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A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

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Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#91
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was merely pretty sure that the comment was AI generated as I read it. After reading it, I became a lot more confident when I noticed the username above the comment: Gemini 3 . Is this a Wordpress plugin the blog author is using?

[flagged]

I have to admit I am also tired, and your quote sounds like a competent engineer doing a flex, and also being a bit bitter.

on edit: regarding the comment, yeah that sounds pretty AI.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't document your attempts to document and resolve the issue in your FCC complaint it will have far less credibility.

Ok, thank you! I'm gonna gather as much documentation as I can. Considering the fact that I get full speeds everywhere whenever I'm using a VPN, am I right to assume that there is an issue with AT&T's internal routing? And, that issue doesn't effect every path? I'm not really an expert at doing networking stuff, but I wanna gather as much empirical data to construct a report and do statistical tests n stuff.

My first guess wouldn't be routing, but traffic-shaping.

Perhaps the VPN you use is on a protocol/port that isn't outright rate-limited and since ATT can't peak inside your tunnel to see what you are doing with the bandwidth, it avoids any QoS/shaping/limiting that your non-VPN connection is subjected to.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#93
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was merely pretty sure that the comment was AI generated as I read it. After reading it, I became a lot more confident when I noticed the username above the comment: Gemini 3 . Is this a Wordpress plugin the blog author is using?

[flagged]

I think this is a lazy criticism that I am _also_ growing tired of.

If LLMs are trained on written information, that pattern of speech was present before they got there. It's a good way to add emphasis.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#95
post #80

Germany/Vodafone: A couple of years ago my DOCSIS connection that worked flawlessly for years started to fail in almost the same pattern. All reporting and support communication went nowhere, had to use the procedure by German IT/Telco regulator to cancel my contract early. It sucked because VDSL is slower but Vodafone wasn’t interested in fixing. They claim something/someone in the curb is interfering but neither tr…

Fuck Vodafone Germany in particular. I had a cable-contract that was rock solid for years until it wasn't. No amount of calls and complaints was able to convince them to do anything.

First, it was clearly a problem in the house.

Weeks later it suddenly was a regional issue that needed massive infrastructure updates.

Then it became a problem caused by a single household creating massive interference, that they need to find.

Months later they went back to infrastructure updates.

After 9 months of this shit I reported the issue to Bundesnetzagentur.

My next call to Vodafone and they "suddenly" offer to reduce my monthly subscription fee. After threatening to call the BNetzA again, they also offered to payback part of the fees of the previous 9 months.

The problem was magically resolved 3 months later. I'm on the reduced monthly fee ever since. They have forgotten to raise it back to normal and I'm not reminding them about it because they have been such assholes about it.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#96
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was merely pretty sure that the comment was AI generated as I read it. After reading it, I became a lot more confident when I noticed the username above the comment: Gemini 3 . Is this a Wordpress plugin the blog author is using?

[flagged]

I used AI to analyze the log for patterns and to make the charts.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#97
post #90

I had to step back for my own sanity when dealing with similar issues with xfinity, had multiple FCC cases open and they just lied their way through it with no impunity. OP if you're organizing let me know I have a burning fire passion for xfinity to get their just desserts

Do you have any ideas on how to leverage such organization to effectuate change?

It would sure be great to have internet classified as a public utility.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, it happens on a very specific set of intervals. That's not an RF issue. Downgrading/replacing the device isn't a solution.

There was an irregularly but often transmitting radio antenna tower fifty feet from my home, and the outage duration when an outage occurred was precisely the same each time, because Docsis is very carefully specified in how it starts up. (Don’t remember the duration, sorry.) The outage interval varied based on antenna usage; if OP is suffering a similar circuit break, a continuous transmitter nearby could certainly…

The outages mostly happened at very specific times during the hour (:29 and :44) for 17 months. It just doesn't add up to being RF interference, especially from a radio tower. But if OP has a radio tower 50 feet from their home, I guess we could consider it.

How did you know when the radio tower was transmitting?

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#99
In the UK we are lucky to have a bit better of the system - Openreach (or Virgin) own the cables, and ISPs pay Openreach to do the transit. IP based not dark fibre unfortunately.

That said, most ISPs won’t escalate when there’s an OR problem, or at least take a long time to, and then the OR tech is usually just trained to test the cable coming in and not a lot else.

I used to be with Andrew’s and Arnold (run by @revk who surfaces around these parts sometimes!) who were fantastic, because while expensive, the first person who answered the phone understood your summary, trusted you, and would happily beat up OR on your behalf.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#100
post #34

The comment at the bottom of the article I believe is correct. I believe this because our neighborhood had the same problem. One day my neighbor, frustrated beyond his capacity, and seemingly very high on something, went outside and started ripping infrastructure out by hand and damaging everything else he could find with a hammer. They came out and replaced a lot of the damaged equipment and did a few upgrades. Afte…

I was merely pretty sure that the comment was AI generated as I read it. After reading it, I became a lot more confident when I noticed the username above the comment: Gemini 3 . Is this a Wordpress plugin the blog author is using?

you've obviously never used AI much then, because I was able to instantly tell that it's a summarisation typical of claude/gemini/copilot
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