After well over 5 years, my ISP finally found the source of the signal interference!!

[DirectorGunner]

For well over 5 years, everyone in my neighborhood has had internet connectivity problems with Cox cable.
Especially me as I pay for the highest tier of residential service.
5+ years of senior techs and supervisors coming out to check my property...
they replaced the coax line from the hub to the side of my house.
Replacing modems.
Balancing lines and signals.
Performing sweeps.
Rebalancing the node.
FINALLY... after well over 5 years...

A Cox field rep found the source of the interference.
One of my neighbors is pushing voltage into the whole coax network to the point of being classified as an outage for the whole neighborhood.
He's a new neighbor.. only been living there a couple of years.. the issue may have been caused by the previous owner or something of that nature.
But for now, Cox has disconnected him until he schedules to resolve the issue with an inspection.

FINALLY! and for years I believed the problem was ingress related... it's so satisfying that after so many years... I'm finally vindicated.
The nice thing my new neighbor is being really cool about this and wants it resolved too because of how horrible his internet service with Cox has been for the last couple of years.

My take away / moral from this experience

1. Be persistent until the real problem is identified.
2. Whenever you go to move into a new property, during inspection schedule your ISP to come out at the same time, turn on your all lights and appliances, and have them check your coax line if there's any ingress from you or your neighbors.

 

[August]

Wait, your internet is provided by Cocks Cable?

 

[Vavrik]

Summer before last, a city crew working on a plumbing problem "fixed" my internet connection, with a front end loader. Then the cable company took almost 6 months to find and locate the problem. What I got for my trouble? My fence torn up 3 times, and every dog in the neighborhood is curious about those thick black wires on top of the fence that look like licorice.

 

[Zapper Weisman]

I had a problem sort of like this years ago with Verizon DSL. In the mornings I would get lots of disconnects, packet loss, and the land-line would stop working. I called and they could always detect something was wrong, but only in the morning when it happened. By the time they got a guy out here the problem had vanished and they would essentially tell me tough luck, better luck next call. After almost 2 years of me bothering them and talking to all kinds of techs and customer support people (who many times treated me like i was making all this up), I finally got them to send a guy out as the problem was occurring and he found the problem. It turns out that there was a weak/damaged cable that would short when it got too cold.

And don't get me started on the time Verizon had a bad PON card at my CO and I had to diagnose that for them. (no, really...i had to look up all the symptoms, narrow it down, and finally made it clear to them that this was on their end) They finally replaced the damn thing, problem vanished...idiots.

Anyway, I am glad you found the culprit. This stuff is so aggravating, especially when it drags on for years.

 

[Printimus]

Bahaha damn, a neighbor shooting voltage into the coax to fuck it up for the rest of you? That is a new one.

 

[Hybus]

Way back in the day, I used to do regional network maintenance for a certain casting comm internet company. There was this legendary apartment com complex that would just go to crap all the time, tons of techs, supervisors, no one had a clue. All the maintenance work and re-balancing I did happened over the night shift, so I came in one day to watch it. Building was in Texas.

Short explanation, the node was located on the west side of the building, once the sun crested the roof, and started being exposed to direct sunlight, the node would heat up, all the equipment would goto crap, but by around 6, it would set behind a neighbouring building, creating shade. Node would cool, service returned to normal. Had a crew move the box to the east side and setup a screen, problem solved.

Scary the amount of money wasted on all those calls. Sadly it's not usually the tech's fault, those poor folks are rated on how fast they push through calls and are usually limited to very specific actions/testing. Eventually you get someone who has either seen it before or doesn't give a fuck and gets stubborn.

 

[Ammorn]

Wait, your internet is provided by Cocks Cable?

I bet that cable is black, so there's a big black cox cable running down the road.

 

[Sethious]

Pft, only peasants use coax, fiber is where its at.

 

[Ammorn]

Pft, only peasants use coax, fiber is where its at.

You only want so much fiber though.

 

[DirectorGunner]

Pft, only peasants use coax, fiber is where its at.

I wish! the only fiber in the Las Vegas valley short of resort locations is Henderson.
Cox and Lv.net microwave p2p is only options.
And.. I did get a quote for fiber to be installed to my property ... ~$3,000 a month.. if I want the slowest fiber possible which is cheapest, at 50mbps down/up... $850 a month.. this is Cox Cable....
If fiber were available at a reasonable rate, I would get it.. believe me.. I want Google Fiber to come to Vegas damn it.

 

[Montoya]

One of my neighbors is pushing voltage into the whole coax network to the point of being classified as an outage for the whole neighborhood.

How the f?

What is there that pushes voltage into the network?

 

[Montoya]

Pft, only peasants use coax, fiber is where its at.

Look at Mr Fancypants with fiber internet! You think you are better than us?

 

[DirectorGunner]

What is there that pushes voltage into the network?

I've no idea.. they're gonna inspect before they'll turn him back on.
If I see my neighbor in a few days I'll ask him what it was.

 

[CosmicTrader]

This is very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ammorn]

How the f?

What is there that pushes voltage into the network?

Magnets can push angry wall pixies through cables.

 

[Szioul]

I've no idea.. they're gonna inspect before they'll turn him back on.
If I see my neighbor in a few days I'll ask him what it was.

Does he, by chance, have satellite as well?

 

[DirectorGunner]

Update:
It was the original building contractors maybe 10 years ago.
Every home in my neighborhood has a smart panel with coax ran for both cable and satellite to every room.
The satellite input is set up to come in from somewhere near 2nd story on the outside of the houses while
the cable input is at the bottom side of the houses near the power panels.
And both meet at the smart panel inside the houses.
So he had both systems connected together on the original 8-way hub with some bad connectors.

The tech that came out today to fix my up signal was the one who took care of the ingress ticket for my neighbor.
He said the hub and connectors used by the home builder were causing the ingress.

A mixture of Cox cable installers not doing their job properly for at least two homeowners who had that property, and a shitty home builder.

TBH.. I don't understand how a non-powered hub and connectors could contribute voltage into the whole coax network but...
that's what the tech claimed.

 

[Stoutman]

I've had Cox service before in a couple places. They are moronic assholes who don't fix crap unless you bitch like crazy.

You should be able to get a partial refund from them due to the lower than paid for service for the last 5 years. They should of caught that pretty fast. I would ask for a 20% credit for everything you paid for the last 5 years, and do not settle for less than 10%

I had to call their corporate offices in Atlanta once to get my issue fixed. I had a digital phone and internet which were constantly being interrupted by a signal disconnection. Modem would restart randomly all day long, digital phone calls would be cut off. It ended up being the old coax cable hanging from the poles which had to be replaced the entire block. They were swaying in the wind and breaking the connection randomly. I ended up arguing about how much time was wasted just waiting for the modem to reconnect. I ended up with at least 3 months worth of credit. Still sucked, but at least I got some compensation for it!

 

[ColdDog]

Hmmm, so the coax doesn't plug into my microwave... good thing I have fiber :)