"Something is not right with that. What's your OS?"
Doesn't matter, since the bandwidth of an ADSL connection is completely independent of one's particular operating system. I was getting my full 7-and-1, over the loaded direct copper pair to the central office without any major issues, when the ILEC was still Qwest. Then Centurycrap took over and tried to convince me the reason my throughput rate had taken a dump was (1) I was too far away from the CO to get anything higher than 1.5/768 (funny how that suddenly makes a difference, innit?) and (2) I should think about either going to VDSL over U-Verse* or getting 20 meg ADSL for "only" an additional $30/month once my area's on an SLC unit. I've also been told, in their terms, "[their] servers are simply overloaded at the moment" and that "the situation should resolve itself later in the day". Yeah, uh huh.
For the most part it's consistently hovering around the full 7-and-1 for the last few months since we were cut over to the SLC, but there are periods when my download channel rate drops to less than 130Kb/s, specifically once a fiscal quarter. Strange how this "overload" seems to be concurrent with their mass mailing cycles, as the amount of junk mail I receive advertising the more expensive 20-meg access increases around the time my 7/1 starts flaking out.
So basically the phone company is deliberately choking my connection speed to make it appear slow so they can sell me a higher-bandwidth connection I'll probably never use to its potential, for money I haven't got. They're also doing a very sloppy job thereof. Apart from Web page components, the amount of downloading I do isn't enough to justify higher bandwidth and the associated increased cost every month. How about quitting playing these unethical (and possibly illegal) games and just giving me the god-damned access they're already dicking $25/month out of me for?
![url]](http://[url]http://www.speedtest.net/result/3171477697.png[/url])
