Modem reset. No damage, that I can tell … so far. I did check my download speed and wasn’t happy, at first. Here’s how you can tell: Go to this broadband speed test site. Click on one of the links lower on the page to check your speed. The results vary. However, this Michigan site was the easiest to read. It said I’m close to 5 Mbps. With the fast-Internet service most of us use, we’ll only get that 5 Mbps as promised at 3 a.m. anyway and that’s only if they’re not doing maintenance on their servers.
You might want to check your modem to see if it’s capable of handling that speed, too.
I had a brief IM chat with a service troubleshooter. Here’s how that went:
David W.: Thank you for choosing Road Runner Technical Chat. My name is David W.. May we have the first and last name, and the phone number with the area code of the master account holder?
You: Susan —. 336.—.—-
David W.: Thank you, and with whom am I speaking currently?
You: Her husband, Herb ——–
David W.: Thank you, what technical issue may we assist you with?
You: I received a letter recently about the service going from 3 mbps to 5. I looked at my modem to reset it and don’t see a button. All I have to do is turn it off and on to reset it?
David W.: Yes, exactly.
David W.: Are there any other technical issues we may assist you with?
You: I did that and I got 2.4 mbps.
David W.: What type and model of modem do you have?
You: toshiba pcx1100
David W.: Please contact our local office to see if that model of modem is capable of the 5mbps speed.
You: can they swap it w/o cost?
David W.: I am not 100% sure on that, but I would hope so indeed!
David W.: Our local numbers are:
David W.: Greensboro 336-379-0200
Davidson 336-249-3908
High Point 336-886-4195
Winston-Salem 336-785-3390
David W.: ———– is your ticket number okay?
David W.: Our local office is open 24 hours.
David W.: Have we addressed all of your current technical issues and questions?
You: 10-4. i’ll check with them.
David W.: Have a great day!
David W.: If you have no further issues that we can assist you with, you may end the chat session by clicking on the Hang Up button and a chat transcript will be displayed for you. Once again thank you for choosing Road Runner!
In an ongoing effort to continue improving our quality of service, we are conducting a customer survey. If you would like to participate, please copy and paste the following link into your browser: http://help.rr.com/html/chatsurvey.html .
David W. Has Disconnected
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Some of this stuff came up so quick, especially the last few items, I’m sure it was scripted. I type fast, but not that fast or accurate.
4 Comments
I got a hair under 4 Mbps for download but only about 326K for upload. I know upload’s generally slower, but THAT MUCH slower … ?
I got 4.38 Mb/s download and 414.90 Kb/s upload Not bad for a Sunday afternoon, but still not as fast as advertised.
I know that Lex and I are Earthlink customers on Time-Warner’s system. I wonder if Time-Warner allows us the same speed as they do their own Road Runner customers. I’ve heard they don’t but have no way of prooving it to be true. We pay 4 bucks a month less but are we getting the same service?
Billy,
I’ll do some surfing to find out. Seems that we’re all about the same speed. I suspect TW has to do some bandwidth reporting to the gov’ment so they probably aren’t grabbing the coattails of Earthlink customers to slow ‘em down.
Lex,
The way data travels on cable lines is not symmetrical. Until the cable companies update their lines and equipment, this will be the case. I think SDSL is currently the only type service that can manage the same speeds up and down. And I think you pay a premium price for it.