Recommended Tests

Greetings!

I'm new here, so please be gentle.  ;)

I've been browsing this site for a few months now, as well as several others with the hopes of finding some REAL answers to a transient and random speed issue with VOL that I have been trying to troubleshoot now for months. I'm pretty sure I've nailed it down to a bad line, (Verizon's), but their Tech Support hasn't been able to fix it thus far, or more accurately, hasn't wanted to....their lines in this area are over 55 years old, on poles and run through countless yards, trees, bushes, under electrical transformers and who knows what else! I've been through several rounds of the usual "tech runaround", ie: power cycling, rebooting, filters, cables, spyware, viri, settings, modem, processor herpes, memory castration, hard drive angina, bios blue balls, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, all with the same result...NONE! Most of the Techs have been cordial but rather impotent in the knowledge department. Convinced that my machine is adequate, I finally took the time to go out to the side of my house where Verizon's line connects to the Demarc Box, (NID), disconnect ALL inside phone devices so that the ONLY things connected to Verizon's line were my modem, (Westell 2110), and my laptop. Substandard speeds persisted and VOL's line test failed as usual. I've had the 3.0Mbps / 768Kbps service since Dec. / '04 and have occasionally reached 2.8Mb/s at rare times but 2.3 to 2.6Mb/s are more common. When my speeds are in the toilet, they're comparable to dial-up. At 9,312 feet from Verizon's CO, I would be pretty content at around 2.6 to 2.7Mb/s IF it stayed fairly consistant but it doesn't. Anyway, my next step is to try to get Verizon Telco, (who actually owns the lines), to do a COMPLETE visual and quality test between here and the CO. THAT should be fun...like having your teeth drilled without Novocaine!!! To be continued........ 

Anyway, that was just a bit of info to explain my reason for finding this site in the first place and to preface the question that I actually intended to ask.... that being....the TestMy download test, (SmarTest), states that the "AVERAGE'' for Verizon.net is currently around 4,162Kbps and that seems to keep rising since several months ago. That "AVERAGE" shames the HELL out of even my BEST speeds. Why does it keep rising and why is that "AVERAGE" so much higher than Verizon's "ADVERTISED" Max of 3.0Mb/s? Is there a new, "Faster" package factored in that I'm not aware of???

Any and all intelligent and informed response is appreciated....Sincere Thanks!

Aggr3:

Thanks very much for the warm welcome and your timely reply! I can tell already I'm gonna like it here! Your answer cleared things up PERFECTLY! I am left to wonder though, just how many others who use the SpeedTest may also be confused by the "Average" for Verizon being up so high. I realize that copper and fiber are still BOTH DSL and BOTH technically PHONE lines but the two are distinctly different technologies with obviously superior speeds possible with Fios. Maybe something as simple as putting a line or a different color on the SpeedTest bar graph where copper DSL ends and Fios begins??? That way people on copper lines as I am won't be so depressed Food for thought....maybe I'll submit that as a "suggestion". Anyway, thanks again! Oh yeah....if you have any advice about the BEST and least painful way for me to twist Verizon's arm into doing a COMPLETE line quality test between my location and the CO, I would be most grateful!