tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA
| [Connectivity] Weirdness in the Lehigh Valley
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but it is an issue with many variables and I'm hoping that someone can help me figure it out.
I've had RCN for almost a year now and have had no issues with the internet service until a couple of weeks ago.
I am living in a 100-year-old house, and whenever it was wired with coax (years ago) it was apparently decided that it would be better to use a series of splitters along the run rather than a single splitter up front. As a result, the signal going to my cable modem (Motorola sb51xx) is split 3 times prior to arriving.
As I mentioned, this has not been a problem for the last year or so. I was getting strong signals and speeds at all times of day. Then the weirdness began.
Is seems as though on certain weekdays at approximately 9am I lose all connectivity. My "Send" light flashes a few times then goes off, my "Receive" light flashes a few times, and the pattern repeats. The upshot is, I get no internet access. Then, at 3pm or so, the modem fixes itself and all is right with the world. As I mentioned, this doesn't happen every day, but it has occurred 2 or 3 days a week for the past couple of weeks.
To troubleshoot during the "no-internet hours", I have taken my modem to a number of different locations around my house. When I plug it into the other "third-split" cable jack, I get no signal. However, every other cable jack in my house (2 or fewer splits) works.
So what changed a couple of weeks ago to precipitate this issue? Though it might be a coincidence, a couple of weeks ago, I installed a Motorola signal booster. The signal coming into the house goes directly into the booster which then outputs to the RCN-installed splitter which then sends the signal to the rest of the house. Prior to two weeks ago, the signal coming into the house went directly into the RCN-installed splitter. Whether the booster is on or off, the modem works in every jack during the no-internet hours except for the third-split jacks.
So to summarize, here are the variables I'm currently dealing with:
1) Day of week. With my setup EXACTLY the same, my internet was fine yesterday (Tuesday) but is not fine today.
2) Time of day. I checked my email at approximately 8:15am this morning and had no issue. On other days like this, my connection is working fine by 3pm (though it is hard to test since I am usually at work) but is certainly working when I get home around 6pm in the evening (I have NEVER had a problem with my connection during the early morning and evening hours).
3) Location in house. This issue seems only to affect cable jacks that are receiving a signal that has been split 3 times. Other jacks (2 or fewer splits) work fine.
4) Signal booster. I do not believe that I had this problem prior to installing the booster, though I'm not 100% certain. Certainly there is a small time window surrounding the booster and the issue). If I had a better sense of the precise days and times that this issue occurred, I'd turn the booster off to see what happens.
Sorry again for the long post, but I'm really interested to hear what y'all think. |
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JimF
join:2003-06-15
Allentown, PA
| It could be a noise source (air conditioner or refrigerator motor, etc.) that acts up at certain times of the day. At the third split, your signal-to-noise then gets too low, even though the signal strength may be OK. How is your Motorola signal booster grounded? You might want to change it, since a ground loop could be involved. |
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tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA
edit:
May 14th, @11:46AM
| Thanks for the quick reply, Jim. I do have a natural gas furnace on a timed thermostat, however, I turned it off yesterday so it would not explain the issue today. There are no other timed noise sources I can think of. Embarrassingly, the booster is not grounded (nor is the splitter). While this is an admittedly dumb move on my part do you think it would affect my connectivity with the time profile I've described? |
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JeepMatt
Delaware Fios
Premium
join:2001-12-28
Wilmington, DE
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Comcast
| Tubby-
Set up a free line monitor here on the site for your IP address:
»/schedule
This will give you good documentation of when you're losing connection.
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"ONE team - ONE city - ONE dream!!" |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| reply to tubby17
In this case there are a number of reasons that could cause this from plant work that changed the level distribution to random noise impairments. If you can provide your modem mac that we can identify where you are that would make it easier to look at.
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Bryan Laird
Director Product and Technology |
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tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA | reply to JeepMatt
Great idea, Matt. I actually have a cron job on my server that runs every ten minutes and requires network access. I'll check the logs for that first, but if it's a no-go for some reason, I'll try your method. Thanks! |
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tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA
| reply to negativeduck
Thanks Bryan. I'm at work right now, but when I get home (to a hopefully-working modem), I'll PM you with the information.
Is it possible that RCN intermittently checks signals being sent to residences and that the booster causes RCN to think that they're sending me too strong a signal and as a result they reduce it to the point that, even with the booster, there is not enough signal to make it through 3 splits? This wouldn't explain why it goes back to normal in the evening, unless the intermittent signal checks are done for only off-peak hours. Is it obvious that I have no idea how the cable company works?  |
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negativeduck
Premium,VIP
join:2002-02-14
Centreville, VA
| No what can generally happen if anything else is you can be installed and have one set of levels. Through the course of doing plant work maintenance or something else the conditions that serve your residence (well before the signal reaches your residence) can be changed. In most cases this doesn't cause any negative impact but as with most things there are always exceptions. But the levels wouldn't be shifted based on the levels inside your specific house
Now more common is something else inside the cable-plant causes some form of problem that can break your modem which is far more likely to see a problem than say your phone or even your TV. Probably every cable-tech or plant guy who reads these boards can attest to trying to resolve 'ghost' problems that start everyday at 3pm and end and at 10pm randomly. Eventually you find that it was a house down the street who had had 500 year old microwave that had the power line running right underneath a 20year old rusted custom splice job in their attic that every time they turned it on it caused service to go crazy
These cases are usually easy to identify as a 'problem' but much harder to find and track down. But once we have your info it's easier to take a peak and see what gives.
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Bryan Laird
Director Product and Technology |
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tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA | But the levels wouldn't be shifted based on the levels inside your specific house
There goes that theory. You, sir, just bought my wife a free dinner courtesy of me. I'm really excited to get this troubleshooting started! |
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tubby17
join:2007-09-15
Easton, PA | reply to negativeduck
Bryan--As expected, my connection was reinstated sometime between 4:45pm and 5:00pm today. I just sent you a PM with my modem mac. |
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