YACMT: Online light

[Turfzilla]

All you cable users out there, if any of you are using the Motorola Surfboard, do you ever have issues with it soing offline? For Instance, I used the internet last night before I went to bed, I woke up only to find that I had "Limited or No Connectivity" and my "online" light on my modem was blinking. This happens often and is very aggravating. Any Suggestions??

 

[Markbnj]

The number one cause of this, I think, is a poor signal to noise ratio on the coax line leading to the cable modem. Check to make sure you have a 'home run' to the modem from the service entry point into the home, meaning no more than one high quality 10-1100 mhz. splitter on that line. Also make sure any couplers on that line are clean and tight. If you have a home run and a clean cable, then the next question is how long is it, and is the coax high quality? If the run is more than 50 feet or so you may need an amplifier. I have a lot of taps on my line, and use a powered Electroline amp with a zero-loss return path. These aren't particularly cheap, but they are commercial plant quality.

If none of this stuff applies then I would get on the phone and climb up the cable company's ass until they fix it. It's not unusual to have poor signal quality on particular neighborhood loops.

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm not familiar with that particular modem. But many in use now are "smart modems". That means they can be addressed from your browser (with an IP address) and will return a page of information on their operation. It includes signal strength and signal-to-noise data. To use that you need two things:

1. Does you modem do this? And if so, what is the IP address you need? Check the manufacturer's (Motorola) website for this info. It is highly likely that ALL such modems by Motorola use the same default IP address, like 192.168.100.001.

2. Ask your ISP Tech Service guys what they consider acceptable signal strength parameters as reported by the modem. In fact, they may give you the answers to Item 1. Sometimes they also have more advanced tests they can run from their end, and they may tell you what they think of the line and signal conditions.

Of course, if the real problem is actual intermittent signal drop-outs, rather than simply ongoing weak signal, these things may not find them. Your ISP Tech Service people may also have a diagnostic tool they can use to automate repeat testing of your line looking for intermittent failures.

By the way, Markbnj told you he ended up with a particular amplifier to help his system. What he said is important - it was a special amp for this purpose with zero-loss return path. Do not try a standard off-the-shelf cable TV booster amp - it will louse things up! The download signal coming to you is around 770 MHz, and that can be handled properly by a broad-band booster. But the upload signal your modem sends back is below 50 MHz in the region no TV signal uses. So no "normal" amp will make any attempt to let that signal go "backwards" through it, and you have lost all upload ability, so your system is stopped. Even with the special amp, though, there is no boost being given to the upload low-frequency signal, so line condition is still important.