Earthlink, Speakeasy and Static IPs

[Pat Logsdon]

I feel a little rant-y at the moment. Let me explain. I've been with Earthlink for about 4 years now, and they've been ok. I upgraded to DSL about 2 years ago, and that was great - seemed very fast. Now I'm annoyed, and I'm seriously considering switching. Why? Read on...

First of all, Earthlink tells me that I'm paying for 1.5mb down and 128kb up. I am getting nowhere NEAR this speed - I frequently get page downloads in the 400-700 BYTE range, and I'm lucky if I can get 100k d/l from a fast server - usually I get between 50 and 70kb. So I decide to do some tests.

I head over to DSLreports.com, and check the speed of my connection. It hovers around 400kbps. I hop over to 2wire.com, and I get between 400 and 600kbps. Fine. I call Earthlink, get a guy with a thick accent who just tells me that 400kbps is great, no problems! I tell him I have a problem, I'm paying for faster speed than that - is it my line, the modem, my firewall, what? Give me some options that I can look into to better my experience. No such luck - he can't get off of the "your speed is great!" line. This is technical support, by the way, but I felt like I was talking to a trainee in the Sales department. :evil:

Ok, Fine. I go back to DSLreports - maybe I'm too far from my CO. Nope - it's 2,000 feet away, so that's not the problem. I unplugged the ethernet cable from my router and plugged it right into the ethernet jack on my motherboard. Ran the tests again. No discernable difference in speed, so that's not the problem.

I've also noticed that it now takes me almost a minute to get a connection when I boot up my computer - it used to be instantaneous. All of this leads me to believe that Earthlink is having bandwidth problems, as I'm fairly certain the increased connection time has to be because Earthlink is taking longer to assign me an IP over PPPoE.

So now I'm mad. It takes a lot to get me mad, but at this point, the paint is peeling off the ceiling from the steam pouring off of my head. :mrgreen: I start looking at different ISPs, and find a link on the site of one my favorite web comics (pVp (http://www.pvponline.com/)) for SpeakEasy DSL. Turns out that they give you 2 static IPs, the same up/down speeds Earthlink SAYS they give me, and it's only about $6 more per month that what I'm paying now.

I've done all that I can think of to eliminate probable causes for the slow speed I'm seeing, and I keep coming back to the static IP vs PPPoE thing. I know that SpeakEasy will be using the same wires (Verizon), but even so, there are still differences between providers, right? Any advice? Should I switch, or am I stuck? I'm thinking of getting the Gamer ADSL 1.5/256 package (http://www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=res_allpricing).

[Pat Logsdon]

Before anyone asks, I'm not really interested in cable. :wink:

[Falstaff]

That SpeakEasy package is a great deal. I wanted to switch over to it, but when I moved in December, my dad had locked into a year of SWBell DSL :cry: , and our connection is only guarunteed at 768/128, which it barely gets according to speed tests, though it often doesn't even feel that fast. I think that Gamer Package is great though, I'd love to have 8 Static IPs, right now I just have dynamic. Then I would actually take the time to set up syncing remotely. Plus, if you REALLY want bandwidth, Speakeasy has an awesome 6.0/768. And hey, it is the official broadband of OSDN (ThinkGeek, /., NewsForge, SourceForge)!

[Pat Logsdon]

Yeah, SpeakEasy seems to be the ISP of choice for uber geeks. :mrgreen: Does anyone else here use them?

[Roosterman]

I used to have EarthStink for about 18 months. I also noticed a severe drop in speed. Went brom about 1200/250 to 20/8. I would call them as you and got the technical helpless line. They keep saying everything was fine on their end. Maybe it was the phone line/company or someother thing not related to them. Turns out the crap about a dedicated line is just that, crap. Yes you are the only one on your line, but they all funnel into a switching station (for lack of better term). In my case, the vastly oversold there bandwith and by the time it got to Chicago there was a huge bottleneck.

I went to Time Warner cable and the speeds have been outstanding. Sometines better the 3000/350. Most of the time over 2000/300. I know you said you don't want cable, but my experience with ES says run while the running is good.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Before anyone asks, I'm not really interested in cable. :wink:

Just out of curiousity, how come? I absolutely hate Shaw as a company, but I've been happy with them as an ISP.

[Pat Logsdon]

The cable operator I'd have to use is Comcast, and it's even more expensive than the Speakeasy DSL package I've got my eye on. I have DirecTV, so there's no data discount if Comcast is my ISP. :?

[OSUKid7]

I've had the same problem with my roadrunner (cable)...supposedly I'm paying for a 3 mbps DL line, yet I barely get 1.5 connected directly to the modem. I've talked with them and no one seems like it's a problem. Too bad. :(

[ironguy]

I've been with Speakeasy since my Telocity got bought by DirecTV then went belly up. Speakeasy's tech support is VERY good. My speed is a constant 384kbps, nothing higher, but that's because I'm over 15,000 feet away from the CO.

As far as your speed at only 2000 feet, it's probable that Earthlink capped your speed. If your contract does indeed read 1.5M, then you may be able to get them. I've noticed in all the internet contracts that I've ever senn that if you have ADSL, your speed is NOT guaranteed. Also, if you are 2000 feet away from your CO, your effective line distance may be much higher depending on how the line is routed. I'm technically only 10,000 feet from my CO, but Covad has managed to route our areas lines all over the place. Much of this depends on when the CO was placed in comparison to when your lines were installed.

Speakeasy is expensive, but very reliable and responsive to problems.