Electricians - Some Help Please

#26
#26
volinbham said:
I sincerely appreciate the help.

One difference I've noticed between this example and mine is the guy says phone techs say numbers all look good.

For me, the phone techs saw that my modem was flaky and throwing all kinds of errors. That's why the sent the tech out to see what the problem was.

Between the 2 visits (3 total techs; the original, his manager and some specialist guy who made the call on the power issue) it was about 6 hours of trouble shooting.
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Are you at a deadend of your road or the only house receiving power from the transformer hanging on your telephone pole that feeds your house?
 
#27
#27
volinbham said:
I sincerely appreciate the help.

One difference I've noticed between this example and mine is the guy says phone techs say numbers all look good.

For me, the phone techs saw that my modem was flaky and throwing all kinds of errors. That's why the sent the tech out to see what the problem was.

Between the 2 visits (3 total techs; the original, his manager and some specialist guy who made the call on the power issue) it was about 6 hours of trouble shooting.
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http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/computers/2320-charter-cable-internet.html

Read that link ham. The second guy posting made an account just to thank the first guy explaining his problem. What I find interesting in the second guys post is he said the tech couldn't find anything wrong and blamed noise or interference.

Here's the second guys post thanking him...


12-13-2010, 06:18 AM
Tony W Tony W is offline
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I registered just to thank you for this post. I also have Charter cable internet, and it has been flawless for almost 2 years...until the last 4 weeks. It has good speeds and signal strength, but was very unstable and would cut out maybe 4-5 times an hour. Just a blip, enough to lose connection, and come right back on. Very annoying for streaming or downloading, or playing online games.

I've had the Charter tech show up twice in the last two weeks, he couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring (new home) and said it was likely a noise issue outside the house. Their phone support just left me more frustrated than helpful.

So, I decided to search around and found your post here. I reset my computer and my XBox 360 to use the manual DNS option, using the OpenDNS numbers. Everything seems to work great now.

Thanks!
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#28
#28
#29
#29
Orange_Vol1321 said:
Just weird that after a flicker of the power it would start to the point he would need one without the homeowner installing something in their house that would cause the interference.
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Yea. I was surmising that the spike may have damaged something in the home causing noise. That's why I thought he might throw all the breakers and test and turn the breakers on one by one and test each time to see if he could narrow down the source of the problem. Shot in the dark but that's what I'd do.
 
#30
#30
Just a thought: I've been told that the cable company modems are crap and that it's a worthwhile investment to purchase your own (Netgear, etc). I haven't had trouble with mine, but you could always try it and return it if it doesn't help.
 
#31
#31
Gonna try another brand of modem today. Looking into the OpenDNS but I'm not sure what I'm doing there and it appears I need the Internet connection working to make the changes needed to use it.

Currently I'm using my phone as a hotspot so I'm off the network.
 
#32
#32
volinbham said:
Gonna try another brand of modem today. Looking into the OpenDNS but I'm not sure what I'm doing there and it appears I need the Internet connection working to make the changes needed to use it.

Currently I'm using my phone as a hotspot so I'm off the network.
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What brand modem do you have now? As long as it's plugged in to your pc you should be able to talk to it with its IP address typed in a browser.
 
#33
#33
volinbham said:
Looks like I have to take the grey panel surround off to get to the main. Not up for it tonight.
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Do you have fuses or breakers in your panel?

Fuses go back to the 1950's or 1960's.

Another option is to trip off all breakers. Leave off for couple of minutes, then reset all of them. Sometimes, a quick power glitch does weird things.


Another easier check, which sometimes causes odd problems depending on the original wiring installation. Go around and look for GFI's. Assuming your main box has breakers, look for them in there. The breaker will be tripped over to a middle position. If you find one in the middle, push it to the right to turn off, then firmly all the way back left to reset it. The GFI's are usually lower amps and therefore one of your thinner breakers.

You will also probably find GFI's in your outlets in all the bathrooms and anywhere close to water in the kitchen. Verify that the little button in center hasn't popped out. If so, push that back in firmly. You will feel it set.

Doesn't happen often, but occasionally a storm with lightening will cause a GFI to trip.

As needed, suggest that u Google "GFI" if a photo might help.
 
#34
#34
Jax_Vol said:
Do you have fuses or breakers in your panel?

Fuses go back to the 1950's or 1960's.

Another option is to trip off all breakers. Leave off for couple of minutes, then reset all of them. Sometimes, a quick power glitch does weird things.


Another easier check, which sometimes causes odd problems depending on the original wiring installation. Go around and look for GFI's. Assuming your main box has breakers, look for them in there. The breaker will be tripped over to a middle position. If you find one in the middle, push it to the right to turn off, then firmly all the way back left to reset it. The GFI's are usually lower amps and therefore one of your thinner breakers.

You will also probably find GFI's in your outlets in all the bathrooms and anywhere close to water in the kitchen. Verify that the little button in center hasn't popped out. If so, push that back in firmly. You will feel it set.

Doesn't happen often, but occasionally a storm with lightening will cause a GFI to trip.

As needed, suggest that u Google "GFI" if a photo might help.
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His receptacle the modem is plugged in to is working fine. He metered it last night.
 
#35
#35
Orange_Vol1321 said:
His receptacle the modem is plugged in to is working fine. He metered it last night.
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Oh. Whoops, sorry... I missed that part of the puzzle.



In that case, not sure the electrician will help much.



Even though it makes no sense, when painted into a corner, the old "Microsoft Salute" still works on a rare occasion. A hard reboot. Totally kill power to the entire house, neighborhood, city, state, knock TVA off the grid, whatever. Doesn't work as well these days on computers as it did back in the '80s.

Sometimes, a good purge gets everything unscrambled. Kicking it old school.


Or, the hitting modem with a stick idea is also worth a shot.
 
#36
#36
volinbham said:
Gonna try another brand of modem today. Looking into the OpenDNS but I'm not sure what I'm doing there and it appears I need the Internet connection working to make the changes needed to use it.

Currently I'm using my phone as a hotspot so I'm off the network.
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You don't need internet connection to make changes to your DNS settings. Don't think that's your problem. Do you remember the value for the tests they ran, the upstream, downstream noises, signal ratio's, etc?


Here's a pretty good read. Modem troubleshooting is about halfway down, but I would suggest starting from the beginning and skimming through the tv portion, too.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/cabletech?text=1
 
#37
#37
Early prize goes to Kiddiedoc. Hooked up a new modem (Arris), off course the Charter site to activate it was down. Called customer service and had it activated. Getting 66MB now (paying for 60MB service).

Hope it lasts.

Perhaps something in how the Cisco's handle power? Who knows but it's working for now and the modem was cheaper than an electrician dispatch fee.

Thanks for all the help. Will update if the situation changes.
 
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#38
#38
volinbham said:
Early prize goes to Kiddiedoc. Hooked up a new modem (Arris), off course the Charter site to activate it was down. Called customer service and had it activated. Getting 66MB now (paying for 60MB service).

Hope it lasts.

Perhaps something in how the Cisco's handle power? Who knows but it's working for now and the modem was cheaper than an electrician dispatch fee.

Thanks for all the help. Will update if the situation changes.
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When Charter swapped out the modems, I'll bet they didn't change the power supply. All electronic devices use low voltage DC either from an external power brick or do it internally (rare), which is why it worked on their own power.

If you have a volt meter you can check the external power brick and see what kind of voltage it's putting out. The inside of the plug is +dc and the outside -dc. I'd bet that the power supply crapped the bed.
 
#39
#39
VolStrom said:
When Charter swapped out the modems, I'll bet they didn't change the power supply. All electronic devices use low voltage DC either from an external power brick or do it internally (rare), which is why it worked on their own power.

If you have a volt meter you can check the external power brick and see what kind of voltage it's putting out. The inside of the plug is +dc and the outside -dc. I'd bet that the power supply crapped the bed.
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I swear they said they changed it (supervisor asked the tech).

Also, the power supply worked when used with the power inverter in their truck but when we brought the same one back in and tried it in another outlet it didn't work.

I'm stumped. Perhaps I've got some interference in my line that the Cisco is more sensitive to or maybe activating the new modem at the main office changed some relationship between the signal coming in and the modem.

Either way it's working like a champ now.
 
#42
#42
volinbham said:
I swear they said they changed it (supervisor asked the tech).

Also, the power supply worked when used with the power inverter in their truck but when we brought the same one back in and tried it in another outlet it didn't work.

I'm stumped. Perhaps I've got some interference in my line that the Cisco is more sensitive to or maybe activating the new modem at the main office changed some relationship between the signal coming in and the modem.

Either way it's working like a champ now.
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I'm glad you got it working. However, no matter what kind of noise you could have on your incoming power, the DC power supply going to your modem should have eliminated it.
Most people don't know how to use one anymore, but an oscilloscope would have shown exactly what kind of power was coming into your house. Of course Charter blamed your power without showing you why it was your power. I would have stuck an oscilloscope on the outlet and called bull****, but I'm not your typical customer.
 
#44
#44
volinbham said:
Early prize goes to Kiddiedoc. Hooked up a new modem (Arris), off course the Charter site to activate it was down. Called customer service and had it activated. Getting 66MB now (paying for 60MB service).

Hope it lasts.

Perhaps something in how the Cisco's handle power? Who knows but it's working for now and the modem was cheaper than an electrician dispatch fee.

Thanks for all the help. Will update if the situation changes.
Click to expand...

:hi:

Awesome, glad it worked. I've been told by a few different techies that the cable company modems suck.
 
#47
#47
Just now catching this thread. Charter tech support is like Best Buy Geek squad.

The only way you could have any (significant) noise or disturbance on your service is if you had some highly inductive switching loads or you had noise entering your home from the main feed/pole top transformer, which would have meant it would have been on the main distribution system and affecting your neighbors' routers, as well.
 
#48
#48
Rasputin_Vol said:
Just now catching this thread. Charter tech support is like Best Buy Geek squad.

The only way you could have any (significant) noise or disturbance on your service is if you had some highly inductive switching loads or you had noise entering your home from the main feed/pole top transformer, which would have meant it would have been on the main distribution system and affecting your neighbors' routers, as well.
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On the original service call, the tech said it looked like neighbors had errors but when they came back he indicated no one had called in for service.
 
#49
#49
Just so we're clear. The Charter guys could have easily pulled out a second modem from their van with a new power adaptor and hooked it up and had you working in a day but they couldn't be bothered to have tried that? They should prorate your bill for losing a weeks worth of service.
 
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#50
#50
Coug said:
Just so we're clear. The Charter guys could have easily pulled out a second modem from their van with a new power adaptor and hooked it up and had you working in a day but they couldn't be bothered to have tried that? They should prorate your bill for losing a weeks worth of service.
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Im under the impression they changed his modem and router out with a new one with no better result.
 
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