John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I'm about to loose my mind with my Internet connection going off and on all day long, typically when my air handler comes on.

I have two fix options left, I'll post both after I describe what I did.

So that I would have no holes, handy boxes or cables running through a wall I am about to add beef up drywall to I moved the coaxial cable that feeds my cable modem and the power the supplies all my computer equipment (currently) behind and down a wall right behind my air handler.

Result is cable modem looses single, took me a while to figure out that when air conditioner/air handler comes on this is when I lose signal.

So I did a search, found out coaxial cable should not be run close to air handler (3 feet away is the min) and I've temporarily moved it back to it's original location until I figure out a better spot that will not leave a hole in the wall BUT when air handler comes on, cable modem still looses signal. This does not effect a TV I have split of the same coaxial run.

I've tested this out many ways removing splitter and shorter coaxial cable after the splitter.

My next options are to:

Replace the entire coaxial run, maybe I damaged it?

Move the power, the 12 gauge romex cable that still runs down the wall behind air handler to receptacle that powers all computer stuff away from air handler. Only I don't know if that could be the source of problem... could an air handler cause enough interference in a 125 volts of power to screw up a cable modem?

OH, air handler just came on, I wonder if I can hit submit...

Marc

When your unit kicks on, do you get a "brown out" with power. I could be pulling enough juice when it kicks on, it trips the power to the modem. Is the modem on a battery backup? If not, put it on one.

If you mean by "green out" lights dim in house, that would be a no.

I moved the power supply of cable modem to my UPS. I thought I had in UPS but a few things got rearranged when I moved receptacle. AND that did not solve the problem, cable modem still lost signal.

I have got it fixed but the fix does not make sense to me.

I replaced the entire run of coaxial from the cable companies line outside, on side of my house. I moved the closest part of coaxial cable to air handler further away from air handler. I entered the room through the ceiling instead of wall which I don't want holes in. I did not move the receptacle or 12 gauge wire that runs behind air handler.

It's been working for 3 hours now no problems.

Maybe I did damage the coaxial cable but as I understand coaxial is pretty hard to damage.

The only other thing I can think of is that I had the coaxial split and then it ran to a TV which is behind the wall from air handler, maybe caused interference in the line... but when that coaxial line was unplugged for an hour of testing I still had the problem. Maybe the 12 gauge wire next to air handler helped with the interference.

It doesn't really matter now cause it works but I just find this really weird.

BTW every time the air handler came on it did not cause cable modem to lose signal BUT the cable modem only lost signal when air handler was on, I think.

Lesson learned... don't run coaxial within 3 feet of air handler and make sure to use good cable... maybe I damaged the shielding in the old cable and could not see it.


Marc

It's possible water got into the outside wire near the connectors? We run into this alot with satellite systems.

Actually coax is easy to damage. If you get a kink in the wire, a hard 90 degree bend or something of that nature. The center conductor is a solid core and can be damaged and intermittant without knowing it. Also, if there was a piece of the shield touching the center conductor (usually at a connector) that could cause it too.


Sometimes just reseating a connection will fix it too.

Hey Aaron thanks for replies more knowledge is always good

DANG!!!!

I rejoyced to early. Cable modem went off again, when the air handler came on, after 3 1/2 hours of staying on with no problems air handler running constantly

Before I figure out if I'm going to move that romex line still behind air handler AND how & where I'm going to run it without leaving a hole in my wall and working around known obsticles I'm doing one more test.

I've run an extension cable from another room, from a different circuit to the computer stuff. So far so good. Got a couple of good hours in with no problems... however I'm going to do this test for a few days and see what happens.

I should add that I have a large amount of equipment hooked up in computer area. 2 computers, office, video, audio, etc... all sharing one rececticle and most is tied into computer via audio or video cables.

Actually I'm surprised this coaxial problem is my 1st major wiring problem after 2 years set up like I am now. My studio room will have way less of a chance for wiring problems.

Marc

What taps are on your splitters. The modem wants to see as much signal as possible.

And it could also be at the source...Comcast itself...

What taps are on your splitters. The modem wants to see as much signal as possible.

1st tap/splitter is on outiside house where line from BrightHouse comes to house. It's splits in 2, one running to a HDTV Cable box for living room big sceen, the other goes to computer area where it was split in 2 via a 5 way regular splitter, one to cable modem and one to a reg TV. Currently I got TV disconnected, coaxial straight into modem and....

I've lost signal twice (I'm aware of) in 24 hours since I've run the extension cable from another room, from a different circuit to the computer stuff. I was not home all day though.

This FEELS LIKE 95% less down time then I had previously, so far. Air handler is not effecting signal. In fact when it went off last night air handler was not on.

And it could also be at the source...Comcast itself...

Above previous config worked fine for 2 years until the day I re-routed the power and coaxil cable to behind air handler, which makes me think it's something I did.

The only other thing could be (and I think this is remote), that same day I re-routed the cable I did some more concrete cutting on the other side of the wall from computer area... I can't see a hole or crack in the wall but the shelf above where cable modem lives had concrete dust on it. I could see a little on the cable modem it self, maybe a small tiny amount of dust got into it.

IF the problem persists I'm goign to call in for a tech to come out. I think I've gone through everything I could have done to cause the problem...

except maybe try one of these as a tap:

Directional Couplers Cable modem taps

Thanks again.

Marc

The cable modem wants as much signal as you can give it. When they installed mine a couple months ago, they tapped the tv's at -15db and the cable modem at -7.5db.

Is the new cable you ran RG6 or RG59?

Is the new cable you ran RG6 or RG59?

RG6

working on 36 hours with extension cord to other circuit, and no problems since 2 short signal losses yesturday.

I think I'm going to figure out how to correctly tap at minus and plus db's to ensure cable modem signal works.

All I need is the right splitter? Most likely available from radio shack?

Marc

It's worth a try.

Well this problem finally got fixed today. I should have called my ISP (Bright House) earlier.

I'm still positive part of problem was the air handler as timing of the lost connection while coaxial was close to handler was in sync.

BUT the 2nd problem was just around the time I moved the coaxial, Brighthouse upgraded there server to shoot 7mb a second at customers with the internet package I have. My cable modem could only handle 5 MB a second and according to the tech who came today, modem was loosing connection from overload.

I got a new modem which can handle up to 10 MB a second. No charge. My download rate is above 6 MB per second now. This speed is insane Far cry from when I started going online with download around 4 KB per second. It used to take 20 Min's to download a 4mb file.

I got a lesson in coaxial cable and splitting.

In my case a splitter with tap + or - is not proper. My main TV uses a HD cable box and needs just as much signal as the cable modem.

DONE

Glad to hear all is working now.