Too Much power on cable line....???

[TheWobble]

I started getting bad performance on my cable connection today.  It was like it would go REALLY slow for 10 sec and then BOOM it would go really fast for 2 or 3 then back to slow, i did this for about an hour, so I called my isp.  They did some kinda moniter on me, and said hat there was a router prob in college station.  Then he told me something like there is too much power on my line, like too much voltage or something....???  
Anyone know anything about this?

[Eagler]

Sounds like a cable line problem, possibly with signal levels. You may have an amp going out or changing level, they should be stable with the AGC circuits in them. This time of year in FL is problematic as the temperature swings, up to 40 degrees some days, can cause havoc with electronics and attenuation levels of the cable plant. If an amp goes squirrelly your signal to noise ratio can get to a point where the modem has trouble communicating. How was your reception on your television during the times you had connection problems? It may not show up on the tv set, but if it does it would point to a cable plant problem. Who is your cable provider? Time Warner here. They keep it pretty tight as they are also debuting their new VOD (video on demand) service. Digital movies that start when you select them, then you control with VCR type control, ie pause, fast forward, rewind, etc for a three hour period. This requires a cleaner system than most for the digital stream to communicate from the QUAM servers out to the Scientific Atlanta set top boxes.

Eagler

[Gman]

HEh, wobble, I had ten months of cable trouble, and switched to DSL.  When we moved, DSL wasn't available in my new area, so I went back to @home.  I experienced the exact same problems (again) as you described.

Finally, the fifth tech to come out rectified the problem with a 2$ 10 ohm filter on my cable line right before the jack on the modem.  I get 3500kps down and 1200 kps up now consistently on test, and my ping tests to WWW went from 35, 1005, 55, 505, to 15,15,16,15 overnight.  Try one of those filters, you can grab em at Radio Shack I'm sure.

[sling322]

 

Originally posted by TheWobble:
a router prob in college station.

I know this is off-topic, but where do you live Wobble?  If your hops are going through college station....is that college station, TX?

[Eagler]

 

Originally posted by Gman:
HEh, wobble, I had ten months of cable trouble, and switched to DSL.  When we moved, DSL wasn't available in my new area, so I went back to @home.  I experienced the exact same problems (again) as you described.

Finally, the fifth tech to come out rectified the problem with a 2$ 10 ohm filter on my cable line right before the jack on the modem.  I get 3500kps down and 1200 kps up now consistently on test, and my ping tests to WWW went from 35, 1005, 55, 505, to 15,15,16,15 overnight.  Try one of those filters, you can grab em at Radio Shack I'm sure.

You mean an attenuator? 10db pad or attenuator would lower the signal and would correct his problem if his signal was border line too high, see my above post. You can overload the front end of a cable modem, more isn't always better. Before I went back to Time Warner as a programmer, I had 15 years previous experience as a "cable guy." Tampa Bay Division (west Central Florida)is now the largest digital system in the US. We are installing modems and the Pegasus digital set tops like crazy. Cable modems, when working correctly, are your best bang for the buck. Wobble, if your level drops or performance becomes erratic, you may need to remove the pad.

Eagler

[TheWobble]

SLing,
Yea thats college station TX
I live in Victoria.

COX came out today and fixed the prob, thanks for input..

[Mayhem]

Theres a few problems you may have. You could be using the wrong type of cable (polly core is bad with hot weather and copper sheild sucks). You could also be getting feedback from a device in your houses cable system (TV, cablebox, VCR) Ive seen this send so much power into the system that it set off my line Toner. another problem is you're houses cable my not be grounded at the point of entry you can either put in a ground block (best) or ground the first splitter. You could have a leaky line (polly core and copper core are infamous for this) either due to the wrong type of cable, wrong size (use rg56 not rg59 59 is smaller), or you have a bad line (frayed broken or wet). It could also be a singnal problem you have three freqs to wory about you low high and return. all of what i mentioned above can effect this. the more splitters and couplers you have in a line cuases your return path value to get greater, reguardless of how much signal you have if your return path value is to high or to low or on the border of to high and low Your service can get flacky. You could have a broken port at the tap even if its not your port it will cuase signal leakage specially if the tap gets water in it. You could have squarel chew in the line. or water in it if its underground. This is all assuming its your cable. it could also be that you have a flacky modem or problem with your nic cat5 cable or your protocol stacks. Normally what i do is hook up another computer (typically a laptop) and see if I have the same problem IF I don't Its your computer. If I do I change out the cat5 cable and try again. IF I still do then I start looking at your modem and cable system. without the tools (RF cable meter line toner the knowledge of your cable companies freqs and channel map) Your gunna have a hell of a time troubleshooting the cable end of it. So first rule out the computer and it's networking componants (god i hope you don't have a Cheap or USB nic) If its not on your end call your cable company.

------------------
Mayhem 33rd S.G.
"Destination anywhere, so far gone, I'm already there!"

[Mayhem]

Oh ad yes it could be the routers specially if there using non Docsis gear (Liek motorola) or they just did a docsis upgrade. It could also be something as simple as internet trafic or high node activaty. Iam used to Comcast and AT&T @home (and AT&T roadrunner) on the west coast.