 d_lBarsoomPremium,MVM
join:2002-12-08
Reno, NV
kudos:7 | reply to Krellan
Re: [Speed Problem] Lost high frequencies over last few weeks Most of the causes of your problem lie beyond your control. My suggestions were aimed at those you can modify. Your wiring and connections may only add a little attenuation or add minimal amplification to the AM interference, but it is those small differences you have lost.
Probably most of the interference is injected into your line in your drop line, especially if it is older. Old drop lines are untwisted and may not be grounded and so tend to be the best antennas on the the entire loop if the IW has been replaced with CAT 5.
AM station strength depends on the time of day. Most stations have to power down or change their beam direction after sundown. So the AM interference should diminish at night until sunrise. I've tracked that very closely on my line. I found that I could maximize the maxrate simply by re-syncing after sundown and again after sunrise to allow the modem to re-train for the current AM station power levels. My line conditions aren't such that I HAVE to do this twice per day re-syncing, but it was something I could do if I ever needed the extra maxrate.
If a few ring attempts to the ring limit doesn't improve your attenuation, then ringing for a longer period probably wouldn't help. I've heard of phone techs putting even higher current on the line to burn oxidation, but that isn't something we can do.
If you can't fix this on your own, I'm not sure how much resources AT&T is willing to devote to a repair of this type of problem these days. You might need a pair swap and in some areas, the unused good pairs have been reserved for UVerse. Maybe it is only your drop line that is the problem. |
Krellan
join:2001-06-06
Castro Valley, CA | Thanks for the suggestions.
I turned off the ringers on all phones in the house, and called my landline from my cellphone, just letting it ring and ring until the limit was reached (around 5 minutes or so). Repeated this a few times.
Turned off and on the DSL modem, to let it resync. Did this before and after the ringing. This was all at night. Immediately after the DSL modem synced up, I checked the sync speeds.
Before = 5440
After = 5728
A little improvement, but that's better than nothing. No difference in attenuation that I could detect (the modem rounds all readings to the nearest 0.5dB, and this change was probably much smaller than that).
What you say about AM stations at night is true, but the big lower-frequency AM stations around here are all clear channel 50,000 watt blowtorches. They broadcast 24/7.
As for the little stations on the higher frequencies, it's true that they power down, but the spectrum remains just as noisy. AM radio stations travel farther at night. So, instead of hearing 1 local station on the frequency, I'll hear about 3 or 4 very distant stations, all talking on top of each other.
Is there any way I could convince the phone company to take a look at the wiring? Or, do they have a policy of not caring about DSL quality of service, other than "it works"? |
