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MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

1 edit

MineCoast

Premium Member

UPDATE: It's not a voltage issue afterall...

See new post below for update

Hey,

I've been having ongoing signal/packet loss/speed issues for 6+ months. In the past week, my connection has taken a nosedive and we've had at least 4 different techs out, including field supervisors spending hours on location. Today, I was told that our cable line has voltage on it but they don't know where it's coming from and that there is nothing they can do. All they've told me is that it's somewhere inside the house.

I'm not really sure what to do from here?

CoxTech1
join:2002-04-25
Chesapeake, VA

CoxTech1

Member

Re: Excess Voltage Issue

It's actually sounding like it's time for an electrician to come out and take a look. They would be in the best position to troubleshoot anything related to electrical.

billaustin
they call me Mr. Bill
MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV

billaustin to MineCoast

MVM

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Have you checked your grounds? The main electrical panel should be connected to a ground rod outside. The cable line, telephone line, gas line, and water line should all have ground connections bonded to this point. Check for loose connections and corrosion. You may need to have an electrician check your panel for proper neutral and ground connections.

Do you have an amp somewhere on the line?
Do you have a power inserter for an amp attached to the line somewhere?

Are you using any three-to-two prong adapters to connect grounded devices to ungrounded outlets?

Check all the outlets with an electrical tester to see if they are wired correctly.

If you still have voltage on the cable after checking the above, you will have to go through the house from end to end removing every device attached to the cable line until you find the offender.

MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

MineCoast

Premium Member

Thanks for your reply. We don't have any amps installed anywhere.

The house was built 60+ years ago and has never been updated/remodeled so most of the older plugs in the house are only two prongs, and some are three prong outlets but I don't think they are actually grounded since the house wasn't wired for ground and only two prongs. I ran over to Ace Hardware during my lunch hour and picked up an outlet tester as well as a voltage meter so I can do a little troubleshooting tonight.

We aren't using those three-to-two prong adapters, but I think we do have a surge protector with the ground prong pulled out plugged into an outlet.

I'm going to do a little digging when I get home tonight and see what I can find out.
nonymous (banned)
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ

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Be careful with voltage on the ground. There may also be amperage at the same time. That could kill you if disconnect a ground and become the new path to ground while holding it.
signcarver
join:2005-03-20
Phoenix, AZ

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There have been some reports of a few TVs that put voltage on the line , particularly if the polarized plug isn't the right direction. I even heard of a case where it went through hdmi and the box. Personally I think it may be time to rewire the house properly.

MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

MineCoast

Premium Member

UPDATE

I spent several hours tonight troubleshooting the voltage issue, using a multimeter trying to find the voltage (for my own safety as well), but I could not find any voltage on any of the lines throughout my house... all read out as 0.00 as to be expected. I began disconnecting the coax from various TV's throughout the house as well as unplugging power from various electronics. Powercycling the modem multiple times through all of this... same issue.

I decided to do something a bit extreme, and took a known good cable i have and went out to the box tonight and connected that cable directly to the drop, bypassing the splitters in the box, etc... ran the cable through my window and to the modem.. so it was a straight connection from the modem to the drop... no splitters, no nothing.

Exact... Same... Issue. I talked with Tier 2 at cox tonight, very professional and knowledgeable woman... she said there is ingress/noise that's causing my upstream SNR to drop to values such at 18 and lower. She said it could be an issue at the node, another neighbor backfeeding, etc. She wrote up some paperwork to have a maintenance tech with access to the node to come out Saturday.

We'll see what happens. This is turning into a big nightmare, but I am thankful that I've been able to isolate the issue to be outside my house. As for the drop, the drop is brand new, was ran a couple months ago, so I do very much believe it's a node issue or something else at the street level. I just really hope they can fix this.
Maltz
join:2011-01-08
Fayetteville, AR
Calix 844G
Netgate SG-2100
Ubiquiti U6-LR

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said by MineCoast:

We aren't using those three-to-two prong adapters, but I think we do have a surge protector with the ground prong pulled out plugged into an outlet.

Same thing, probably.

There are a plenty of wiring problems that can put voltage on the ground, but that is not one. If voltage does turn out to be the problem, I would highly recommend having an electrician give the place a going-over, just to find anything that might be dangerous.

BTW, ditch the sabotaged power strip. I don't see how it would put voltage on the ground, but it's highly unlikely that a 2-prong outlet is grounded at all, so even if you connect the grounding screw on a 2-to-3 prong adaptor, it's still probably not doing anything. And if there is ever a short to the chassis of a device, it defeats any kind of safety mechanism the ground prong provides.

The proper/safe way to do this (well, without actually running a ground to the box) is to replace the 2-prong receptacle with a GFCI receptacle, and label it "no equipment ground". That will protect YOU from electrical faults, and should meet code, but still will not protect your equipment. Surge suppressors cannot perform their function without a proper ground. This is a fairly easy DIY project (if you're comfortable with electrical) or a 5-minute job for an electrician. (Note that such a receptacle will not trip if you use a tester, but SHOULD trip if you use its built-in test button.)
GreyWolfX42
join:2001-08-25
Tulsa, OK

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'I decided to do something a bit extreme...'. Just a comment. Not extreme at all, just excellent troubleshooting. A while back I had a problem that techs would not acknowledge even tho' I bypassed all intermediate sources of possible trouble. Finally, one day I had two network trucks with 3 engineers in front of my house. They strung a new line from the pedestal to their vehicle saw exactly what I had reported. Conclusion: they had a problem on their line and fixed it. Sometimes you have to be persistent to get the service you are paying for.
Maltz
join:2011-01-08
Fayetteville, AR
Calix 844G
Netgate SG-2100
Ubiquiti U6-LR

Maltz to MineCoast

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Did you also bypass the grounding block? Because if you bypassed the splitters, but the problem is voltage on the ground, then the grounding block A) might still be the problem and B) might be HOT!

Be careful out there.

MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

MineCoast

Premium Member

said by Maltz:

Did you also bypass the grounding block? Because if you bypassed the splitters, but the problem is voltage on the ground, then the grounding block A) might still be the problem and B) might be HOT!

Be careful out there.

Yep. I bypassed the grounding block completely. I connected my modem directly to the connection from the drop. I bypassed everything in the box.
MineCoast

MineCoast

Premium Member

Re: UPDATE: It's not a voltage issue afterall...

I get home and my internet fixed and is working the best it has in over 6+ months. I guess other people called in and complained and they finally fixed the issue.
bchandler02
join:2011-07-08
Oklahoma City, OK

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Really frustrating, I've had this before too. My house is new enough to have proper grounded outlets, but that was one of the earlier excuses I got from Cox during my issues. They had a good tech come out and he actually measured it on the line and saw it. We then powered my modem up off a completely different circuit (an Inverter from a vehicle, if I remember correctly) and saw the same voltage. That stopped the "it must be in your house" discussion.

Later, they found wiring problems beyond my house. Once fixed, I've been rock solid ever since.
Lion84
join:2007-08-10
Marietta, GA

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I had a similar issue with Comcast. Internet was OK but digital channels pixelated on Tivo. After a couple service calls telling me my lines were bad, they finally sent out a guy (on Easter Sunday no less, he must've been pulling some good OT pay) who found an "unbalanced" line at the pedestal. Been OK ever since.

Termites
@cox.net

Termites to MineCoast

Anon

to MineCoast
Use speedtest .net you don't want to use the cox speed test it's false you're on their system it will give you wrong readings.. I get using cox 189/45..

Do they offer a plan with that no.