CenturyLink → DROPS : It'sThunderstorm season again

I have been through this for several years with Qwest/CenturyLink, today I got fed up again and called tech support. It takes 5 minutes during a good thunderstorm for my connection to drop. I know many have had this issue in the past here. During the winter months, no lightning, my service is great. At any rate they now inform me its my outdated modem, i use a cisco 678 bridged, before that i used an actiontec gt 701 and also had drops during storms. I'm going to give their modem a try and see if it clears up the problem. if it doesn't i'm going to cancel and go to mediacom. at least they can keep a connection during storms. If anyone else has these issues, speak up as Id love to hear any solutions, but after 5-6 years i'm about to give up. if i could get things to stay up and stable during thunderstorms, i'd be thrilled with the service. But i'm about done paying for service that doesn't work when there are storms.

Maybe a battery backup (APC) would help. A computer power supply will take more abuse than the wall warts used for modems/routers.

Many years ago in New Jersey I had a very sensitive ac volt meter in my ham radio station. You would not believe the dips and spikes during a thunder storm. I could tell a storm was coming even before I could hear the thunder. I had seen spikes almost to 200 volts on half (120 volt) of a 240 volt feed.

i have a UPS on all machines, this is just the dsl connection that drops. and it only does it when there are storms, otherwise rock solid. thanks for your input! I really hope the new modem they supply will work, id be thrilled, but i don't think it will

yup, i used to have verizon dsl and mediacrap at same time. while mediacom have improved the verizon was still a touchy signal. Doesn't like moisture at all and my line to the box in alley was loose, tech tightened and was good for 6 more months. dropped the dsl i thine in 08. can't remember, as old as bossy. hehe

Are you in a city or the boonies ? Does rain change anything ?

You could be getting spikes on the telephone cable and a new modem may have better protection.

Let us know if the new modem helps. I do have some "old school" ideas
about lightning from telephone work in the 1960's.

city, rain doesn't hurt a thing only when the lightning flashes across the sky is where the issues start, electricity and copper wire

Telephone cable is like a big antenna, lightning, cb and ham operators. The wiring outside some old apartments in New York City were a big rats nest which caused all kinds of problems.

Same thing here. I called CL and they are getting me a different modem hopefully this will help.

thought yours got fixed last year with "interleaving"? i can tell you that ill be surprised if this new modem works anywhere nearly as well as the cisco 678. i have 3 of them all set up and have never needed the spares, they just keep going and going, but if the modem fixes the issues ill be more then happy to report the positive results here.

I turned interleaving back off because it was winter and it ran STABLE once the thunderstorms came it made the modem reboot and reboot and reboot.

i got the new modem today a zytel PK5001z I honestly find it hard to believe that this is going to fix the storms issue OR be more reliable then the cisco 678s i have been using for years, but well give it a go next storm and see. from the reviews i have read the zytel isnt exactly a great modem. anyone use this ?

I got the C1000a ordered. will be here tomorrow

Where are you located again Boss? I seem to think I remember NC where I'm located at. We've got a place in Corolla with CTL service and I've never had any problems with it. I like to give CTL shite though cause they're such a greedy, money hungry company.

Southeast Iowa I don't think this zytel is going to change a thing but next time it storms ill find out

I got the modem hooked up and online. No change in speed we will see when it thunderstorms.

Centurylink tech gave me one of those in case I wanted to try it instead of my old 660 modem but I've not used it. I searched for info on the PK5001z and saw bad reviews on it due to a lot of folks experiencing disconnects every 30 minutes or so. Then saw that there was a firmware update that I believe happened towards the end of 2012 and a number of people felt the firmware update fixed the disconnect problem. Probably a good idea to compare your current firmware to the newest version on Zytel's site.

Im in the same boat i read those reviews too and ill wait till i cant get my cisco to stay online then ill update the firmware and give it a go. thanks!

I seriously doubt the new modem will fix it. My first thought is to check out the grounding on the phone box on your outside wall. There should be a 10 or 12 ga wire coming out of it that is somehow bonded to a ground such as a metal water or gas line.

I'd take apart the connections, clean the surfaces that touch with an abrasive, apply some anti corrosion junk from an auto parts store & connect it all back up.

My personal preference is to drive a stout piece of rebar into the ground & connect the ground to that.

thanks ill give that a try!

Works well! Lightning really bad modem working great.