs are working to resolve it." message. 4th of July, Friday, I come home from work and my DSL light is green, along with all other lights. Good to go.
Over the next 2 days I would begin to notice a problem. I play WildStar (a MMO), and I began notice small spurts of lag and ability delays. I downloaded a latency monitor for the game to see my latency; and it's all over the place like no tomorrow. For reference, WildStar is located in Texas. I am in Virginia. My average latency is 90-130ms. With this problem, it is anywhere from 100-300...often just sitting in the 200's. Lag central for me.
However..my download speed, is fine and seemingly unaffected. So I began calling and mentioning the high latency. A tech comes out, checks the line, everything is fine. Days go by, problem starts getting worse.
This is when I contacted the developers of Wildstar,and learned about ping plotter. Using ping plotter, I believe I discovered my problem..packet loss at 2 Qwest hops.
65.113.64.197 dcx2-edge-01.inet.qwest.net
205.171.251.6 dcp-brdr-03.inet.qwest.net
Whatever this thing is, it's dropping packets like no tommorow..according to pingplotter.
I cannot get this packet loss to replicate in CMD ping,tracert, or pathping. Ping/Tracert/Pathping all show the latency increases (130>200,ect), but do not report packet loss.
I want to make a note here: Before Century Link, my area was serviced my Embarq. I've never heard of Qwest and had no idea who/what they were until the merger. I didn't even know Qwest was anywhere in Virginia...because they are not anywhere near me.
So...now all my games are affected by crappy lag. Pinging anything with pingplotter shows those 2 hops just dropping packets.
I call CenturyLink and tell them. 3 things happened:
1."Its network congestion. Your area is bandwidth exhaust and has been since November 2013." (basic and t2 techs)
2."I'll take a look at the tests and contact you back." (A supervisor...it's been ~a week with no contact back."
3."Your area is bandwidth exhaust since November. But your DSL signal is weak." (A supervisor)
So....there's something I want to actually ask here now. Is this really network congestion? My area has been bandwidth exhausted since November 2013? I've gamed every single day and have not had one single problem until now. Maybe an occasional lag spike here and there, but never impossibly high latency and packet problems like this. Why would it effect me now, and so hard every single day?
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(For the record, the 2nd supervisor sent a pair of techs to my house. I told them "The supervisor said my dsl signal is weak and you guys can do line tests for spliced wires and stuff." They shrugged at me, tested my in house jack, said it was fine and left.)
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So now i'm waiting on an email back, from someone I contacted through Century Link's email escalation...saying he'd look at the tests.
Once again, mind you, my download speed remains fine throughout all this. It's as though only my upload is affect. And, probably the most important piece of information....THIS IS ALL THE TIME. This is not "only during peak." It is happening constantly. Is there network congestion at 2am EST? I mean,really? Enough to make my latency spike 200ms and sit there?
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Whatever this Qwest device (which i'm pretty damn sure ISNT in my area...) is just dropping packets left and right. I connect through the device to pretty much get anywhere so im screwed.
I noticed on speedtest.net, that when my download speed test is running, the ball will drive along the line very smoothly. however, the upload ball will teleport across the line. if that means anything..
Attached are my dsl stats and some pingplotters.
(The missing ips from pingplotter...I haven't really kept up to date with ip networking so..i removed them for safety? if I need to put them back in i will.)
Thank you.
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