New Qwest DSL Speeds

[Mark Goldberg]

If there is anyone else still left with Qwest DSL an Globalcrossing
as the ISP, Qwest has increased the speed for DSL Deluxe to 1.5M down
and 896K up. They have also reduced the price to $28 / month. I checked,
and while we have the lower price, the speed has not changed. I called
Qwest and was told that we could order the higher speed. They were not
sure if a new modem was required, and if it would appear to be new
service to the ISP. Has anyone tried this to find out. I'd hate to
loset the current static IP and the current globalcrossing service
is actually OK and I'd hate to change my email address too. I've had
this since the days of primenet and still have a Cisco 675. I don't
know if the Globalcrossing ISP price would go up. I'd hate to call and
just be cut off since they do not want any new customers. Deru
says that they will provide whatever speed Qwest does for the $30 static
IP charge.

So, anyone tried it, or have any other suggestions?
Thanks.

Mark Goldberg

[Russ Osborne]

Can't help with the technical stuff, but Deru, and in particlur Darin
are great to deal with. I would have no problem recommending them,
have never had a real problem, and I even got my mom to sign up with
them :-)
and I am paying qwest about 35 a month, counting dsl modem rental for
640K. :-(
russ


On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 11:38:52 -0700, Mark Goldberg

Post by Mark Goldberg
If there is anyone else still left with Qwest DSL an Globalcrossing
as the ISP, Qwest has increased the speed for DSL Deluxe to 1.5M down
and 896K up. They have also reduced the price to $28 / month. I checked,
and while we have the lower price, the speed has not changed. I called
Qwest and was told that we could order the higher speed. They were not
sure if a new modem was required, and if it would appear to be new
service to the ISP. Has anyone tried this to find out. I'd hate to
loset the current static IP and the current globalcrossing service
is actually OK and I'd hate to change my email address too. I've had
this since the days of primenet and still have a Cisco 675. I don't
know if the Globalcrossing ISP price would go up. I'd hate to call and
just be cut off since they do not want any new customers. Deru
says that they will provide whatever speed Qwest does for the $30 static
IP charge.
So, anyone tried it, or have any other suggestions?
Thanks.
Mark Goldberg

[Marc 182]

In article <pan.2004.02.25.18.38.51.318102
@donotspamme.gglloobbaallccrroossiinngg.hairnet>,

Post by Mark Goldberg
If there is anyone else still left with Qwest DSL an Globalcrossing
as the ISP, Qwest has increased the speed for DSL Deluxe to 1.5M down
and 896K up. They have also reduced the price to $28 / month. I checked,
and while we have the lower price, the speed has not changed. I called
Qwest and was told that we could order the higher speed. They were not
sure if a new modem was required, and if it would appear to be new
service to the ISP. Has anyone tried this to find out. I'd hate to
loset the current static IP and the current globalcrossing service
is actually OK and I'd hate to change my email address too. I've had
this since the days of primenet and still have a Cisco 675. I don't
know if the Globalcrossing ISP price would go up. I'd hate to call and
just be cut off since they do not want any new customers. Deru
says that they will provide whatever speed Qwest does for the $30 static
IP charge.
So, anyone tried it, or have any other suggestions?
Thanks.

Mark, we are in exactly your situation, even down to the Cisco 675. We
got the discount, but I'm intrigued by the possibility of a speed
increase. If you check it out, please post what you found out.

Marc

[Penury]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 22:56:27 -0700, Marc 182

Post by Marc 182
Mark, we are in exactly your situation, even down to the Cisco 675. We
got the discount, but I'm intrigued by the possibility of a speed
increase. If you check it out, please post what you found out.

Hi Marc:
You might check the following URL for more info:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,9496500~mode=flat



-=Bill Eckle=-
***@wmeckle.com
Vanity Web pages at:
http://www.wmeckle.com

[Dennis M. O'Connor]

Post by Mark Goldberg
So, anyone tried it, or have any other suggestions?
Thanks.

Qwest tells me I'll keep my static DSL and my Primenet (Globalcenter)
ISP when they upgrade my service from 640K to 1500K next Thursday.
They say I'll be without DSL service for 1 to 8 hours. Cost to me is
about $85: $60 modem (bye-bye, 675 !), $10 shipping, $15 order processing fee.

If it works out, I'll let you know in a week.
If not, I may not be able to ... ;-)

[Mark Goldberg]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 23:04:00 -0700, Dennis M. O'Connor wrote:

Qwest tells me I'll keep my static DSL and my Primenet (Globalcenter)

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
ISP when they upgrade my service from 640K to 1500K next Thursday.
They say I'll be without DSL service for 1 to 8 hours. Cost to me is
about $85: $60 modem (bye-bye, 675 !), $10 shipping, $15 order processing fee.
If it works out, I'll let you know in a week.
If not, I may not be able to ... ;-)

Can you tell me who you talked to? I called the globalcrossing tech
support and they said as long as the vci and vpi did not change and it
stayed in bridging mode, it should work. they really do not care about the
modem. I noticed that the default for the new actiontec modem is not
bridged. I'd like to wait, but the deal runs out today for the waved
$99 fee. I'm not sure that the 1 cent fee deal applies to a switch.

Thanks.

[Dennis M. O'Connor]

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
Qwest tells me I'll keep my static DSL and my Primenet (Globalcenter)

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
ISP when they upgrade my service from 640K to 1500K next Thursday.
They say I'll be without DSL service for 1 to 8 hours. Cost to me is
about $85: $60 modem (bye-bye, 675 !), $10 shipping, $15 order processing fee.
If it works out, I'll let you know in a week.
If not, I may not be able to ... ;-)

Can you tell me who you talked to?

No, sorry.

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
I called the globalcrossing tech
support and they said as long as the vci and vpi did not change and it
stayed in bridging mode, it should work. they really do not care about the
modem.

I have an old Cisco 675. It's not compatible with the new service.
Niether is the existing equipment at the CO, apparently.

[Mark Goldberg]

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor

Post by Mark Goldberg
I called the globalcrossing tech
support and they said as long as the vci and vpi did not change and it
stayed in bridging mode, it should work. they really do not care about the
modem.

I have an old Cisco 675. It's not compatible with the new service.
Niether is the existing equipment at the CO, apparently.

I understood all of that. The normal setup for dsl with the new modem
is not bridging. Basically the globalcrossing tech said that it should
work if Qwest makes the new modem/CO equipment look like the old one, as
far as globalcrossing is concerned. Since the new one normally uses a
different mode (PPPOE or PPPOA), this would look different to
globalcrossing and they may not suppport it. The Actiontec looks like
it can support bridging. Did Qwest talk about this at all?

I really hope it works for you. If it does, I'll try it. These things
can get pretty ugly when it doesn't work, with globalcrossing considering
it a legacy product and not really supporting changes and having to
get to a third level tech or so at Qwest before you get to a guru.

I remember a couple of years ago when globalcrossing was throttling
the downloads to 256K, it took me hours on the phone to tech support,
first at qwest to determine my line was fine and the modem could
train at up to 7 Meg Down and 1 Meg up (too bad they put it back to
640k), then to globalcrossing where i actually downloaded the cisco
router docs so i could ask the right questions about what mode they
used and finally determined they were throttling. They did not actually
admit it outright, but it then changed to unthrottled soon after.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope to follow, along with the few remaining
customers left in the same boat.

Mark Goldberg

[Dennis M. O'Connor]

Post by Mark Goldberg

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor

Post by Mark Goldberg
I called the globalcrossing tech
support and they said as long as the vci and vpi did not change and it
stayed in bridging mode, it should work. they really do not care about the
modem.

I have an old Cisco 675. It's not compatible with the new service.
Niether is the existing equipment at the CO, apparently.

I understood all of that. The normal setup for dsl with the new modem
is not bridging. Basically the globalcrossing tech said that it should
work if Qwest makes the new modem/CO equipment look like the old one, as
far as globalcrossing is concerned. Since the new one normally uses a
different mode (PPPOE or PPPOA), this would look different to
globalcrossing and they may not suppport it. The Actiontec looks like
it can support bridging. Did Qwest talk about this at all?

No. Okay, now I understand: you're talking bridging versus PPPo[AE].
Qwest did say I would still have my static IP, though; I thought PPP
was for the non-static-IP setups, but no reason to think that.
We'll see what happens.

[Dennis M. O'Connor]

Well, here I am at Primenet with the new 1.5Mbps Qwest DSL.
It worked ... but not without a little extra effort.

1) Qwest didn't notify GlobalCenter of what they needed to
change on their end, for some reason. Not sure of the details.

2) the Actiontec modem wouldn't ping my Primenet gateway.
My static IP is on a different class-C subnet, and it just
wouldn't even try. Primenet had me change my gateway
to one on the same class-C subnet, and it worked.

The Actiontec modem is set up in RFC1483 Bridged mode,
static IP, static DNS, NAT on, and so on. Seems to work just fine.
It is noticeable faster than the old stuff: DSLreports gave it
as 1264kbps/659kbps : quite nice.

[Mark Goldberg]

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
Well, here I am at Primenet with the new 1.5Mbps Qwest DSL.
It worked ... but not without a little extra effort.
1) Qwest didn't notify GlobalCenter of what they needed to
change on their end, for some reason. Not sure of the details.

Did you have to call GC or did Qwest take care of it afterward?

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
2) the Actiontec modem wouldn't ping my Primenet gateway.
My static IP is on a different class-C subnet, and it just
wouldn't even try. Primenet had me change my gateway
to one on the same class-C subnet, and it worked.
The Actiontec modem is set up in RFC1483 Bridged mode,
static IP, static DNS, NAT on, and so on. Seems to work just fine.
It is noticeable faster than the old stuff: DSLreports gave it
as 1264kbps/659kbps : quite nice.

That all sounds about right. Did you have to ask Qwest to set it
up in RFC1483 Bridged mode or did they do it on their own?

You changed your static IP from what it was? Was that because of
globalcenter or qwest? I've got my static IP in a number of
scripts, some of which i may not remember where they are until
if i change them stuff stops working. It would be a pain to change
it.

The globalcenter tech said they would not want to change things,
as they consider this a "legacy" service. It was nice of them
to get it working again if things needed to be changed. I did get
the impression that, since Qwest leases part of the line from
them anyway for DSL, that they may make out as well or better
having them as the ISP, as the packets from you go over the
line anyway, but I may have misunderstood.

Your experience sounds hopeful enough that I will try it.
Thanks for being the guinea pig.

Mark Goldberg

[Dennis M. O'Connor]

The Actiontec is in "stupid" Bridging mode and crashes once a day
so far for me. Because I'm using Linux, they won't immediatly replace
it for me. I can't see how the OS is relevent to the modem in this
mode. The 1524 has many complaints or needing to be reset alot. Look
at the DSLReports Forums.

My Actiontec 1524 is working flawlessly. BTW, did you update
yours to the latest Qwest-approved firmware (and not the latest
from Actiontec BTW) ?

[Mark Goldberg]

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
My Actiontec 1524 is working flawlessly. BTW, did you update
yours to the latest Qwest-approved firmware (and not the latest
from Actiontec BTW) ?

It is already at the latest. It crashed once each of the first two
days and has worked fine since. I consider the jury still out
on this one. The tech from Qwest checked into bridged mode with
Actiontec, but I haven't been here when he called to find out what
was learned.

Mark Goldberg

[Blair P. Houghton]

Post by Mark Goldberg

Post by Dennis M. O'Connor
My Actiontec 1524 is working flawlessly. BTW, did you update
yours to the latest Qwest-approved firmware (and not the latest
from Actiontec BTW) ?

It is already at the latest. It crashed once each of the first two
days and has worked fine since. I consider the jury still out
on this one. The tech from Qwest checked into bridged mode with
Actiontec, but I haven't been here when he called to find out what
was learned.

You f'ing pinks. I have a US Robotics Sportster v.90 modem
talking to a fricken' tractor.

--Blair
"I R l33t!"

[Darin Wayrynen]

[snip]

The 1524 has many complaints or needing to be reset alot.

It's been our experience that they crash no more or less as a whole than the
cisco gear. Of course Ymmv....

The 678s are selling for $80 - $100 on ebay. I don't know if they can
be used. I know my 675 ran for months without crashing.

Cisco 678's work with any new Qwest DSL installation.

Will they support the higher speeds? If so, what does it take to
increase the speed (mine is currently ~640Kb up/256K down)?

Yes, 678's support the higher speed 7 meg down/1 meg up now - so they
will support the 1.5/1 combination also without breaking a sweat.

It's a two step process. First, you need to call Qwest and ask them
to change your speed to the new rate.

Second you will probably have to ask your ISP to change their
configuration they have for you on their gateway.

Qwest's provisioning system typically notifies the ISP of any changes
to a DSL customer's configured line speed - but we have found that
they will not notify the ISP if the DSL customer already has DMT line
encoding (which you probably do if you have a 678). So in most cases,
the ISP won't know that the speed has changed. Deru and other ISPs
preset the line speed of customers to what speed they have bought when
they were first set up, so you usually have to have the ISP modify the
speed set up on their router/DSL gateway you are connected to, or
you'll have a fast line, but still only be able to go the poky 640 kbps
speed.

Darin