Troubleshooting AT&T DSL Internet Service Speed (Pearland, TX)

One of the issues with being a medical student is keeping your computer and Internet connection in good working order. During basic sciences, there are tons of streaming videos to watch. During clinics, there is online research that needs to be done from time to time (and occasional videos to watch on various medical procedures). Everyone has their provider of choice, and I'm using AT&T DSL here in Pearland. I have tried Comcast and AT&T U-Verse about a year ago and was less than satisfied. Comcast was slower because they throttled download speed of files, and U-Verse was unreliable (a new gateway was needed every couple of months because they kept failing).

Here in Pearland where I live, AT&T DSL has been the best up to now. However, I have been noticing more frequent outages (connection cycling) and decreased speed, particularly during the day. AT&T has a site: http://speedtest-hstntx.hstntx.sbcglobal.net/speedtest2/page3.html for Houston (for other cities, Google at&T speed test dsl) that theoretically tests the connection speed. For example, the results as I write this are ... your Throughput Download = 5.072 Mbps Upload = 598.26 kbps . When I actually download a file, I do not see anything remotely approaching 5 Mbps. The max download speed I have ever seen with DSL in Pearland over about 2 years is around 560 Kbps; the usual is more like 120 Kbps max.

Because today I was having a lot of issues browsing the Internet while studying (web pages not loading, loading very slowly, and download speeds of ~1.1 Kbps on files), I decided to contact AT&T tech support via chat. I did not have much luck at first. The techs on chat disconnected after their speed test web site reported good performance. Because I was experiencing Internet browsing and download problems with several sites, I decided I needed an application that tests actual download and browsing data speeds instead of providing a theoretical number. I obtained Cisco Speed Meter Pro and then called AT&T support over the phone. The tech stated that everything seems to be OK based on the speed test above, but referred me to higher level support after I stated that I had a network performance program that showed the throughput at various parts of the network and it showed an Internet connectivity problem after the router. I'm sure there are other programs out there, but this one seemted to have a lot of features and was not too expensive (~$40). So, I decided to compare the specifications for the service, the AT&T report results, and the results from Speed Meter Pro:

(Currently DSL appears to be operating normally)

AT&T Elite DSL Speed per the AT&T Web site advertisement as of today, 5/28/09
Downstream Up to 6.0 Mbps
Upstream Up to 768 Kbps

Per the AT&T speed test web site:
Download = 5.072 Mbps
Upload = 598.26 Kbps

Per the Cisco Speed Meter Pro v1.9052.0-Pure0:
Download = 551 Kbps
Upload = 73.5 Kbps

At the moment my Internet connectivity appears to be typical / normal. Earlier, when I was having problems (there was an outage issue, apparently), the download speed was reported in various downloads and other applications as ~400-1200 bytes / sec (yes, folks, "bytes") and this corresponded with Speed Meter Pro's results at the time of those problems. Upload speed was around 13.5 Kbps; I did not test upload the the time of the problems today.

The reason I went through this long explanation above is that until I obtained the Cisco Speed Meter Pro software, AT&T kept telling me that the problem was with my computer instead of their network (or just hanging up the chat conversations). It wasn't until I obtained the Speed Meter Pro software and told them what it was reporting what I actually observed in terms of download speed that they took me seriously enough to put me through to their 2nd tier of tech support in Los Angeles, etc., who finally confirmed that AT&T did indeed have a DSL outage in my area and that they were working to repair it. My connectivity is back, and thus I'm happy for the time being.

Time for RR between MS2 and MS3

MS2 is over and I have a few weeks off before MS3. I have been going to activities with my kids like the pirate birthday party shown in this picture here. From a school standpoint, it has been a challenging year. The fall of this past year (MS2 midway) had tons of exams to study and Jan - May gave me my first taste of clerkships and clinics. The material is interesting and I like the patients. Exams en masse are just part of student life, but the clerkships are certainly a new experience for me and took a little getting used to. In the working world, there can be a fair amount of teamwork and everyone contributing is rewarded and appreciated. Clerkships do have some of this, but mostly it's a time where you are being assessed, and thus it's more of an exercise in impressing your attending and residents. I was hoping it would be more about caring for the patients, but that is less of a factor. Knowing a long differential diagnosis or correctly explaining a difficult treatment was where points are scored, so to speak. Also, it was generally better to take on a bit less work and do it perfectly than to take on more work and risk answering a question incorrectly or missing a fact about a patient. It's pretty much about perfection in terms of your image as opposed to how well your patients are doing.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be taking advantage of time with the family, studying, and losing a little weight. I'll take the kids to swim and art camps as welll weekly activities. I'll be studying for the upcoming medicine rotation and refreshing my memory on material for the step 1 exam that I'll be taking next year. I'm so happy to have a nice break. There is so much fun stuff to do; a bit of freedom before some tough rotations in the fall and winter.