[ale] Cablemodem problems (Charter); DSL maybe

[Ken Cochran]

There's no such "tombstone" here except for telco.
Neighborhoot (street) telco is underground, cable is in the air.
Cable connects to a small (6-port?) splitter on cable coax
at the utility pole by the street.  I think the keyword is
"line tech" but last time (& I think the time before too)
it was a line tech.  I'm about ready to refer it to our PSC
but I don't think they regulate this kind of service.  I keep
getting "no response" from Charter.  :(

-kc

>Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:11:58 -0400
>From: "Brian Stanaland" <brian.stanaland at gmail.com>
>To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
>Subject: Re: [ale] Cablemodem problems (Charter); DSL maybe
>
>
>I had the same kind of problems you're describing in a place I used to
>live.  It took getting a line tech who wasn't afraid to make Charter redo
>the cable connection in the tombstone at the street.  A big temperature or
>humidity change would make the service fail sporadically for a couple of
>days.  This went on for about a year and a half.  Once the line was redone I
>didn't have another problem.
>
>Brian
>
>On 8/20/07, Ken Cochran <kwc at theworld.com> wrote:
>>
>> >From: "James P. Kinney III" <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
>> >Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:23:22 -0400
>> >Subject: Re: [ale] Cablemodem problems (Charter); DSL maybe
>> >
>> >
>> >For reasons best left to <rant> formatting, cable modems are apparently
>> >very picky about grounding. To add to that, they are also very poorly
>> >installed in most situations. The best thing _you_ can do is to get a
>> >groundrod from the hardware store and pound it in yourself. Then run
>> >appropriately sized bare copper from the ground in your power breaker
>> >box to it. Repeat for the ground connection from the cable feed. Be sure
>> >to use solid mechanical connection and use the anti corrosion grease.
>>
>> Both telco & cable enter the house by "their" NIDs, each on the
>> outside wall nearby the electrical service/meter.  All are
>> common-grounded (per code) to a single deep-driven rod directly
>> below the power box (constructed in early 1970s).  It's on a
>> lake, so there is a high water table; I'd think that would make
>> for very good grounding.  (?)  Grounding has been inspected
>> before, by both telco & cableco techs & by me & my electrician(s)
>> and they report no problems.  And it looks good to me now.  {shrug}
>>
>> Services are underground in plastic conduit from the house to a
>> pole, about 75 feet, and from that pole to the street pole, in
>> the air about another 75-80 feet.  The "middle" pole is *not*
>> grounded, neither for phone nor cable nor power; also, it's on
>> "their" side of any NIDs, so any grounding there is utilities'
>> responsibility.  I think the "street" pole is grounded for
>> everything.  (Hmm, it'd have to be, it has a power transformer
>> too and the power people here *always* ground transformers.)
>>
>> Internal house cabling is RG-6 with "snap'n seal" conectors.
>> >From the house to the street is RG-11, with similar connectors.
>>
>> Any other ideas?  I just can't believe the cableco's outside
>> plant is so temperature sensitive that they have to have a
>> crew "retune" it seasonally.  But right now I'm not getting
>> more than about 30 minutes at a time of ip-connectivity.
>> Then it's out for roughly another 30 minutes, "cycling" like
>> this all the time.
>>
>> -kc
>>
>> >On Mon, 2007-08-20 at 16:21 -0400, Ken Cochran wrote:
>> >> Hi ALErs:
>> >>
>> >> Sort of a 2-part question/problem, cablemodem problems vs DSL:
>> >> (Lesser of 2 evils?)
>> >>
>> >> 1.  (Charter) Cablemodem service problems:  You folks in the
>> >>     cableco/outside plant world can maybe help me with this?
>> >>
>> >> I've been having problems with Charter (cablemodem) for a long
>> >> time now (a couple of years or more, I track the tickets) and I'm
>> >> wondering if now that I can get dsl at my location, it might be
>> >> time to change.
>> >>
>> >> At roughly regular intervals of every few months, I get sporadic
>> >> loss & restart of IP, TV works fine, usually the cablemodem
>> >> itself (& subsequently the dispatched tech) reports good signal
>> >> levels/s:n ratios, etc.  What happens is a loss of Internet
>> >> communications every few minutes, lasting for a few minutes.
>> >> Netstat reports non-zero send-Qs when this is "underway."
>> >> Traceroute doesn't even make it as far as the 1st hop.  A little
>> >> while later, things resume as if nothing ever happened.  This
>> >> repeats all the time.  Currently, this has been happening since
>> >> Friday afternoon and has not been corrected.  Last time (mid-May
>> >> 2007) also took several days to correct.  The cablemodem itself
>> >> reported a borderline signal level; repair took a line tech.
>> >>
>> >> Last couple of times (& now, still experiencing this), the
>> >> visiting (house services) tech says he has to dispatch a "line
>> >> tech" to "rebalance" (?) the neighborhood lines (along the
>> >> street).  He says it is because of the change in (weather)
>> >> seasons and/or ambient temperatures (going either hot or cold)
>> >> that causes this & line techs have to come out & rebalance these
>> >> a few times per year (roughly seasonally).  Any idea(s) as to
>> >> just what is happening here?  Sounds like BS to me; I find it
>> >> hard to believe that a cableco has to go out & redo its outside
>> >> plant 2-4 times a year to correct for what sounds to me like
>> >> design deficiencies in said outside plant.
>> >>
>> >> Some local setup details:
>> >> Cablemodem is a Motorola SurfBoard SB4101.  Distance from service
>> >> entrance to the "node" (coax to fiber converter) is about 2000
>> >> feet via coax that's about as big around as my thumb.  Outside
>> >> plant is from Scientific Atlanta.