Street lamp knocking out DSL (updated with more problems and info)

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Update: About two months ago I started having nightly DSL outages starting after dusk and continuing until I went to bed, with an occasional one or two during the day. The DSL connection light on the modem would stay on, but no throughput. Resetting the modem or DSL line would fix it until it happened again. Did the usual rigmarole swapping cables, filters, routers, modems, outlets, etc. with no fix. Called teleco, jumped through all their hoops until they said they'd send someone to physically look at my line. Never got a followup after that, and the outages still occurred. Started looking into RFI sources, thought I had one potential culprit one floor below. CFL on motion sensor switch (installed years ago). Cut breaker to switch, nightly outages still occurred. Looked at flickering street lamp (though it had been that way for years), figured that was culprit, called power co, they fixed it yesterday morning.

Last night my DSL goes down again around the time street light came on. Reset the line, DSL stayed up for several hours later until I went to bed. I wake up this morning and my DSL is down again. I chalk it up to either street light going off or a brownout that night. I reset modem and the DSL is back up. I turn on breaker to CFL downstairs and notice the DSL goes down. I confirm that the CFL is ALSO causing my DSL to drop when turned on. I pull the motion detector switch and install a normal one, and it still kills my DSL when switched on. I leave the house with a turned off CFL and then-working DSL line. I get back home, DSL is down gain. I get the phone to listen for line noise when the CFL is turned on and off. No noise from the CFL being switched on, but there is faint random popping on the phone line. Go outside to the phone box, pull the house wires and hook a phone in directly and the popping is still there. So I'm at a loss now as to just WTF is going on.

tl;dnr
1. DSL goes down multiple times nightly, modem/line reset restores throughput
2. Outages also coincide with street lamp cycling and flickering (about 50 ft. away)
3. CFL downstairs kills DSL when switched on, but tripping breaker does not prevent additional outages
4. Faint but definite static on phone line, present at junction box with house lines unplugged


Original post: Should I call the phone company or power company about it? The light has been flickering and causing nightly outages for a couple of months before I figured out what was going on. They came today and fixed the light so it doesn't flicker, but it still killed my internet when it popped on tonight.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

OK. I'll bite. How exactly is the street light knocking out your internet? Voltage drop, some kind of wireless interference or, you can only type by the light of the moon?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Light comes on, internet goes down, stays down until I reset the DSL line or reboot the modem. That's what I know. Tried different modems, different phone cables, different wall jack, different electrical outlet, unplugging other phones, yadda yadda. Light comes on, internet goes down.

 

[wirednuts]

i wouldnt be surprised if those sulfer ballasts put out more electrical noise then all of anandtech forums combined, but unless your IP is using wireless or ethernet over power then im not sure why it would do that like youre saying...

but since its dsl, i would get the phone company out there to switch your lines to your house. they should do it for free and that will eliminate that as the problem...

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I think the light going off killed my internet too since it was down again this morning. But there was a brown out last night so maybe that did it. Guess I'll know tomorrow. This is so damn aggravating. Over two months now my internet has been unusable at night and I always have to reset the line each morning. At least with the light fixed I got several hours of uninterrupted internet last night after the initial outage.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Video tape it. Do a ping, have that dos window up and running, but keep looking at the light. When it turns on, go immediately to the ping results and show that it clicked off at about the same time.

Clip that vid down and compress it, and include a few more of the same thing happening.

It may be that the DSL line is running too close to the light, andy transformers that are needed for it, or even along the same power line (along it, not through it). When it pops on, the change is enough to lose connection.

It is not interference, per se, because you can keep the connection going once you restart, but the turn on is enough.......

 

[bobdole369]

It is the responsibility of the owner of any equipment which causes unintentional interference, to correct that interference. I suspect the ballast is bad, causing unintended noise on or around the HF spectrum, where DSL exists too. The other possibility is the ballast is sending back an inductive pulse into the power lines, which could burp the power enough to freeze your dsl modem. In either case its going to be damn difficult to prove to the city they have a problem.

 

[ScottMac]

Call the municipal utility and explain that you believe you have an electrical interference problem with one of their poles / lamps / lights. Sometimes it is helpful to provide a pole number, if one is visible.

The power / utility company will have something like a Radar Engineers model 242 RFI/EMI "sniffer" (I have some for work, they excellent at locating noise) to track the noise to the source.

If you want to verify the source a little better, use a portable AM radio tuned off-station. Hold it in front of you, such that your body blocks/attenuates the rear path, and rotate your body and walk towards the loudest "static" or impulse noise. Doing something like this provides a little more substance to the complaint. You might also find another (or other) sources. Wall warts, some CFL bulbs (evil pieces of crap), thermostats, aquarium heaters (basic bi-metallic strip temp sensors), electric blankets, flaky motors (furnace, fridge, washer, dryer ...) all sorts of things can generate noise, either directly on the line, or radiated and picked up or directly infusing the electronics.

It can also be one (or more) of your neighbors. You share your power feed with at least several neighbors, and if they have something putting crap on the line, it can make it into your stuff. My group worked a case with a neighbor's rear porch light (CFL, Evil Piece of Crap) wiped out service for two neighbors on each side. Changing the lamp to an incandescent cleared all the issues.

Good Luck, please remember to re-post if you find the culprit and / or solution.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Thanks for all the input guys. I hope I wasn't too quick to blame the street light because now I have no idea WTF is going on after coming home today and finding my DSL down yet again. I should probably start over and edit this into my initial post but here's the rundown:

About two months ago I started having nightly DSL outages starting after dusk and continuing until I went to bed, with an occasional one or two during the day. The DSL connection light on the modem would stay on, but no throughput. Resetting the modem or DSL line would fix it until it happened again. Did the usual rigmarole swapping cables, filters, routers, modems, outlets, etc. with no fix. Called teleco, jumped through all their hoops until they said they'd send someone to physically look at my line. Never got a followup after that, and the outages still occurred. Started looking into RFI sources, thought I had one potential culprit one floor below. CFL on motion sensor switch (installed years ago). Cut breaker to switch, nightly outages still occurred. Looked at flickering street lamp (though it had been that way for years), figured that was culprit, called power co, they fixed it yesterday morning.

Last night my DSL goes down again around the time street light came on. Reset the line, DSL stayed up for several hours later until I went to bed. I wake up this morning and my DSL is down again. I chalk it up to either street light going off or a brownout that night. I reset modem and the DSL is back up. I turn on breaker to CFL downstairs and notice the DSL goes down. I confirm that the CFL is ALSO causing my DSL to drop when turned on. I pull the motion detector switch and install a normal one, and it still kills my DSL when switched on. I leave the house with a turned off CFL and then-working DSL line. I get back home, DSL is down gain. I get the phone to listen for line noise when the CFL is turned on and off. No noise from the CFL being switched on, but there is faint random popping on the phone line. Go outside to the phone box, pull the house wires and hook a phone in directly and the popping is still there. So I'm at a loss now as to just WTF is going on.

tl;dnr
1. DSL goes down multiple times nightly, modem/line reset restores throughput
2. Outages also coincide with street lamp cycling and flickering (about 50 ft. away)
3. CFL downstairs kills DSL when switched on, but tripping breaker does not prevent additional outages
4. Faint but definite static on phone line, present at junction box with house lines unplugged

 

[ScottMac]

Thanks for all the input guys. I hope I wasn't too quick to blame the street light because now I have no idea WTF is going on after coming home today and finding my DSL down yet again. I should probably start over and edit this into my initial post but here's the rundown:

About two months ago I started having nightly DSL outages starting after dusk and continuing until I went to bed, with an occasional one or two during the day. The DSL connection light on the modem would stay on, but no throughput. Resetting the modem or DSL line would fix it until it happened again. Did the usual rigmarole swapping cables, filters, routers, modems, outlets, etc. with no fix. Called teleco, jumped through all their hoops until they said they'd send someone to physically look at my line. Never got a followup after that, and the outages still occurred. Started looking into RFI sources, thought I had one potential culprit one floor below. CFL on motion sensor switch (installed years ago). Cut breaker to switch, nightly outages still occurred. Looked at flickering street lamp (though it had been that way for years), figured that was culprit, called power co, they fixed it yesterday morning.

Last night my DSL goes down again around the time street light came on. Reset the line, DSL stayed up for several hours later until I went to bed. I wake up this morning and my DSL is down again. I chalk it up to either street light going off or a brownout that night. I reset modem and the DSL is back up. I turn on breaker to CFL downstairs and notice the DSL goes down. I confirm that the CFL is ALSO causing my DSL to drop when turned on. I pull the motion detector switch and install a normal one, and it still kills my DSL when switched on. I leave the house with a turned off CFL and then-working DSL line. I get back home, DSL is down gain. I get the phone to listen for line noise when the CFL is turned on and off. No noise from the CFL being switched on, but there is faint random popping on the phone line. Go outside to the phone box, pull the house wires and hook a phone in directly and the popping is still there. So I'm at a loss now as to just WTF is going on.

tl;dnr
1. DSL goes down multiple times nightly, modem/line reset restores throughput
2. Outages also coincide with street lamp cycling and flickering (about 50 ft. away)
3. CFL downstairs kills DSL when switched on, but tripping breaker does not prevent additional outages
4. Faint but definite static on phone line, present at junction box with house lines unplugged

Try another DSL filter; they do go bad with age and environmental happenings.

Try the AM radio trick, there are so many potential interferers these days, you might come up with several more. You may not be able to hear the noise that's killing your system (your hearing is too limited), using the radio makes it audible.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I'll have to find someone with an AM radio or pick one up. I made it past the street light coming on tonight after pulling a questionable UPS from downstairs. Thought I was in the clear until an outage at 9:30, then another at 10:00. That can't be coincidence.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Problem is still not resolved. DSL still goes down during the night, though for the last few nights it has stayed up until after I've gone to bed. Got an AM radio but haven't been able to pinpoint anything that coincides with the outages yet. Did find a really noisy wall wart though.

One piece of additional information- when my power goes out, my phone line goes down. This has happened twice before, but were weather related so I assumed a limb had taken down a line. But Monday I had a two-second blackout that killed my dial tone and kept it dead for several minutes. I confirmed with a neighbor that during the last weather outage her phone was still working, so whatever is supposed to keep current going to the phone lines during a blackout doesn't seem to be working or is being disrupted on my line. Finally got the phone company on this specific issue so hopefully the rest will get fixed along with it.