DSL Connection – Why Is My Internet Slow Compared to Neighbor?

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I've just moved into a new house (new for me; the house was built in 2006). I've purchased DSL service through AT&T, paying for speeds "up to" 768 Kbps downstream / 384 Kbps upstream. My issue is, the connection speed on the DSL is very slow — the DSL modem connects at 224 Kbps downstream / 128 Kbps upstream, as reported by the modem's own built-in control panel applet (accessible at the internal IP http://192.168.0.1/).

However, my brother-in-law, living 9 doors down on the same street (and further from the local CO — if the CO map at dslreports.com is to be believed), connects at a much more comfortable 1.5 Mbps downstream / 384 Kbps upstream. He has the same service from AT&T (although he's paying extra for the 1.5 Mbps service).

I'm not sure whether it matters, but I have a "dry" DSL connection — DSL service only, no phone service.

I've tried the following:

  • Switching modems. I actually tried borrowing my brother-in-law's modem, that connects at 1.5 Mbps from his house; replacing that modem with the one at my house, it also connects at 224 Kbps. Both modems are the same model (Siemens SpeedStream 4100).

  • Connecting the modem directly to the phone jack on the outside of the house (to rule out the possibility of bad wiring inside the house). No change, the modem still connects at 224 Kbps.

  • Switching phone cables. No change.

I'm not sure what else to try. I did contact A&T; they informed me that they consider a connection speed of 224 Kbps to be "acceptable" for a customer paying for 768 Kbps service. Interestingly, AT&T did inform me that 1.5 Mbps service isn't even available at my location, based on an on-site test they performed recently (presumably of signal strength / quality).

So, my question has two parts:

(1) Why is my DSL connection speed so much slower (more than 6x slower!) than the service my brother-in-law is getting, when we're located in almost the same location (9 doors down on the same street)? (If the reason is that my DSL signal is weaker and/or poorer quality, then why might that be the case?)

(2) Is there anything I can do to improve the situation, short of dropping the DSL service (and paying significantly more money for cable)? The 224 Kbps connection speed is okay for email and surfing the web, but it's poor-to-unusable for large downloads, gaming, and YouTube.

Thanks!

Best Answer

A very helpful AT&T tech that came out to my house ended up solving this issue for me.

  • The tech measured the signal quality at the point of the phone/DSL wire coming into the outside of my home. The signal quality was just fine at that point (to my surprise)!
  • The tech measured the signal quality at the phone jack inside my home where I had my router and DSL modem plugged in. The signal quality was very poor at that point.

This proved that the problem was with the wiring inside my home. (Again, this was to my surprise, as I live in a fairly new home that is, in other respects, well-constructed.)

  • The tech took a look a look at the wiring down in my basement. He offered a diagnosis that the problem was due to the phone wire being run throughout the house bundled together with the electrical power wire. Apparently, per the tech, this can cause interference/"noise" on the phone line, which can adversely impact the DSL signal quality.

We ended up solving the problem by physically disconnecting, at the junction box in my basement, all of the phone lines running throughout the house except the single line leading to the jack upstairs where I had my DSL modem plugged in. (I didn't care about doing this, as I wasn't using any of the other phone jacks in the house.) This did solve the problem for me, and I now have no issues with my home DSL.

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