Skybeam’s star keeps dimming…

I got a call this evening from one of the network support folks at my ISP, Skybeam, who’s looking into the problem that’s affecting a number of us in the local area—our downlink speed has plunged. I pay for 5 Mbps up and 2 Mbps down. I’m getting about the reverse of that, though it’s really only somewhat above 1.5 Mbps down. The uplink speed has been as much as 6 Mbps. Totally backward. Anyway, a network tech, a guy named Jake who was friendly and apologetic, had me try some experiments involving using a fixed IP instead of the normal DHCP. Unfortunately, they didn’t work. Jake expressed puzzlement and promised to continue to investigate. Now Jake seems like a great guy, but I still wonder if Skybeam’s network has grown so quickly it’s getting to the point where no single person really understands it. They serve rural customers and have absorbed a number of mom-and-pop ISPs. Speaking of which, I’m starting to have conversations with a local mom-and-pop ISP about whether they can extend their network down our way so I’ll have an alternative to Skybeam. It’s now been close to 3 weeks since I started having this issue, and they still can’t figure it out…sad and frustrating! In fact, I have a comment pending to one of my ham radio videos, but can’t watch my own video to see if I can duplicate the problem! Grumble…