Cable Outages

About an hour ago my Internet connection kept going off and then on. I remembered seeing this post and slowly began to panick. I never had it so bad before. I was in the process of hunting down this thread when suddenly my husband yells at one of our dogs named Belle. She was friggin chewing on the Internet wire! LOL She has never done that before. All is fine. Internet is working. Our satelite is fine too.

reply to post by MrWendal

That being said....SW Louisiana internet is on DSL and it goes out along with the cable for no apparent reason. It just shuts down from anywhere from 5 mins to 3 hours.

This is because the fiber optic pipelines that feed an area from the main source feed both cable and dsl networks. Whether you subscribe to dsl or cable your internet essentially comes from the same source.

To answer your other comment, cable and telephone companies all equally suck. They are all managed in the same fasion and use all the same materials and equipment. THe idea is basically the same nomatter where you are on earth.

What it basically all boils down to, when comparing any internet provider, be it dsl or cable, the only difference is not which company or type of internet you choose, but rather the state and type of transmission lines where you live. It depends on the age of the lines, type (fiber or copper), distance you live from internet providers source, and how well maintained the lines are and how well maintained the lines inside you home are, also the type of router you own makes a big difference. Different companies dont mean anything.

DSL to cable comparison.

Cable internet: Higher achievable speeds, non synchronous signal, shared connection, higher instability, works extremely well under bad conditions

DSL: Lower speeds, more reliable, synchronous signal, more sensitive to interference, stable signal, non shared connection.

Basically DSL = good for gaming and hosting

Cable = good for downloading and surfing

I bought the Sunday Football Package on DirecTv. I was watching it today, and I lost the signal, on a clear day I might add. A message appeared that said sometimes the suns rays cause the signal to be lost. I never heard that before, but after reading this thread, I guess it could be related.

I have cox cable in AZ and everything has been fine, although during the Charlotte Nascar Race saturday night, they kept flashing a ticker on screen apologizing for Dish Networks loss of audio.

Why would a cable company have a message about a satelite cable provider?

Thought that was kind of weird.

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


There was a total power outage for the whole lower half of Vancouver Island tonight. (B.C. Canada) It lasted almost an hour and no one has any explanations for it. A very large area affected!

I am in the North and have not had any issues at all with Comcast....Except when we forget to pay our bill. He, he.

I also experienced this with my cable here in the BC Westcoast on Shaw.Cable. the last few days/week or so ,even as I was watching a hockey game on Wend. W.E it may mean

i live in northern vermont and we have been having the same issues with comcast.

Nope I use dish. Does seem to be more than usual number of Geico crap with the Cavemen on. That is worse than any blackout.

I have not noticed problems with my cable (Charter), but last week I had a dream of people having problems with satellite. Of course alot of cable companies get programming thru satellite.

On another note, I have had trouble with my cell phone off and on.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
I am a field technician for a rather large telco and i can assure you that these outages you are experiencing are normal.

Because the wires that transmit you signal are outside any number of things can happen to them. These lines are buried, strung on poles, and are located near high voltage hydro wires. They are exposed tot he elements and weather 24/7. Most of these lines can be anywhere from 0 to 30 or 40 years old. Also most inside wiring (inside your house or apt)is usually substandard and outdated, especially apartment buildings.

Most of our technicians average anywhere from 25 to 35 repairs a week. We have around 30 technicians in this area and a population of 200 k. If you do the math, our entire crew does around 900 service calls a week. This means that every month around 2% of the population in my city needs a repair done. And this is just from normal wear and tear on the infrastructure. After major storms it is not uncommon for 800 calls a week jump to 1600. The problems caused by storm damage on our lines can sometimes take up to a week to surface sometimes too.

So you see, its quite simple, if there is a problem with the cable tv lines outside somewhere on your block, and you subscribe to digital cable and cable internet, BOTH services will be affected at once. THis is because the line is damaged and is unable to carry a proper signal anymore and needs to be repaired.

What would you say would be wrong with a new community built in 2005 (house as well) with no issues of this occuring up until a week and a half ago?

Originally posted by rachel07
strange signals

I live in the UK and for two days, I got strange static when trying to use my webcam. The voices were not mine, nor my husband,as you will hear.

WOAH...funny you mention that....yesterday MY phone rang, and I picked it up and could hear the entire conversation of the neighbors, but they couldn't hear me.....

and funny about the radio thing, a LOT of fuzziness and static on youtube videos of radio shows, where they keep applologising for the static.


Also in the area where I live, www.abovetopsecret.com...'

[edit on 13-10-2008 by mellisamouse]

reply to post by mkross1983


In theory this could just be a bit of electromagnetic inteference with the downstream sattelite broadcast to the cable headend. Sunspot activity could cause this sort of behaviour or indeed there could be an explanation closer to home.

If there are upgrades going on then the cable provider may be changing firmware in kit at sites which sometimes necessitates a switchover to a redundant CMTS (Cable Modem Terminal Server). If various protocols aren't optimised on the boxes then this can cause interference or force renegotiation with CPUs, i.e. set-top boxes etc... This can cause a cascade effect meaning that a lot of households are effected and it can be prolonged as a result of a lot of bandwidth consumption and contention across the cable network.

So, as you can see. This probably isn't an alien invasion but more likely a service provider service assurance issue.

Many Regards,

Tytanius.

[edit on 13-10-2008 by Tytanius]

I have DirectTv, and other than the normal, signal loss due to heavy rain, I have experienced two types of unusual signals, which I would imagine can be explained
1- A one to two second image of something else, another show etc. This I can duplicate, because DirectTv plus uses a DVR which means I can rewind, so it must be something in the editing of the show I am watching
2-Deja Vu, (yes I know I´m stealing this from The Matrix) but it is the best description. I will be watching a show, and suddenly it will rewind as if the signal is being rebroadcast again. This I can not duplicate, so it must be signal related.
I also get the high pitched beeps,tweeks that were mentioned earlier in the post.
Sunspots?
Oh and I am located in South America.

Originally posted by robertnesta
two days ago while watching cable (time warner digital) the channel would flash black and make a high pitched skwell of a noise and then go back to the picture and this continued for about 10 minutes so i just turned off the tv and walked away, also my internet connection which is thru the cable has been unexpectedly cutting in and out also, maybe realated?

I had this a couple of weeks ago on my cable tv. I just thought it was the tv. Live in the american southwest. The problem abruptly disappeared, for awhile I started to think I needed a new tv.
These electronic devices are unstable. In one year I lost;
1.dvd player
2.dvd drive in computer
3. microwave
4.two hard drives
5.19 inch tv
6.cd drive in computer
7.portable cd player

Originally posted by mkross1983
Anyone experiencing random cable outages? I have been getting static for about a week randomly and occasionally cable goes completely out. This outage is also affecting our internet connection, when cable goes out, so does the internet.

Anyone else having this issue?

I got internet (wireless) outage over and over this weekend. (Turning off and on fixed it each time.) Same last weekend. Yet, cable tv was okay.

Found this interesting. Dont quite know what to make of it but interesting.
Open the link and click on space weather alerts issued in the last 24 hours.


www.swpc.noaa.gov...



roduct: SWPC Space Weather Alerts ALTS.txt
:Issued: 2008 Oct 13 1348 UTC
# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
# See swpc.noaa.gov... for description and other displays
# Send comments and suggestions to [email protected]
#
# SWPC Space Weather Alerts Issued in the last 24 hours
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3
Serial Number: 1602
Issue Time: 2008 Oct 13 0509 UTC

ALERT: Electron 2MeV Integral Flux exceeded 1000pfu
Threshold Reached: 2008 Oct 13 0500 UTC
Station: GOES12
Observed Yesterday: Yes
Yesterday Maximum 2MeV Flux: 4240 pfu

#-------------------------------------------------
Space Weather Message Code: WARK04
Serial Number: 1567
Issue Time: 2008 Oct 12 1557 UTC

EXTENDED WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 4 expected
Extension to Serial Number: 1566
Valid From: 2008 Oct 11 0715 UTC
Now Valid Until: 2008 Oct 12 2359 UTC
Warning Condition: Persistence

#-------------------------------------------------

No offense, but if you took a random sample of people throughout the world many would report having cable outages or interference on their radios. I have been having random cable outages ever since cable was offered, and radio interference .

Originally posted by tide88
No offense, but if you took a random sample of people throughout the world many would report having cable outages or interference on their radios. I have been having random cable outages ever since cable was offered, and radio interference

.

I agree. But this has only occurred within the past two weeks and previously had not been an issue. The frequency of the issue is what made me post this thread and obviously from the other posters, I am not the only one having issues. If you read the other posts you will see the issues are new for them as well. I understand there are interruptions from time to time obviously.

pppsssstttttttttttttttttt-----back in the day
We were told it was m-a-i-n-t-e-n-a-n-c-e,,,really LoL no
everythings good to go-Here in the land of the Dutch and tulips.