I've about had it with AT&T! I have been tracking key performance measures for DSL service. These measures include:
Ping: how fast it takes for a single packet of signal to go from my house to a particular server on the internet. Values should be in the 40s of ms.
Download speed: How fast can the internet link download information. I pay for the highest speed: a nominal 5+ Mbps. They say up to 6, but when you talk to them to complain, they will say 5+.
Upload speed: How fast can the internet link upload information. This value is usually a lot lower than the download speed. I pay for the highest speed, .5 Mbps.
Jitter: How consistent is the speed, measured in ms. It is a variation measure, the lower the better. I would expect a Jitter of no more than 5 ms.
I've run tests over the past 2 months and have got some good results, but mostly bad, real bad! I often see:
Ping: above 400 ms
Download speed: < 1Mbps
Upload speed: ~.1 Mbps
Jitter: >50 ms.
The techs at AT&T want to point to my equipment, but I've run tests without my equipment in the way. I've also run tests over a long period of time (over 2 mo now). I shouldn't see so much variation.
To give you an idea of what I am seeing, here is a Powerpoint presentation:
To run your own tests, go to two sites: http://www.speedtest.net, and http://www.pingtest.net. The former is the one recommended by AT&T Support. I'm cynical, I guess, but I think they don't want you to know about the latter site, which gives the more important tests about signal quality, rather than speed.
