Need a cable technician for internet question

**jmebonner** · March 28th, 2003, 12:35 AM

Hi,
Don't know if any of you actually work for a cable company or not. Maybe you'd just know someone who does and could refer me to them. I signed up for cable about 8 months ago. I recently got 1.5...about 2 months ago. Nothing but probs so far. Sometimes it just totally drops on me...about once a week for 8 or 9 hours at a time, usually when I need it most. Right now I'm on a stinkin' dial up modem. You know what that's like when you're used to 1.5MB?!?!?!?! It stinks! The tech says it's happening to one other person in town, they ran her a new drop and she had the same prob. I tried switching modems, running a new line, releasing my ip add, etc, etc. I need to know what else to try. Thanks!

**MDS** · March 28th, 2003, 12:39 AM

hey fellow Kansan what ISP are you using? I'm on cableone and have no problem using a Linksys modem but the sb4200 I had lot's and lot's of problems with.

**jmebonner** · March 28th, 2003, 12:55 AM

I'm using eaglecom...small company out of hays, goodland, and a couple other towns. I'm using a SB4200, but I swapped it with another brand new on and the same thing happened. The company sells only the 4200 w/ setup, so I don't know anyone w/' a linksys. They're the only broadband provider in town. We'll soon have DSL, but they want over $200.00 for 1.5MB. So, despite the problems, I suppose I'll stick w/ cable. Everyone else's is working fine, that's what is so frustrating.

**Urban_Squrill** · March 28th, 2003, 01:04 AM

Cable Shares one big connection maybe a crap load of ppl get on at that time. Or the ISP is doing overhalls. And shutting down one connection and puttion everything on fewer connections. Just an idea.

**jmebonner** · March 28th, 2003, 01:09 AM

US, I appreciate the idea, but that's just not it. It would affect more than just me and one other person. The tech's been to my house 5 or 6 times and always leaves scratching his head. They even ran a signal strength test an it came up olay. It's incredibly tiresome. G'nite y'all, I'll check back in the AM

**Beemer** · March 28th, 2003, 01:33 AM

What time of day is this happening?
You could be surrounded by folks that use Kazaa and the like. They could be leaving Kazaa running all day long sharing files when they aren't even home. (Which is ignorant of them if you ask me.)

Find a cable line in your house that is close to a ground source and touch the ground source and the end of the cable core. If you get a small shock, give your ISP a call. I was standing in a basement working on a cable line that ran directly from the IPB underground and got a shock.

Does your ISP use radiation filters? Older TV's, radios, stereo's, etc that are hooked into the cable can backfeed electric radiation and affect your connection rates. B&G splitters are the best I found for eliminating radiation but not perfect. Cheap splitters such as you get from Radio Shack aren't worth the money.

When the Installers installed your connection to the Internet, did they split off the main line, one leg for your Internet and the other leg off to all other cable outlets? 3 1/2 db splitter should run off your main. A tripple may be used with a 3 1/2db, 6db, 6db. The 3 1/2 should be to your Internet connection.

Call your ISP to see if they aren't in fact doing upgrades. Tell them why you are asking. They should send out notices of disruption at such and such a time if they are upgrading.

Ask them if you could be changed to a different frequency on your grid/block. One that isn't being used by heavy downloaders.

I take it you have done the usual spyware checks?

Cheers!

**cadetstimp** · March 28th, 2003, 04:29 AM

If others are having the same problem with the same service, then it sounds like it's not your computer.

If this small company is new at this, they could be having teething problems as they get started.

Keep calling every time it happens, have them log everything. Using their technical support e-mail address would be best (don't waste time on hold on the phone if it's the same problem over and over - your just looking for a receipt/case number for each instance) You should get discounts/free month service as it continues to be verified their fault, especially if your feedback helps them solve the problem.

A really quick way to verify that they are the problem is to use the tracert command (a.k.a trace route). Here's an example (I've replaced the IP information with descriptions) You'll see that once the trace route gets past line 2, then any long delays or time outs afterwards (line 3 plus) are due to your ISP or outside influences. The first long delay or time out that occurs could give a clue as to where the problem is occuring.

C:\>tracert www.yahoo.com

Tracing route to www.yahoo.akadns.net [66.218.70.50]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1 My Internal IP
2 46 ms 13 ms 31 ms My External IP from ISP
3 41 ms 10 ms 10 ms Local ISP Router
4 27 ms 24 ms 40 ms Local ISP Router
5 39 ms 13 ms 12 ms Local ISP Router
6 18 ms 11 ms 26 ms Major ISP Router
7 13 ms 13 ms 12 ms Major ISP Router
8 15 ms 15 ms 51 ms Major ISP Router
9 24 ms 29 ms 26 ms Major ISP Router
10 30 ms 27 ms 37 ms Yahoo's ISP router
11 26 ms 43 ms 25 ms Yahoo Router
12 68 ms 26 ms 54 ms Yahoo Web Server

Trace complete.

C:\>

Delays would show as responses over 100 ms and failures would be indicated by the phrase "request timed out"

When delays or failures occur, It would be easy to copy this information into an e-mail sent to your ISP's technical support address.

**jmebonner** · March 28th, 2003, 09:23 AM

Thx for the replies. Still using dial-up
Beemer, it happens all times of day, morning noon and night. I don't have cable TV, so my connection is off the main cable. They aren't ding any upgrades right now. I have the Tech guy's cell # and I call him direct whenever I have a problem. By spyware checks do you mean something like ad-aware, or something better?
Stimp, I'll try your suggestion as soon as I get back up and running, looks like it'll be a good help.
Thanks again!
James

**Beemer** · March 28th, 2003, 12:15 PM

By spyware checks do you mean something like ad-aware, or something better?

Yup! Spybot or Ad Aware would do just fine.

Cheers!

**Beemer** · March 28th, 2003, 12:17 PM

Is the drop line burried or ariel?

Cheers!

**dunbar** · March 28th, 2003, 12:36 PM

I hear that some ISPs have megabyte limits.... too many megabytes and you get cut back for a spell. Dialup is known for this, but so was a now defunct DSL company. That means exceeding your megabyte cap might also shut you down.

Otherwise, follow the good cadet.

**Beemer** · March 28th, 2003, 12:55 PM

I've been subjected to a dial-up account for 3 months. Moving at the end of the month. Shaw High Speed Cable here we come. Can't wait to get off this crappy dial-up with 100 hours alotted.

Cheers!

**jmebonner** · March 28th, 2003, 02:16 PM

The drop is buried, it's back up now, they didn't do anything, it just came back. It's so weird. I'll be running stimps' tests when I get off work, I only get half an hour for lunch.