jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
|  [General] How do I get a Pre-Qual?
I think that's what I need. 
I'm currently subscribed to Pro level (and get 2.2 Mbps down, 400 Kbps up). I'd like to move to Elite, and wonder if that's possible for my location. Since I am not seeing the highest possible speed, I suspect that I might have reached a limit.
I posted a notice marked at Pre-Qual on the ATT Direct board a couple of days ago and have not yet received a response. What is the correct procedure?
Thanks,
John |
|
StillLearn
Premium
join:2002-03-21
Streamwood, IL | Wait for a response. If you want to add or modify something, it is OK to edit your post. Do not respond to your own post there. |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| reply to jice65
The techs in Direct are overworked and underpaid so they'll bypass something as low priority (not to you, I'm sure) as this type of request and work on circuits with bigger problems.
Depending on the type of modem you have, you can get info that would tell us what speed your modem thinks your line can support.
If you've got a Speedstream 5100 with 5 LED's or one of their 4100's, or the Motorola 2210, use the DMT tool as outlined here...
»SBC DSL FAQ »How can I check for the maximum attainable sync speeds with a 5100b/4100 modem?
Below the graph will be a table of numbers with Maxrate numbers. You'd need to see something on the order of 3300 or more to be a good candidate for a solid Pro circuit.
If you have a 2wire, go to this link and look at the block of numbers above the last six lines on the page....
»192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=J45
This will be a history of max rates and will tell us what the 2wire thinks you can handle. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA | reply to StillLearn
Thanks for the protocol explanation. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
1 edit | reply to tonydi
Thanks for the great info. Apologies for my slow response (work can interfere :().
I did receive a response in the Direct forum and am attempting to understand the reply. I do have a 2wire; thanks for the pointer to the J45 page. Lot's of stats there.
On the 2wire page, what's important to look at? Is it safe to attach a copy of the entire page here?
I'll paste a small snippet of what might be the relevant sections here:
Should I post more?
I would like to respond to the tech who answered by Direct post, but first, I want to be sure that I understand his response. The tone of the response indicated that moving from Pro to Elite would be iffy. Here are the sections that I want to understand:
quote:
The downstream attenuation looks like it could hold it but the upstream attenuation doesn't look like it will.
Does this mean that I would be OK for 6 Mbps downloads, but not 768 Kbps uploads? Or, am I misunderstanding?
quote:
Since there is no mid-cap for elite profiles it would be an all or nothing approach.
Does this mean that an Elite customer is always capped at the full 6Mbps down and 768Kbps up and that there are not at any lower points? As I mentioned, I am now a Pro customer. I never see 3Mbps down nor 512Kbps up. I see 2.2Mbps down. Does that indicate a "mid-cap"?
Some of the tech's test results:
quote:
DN CURNMR 16 Good
UP CURNMR 19 Good
DN ATEN 39 Good
UP ATEN 24 Good
DN RELCAP 50 Good
UP RELCAP 54 Good
DN CURBR 3008
UP CURBR 512
LL 7984
PROFNM ADV_3008_512
STATUS IS-NR
CODE FAST
Thanks again. |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| The idea that Elite would be iffy is confirmed by the MaxRate numbers you posted. Normally we like to see figures at least 10% over the sync rate, like 6600+, which shows that the modem has some extra margin for times when line conditions deteriorate. You only have ~6150 so it could go either way. If you have a really clean loop, then maybe you'd be ok. If not, you'll have issues at times.
I'm confused about the concern over the upload side. I believe those stats you were given, specifically DN RELCAP 50 Good --
UP RELCAP 54 Good, mean that the Download side currently at 3008 is about 50% of the max the line can handle. That means 6016 and it's pretty close to what the modem reports. But the upload is 54% of capacity when it's at 512, so that's like 950 max, far past the 768 of Elite.
You've got a couple of choices. You can give Elite a try and just see what happens and if the line is decent, live with the occasional problem. The modem might drop back to a lower sync and you wouldn't get full 6008 but would still be far above the Pro level. Or, they could put the line into an "interleaved" mode which would increase your latency (ping) a bit as a trade-off for increased error checking to help maintain stability. The latency increase isn't really noticeable unless you do stuff like online first person shooter games.
Either way, if you don't have a good Elite experience, you can always just drop back to Pro. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
| Thanks again for another reply.
Regarding the upload, here is what the tech tells me (it looks like he is referring to the ATEN (attenuation):
quote:
yea the downstream is under the 40db absolute worse limit, but the upstream at 24db is outside the 21db tolerance. So it would be very marginal at best.
It sounds like I should try Elite and see how it goes. Both you and the tech who responded on the ATT Direct forum appear to agree on that.
How do I proceed? Do I simply go to the ATT DSL site and sign up for Elite? Or, do I co-ordinate with someone a forum here?
BTW, I am grandfathered into a static IP. Last time I upgraded (to Pro), a tech on ATT Direct helped to make sure I didn't loose that. |
|
StillLearn
Premium
join:2002-03-21
Streamwood, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| I would try getting your statistics with the modem plugged into the NID. If there is significant improvement, then you could modify your house wiring to give you almost as good statistics as you get from the NID.
I don't remember anybody else saying they were limited by their upstream attenuation. If "UP CURNMR 19" means your upstream signal to noise ration is 19 dB, then I don't see the upstream holding you down. So even without modifying your wiring, I suspect the upstream upgrade will be fine. |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| reply to jice65
I'd say work with the AT&T tech in Direct to upgrade, just because of the static situation. Be aware, however, that we've seen people who upgraded and lost their static plan even though it wasn't supposed to happen. Some of them were not able to get it back, so make doubly sure the tech understands the situation.
Good Luck! |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA | Thanks.
One quick point. The tech who responded seems to be located in Illinois. Are these things handled remotely?
-J |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| That's Virtual David, he's not a real person as you can see by his avatar, strictly AI. 
But seriously, yeah, it's all remote control, no need to touch any actual wires for any of this stuff. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA | David seems quite helpful. Looks like we'll be trying Elite level out this week. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
| reply to tonydi
Last week, we attempted to run some tests. My account was switched over to Elite levels. The DSL line was able to sync at 6mpbs.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to obtain an internet connection. My current service has a single static IP address. When they temporarily upgraded to Elite, they were not able to figure out how to do this while preserving a static address. The tech has looked into this and tells me that any change would require me switching to a dynamic address (using PPPoE if I understand correctly).
Any suggestions? tonydi, do you have any insight? |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA | Unless you have a specific need for a static IP, for instance you're running some sort of in-house server, then I'd say go PPPoE and enjoy the faster speeds. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
| I only make use of the static IP for personal use. It's convenient if I need to access my home network while in the office (or otherwise away).
Using this setup, it's easy for me to configure (for example) a web page on my domain to point to a remote server while a sub-domain may resolve to the IP address of my router. This allows me to remotely ssh or otherwise access my home network. For example, foo.net or www.foo.net points to my remotely hosted web page but home.foo.net resolves to my home network.
Up until now, I've never had the need to look into some kind of dynamic dns scheme. Perhaps there is a good way to set that up. |
|
tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA | Exactly, there are a number of DDNS options and that seems to be a good trade-off for the occasional access. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
| OK. I'm scheduled to go ahead with the upgrade (and associated move to dynamic ip / PPPoE).
How do I determine or set my login and password for PPPoE?
I know my login and password for dial-up. Is this the same? How would I check this in advance?
I haven't yet been able to locate an ATT page where I can find this info. BTW, my login is still with the "pacbell.net" domain.
Thanks. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA
| OK, now understand id/password setting (same as for dial-up).
Now testing out Elite with dynamic IP. Momentarily saw 5.2 Mbps download, but seems to have dropped back down to Pro Speeds (2.5 Mpbs). Still have improved upload speeds (up to 600 Kbps).
Hoping for a lasting improvement in download. |
|
jice65
join:2003-10-08
San Francisco, CA | Now seeing 5 Mbps down (was told something had reset itself). Looking pretty good. |
|
