Do the ISP's

[wrag]

train their people to be deliberately obtuse?

I just went through about 3 hours of trying to get AT&T to check a specific server.

Got disconnected once. Got line tested, and got connection tested twice, and then had to explain for like the 10th time I KNEW my line was OK and I knew my connection was OK!

I was calling about a specific IP address within the hops from me to HTC that was DROPPING packets and having ERRORS.

The packet loss will sometimes exceed 50%.

And in one attempt to connect that specific server failed to connect and was giving 100% packet loss for OVER a second!

Finally got to a tier 2 tech and then had to explain it all over AGAIN!

Been complaining about this router for OVER A YEAR!

Got them to admit on 2 occasions something was wrong and they were going to fix it and it would take them 3 days and 3 days later ?????????????

It's my connect to the BLUE arena IP = 206.16.60.41

The hop is ......

IP = 63.201.16.133

DNSNAME = dist1-vlan60.renonv.sbcglobal.net

Now the other 2 connects have started acting up??????  The .38  and .39.

Hmmm wondering of part of the problem is the modem we have?  Got 3 computers hooked to it?

[eagl]

It took almost a year for me to get a hop fixed, but that was probably 10 years ago and I think I had help from iENT tech support.

[SD67]

These days when I call my ISP they usually get a level 3 to call me back
There must be a little note on their system that says *Don't to blow smoke up this guy's butt

[hyster]

1st line support people have little idea what there doing and read from a script.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Ping is not on high level in load priority so trace doesn't always tell the whole truth.

[Denholm]

AT&T, regardless if they admit there's a problem, will tell you or consider the problem to be on your end. So things rarely get fixed.

If the modem you have is a 2-Wire, it shouldn't be the problem. I have two computers hooked into it via a CAT-5 and one over a wireless connection.

[llama]

I've had pretty good luck with the forums on DSLREPORTS.com. The ISPs usually have a tech or two that monitors the forums and is empowered to help.

About 6 years ago, I was using PacBell (now AT&T) and was losing DSL connectivity for 3 minutes every night at 11:44pm. Deep down, I knew that some sort of automated line test was going on, but I couldn't get any of the techs on the tech support line to do anything. I complained on the PacBell dslreports forum, and a tech took it as a personal challenge to discover the problem. He had people monitoring things through 3 nights of 3 minute outages, and then the problem went away. They never copped to anything. I was prepared to make a stink as a member of the tech press, but I was happy I never had to resort to it.

These days, I use a small ISP where the tech support number is a "hello line." If I have a problem (and its only happened twice in 4 years), I call the number and a tech says "Hello?" No nonsense. They are Sonic.net, and if they service your area, I strongly recommend them.

Anyway, to answer your original question, check out the forums on dslreports.com and see if there's a tech you can get interested in helping you.

-Llama

[715]

My interpretation is that servers can ignore ping requests if they don't want to waste time on them.  The only important factor is if you get lost packets from the HT servers, not anything inbetween on the PingPlotter or TraceRoute list.  That server might just be forwarding your ping requests down the line but not bothering to respond when it is the destination.  In other words, just because an intermediate hop server does not wish to respond doesn't mean packets are being lost there when AH is the destination.

Is this interpretation wrong?

The answer to your first question is "Yes".  The training for most customer service agents these days is mostly directed at getting rid of you as fast as possible, not solving, or even caring about, your problem.  Your problem is not their problem; YOU are their problem and they aim to fix that as quick as possible. 

[Easyscor]

These days, I use a small ISP where the tech support number is a "hello line." If I have a problem (and its only happened twice in 4 years), I call the number and a tech says "Hello?" No nonsense. They are Sonic.net, and if they service your area, I strongly recommend them.
-Llama

I can confirm that, better service then htc, they answer phones on weekends and nights. 
I just wish their second year contracts didn't bump you up to the "industry standard" pricing structure, set of course by AT&T.

Much as I loved them, I switched to DSLExtreme with service comprable to at&t, but with second year contracts at a reasonable price. Even second year month to month rates are $22.99 US for the second level transfer rates. Both Sonic and DSLExtreme include web space, none of that Yahoo Home Page nonsense. Sheesh, this reads like a commercial. I'm not affiliated, and your milage may vary.

[Ghosth]

I had a problem with qwest on their DSL at one point. All of a sudden went from 50's ping to over 200 and 25 - 50% packet loss.

Called every day for a week, and was getting no where. So I start calling and right off the bat asking for their supervisor.
Then when I got him explained, and he tried to get me to go into my settings, I'd ask for his supervisor.
After about 2 hours of this I finally got a VP in Colorado who actually knew his stuff.  He jumped into my machine from his end, ran a trace, found the same bad hop I'd been telling them about. And inside a minute told me there was a bad card in a qwest machine that was screwing things up. 2 hours later it was fixed.