Help from the Geek Squad

[Tabascocat]

I am in need of technical help for DirecTV and ATT DSL internet. This is for my mom who lives out in the country and those are her only options for cable/internet. I have been scrambling for about a year now trying to fix her problems.

A basic overview of what is going on:

Intermittent internet service and it sometimes completely stops working. I get that it might be slow at times being out here but that is not the complaint. It seems to be worse in the evenings and night but it is a problem throughout the day. I have tried three different routers/modems, called ATT a lot with several visits. Each time, they diagnose and say they can't find any problems. There is a major problem but it never rears its ugly head until they leave.

Now, this somehow ties into her DirecTV. She likes to rent/buy movies from On-Demand often and the majority of the time, she can't watch it live. She has to wait for it to download completely which can take several hours to do so. Every once in awhile, it works fine though. When it doesn't, she gets a "buffering" message and/or a message about internet connectivity.

I have hooked up my XBOX directly to the router and I can barely do anything due to connectivity and network issues. So, no Netflix, COD, Destiny, etc. If I am able to do anything, it doesn't last long.

My main question is.......what does internet connectivity have anything to do with renting movies from DirecTV??????? I thought those were two separate services.

When DTV comes out, they find no problems and say to call ATT. ATT comes out, finds no problems and says to call DTV. What gives??

Even though there is a problem with the internet, it should not interfere with her DTV right? I am going to replace lines and cables today to see if that helps.

 

[speedkilz88]

I believe Dtv uses the internet for the on demand stuff unless it's on a channel where they put the movie on a loop. Have you checked your internet speed?

 

[Tabascocat]

I believe Dtv uses the internet for the on demand stuff unless it's on a channel where they put the movie on a loop. Have you checked your internet speed?

Yea, they said no problems

 

[Kevinicus]

AT&T is awful.

I have directv, but will not use AT&T for my internet. Unfortunately, we have it at work and we have constant drop outs and slowdowns throughout the day.

 

[speedkilz88]

Yea, they said no problems

No really. You need to check your internet speed and know what you are suppose to be getting.

http://beta.speedtest.net/

 

[Tabascocat]

No really. You need to check your internet speed and know what you are suppose to be getting.

http://beta.speedtest.net/

I have for her a few times. Usually, it isn't what it is supposed to be. But, when ATT runs diagnostics checks, they see nothing wrong. The tech is coming out tomorrow and I am not letting him leave until it is fixed

I did change the lines and cables today and it is noticeably better. Mom rented one movie with zero issues then we decided to try a second one. It only stopped twice to buffer but then goes on to play instead of making us record and watch later.

So, there is some progress

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Assuming everything is filtered okay it's likely an upstream hardware issue with a repeater or multiplexer not being able to handle the bandwidth at peak loads. AT&T is notorious for this type of thing from their Southwestern Bell days.

Those are expensive to repair or upgrade and they have a captive audience in your mother. I was in that situation for quite some time until fiber was installed in my area and they kept on blaming my router. 3 years later and using the same router getting a steady 11 Mb/s.

 

[rynochop]

Had the same problem with Internet, ATT tech came out, it was the friggin power cord on the modem

 

[Tabascocat]

We figured it out. The phone lines were crossed in the house and there was major packet loss. I don't know much about electrical work but the ATT technician ripped them out and re-did them

 

[CyberB0b]

We figured it out. The phone lines were crossed in the house and there was major packet loss. I don't know much about electrical work but the ATT technician ripped them out and re-did them

They should have been able to see that during diagnostics to the modem.

 

[Tabascocat]

They should have been able to see that during diagnostics to the modem.

They probably did but instead told my mom to buy a new one from them first.......twice! It took a lot of complaining from me to get her help. We got lucky to get a technician come out who had a feeling of what the problem was.

 

[TheBigEasy]

Glad that it's fixed. Now that it is, call AT&T, for your Grandma, and explain the ORDEAL that they put you through. Since the problem should have been caught upon the initial visit, demand reimbursement for the time spent suffering since the first tech came out. They 'should' make things right from a money standpoint.