[agwellin]

Should my family's new internet be so slow?

Whoops, title should read: "Should my family's new internet be so slow?"

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, so feel free to move it if you see fit.

A few months ago while I was away at college, my family FINALLY got broadband internet. It is Embarq DSL and is the slowest connection they offer, because that is all they offer in our area at this moment. Sadly, I can't remember what the speed is supposed to be.

When I was home on Easter break a few weeks ago, it seemed to be going decently fast. I.E., Youtube videos would stream from beginning to end without a single break.

Now that I'm home for the summer, however, it has been going much slower. Youtube videos have to stop to download more every few seconds. I went to speedtest.net which says I am getting 0.22Mbps both up and down. Is this reasonable for bottom-dollar DSL? I hope not, because it is really annoying. Should we get Embarq to fix something?

 

[johnwill]

That seems pretty slow, I'd call Embarq and complain.

 

[agwellin]

Thanks for the reply, I'll be sure to tell my parents of your opinion!

More info: Apparently, there was a day a few weeks ago when our house had lost internet for about a full day, and it seems since then it has been slow like it is now. Anyone know what that outage could have been, and whether it has to do with the current slowness?

 

[johnwill]

I'd say phone line issues.

One thing you can try, unplug ALL the phones and filters and see if only having the modem connected changes the situation.

 

[EmbarqJoey]

I don't think your internet should be that slow. You might be in an area that is affected with bandwidth exhaust. The slowest speed our customers can have is 512k. I would think you would be in the 512k-768k range if they have the slowest speed. I suggest doing what the other poster suggested and hook the modem straight to a phone jack without any filters, etc. and then run a speed test from there and see what you get. I can also check your line for you. Send me your DSL # to [email protected] and I'll see what's going on. You can checkout my twitter page and how I've helped others below:

http://twitter.com/EMBARQ_Joey
http://twitter.com/embarq/favourites

Thanks. :smile:

Joey H.
EMBARQ Customer Outreach
[email protected]