Failing cable connection!!!!Arrgh

[sparkyboy]

Hi guys,
Sorry to disturb you on this beautiful sunday afternoon,but I have a problem with the cable internet connection and thought I'd ask you knowledgable guys what you think is the cause of the problem.

We have a 10mbps (or roughly :D ) connection, that 1 week ago was allowing me to download at around 800 to 900K per second.I have noticed since, that it has progressively got worse, and even disconnects itself completely for up to 5 mins at a time!!!!! :mad:

The worst rate of download I had the other day was a measly 60 KPS!!!!! :eek:

I recently connected 2 computers so they can both access the internet, and the router is capable of up to 54Mbps.
Just to check it wasn't the router, I disconnected it and accessed the internet........exactly the same problem!
So guys, is it the cable modem that could be faultering?, or on the cable company's side of things?

Thankyou all very much for any insight!! :)


All the best


Mark.

[soniCron]

I recently connected 2 computers so they can both access the internet, and the router is capable of up to 54Mbps.
Just to check it wasn't the router, I disconnected it and accessed the internet........exactly the same problem!
So guys, is it the cable modem that could be faultering?, or on the cable company's side of things? I've been having similar problems for several months now. The cable company insists there's nothing they can do about it and the connection is fine. I think they may be right. I suspect it's the modem, because sometimes the problem can be fixed by plugging it in to a different electrical outlet. On the other hand, a lot of the time that doesn't work either. I've since found the best way to get it working again is to unplug the coaxial cable while the modem is on, let the connection get dropped (the "Cable" light goes out), and plug the cable back in. After several seconds, the "Cable" light comes back on, blinking wildly, and after several reboots and wildly blinking lights, it'll stick up and be ready to go for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, only resetting the modem over and over doesn't seem to work.

I too would be interested if anyone has better insight. I'm going to try to get a new modem in the future when money and time permit, but in the meantime, I just make do with what I can.

[sparkyboy]

Cheers sonicron, guess we are in the same boat huh? :D
As sonicron said, anyone else had this problem and cured it?


Thanks again


Mark.

[TamLin]

I had a similar problem after I moved to my current apartment (within a house). I kept losing my connection, usually for only a minute, but sometimes much longer. The first technician didn't know what the problem was, so he upgraded my modem. That made the problem much worse, apparently because the newer modems are more sensitive to a weak signal. The second technician was much more helpful; he noticed that my signal was weak, and that I was sharing a cable box with the other residents of the house. He gave me my own cable box and replaced all the cabling. Since then, I haven't experienced the disconnections and my download speed has improved.

[Ricardo C]

I had a similar problem when I first got a cable connection. Low speeds (barely better than my dial-up connection), sometimes the connection would just die while the modem stayed on, etc. Sadly, my ISP was incredibly negligent about fixing the issue, so I solved it the hard way: I got a DSL account from another ISP, and voilÃ* ;)

[Didier]

Disable your modem power for 2 minutes or so.

Then, plug it back in and speed should be okay.
Most modern modems/routers have problems with this when they are connected 24/7.

Must be something with the electronics :mad:

Didier

[Abscissa]

I had a nearly identical problem just recently (connections getting progressively worse and worse - first slower speeds, then longer and more frequent disconnects), and I had the cable company send someone out. Turns out squirrels had been chewing through the wire bringing the cable connection into the house. It wasn't bad enough to noticably affect TV-viewing, but it wreaked havoc on the internet connection. The guy that came out said it was actually a surprisingly common problem (at least in our area - we have a lot of trees and squirrels), so you might want to look into that.

Sometimes the simplest problems are the hardest to figure out. ;)

[Mark Fassett]

We recently had an issue with disconnects, and it turned out there was alot of extra noise on the line. The cable company came out and installed a filter, and it was taken care of. They told me that the number of times the line is split can cause noise problems, as well as things like console games (PS2, XBox), hair dryers from the guy next door, etc...

[Pyabo]

Yup. Had similar problem with DSL. Sounds like you need new wiring. I ended up running a new set of CAT 5 wiring for my first DSL line, because the original phone wiring in my house was horrid... barely faster than dial-up speed, and I would get disconnected if anyone picked up a phone.

There is another possibility though... I seem to recall that cable modem users share bandwidth with all nearby users? At least, this was the case when cable modems first started hitting the street. It's possible you've got some new customers in your area that are chewing up bandwidth.

[Cartman]

I had similar problems about six months ago. It turned out that it was the "sharkfin" 3com modem I had. Comcast had upgraded its hardware and didn't bother to replace old modems that were having trouble, unless the person called and complained. As soon as I told the tech on the phone my model, they knew immediately what the problem was and sent out a free replacement ASAP. I've had only a couple of small outages on my modem ever since the new modem was put in. I'm a satisfied customer again.

[Frozen In Ice]

Went through this experience recently with my cable connection. They swapped the modems, and the problem still existed. It would go offline for hours at a time. They finally went to the roof (I'm in an apartment building that was recently rewired a few years ago), and hooked up their testing meters. The tech tapped around the equipment till the meter jumped around. It seems they had to replace some splitter type equipment that was feeding different blocks of apartments. They sent in a request to the company that the equipment up on the roof needed replacing. Since then, I haven't had any problems and my transfer speeds are at a steady rate. If you're in a house, check your indoor splitter too. According to the tech, it had something to do with the signal and after it reached a certain level, the modem would just go offline.
Hopefully this made sense as my eyeballs are at half mast :)