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Sunday, September 16th, 2012 5:00 PM

Connectivity Issues, Slow Speeds, Loss of connection

I have been trying to get this issue resolved since Friday, 9/7/2012. Starting on 9/7 at 11:00am Eastern Time our Internet speed just came to a halt. We are a school and to say that our staff and students have been suffering is an understatement. I have called everyday sometimes 2 times a day. Everytime I call I am told our signals are bad and need to be adjusted. They send a tech out, he leaves and I call an hour later about the issue again. It seems like between 10-11 am our connection is horrendous and continues until about 3:00pm. It isn't great before or after that, but that is when it is the worst. The help desk keeps saying someone needs to come out and fix the signal issue outside at the pole, but no tech ever does. This is crazy that learning has to halt while we wait for someone to fix the issue. I'm not sure what the signal levels, etc.. mean on our modem, but I am attaching pics to see if anyone can shed some light on them for me. Our connection is 50/10mbps.

 

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12 years ago

It certainly seems like the power levels are a bit out of whack.

 

Generally acceptable levels for "downstream power" are anywhere from -15 to +15 dBmV, and yours are outside of that range (at +17.12 and higher). Ideally, you'd want this between -8 to +8.

 

The SNR looks file (this should be above 30 dB), so it doesn't look like there's much "noise" in the line (resulting from bad cables, etc.).

 

Your upstream power level is within the acceptable range, but that could stand to be a bit lower, too. Below 55 dB is good, the lower the better.

 

Based on what I'm seeing here, it definitely looks like the issue is outside the building. If the internal wiring was faulty, you'd see much worse SNR (signal to noise ratio) levels.

 

I'd start with another technician visit. Explain to him that your levels are not within an acceptable range. If I were a technician, I'd start by checking the Comcast box outside and separating your school's connection with whatever else happens to be connected.

 

Cheers,

 

/jonathan