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tambrose
join:2006-01-06
Costa Mesa, CA
| [Line Problem] DSL finally stable again! About 2.5 weeks ago, my DSL starting losing sync consistently between 8PM and 6AM. When sync'd, it would stay connected for about 30 seconds with traffic and 15-30 minutes without traffic. If I watched the stats, I would see the downstream noise margin go from 15db down to 7db and then -6.5db, lose sync, and then return to 15db. It was much better during the day, but not great.
I tried turning things off, disconnecting phones, replacing the phone cord to the modem, moving the modem, different jacks and power...there was nothing inside or outside my house that I could find being the cause or even being on during the entire outage period at night.
After going through many annoying tech support calls (do you have filters on your phones and did you reset your modem?), they created a trouble ticket. After a few days of "call back in 8 hours", I was told that they found and fixed a problem at the CO. No change. I called back and scheduled Covad to come out.
The tech determined the I'm 11,400ft from the CO (the tool on this sight said 9500ft) and that the signal was good on the wire. Connecting only the jack for the modem showed the same good signal (16db downstream noise margin). Adding the rest of the house dropped it to 7db. He told me he'd return the following day and install a NID splitter (I had no NID). He also had me bumped from 2Mb to 3Mb based on the signal quality.
He didn't show and it was a Fri., so I called Earthlink on Monday. The tech support guy told me I had a bad modem (do you have the right trouble ticket?!?!). I told him that I wanted a NID splitter. He scheduled it for today. The tech arrived and installed the splitter. The noise margin went from 4.5db to 12db, but I was still nervous that this wouldn't fix the problem. I wouldn't know until after 8PM.
Well, it appears to have worked! I almost can't believe it. It must have been something that was being picked up by the rest of the house wiring.
Here are the stats:
ADSL Status
ADSL Connection Up
Re-sync Count 0
ADSL Mode ITU G.992.1(G.DMT)
Downstream Bit Rate 3008 Kbps
Upstream Bit Rate 384 Kbps
Downstream Capacity Occupation 78%
Downstream Noise Margin 12.0 dB
Downstream Attenuation 53.0 dB
Downstream Output Power 20.0 dB
Upstream Capacity Occupation 55%
Upstream Noise Margin 19.0 dB
Upstream Attenuation 31.5 dB
Upstream Output Power 10.5 dB
It was a lot of trouble and time, but now it works.
I'd like to thank everyone on this forum because I've been searching through old posts and FAQs to learn many of the tips and tricks to try.
Happy at 3Mb,
-tom | |
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TheHelpful1
Premium
join:2002-01-11
Upper Marlboro, MD
| Re: [Line Problem] DSL finally stable again! NID splitters separate the dsl signal off of all your internal wiring and send it to one clean dedicated house jack. If a splitter resolved your issue then odds are there was something you missed inside your house that was causing the disconnects. Light timers, microwaves, etc, there's a whole list on this website of things that can cause disconnects (even Christmas lights i think).
DSL splitters are great and usually needed for people at our distances from the CO (I'm at the razor's edge). But just make sure all your NID gear is grounded in some fashion because when those splitters blow a fuse, they blow a fuse. Personal experience here
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"My weakness is that I care too much" | |
| | tambrose
join:2006-01-06
Costa Mesa, CA
| I should also point out that both Covad technicians were good. They cut and restripped existing wires. They replaced all of the "jellybeans" in the box. The first one even cleaned up the connections to the protector.
I had tried to get SBC to come out at put an NID on my house, but they always wanted to charge me for the service visit (I think around $100). I was going to do a homerun myself. Instead I have a professionally installed one.
My connection did not drop once in over 24 hours. What a relief!
I still have no idea what was causing the problem. I've been all over my house and around the outside turning things on and off, unplugging things, trying the AM radio trick, etc.
Thanks,
-tom | |
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