I Begin To Understand The Bad Rep We Have

[fragbert.livejournal.com]

So, I have been having this issue at home with my connectivity. Specifically, I can't upload anything to LJ, Flickr, whatever. I can't send emails with attachments, and my general internet speed is sloooow.

I've been working in tech support for 10 years now. My experience told me to power-cycle the modem and the router as a matter of routine, and I did. When that didn't fix the problem, I took the router out of the circuit and plugged the modem directly into the computer, rebooted the modem and the computer, released and renewed the IP address, and I was online but at the same speed and with the same uploading issue.

Then I asked my LJ friends what they thought. Seeing what I had done already, they said "Contact your ISP." So I did.

I decided to use email so I would have a record of what went on, and I am glad I did.

I sent this initial email on 10/23:

Category: Connectivity
OS: Windows XP
OS Other:
Browser: Firefox 1.x
Browser Other:
E-mail Software: Other E-mail Software
E-mail Software Other: Thunderbird 1.x

Issue: Not able to upload files over 15K in size, i.e. all
email attachments, FTP uploads. Issue has been occurring for approx. 3
weeks.

Steps taken:
Performed standard reboot of modem and Linksys router multiple times--
no effect. Reset Linksys router to factory default settings -- no effect.
Removed Linksys router and plugged modem directly into PC -- no
effect. I am able to connect to the internet, receive email, and browse the
web. I cannot, however, send email with attachments over 15K, and cannot
upload any files to remote sites.

The tech support people got back to me on 10/25:

Thank you for writing and thank you for choosing [ISP] E-mail
Technical Support.

I understand you are unable to send attachments or upload files via FTP
larger than 15 KB.

Do you receive an error message? Please copy and paste the exact error
message into your reply message. To do this, highlight the text of the
error message, hold the 'CTRL' key on the keyboard and press the 'C' key
to copy. To paste into the e-mail, hold the 'CTRL' key on the keyboard
and press the 'V' key once.

Do you have a firewall installed? If so which one?

Does this still occur when you have the firewall disabled?

Ok, these are good questions. I responded immediately:

Error messages received are as follows:

HTTP: "The server at [domain.name] is taking too long to respond.* This only happens occasionally. Most of the time, browsing the web is possible, but it takes much longer to load web pages since this problem started occurring.

FTP: "The handle is in the wrong state for the requested operation. Cannot contact server." I also receive a very generic "The server is not responding" or "The server is taking too long to respond" timeout errors as well. This occurred as I was attempting to upload a file of over 100K. I was able to upload a file that was only 13K moments before. This is happening on multiple servers that have no problems accepting smaller uploads from me.

Email: "The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server 'smtp-server.cfl.rr.com' failed. The server may be unavailable or refusing SMTP connections. Please verify that your SMTP server setting is correct and try again, or else contact your network administrator."* This occurred as I was attempting to send an email with a 123K jpeg file attached to it. I can usually send text-only messages with no issues.

Per your request about firewalls, I have no software firewalls installed. I have disabled the Windows firewall completely. I use a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router with 4-port switch as a combination external firewall and router. As I indicated in my initial complaint, I had first reset the router to factory defaults in case I had accidentally made a change in the ftp protocol and/or port settings. When that didn't resolve the issue, I took the router out of the connection completely and plugged the network cable coming out of the modem directly into my computer, released and renewed the IP address several times, and was able to connect to the internet, but the same problem regarding uploads still occurred.

Today, on 10/29, six days after my initial email, I get this:

I would like to apologize for the inconvenience that the delay in our e-mail support reply may have caused you. Due to the conversion of [ISP #1] and [ISP #2] customers to our network, we have received an unexpected high volume of inquires and support issues through all our support media (phone support, chat support and e-mail support).

We are working on clearing these queues as quickly as possible, and be back to our normal support guidelines.

We are showing you have been online for 05d 21:16. Please powercycle your cable modem.

SIX DAYS AND THEY TELL ME TO POWER CYCLE MY MODEM?

If it took me six days to tell someone that, danicia would have fired me in a heartbeat.

My repsonse to this:

I understand that conversion issues may have delayed your response, but I find it difficult to grasp why it's taken 6 days for TWC to ask me to power-cycle the modem.

In my initial contact with [ISP], I specifically stated that I have power-cycled my modem AND the router multiple times. There has been no change to the connectivity issue despite these power cycles.

I've verified to my satisfaction that the issue is not in my computer, the one other computer on the network, or the router. I've also checked the cabling and the line amplifier in my house. Everything checks out. Let's try a different tactic.

X-posted to my LJ

Comments

[jeffreycornish.livejournal.com]

Okay, determine your gateway IP (using ipconfig from a command prompt) and then run a ping like so:

ping /t

let it run for about two minutes (100 pings) and note any dropped packets or extreme latency.

One problem is that the standard ping packet size is small, so then do the same 100 ping test with 1400 byte packets:

ping /t /L 1400

When I worked at Speakeasy.net I could spot 1) bad network cards and 2) fouled up DSLAMs this way.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I ran into this a couple years ago. If I recall correctly, I had my MTU set too high for my DSL connection. Try setting it to 1492.

It's gotten to the point now where unless I know the problem can be solved in one email, I usually call in. When confronted with an actual challenging problem, it's all too easy to "misunderstand" the problem in such a way that one can give an easy answer.

[jon787.livejournal.com]

I agree with the MTU suspicions of the parent. I had an inexplicable problem like this before once and couldn't figure it out until I found this gem in the iptables manpage:

This target is used to overcome criminally braindead ISPs or servers
which block ICMP Fragmentation Needed packets. The symptoms of this
problem are that everything works fine from your Linux firewall/router,
but machines behind it can never exchange large packets:
1) Web browsers connect, then hang with no data received.
2) Small mail works fine, but large emails hang.
3) ssh works fine, but scp hangs after initial handshaking.

[spacebird.livejournal.com]

Hey, you stole my suggestion :(

But yeah, with DSL I advise 1492 as well.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

The RR National HD is notoriously unhelpful. I've had their service for four years in two markets and anytime there's been a serious foulup it's required a field tech or a local Level 3 to straighten it out. They exist to deal with basic computer problems that get in the way (and refer the rest to manufacturers), reset cable modems, reset passwords, chastize people for not keeping their antivirus/antispyware up to date, and otherwise pretend to be good customer support.

Sorry for anyone here that might work for them, but I use it because they're cheap, reasonably fast, and reasonably reliable (I get what I pay for, and that limits my right to bitch). I will gladly permit you your right to gloat and say you're better than the idiots from the OP and my experience :).

[taiki.livejournal.com]

That's what I used to do, except for Cox, and except we knew when to escalate bigger problems up the food chain. It kind of pisses me off seeing some of these problems occur.

[conglacio.livejournal.com]

the reason for the last email is...
when they get massive queues, if they dealt with them normallly, they would take weeks, so instead they just kill the entire queue with a quick "go away and power cycle" message. 99% of the cases are fixed like that anyway, and the serios ones can then reply to the message and won't find them selves in a 4 week queue.

It's what I was allways told to do when I worked tech support for a major ADSL ISP...

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

When all else fails, try to fix it (or at least diagnose it) yourself. (Yes, I did read before that you did some basic troubleshooting on your own, but since the provider isn't stepping you through further troubleshooting, someone else has got to.)

I had the "opportunity" to work in the cable modem industry a few years... not for your provider, but since most providers in the US follow DOCSIS specs, I should at least be able to get you barking up the right tree.

First, do you know how to check the signals on your modem? Most modems have a web page at http://192.168.100.1/ that have some pretty telling information. If you could check there to see if there is such a page and get some signal readings, that would be a spectacular start.

The important readings to get and report back are: "Upstream transmit power" "Downstream receive power" and "Signal/Noise Ratio". Some of these terms may be labeled just a bit differently depending on the modem manufacturer.

If you can't find any of this stuff, post back your modem manufacturer and model and maybe I can help you dig it up.

I take for granted that there are about seven networked computers in my household and so I can rule out "computer specific" problems pretty damn quickly. Have you had an opportunity to do the same?

[gotica.livejournal.com]

meh as they said, sounds like MTU. There is an application called drtcp which will change your nic down for you with a few button clicks.

[the-anguisette.livejournal.com]

Is there any pattern in the times this happens, or is it constant? Cable companies have a tendency to sell more bandwidth than they actually have. *coughCablevisioncough*

Another possibility is that they suspect that there's lots of torrenting going on on your Subnet, and they're clamping down on upload speeds. (It happens.)

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/subnet_scanner_info/