Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? in Qwest http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22640083 en Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:37:36 EDT Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:37:36 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22645611 dbdbdb : Well, darn it, disconnecting/retraining again.

Strange thing is that when it does it, I pick up the phone and it reads 'line in use.' The tone sounds like someone in on line, and then a high-pitched beeping noise starts coming through.

I contacted the technician, and he said that the alarm is probably hooked up to the house still, despite him taking it out at the NID. Sigh. He'll call me back--but damn it, I thought it was fixed!

edit: tech came back, a really nice guy. Said he'd left one wire unclipped because he wasn't sure if it belonged to the alarm. Clipped, dsl and phone still left, we checked for dial tone and again, he told me to call him back if we still experienced trouble. He's 'sure' it's the old alarm system malfunctioning and going haywire, trying to dial the company.

Hope it works this time, getting disconnected every hour is annoying!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22645611 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:55:50 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22644863 dbdbdb : Update:

A technician came by earlier this morning. He'd checked the lines and told me that, while he was here to find and remove a bridge tap, he couldn't find one, and thus, came down to the house to see if there was anything he could locate here.

I told him about my suspicions about the old alarm system--he agreed and said that it sounded like that was the problem. So he unlocked the NID, and plugged in his phone-machine thing (haha, no idea what it's called) and immediately, there came a sound like someone was dialing numbers. Lots of them.

"If someone else in your home dialing a number right now?"

"No sir, I'm the only one in."

So he spent about ten minutes afterwards disconnecting the alarm from the NID. Then he plugged in his machine again--no dialtone, just static, which he told me was normal from his machine. (my phone, when we checked, sounded crystal clear with no fuzz).

So he cleaned everything up, I thanked him, and he left while leaving me his personal card in case anything acted up (we joked a bit about going through customer service). I'm satisfied, and hope, really hope, that this fixes the problem.

It's been a hour and a half with no disconnects. I'm feeling hopeful, but those far end FEC errors are piling up, and the far end CRC errors are cropping up as well. Crossing my fingers.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22644863 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:31:04 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22644180 travelguy :
said by dbdbdb See Profile :

Maybe I should ask the tech--if he even comes by, which he never did this afternoon--to take the alarm off the lines?
If you aren't using a monitoring service, yes, that would be a good idea and easily done at the demarc.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22644180 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:21:55 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22643214 dbdbdb : Sorry if my post resulted in any confusion.

I was thinking that my alarm was at fault because I can't filter it--can't find the line at all--it leads somewhere into the garage through the wall, and disappears until it reappears at the NID. As for the power source, I haven't been able to hunt it down as well. It's nowhere to be seen, and may be in the attic, which we can't access as there's a ton of stuff piled in the garage, under the hatch.

However, this afternoon a technician examined the outside lines and referred the problem to the 'cable' techs to handle on 7/2. He noted on his ticket, or so I was informed by the helpful support person on livechat, that it was a bridge tap that would need to be removed. I'm hoping that whoever is due to come--scheduled, I believe, at 1~5PM--will be able to remove the bridge tap and fix the connection.

I'm kinda wary about trying to dislodge the alarm system, as it hasn't been bothering the connection for the last two years. It isn't filtered, but, due to my ignorance, I never filtered my phones until the problems started--even so, my connection was good enough for some hardcore XBL gaming for two years.

However, would a technician be able to disconnect the alarm's phone lines from the NID? I heard of it being done manually, but when I opened up the customer side of the NID, I couldn't make heads or tails out of the thing and left it well alone. Maybe I should ask the tech--if he even comes by, which he never did this afternoon--to take the alarm off the lines?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22643214 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:18:04 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22643195 colorbars : There seem to be some inconsistent statements here. First you said that every phone line is filtered except for the modem. Then you said that you can't figure out how to disconnect the alarm. In order to filter the alarm, you'd have to insert the filter into the alarm phone line. If you could find that line to add the filter, you'd be able to just remove it from the phone network so I'm guessing it isn't filtered. That's one problem. Another goes along with what another poster said. Alarms are first in line so they can call for help. Since you're saying that it's nearly hourly that you have trouble and there are orange (probably trouble) lights on, I'll bet the alarm system is in an alarm condition and it trying to call someone. If the call fails the system will probably wait some period of time (an hour seems reasonable if this has been going on for a while) and then try again. Do you have dialtone service?

What I'd do would be to find a regular phone and hook it up without a filter near where your modem setup is, but not through the modem itself. Leave it off hook and listen to the modem data noise. (This will probably result in some degradation of data speed for the time being. Don't worry about that.) When the modem freaks out, see whether the sound changes any.

You'll probably also want to figure out how to disconnect power from the alarm system. Be careful with 120V house current of course, and you'll also probably have to disconnect the battery backup. I think it might be the backup that's causing the beeping and the alarm condition. Backup batteries like that don't last more than 5 years on the outside and need to be replaced.

Let us know if that helps.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22643195 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:09:07 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640871 travelguy : You do not want to cut the wires at the panel. Most security systems are wired to bring the telco line from the demarc to the panel, back to the demarc and then to the rest of the house. This is to allow the panel to seize the line if there is an emergency and dump any in progress phone calls.

The right way to check this is to unplug the entire house at the demarc and then plug your DSL modem directly into the demarc. If that solves your problem, then you know it's either the alarm panel or something further inside the house. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640871 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:56:11 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640818 dbdbdb : Problem is that I have no idea how I'd go on about doing that, haha. I've been looking it up online, but most of them advise you to 'pull the plug'--but I can't find the plug. I opened the control panel, and I see four wires--red, green, black, and yellow--but I didn't want to snip them or anything, just in case. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640818 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:45:14 EDT Re: Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640744 demoniacs : Wont hurt to try.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640744 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:29:36 EDT Is the old alarm system messing up Qwest DSL? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640083 dbdbdb : Hello, I've been experiencing nearly hourly disconnects--where the internet light on the modem goes out, and the DSL light starts blinking--and when that happens, my SNR margin downstream also hits the 2-billion mark, which I'm told is actually the firmware bugging out and incorrectly displaying a negative number.

Anyways, I'm at my wit's end trying to fix my connection. I've had Qwest for two years now without trouble, until two weeks ago. I'm wonder if the old security system in the house--from a previous owner--is to blame. It's been beeping sometimes, and all the orange lights are on. Should I cut the system, disconnect it, and do you think it'll help?

As an aside, I've tried most other solutions. Every phone line except for the modem is filtered. My connection--when it doesn't drop and retrain--is good. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22640083 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:23:05 EDT