(Feel free to read this piece, but new info: as of Oct 2008 you can get ATT DSL for 14.95 again and in certain areas 10.00 a MONTH for people who have never had the service). There are so many things I want to write about right now, but I’ve got to get out of the habit of starting a series and NOT finishing it in a timely manner. I’ve still got a thing about the Beatles that’s like 2 months old… OK, so this is part 3 of my stroll through the world of getting my AT&amp;T Yahoo DSL configured in MY best interest and not necessarily in the companies. As you may recall from part 1, it all kind of started when my sister told me her connection was slow, and I went over and found out she was getting 384kb upload and 384kb download. Now the deal is supposed to be “up to 768 download,” and if you’re trying to stream video or get something off the internet without having to leave it downloading as you put on your jammies for the night 384 is rugged! And then I <em>myself</em> made the decision to leave Comcast since my “introductory rate” had ended and they wanted 42$ a month before taxes for 1.5mb download and ATT DSL was 14.95 for 768kb. That’s like 1/3^rd the price for one half the speed. I could live with that. Hell even if I decided to take their next package at 19 or 25 dollars for 1.5mb it would STILL be half the cost of Comcast. So I made the move (and just a reminder, the 14.95 is technically gone now, replaced by the 19.95, BUT if you look around on the internet you can still find it. Plus, if you read part 2 of this series I found some crazy deals!)

Ok, so after the psychological decision (and it was a BIG one) was made to deal with ATT again I got wired up. Now “wired up” entailed them flicking the switch, since I already had my own modem-the ubiquitous Speedstream 4100. Having packed away my Comcast modem, the Surfboard SB5100, and let me just stop the whole show for a second and STRONGLY advise buying your own equipment. With rebates you usually MAKE money on the deal and you don’t have the monthly rental fee of 3 bucks PLUS tax. So I called and they said the DSL it would go on within 2 days, but I was able to get 100kb up and 100kb down that night. I knew this was going to be trouble. But I still had the cable internet (and it ran for another 2+ weeks, at least, after my call to turn it off and STOP BILLING).</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: justify” align=”justify”><span style=”font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’;”>I called ATT 2 days later on the official turn on day, and told them the problem. They will tell you that it takes “10 days” before the DSL settles. This is a lie. That is to say, they don’t know when it’ll actually go through, but 10 is cover number, and by that time it should be up and running, and it <em>does</em> get a little faster after the first couple of days of being on. But in my case, my thinking was hey, I’m in the same house, with the same equipment and you’re sending the same signal-right off the bat I should be getting service like I had<span> </span> 2 years ago. So after 14 MORE days I called back; still 100 up and 100 down. Like I said I knew it was going to be a situation-but the cable internet was still running so I wasn’t angry-yet. They wouldn’t even put me in touch with the tech dept until the service had been on “10 days.” And I even gave them 4 extra days.

And this is where the dance started. They’ll tell you to unplug all this stuff, and make sure you have s filter on ALL the phones. And I will say from experience, having pantomiming all the motions and not really doing it, that some of the stuff on their script DOES work. A rebooted machine has given me the right readings after a modem reboot too. And once a friend had added a line in the house and didn’t tell me, and that new phone line didn’t have a filter on it-and yes, it did mess up the whole works; I had to take one phone off the hook to get internet, then I found out about the new phone and slapped a filter on there. So if you find yourself in this position of getting some guy from India named “Henry” reading from a troubleshooting script, just humor them at least once-I didn’t in THIS case because I knew it wasn’t an in-the-house situation. 100kb is a severe external problem. And that reminds me, ATT has a thing about outside vs. inside work; outside is free and if you let them come inside I think the price starts at SEVENTY-SIX dollars. So be very careful about this and make SURE you’re shit is together in the house (apt, condo, whatever).

So they trouble ticketed me and arranged for a guy to come out. Days later I meet with the dude who tells me he thinks he’s had problems with me before and I correct him and say “No you did not, the person that fixed my situation was a young female ex-Marine and I’m ex-Navy, so no, you are mistaken.” We got down to business and he checked the box outside the house, and surprise, surprise the readings were poor. He went and LOOKED at the pool and said I was getting the maximum my line could handle. He didn’t take his lazy ass up there and check. So we spent the next 10 minutes with me asking him to just call the office and have them “turn up the juice” and him telling me if they raised it I would have lots of outages and they would have to make lots of visits. I assured him I was had no problem with them making lots of visits if it entailed them working outside the house and didn’t involve me being home to meet them. So he called the office and they turned me up to 384 up 384 down. Let me just stop again and say for 10 full minutes he tried to tell me a call couldn’t be made to just “turn up the juice.” If they tell you that, it is a lie. They can, and he did. But I STILL wasn’t happy. I wanted my 768kb down. He complained to high heaven that my line couldn’t take it. I wasn’t leaving that van of his until I had it. He called. They turned it up and it ran fine. For 2 weeks.</span> <span style=”font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’;”>So I had to call back. And this time I got bumped up to an American. There is a Line Department where American white guys work, and it’s a little hard to get too, but just stay on the phone and say that’s who you want to talk to. I got a guy, and we went over the details for almost half an hour. I’ve dealt with this department at least half a dozen times and I always learn some more ATT’s DSL when I do. For instance, the first time I learned that ATT actually (at that time) didn’t really have DSL-they actually were leasing it from a company called AIS. And that’s how I got my speed fixed the first time 2 years ago by talking to AIS. But this time the guy explained to me that my current wires COULD be bad. See, my thinking was if I’ve got the same house, same modem, blah blah blah same everything HOW could it not be just as good as it was? I know they didn’t dig up the wires up in the street and put in <em>worse</em> wires.

And that’s when he explained that customers don’t get a real line directly from the phone company. They get a “virtual line” that’s a path made of data packets, just like the rest of the internet. So let’s say you have service in 2005 and have a great connection for phone and/or DSL. Then you disconnect the service, but get it again in 2007. The route from you to the phone company will definitely be on a different path this time, so your connection could be better or worse. If it is worse they need to verify by checking three things. And here in Chicago we call those three things Da House, Da Pole and Da Box. If the trouble is outside your house, first they’ll check the NID box outside. Mine says Telephone Network Interface, but they call it NID. And don’t get on me about not finishing putting up the siding on my house, it’s been 20 degrees below zero out here! I’ll finish it in another month or so. Then they take one step backwards, away from you and toward the phone company’s office and go to the pole. The pole controls maybe your place and half a dozen other places. But there could be a problem up there like some excess wire, which can mess up your DSL supply signal.

If the problem is not there they take one more step backwards to the box. I heard them call it the Box, the ATX box and even the X box. But it’s different from the pole because it’s bigger, and usually there’s a platform. And mine was about a block away from my house because it controls even more houses in the whole area than the pole does. But this location is the good one. Because they can actually call in to the main office and say “this guy’s on a poor line can I get approval for a line change.” And then they can actually put you and a different connector and they check it first to make sure it can handle what you’re supposed to be getting. And that’s what happened. A new guy came out and together we went to all these locations and I got rewired. The end. Or is it? I am getting that Dry Loop in 2 weeks…

And do yourself a favor and get the cheapest broadband deal out there. Get DSL ONLY withOUT the phone line from ATT. Folks the price right now is CRAZY, all you need to get MagicJack working a a fast connection.

Related posts:

1. How to Get the Most Out of ATT DSL Internet Service (Feel free to read this piece, but new info:...
2. Secret Deals You Can Use to Get the Cheapest ATT DSL (Feel free to read this piece, but new info:...
3. I Had ATT DSL Dry Loop Installed Today. DSL with No Phone Line (Feel free to read this piece, but new info:...

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