A few weeks ago I switched from a local provider DSL to AT&T DSL.  I thought service would be better and it was cheaper for a little while.  Right from the get go I've had problems.  First I could not hook up, the modem would never connect.  After a week they got off their ass and figured it out.  Then I was getting disconnected, someone came out and they found out my switching station had some problems.  Then it still didn't work right.  So they made appointment to come out and look at it.  They were suppose to come inside, but of course never called me to let me know they were on the way.  One guy did call, after he was already at my house and after the checked the outside connection.  Sorry AT&T I can't sit on my butt all day and wait for you to come over.  I work too.  I think you need to work on your scheduling to be able to narrow the time down when someone will be over.  An hour window is good. 

Anyway, since Monday it seems my connection really slows down between 8:00 and 10:00 pm.  No idea why.  I can chat and ping places fine.  When I try to go to a web page it dies.  Not sure if something is blocking http traffic of what. So I called AT&T tech support.  What a joke.  After I run though the damn voice prompts I get to a human.  Outsourced to a foreign country of course.  The first few times I called I always got American operators, I must have make the shit-list and get shunted to the cheaper tech support.  The person runs down their list of things they need to do.  Turn of the modem, restart, jump on one foot, whatever.  I understand some people may be idiots when it comes to this stuff.  But come on I try all of that BEFORE I call.  Calling tech support is a last resort.  And no matter how many times you tell them you tried this already it does not matter, they need to go through their list.  And I had one guy get angry with me when I told him I didn't want to jump through his hoops. 

Now on to the lying part.  I have my modem and router downstairs.  My computer is upstairs.  When they tell me to reset the modem and turn it off, and turn off my router and my computer, I just lie.  "Ya I did that, now what"...You have to.  Granted a lot of the times doing so will fix the problem.  But after I tried it 100 times before calling I don't think one more will magically make it work.  Why does tech support seem stupider than me?  Well a line technician is supposed to call today.  They won't and I'll have to go through everything again.  Too bad cable modems are sooo expensive if you don't get cable.