internet problems

[alex]

For the fifth day in a row, my internet at home dies around 9:00am and doesn't come back up till around 8:00pm. Mediacom has reported no outtages in the area. I'm pretty sure it's not the modem cause it works like a charm in the morning. By the time it comes back up in the evening, I'm usually ready to hit the hay. I will be meeting a technician this afternoon at 4:00

Anyone else had similar problems?

 

[Huge]

Sometimes it will say invalid account/password for me but eventually gets fixed. Is there any construction going on in your area?

 

[alex]

Not that I know of. Thing is, the cable TV works just fine. I think they are doin some upgrades and just don't wanna admit it. I'll probably get home to meet the technician and it'll be working just fine

 

[leslie]

if you can find out it's them, you making them pay?

 

[alex]

Just as I expected, my internet connection was in perfect form when the technician showed up. He did say my signal was a little weak. He suggested I get a home amp with return path. Anyone ever heard of that?

I'm gonna look into getting a discount for this month. The technician also said they did have a widespread outtage last Saturday and have had major problems since and they don't know what it is.

 

[Q]

It's them pad, don't let them bullshit you. I don't know what that home amp with return path thing is either, but you shouldn't have to buy extra crap to make your cable work properly. Sounds to me like they got too much traffic during peak times. Bug the shit out of them, that's what I always do. Call up everyday you can't get online and let the tech ping you. I always keep track of the case numbers. Very handy when you want to get them to knock something off your bill.

 

[leslie]

I don't know if it would be the same thing, we had a cable signal amplifier for cable tv at one point, to boost the poor signal, but you shouldn't have to do that for service you are paying for.

Do as Q said, she's right, that's the only thing that worked for the poor signal from another cable company, if you really want the signal thing though, we got it at Radio Shack for not too much.

 

[alex]

I do have a cable TV amp/4-way splitter that feeds the living room and 3 bedrooms. The cable that goes to the computer comes off a two way splitter from the main input cable in the attic. It seems to be functioning extremely well the past couple of days (as if by magic)

 

[alex]

update:

After massive intermittent down times and no resolution from Mediacom, I called Bellsouth this morning and ordered a DSL kit.

 

[Justintime]

Trust, you'd get stable speeds with DSL, though uncapped cable can really fly at times, that amp with return path is likely a grounded amp, that increases signal strength and tries to block interference by returning it to ground thus cleaning the signal a bit, but the cable service is at fault most likely, maybe demand goes up at those times, weird, didya get varying speeds with the cable before? weak signals usually cause lossy lines and jumpy download speeds

 

[alex]

The speeds seemd fine to me....when it was connected. One of the techs that came out told me this heatwave has some affect on the lines.....he said "cable likes cold weather". hmmmm, my TV signal has been fine thru all this. I don't know....I'm no electrical engineer.....kinda makes sense....but if that's true, I would think they would be having massive outtages every day. More than likely it's a case of a company taking over a large market and not being prepared for it equipment wise. From what I have learned and experienced about broadband over the past few months, I think I will be better off with DSL........stay tuned and watch me eat those words.

 

[Justintime]

Cables contract in cold weather and expand in hot, thus the conductivity gets a bit less efficient, though i don't see how it'd have that much of an effect, no way, hes bsing you!

 

[Q]

The heat index was 115 here last week pad...and my connection was fine. Feel free to mention that if you decide to stick your cable modem up that guys ass after you get your DSL fired up.

 

[fury]

Everyone's getting cable or DSL but me.

 

[alex]

Fury, I thought you said you were gonna get DSL at one time

 

[Justintime]

I don't think any broadband solution is available to him right now

 

[alex]

Got my DSL kit yesterday and fired it up last night. It didn't like the settings in my router, but I don't know what to put in the router for this connection. This is definately more complicated than cable

 

[Justintime]

what exactly are the problems? try updating the router firmware.

 

[alex]

I upgraded the firmware last night.

I don't know what the server DNS address's are. I have plowed thru win2k dialup and network settings till I'm blue in the face. With cable I had a computer name that I put into the router and that was pretty much all I had to do

 

[Justintime]

To get the DNS, connect the DSL modem directly to your computer
and look at the properties of your connection in network connections, you'll see the DNS server addresses in the TCP/IP settings if memory serves right, i'd call the people to find out though.