Intermittent Connectivity issues, possibly cold related?

[Eastman51]

Over the last couple of weeks we have been having some interesting weather. Periods of cold and fairly warm. A couple of weeks ago we got hit with the first big snowstorm of the winter. It was exactly at that time that I started having problems getting connected to the internet. When it gets cold (below 30 degrees Fahrenheit) I have intermittent and spotty connection. There are periods where it outright won't work at all, today is such a day (I am typing this off my phone's 4G tether). I have rebooted my router, and modem, and my friends (with the same ISP, Spectrum) have flawless connectivity. I can log into my router and watch as it loses WAN connection and then reconnects a few seconds later. When the router reports a WAN connection, no device (Ethernet, 2.4G, 5G) can load a webpage or stream music/video; the only online service that I can get to work is Discord, albeit it runs extremely slow and I can't connect to voice. But when the temperature rises for a warmer day my connection is perfect. 

 

I know that our cable is routed underground, which when there's a few inches of snow is quite cold; but my friends also have their cables routed underground. I am running off of my own hardware, I believe my friends are running off of the ISP rentals; but that wouldn't explain why my stuff works when its warm, but not when its cold. I have not yet called my ISP, I was hoping the issue was a fluke the first time it happened and when we had slowdowns due to relatively cold temps. But today we got slammed with a cold wave (15 degree F high) and tomorrow we have a high of barely over 0 degrees F, so I doubt we'll have internet through the rest of the afternoon and all day tomorrow. I can try to call my ISP, but I thought I'd ask on here to see if it's somehow a problem on my end (modem to end devices) as well.

[aezakmi]

do you still have the ISP router? I'd try that first

 

130F today for me, I could roast a chicken under the burning sun rn, send snow

[Eastman51]

8 minutes ago, aezakmi said:

do you still have the ISP router? I'd try that first

 

130F today for me, I could roast a chicken under the burning sun rn, send snow

I got this hardware right before I switched from a different ISP, so I never got the ISP rentals

[mynameisjuan]

If you have DSL its def a thing. Even though your cable is run underground it comes up to the NID on the side of your house. When it gets really cold the copper shrinks which in some cases can shrink enough to lose a solid connection to the punch down. 

 

 

If you have cable or fiber its not related to the cold.

[Eastman51]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

If you have DSL its def a thing. Even though your cable is run underground it comes up to the NID on the side of your house. When it gets really cold the copper shrinks which in some cases can shrink enough to lose a solid connection to the punch down. 

 

 

If you have cable or fiber its not related to the cold.

I have cable, so something else must be going on. I think our wiring is kind of odd, where it goes up the side of the house into some kind of box, then into the wall and up to the room where the router and modem sit.

 

Could be something inside the box, cable guy could have wired it oddly trying to avoid having to run a whole new cable when I switched ISPs (we had cable TV on our last ISP, but cancelled the subscription when we got better internet and got Hulu instead).

[mynameisjuan]

6 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

I have cable, so something else must be going on. I think our wiring is kind of odd, where it goes up the side of the house into some kind of box, then into the wall and up to the room where the router and modem sit.

 

Could be something inside the box, cable guy could have wired it oddly trying to avoid having to run a whole new cable when I switched ISPs (we had cable TV on our last ISP, but cancelled the subscription when we got better internet and got Hulu instead).

Only thing I can think of is if water got in the NID. Doesnt take much expansion to push a connection loose. Open the box (trust me you can) and check for water or ice, check the splitter if there is one. 

 

Its all a tech will do as well. They just check each connection point to make sure everything is solid. 

[Eastman51]

15 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Only thing I can think of is if water got in the NID. Doesnt take much expansion to push a connection loose. Open the box (trust me you can) and check for water or ice, check the splitter if there is one. 

 

Its all a tech will do as well. They just check each connection point to make sure everything is solid. 

Ok, I'll steel myself to brave the cold and head out there in a few minutes

[kirashi]

41 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Only thing I can think of is if water got in the NID. Doesnt take much expansion to push a connection loose. Open the box (trust me you can) and check for water or ice, check the splitter if there is one. 

 

Its all a tech will do as well. They just check each connection point to make sure everything is solid. 

 

25 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

Ok, I'll steel myself to brave the cold and head out there in a few minutes

I was just going to say, if this only seems to happen during cold or wet periods of weather, it's definitely water related. You may need a contractor to check your underground drop cable for water and/or ice, as the conduit in the ground could be flooding then freezing.

[Eastman51]

19 minutes ago, kirashi said:

 

I was just going to say, if this only seems to happen during cold or wet periods of weather, it's definitely water related. You may need a contractor to check your underground drop cable for water and/or ice, as the conduit in the ground could be flooding then freezing.

Hmm. The cable does run near an area that tends to flood (in warmer months) when it rains, if it's routed the way I think it is. I can see where the cable comes up to the box on the side of the house, then it comes out of there and is stapled up the siding to where it enters the house, it could be possible that there's a splicing or splitting that occurs in that box where the copper could get shrunk. 

I hope it's not the flooding and freezing, that'd be real inconvenient. 

Edit: I observed the box from inside, I will be heading outside shortly. 15F with 15+ mph wind chill is not fun

[Eastman51]

@kirashi @mynameisjuan

I went outside and found that there's a bit of exposed cabling on the ground near the box. This cable is black, I believe that it used to be orange on our last ISP. When I opened the box, there was an orange cable that went into a splitter where a black cable left; and I'm assuming the black cable is what is stapled up the siding and enters the house. It looked like the cables were seated in the splitter alright, but I could try removing them and plugging them back in. 

 

It did rain last night, before it got as cold as it is; so it could be a freezing problem. I'll also see if I can check the cable as it enters the house, that cable could be freezing from condensation off some water pipe in the wall, idk.

[Eastman51]

@kirashi @mynameisjuan

 

I unplugged my modem and then reseated the cable, which it looks like the cable runs straight through the wall into the room where the modem is. I went back outside and reseated both cables on the splitter, and tightened this green wire that looked like it is a ground (the green wire runs over to another box that is made out of metal, and the green wire terminates at what looks reminiscent of how car batteries are terminated). Then I came back inside, took compressed air and blew out the modem (was looking a bit dusty), then reseated the ethernet and plugged it back into power. 

 

Then I grabbed my android tablet and loaded a youtube video instantly. SO, it seems that one (or all) of the things I just did have at least temporarily solved my problems.

 

Edit: I ran a speed test. My download speed is choked to oblivion, and my upload speed is exactly what it should be. 
0.36mbps down, 11.3 mbps up.
I should be getting 120mbps down, and between 10 and 12mbps up

[Eastman51]

1 hour ago, kirashi said:

 

I was just going to say, if this only seems to happen during cold or wet periods of weather, it's definitely water related. You may need a contractor to check your underground drop cable for water and/or ice, as the conduit in the ground could be flooding then freezing.

Not sure if this is accurate anymore. My upload speeds are good, but my downloads are not. My modem's US light is solid, and it's DS light is blinking. Considering upload works perfect, I wonder if its something wrong with my modem

[Eastman51]

-post duplicated-

[Eastman51]

Well, I called my ISP. They looked at some logs on their end and the guy said that the cause of this is partially related to the cold weather, but is mainly a problem with either the coax cable and/or my modem. There's an issue where as the temperature drops, the outgoing signal increases in amplitude ("its nearly double the optimal spec" - the guy I talked to). The temp over the last 24 hours has continued to drop, and they guy said that our outgoing signal increased every hour. So because the outgoing signal is overpowering the incoming signal, my download speed is practically non-existent.

 

They are sending out a tech tomorrow to fix the cross-talk.

[kirashi]

8 hours ago, Eastman51 said:

Well, I called my ISP. They looked at some logs on their end and the guy said that the cause of this is partially related to the cold weather, but is mainly a problem with either the coax cable and/or my modem. There's an issue where as the temperature drops, the outgoing signal increases in amplitude ("its nearly double the optimal spec" - the guy I talked to). The temp over the last 24 hours has continued to drop, and they guy said that our outgoing signal increased every hour. So because the outgoing signal is overpowering the incoming signal, my download speed is practically non-existent.

 

They are sending out a tech tomorrow to fix the cross-talk.

Wowie I am so glad you got someone knowledgeable from your ISP - based on what you mentioned about uploads being fine but downloads being uber slow, I'm inclined to agree with the ISPs tech support line. When you were getting internet (albeit with slow speeds) it definitely sounds like the downstream channels are either not all bonding to the modem, or have a poor or heavily fluctuating signal to noise ratio (SNR) - both of which can cause the modem to have poor download speeds or simply drop the connection altogether. Super happy they're going to have someone come out and physically check this for you.