Atlantic Broadband

[Clem72]

My problems are always in the upstream direction. As explained to me by multiple technicians, my modem decides it needs too much power to push data up the line so it goes into a continuous reset cycle until magic happens out on the pole and the modem's power drops.

They like to say this because it puts the onus on you. Fortunately, very easy to tell. View the modems status page (ip usually on the sticker on the back/bottom) and see what it says. It will tell you how much signal it is receiving, and how much power it has to push to be heard. It may or may not tell you if this amount is "too much" but you can google it and will get a million sources to compare with easily enough. Depends on how many channels you have bonded, but typically anything under 50 is good. 50-55 we'll call yellow, and above 55 you are in danger of damaging your equipment.

Also, look at those numbers, then plug your modem into the line outside the house (before any splitters) and see if it's magically fixed. Account for the 3db per splitter drop and if your signal is roughly matched (I.E. 51 inside the house, 44 outside and there's two splitters) then the problem is in their network not yours.

 

[glhs837]

Not speaking to the issue of what the cable company did or did not do to your equipment, but your installation is exactly the reason they have to send technicians out.

First off, do you know the difference between a "high quality splitter" and the cheapest piece of dollar store junk on the market?

The difference is almost entirely in it's ability to resist water, which typically only matters for outside applications. Yes, some more expensive ones will be guaranteed for a larger bandwidth, maybe an extra 50mhz on the top end which means bupkis as cable tv and internet do not use those frequencies. For the case of cable TV, even the absolute cheapest one ever made will carry the entire frequency band without issue, so there will be negligible difference electrically. I will retract my statement if you tell me your high quality splitter was powered (I.E had an actual wall transformer).

Second, every two way splitter cuts your signal in half (3dB) regardless of whether you use all of the outputs. A 4 way splitter means each of the 4 drops has 1/4 the original power. If you put it in line with the 2 way splitter, that means you are working with 1/8th the amount of power. No wonder you have issues.

A cable modem typically works best near 0dB, and the signal coming into your house is usually a little hot so running it behind a 2 way splitter is good. If you have a need for 5 drops (your 4 way + the cable modem) then you should tell your installer because they will likely do one of two things. Install a powered 3 way splitter (one drop is unpowered, suitable for cable modem, two drops have been amplified and are suitable for additional splitters), or they will install a larger switch and increase the overall power coming to your house.

Installing a 2 way followed by a 4 way followed by a 2 way is nuts. Your better off installing a single powered 8 way splitter in the attic or basement with the outside cable directly into it, and running RG6 from that switch to every outlet in your house. Even a 100+ ft run of RG6 is MUCH better than putting an additional splitter in the line.

But the whole point is that I had no issues. Those five drops ran flawlessly for years. All splitters inside out of the weather. There was no reason for the tech to come out, they could have just turned it on and I could have called if there were issues. By high quality, I mean the same damn brand they use, as I was told that the stuff they use is the only good stuff. Here in my current, much larger house with longer runs, while there was still original RG59 in the loop, it did need an amp. Once I reran everything with RG6, no amp needed. The old house was all RG6 that I ran myself, thats why I know the length of all the runs.

 

[stgislander]

Damn ABB!!! I just received my bill for Oct and it's gone up almost $20/month. And I haven't changed a thing on my end.

I guess my bill went up so they can get broadband to all the kiddies doing online schooling.

 

[RoseRed]

Damn ABB!!! I just received my bill for Oct and it's gone up almost $20/month. And I haven't changed a thing on my end.

I guess my bill went up so they can get broadband to all the kiddies doing online schooling.

That's crazy! Mine was a few bucks higher, but probably a late fee.

 

[TPD]

I posted on here somewhere last week that my bill went up $31 - 16% increase - with no changes in service, except that it has been intermittent for the last month.

 

[stgislander]

That's crazy! Mine was a few bucks higher, but probably a late fee.

The biggest jump was the $15 increase for VIP Basic service.

 

[stgislander]

I posted on here somewhere last week that my bill went up $31 - 16% increase - with no changes in service, except that it has been intermittent for the last month.

I love it. We get to pay more for intermittent service.

 

[RoseRed]

The biggest jump was the $15 increase for VIP Basic service.

I only have internet.

 

[glhs837]

Five houses on the private dead end road. Four of us have had net droputs lasting anywhere from a minute to 2-3 minutes for months. These last two weeks, it's been 15-30 dropouts every day. I thought it was just us. Was putting up with it rather than deal with a service call. Last Friday, neighbor lady, who I chat with when walking one of the dogs, asks if I've had problems. Random net dropouts. Says the neighbor on the other side of her has had the same issue. Check in with the neighbor on the other side of me, yep, four out of five houses.

Call in and talk to the nice person in Maine. She says she cannot place a call against more than one house. Says she'll ping the modem, kills the call, as my phone was on wifi. Second call, nicer guy in Maine. Says he sees an increasing pattern of net dropouts, and while he cannot share other customers information, he can say other houses "in my area" have a matching pattern. Says he'll note that on the ticket. I drew the first service call this morning. Ask tech what he's been told, he says they dont tell him anything, just go look. Pokes in my box on the side of the house. Goes and pokes out in the box near the road. Comes back, pokes some more, says found a loose coax connection in my house box.

Says these could cause all four houses to drop, even the two "upstream" from me. Checks in the house, after some modem and router resetting, all working. Of course, it works great when it works. We'll see what happens at the neighbors 1430 service call.

When all the brake lights in my car go out, I dont check bulbs. I check the fuse that powers them.

 

[WheezyCarl]

Five houses on the private dead end road. Four of us have had net droputs lasting anywhere from a minute to 2-3 minutes for months. These last two weeks, it's been 15-30 dropouts every day. I thought it was just us. Was putting up with it rather than deal with a service call. Last Friday, neighbor lady, who I chat with when walking one of the dogs, asks if I've had problems. Random net dropouts. Says the neighbor on the other side of her has had the same issue. Check in with the neighbor on the other side of me, yep, four out of five houses.

Call in and talk to the nice person in Maine. She says she cannot place a call against more than one house. Says she'll ping the modem, kills the call, as my phone was on wifi. Second call, nicer guy in Maine. Says he sees an increasing pattern of net dropouts, and while he cannot share other customers information, he can say other houses "in my area" have a matching pattern. Says he'll note that on the ticket. I drew the first service call this morning. Ask tech what he's been told, he says they dont tell him anything, just go look. Pokes in my box on the side of the house. Goes and pokes out in the box near the road. Comes back, pokes some more, says found a loose coax connection in my house box.

Says these could cause all four houses to drop, even the two "upstream" from me. Checks in the house, after some modem and router resetting, all working. Of course, it works great when it works. We'll see what happens at the neighbors 1430 service call.

When all the brake lights in my car go out, I dont check bulbs. I check the fuse that powers them.

People in Maine are nice.

 

[glhs837]

People in Maine are nice.

Mostly. Ratio is far higher than Mass, thats for sure.

 

[WheezyCarl]

Mostly. Ratio is far higher than Mass, thats for sure.

I couldn't come up with anything positive to say about ABB, this was my default reply. I do love Maine though.

 

[1stGenSMIB]

i wonder if the squirrels open the service boxes and loosen the cables while we are sleeping. How do the cables get loose?

 

[DaSDGuy]

Says these could cause all four houses to drop, even the two "upstream" from me. Checks in the house, after some modem and router resetting, all working. Of course, it works great when it works. We'll see what happens at the neighbors 1430 service call.

When all the brake lights in my car go out, I dont check bulbs. I check the fuse that powers them.

Interesting analogy. True, if all your brake lights are dark, check the fuse. But if one bulb is out the circuit is still good, just a bad bulb. Cable modem lines are more like old style Christmas bulb strings than brake light circuits. Meaning if one bulb goes out the entire string went dark. Cable modems are similar to those old light strings and that's why they put a terminator plug on every unused port. If one port is loose or open without returning a signal when pinged the entire circuit goes to crap. If all your neighbors are on the same circuit, they are impacted too - both upstream and downstream. Like those light strings - if the bulb is in the middle of the string it all goes dark.
How the cable got loose is another question.

 

[glhs837]

Interesting analogy. True, if all your brake lights are dark, check the fuse. But if one bulb is out the circuit is still good, just a bad bulb. Cable modem lines are more like old style Christmas bulb strings than brake light circuits. Meaning if one bulb goes out the entire string went dark. Cable modems are similar to those old light strings and that's why they put a terminator plug on every unused port. If one port is loose or open without returning a signal when pinged the entire circuit goes to crap. If all your neighbors are on the same circuit, they are impacted too - both upstream and downstream. Like those light strings - if the bulb is in the middle of the string it all goes dark.
How the cable got loose is another question.

Said crimp/compression end was loose. Cut it off and put a new one. All fixed, yay!!! Except its not. Still having issues. Call back today, guy says, yep, I see huge drops, over 1900 in three months. See the neighbors issues to. See surrounding streets also. I've still got to have a tech come out tomorrow, but he's supposed to send another isse out to the maint as opposed to service department. It wasnt a loose damn connector. There is a larger issue just need to poke the beast long enough for it to wake up.

 

[DaSDGuy]

Said crimp/compression end was loose. Cut it off and put a new one. All fixed, yay!!! Except its not. Still having issues. Call back today, guy says, yep, I see huge drops, over 1900 in three months. See the neighbors issues to. See surrounding streets also. I've still got to have a tech come out tomorrow, but he's supposed to send another isse out to the maint as opposed to service department. It wasnt a loose damn connector. There is a larger issue just need to poke the beast long enough for it to wake up.

Sounds like. Good luck. Tracking down and intermittent issue is tough, even for experts. ABB experts are like unicorns.

 

[wubbles]

My bill went up $5. Been "grandfathered" into the price/speed I was paying with Metrocast's high-speed way back in the day that was $73 or something like that. Now I am up to $90 for the same level of service (internet only).

 

[glhs837]

Sounds like. Good luck. Tracking down and intermittent issue is tough, even for experts. ABB experts are like unicorns.

Got a call. Supervisor I think. "Yep, seems when my guy gave you more signal, he nights gave you too much, so he's gonna come back tommorow and tone it down a notch. And, btw, looking at it, I see a problem with your modem, my guys gonna bring one of my modems" I tell him that modem is only two months old and the four service techs we've talked to over the phone have said the levels look fine. I ask about the other houses on the street. He says his guy fixed that yesterday.

 

[glhs837]

Nice guy in PA says he's sees issues not just on our road, but basically every road in one mile radius. But still we have to play this game. Come'on Starlink.

 

[DaSDGuy]

Got a call. Supervisor I think. "Yep, seems when my guy gave you more signal, he nights gave you too much, so he's gonna come back tommorow and tone it down a notch. And, btw, looking at it, I see a problem with your modem, my guys gonna bring one of my modems" I tell him that modem is only two months old and the four service techs we've talked to over the phone have said the levels look fine. I ask about the other houses on the street. He says his guy fixed that yesterday.

Question: Do these guys show up in a clown car?