Why Does my Internet Keep Going Out?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

TWD39

Honorable
Jun 26, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hi guys,

I have been dealing with an internet problem that I've never seen before and hopefully someone here can offer some suggestions.

I have a 16 meg broadband connection through a cable company. Last Thursday, I was surfing the net when my connection dropped to sub-dialup speeds. I couldn't even bring up google. I tried restarting the cable modem and router and it came back. The next morning, it was practically dead again. Then it came back. The signal has been widely intermittent every since Thursday.

My ISP informed me that they did do a system upgrade over the weekend and it was possibly the cause of my problem since the upgrade was designed for their brand of modem, not mine. Ok whatever, I waited another day for a technician to come out and install a new cable modem. My internet connection was restored with good speed, and I was relieved.

After about an hour, my youtube video stopped playing. No, you gotta be kidding me. Dammit. The signal was gone again. Even more strange, if I unscrew the cable line from the back of the modem and plug it back in, my internet is back full strength for about an hour.

The only other culprit I could think of was my wireless router. So last night, I plugged the Ethernet cable directly from my cable modem to my computer. I had full strength internet and went to bed. This morning, no signal again.

I'm going to call the tech again, but I'm worried that there is nothing they can do at this point. If it is a line issue outside my house, why does this signal come back when I unscrew and screw the line back in? It's not the router, and I'm now using a brand new cable modem.

Am I totally screwed here? lol
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
L

liquidsnaske

Honorable
Jun 26, 2013
55
0
10,660
hi TWD39,

It sounds like the problem is with the service provider and not your personal equipment. Unfortunately the only thing you can do to solve that is to keep ringing them every time it happens until they find the solution.

What happens with the internet connection is the Dslam (which sits in a box on the street somewhere) increases the connection speed to your house slowly. As the speed increases the likelihood of getting errors in the line also increases until the connection is to full of errors and is unusable. At this point the Dslam should then decrease the speed to find the stable point.

Resetting the router will only confuse the Dslam and set your speed to slow again to reduce the errors, so it's inadvisable to do it. Try keeping your router on for about 24 to 48 hours and see if that helps. Also check the routers configuration page for any indication of the signal to error rate on the line and let the provider know what it is when you call them up. A quick google will also confirm if it's strangely high.

HTH
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Spiritos

Spiritos

Distinguished
Jun 19, 2013
174
0
18,710
Long stretch: If you're connection (ISRA point) is more than 4,5 km from the main 'internet-house' the signal could get throttled and the ISP should manually lower your maximum connection. It's like a ball going from one end of the line to the other then back, but when the physical distance of the line approaches 5 km the ball won't make it to the end and another is 'launched' causing blockage.

This at least was what happened in my situation. But like I say, it's a stretch.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Beachnative

Beachnative

Honorable
Jan 25, 2013
545
0
11,060


He said " I have a 16 meg broadband connection through a cable company"......

A DSLAM is used by the phone company not a cable provider for DSL...where I'm at that's the case.....In Brevard County Florida, BrightHouse is our cable provider and there are no DSLAM's only neighnorhood nodes where fiber is pulled to a distribution point to which coax is run to each home.

There are cases where a DSLAM will go down such as during a lightning storm especially if it's nearby. Since the wires are untwisted it will induce EMI and screw up the signal. I worked for a Wireless ISP that everytime we had a bad thunderstorm we would get DSL customers that were sick of losing the internet that way. Also if DSLAM is near railroad tracks and there's a lightning strike is near, a strike can travel down the tracks to disrupt service.

Back to topic, remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease!!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom