Internet goes offline at times

I really cannot recommend enough simply using Spectrumā€™s free cable model instead of your own. It really is the only way to force their hand to have them correct the problem once and for all.

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This is excellent advice. I had a similar issue with Cox from October 2015 to April 2016. It resolved only when they ran a new line into my house. But getting them to run that line was a no-go until I rented/used their modem for a couple months.

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I will call Spectrum today and have them install their cable modem.

Thanks to everyone.

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I was a BISCI certified cable tech for years. Cable lines attenuate for a bunch of different reasons, most common are temperature swings, kinks in the run, water intrusion into the cable from cuts or improper fittings. If the run is really old it may be worth "Accidentally" cutting the line with your shovel and have them come run a new line. Additionally, if you use your cable for TV service as well it would be good to get a PPC splitter. It will drastically improve your link over a regular splitter. This is similar to the one I use. The good thing about it it is that the signal coming in is boosted so the signal to every device is at the same db as the line coming in after the split so you don't end up too hot. Also active return so it will work with on demand stuff. I've installed a ton of these and I can't tell you how many times it's resolved the issue. if the line is split outside, get rid of the other splitter and split directly off this. You can use a barrel connector and some dielectric grease to connect the cable back where the splitter was.

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Spectrum ran a test and will be here Wednesday. I am going to do my best to have them replace the coax from the pole to the house. Many years ago we had an ice storm that knocked out power for 3 hours short of a week. A tree limb fell on our coax and pulled it off the pole. The crew probably just cut it and put a new end on. Of course it hasnā€™t happened since this post.

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Would need a really long shovel handle, about as long as the tale I would use to explain how I cut an overhead wire with my shovel. :smile:

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Damn kids fooling around with those drones.

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Somehow it came loose from one end and you ran it over with your mower.

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Spectrum just left. We were all wrong. Neighbor installed 200 amp service about 6 months ago and my cable tap is inches away from the electric on the pole. The tech put some doohickey up there and said there was a lot of noise and magnetic fields are messing with my Internet.

My thinking about it being sporadic is when a heavy electric load kicks in at his house, then I lose Internet.

A different crew will be here within 24 to 48 hours to replace the coax.

And I didnā€™t have to get out the lawnmower. Would be difficult to explain why I cut the grass when it is 15F

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Glad they figured it out!
Back in the ISDN days (woo - 144kbit up and down, all for the bargain price of $150/month) I would experience disconnects usually whenever it rained or the humidity was high. It took 12+ months of fighting with the ISP, they'd reset the DSLAM, replace the DSLAM card, send me a replacement modem, come and check the line with level 1 techs, etc. Finally they sent a level 3 tech to the house, he took out his fancy line meter that he actually understood how to use, and within 5 minutes figured out that the line had a break in it that was allowing moisture - causing massive reflections on the line. He replaced the line and it was rock solid stable from then on. That was in 1999 or 2000. Sad things haven't changed much, just gotten faster.

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Hey @lewis.heidrick, any experience with the Antronix MVRA series? We installed one not too long ago replacing an older amplifier to help with Spectrum whole house DVR (which uses MoCA). Seems to be working well.

I haven't used Antronix in a while but as long as it's a unity splitter you should be fine. You just want to keep the signal from going too high or low. Unity splitters with an active return with no additional splits or at least the extra splits coming off the unity splitter should be fine. Cable modems are pretty sensitive to hot lines so you want to avoid over amplifying the signal.

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Update

Spectrum was here twice since my last post. The first time the tech found a corroded junction block outside the house. Was ok for about a week. Called them back and a different tech said he put in a different block and said if that didnā€™t fix the problem, he tecommended getting their free cable modem. Last night the internet dropped again, for about 5 minutes like usual, and the same errors were reported in rhe Netgear logs.
Went to Charter today and have their cable modem connected now. The second tech said he would replace the drop if I wanted him to, but it was 15F that day so no.

The modem they gave me is a Hitron EN2251. From what I read, there is no web interface.

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Nope nope. Lost internet at 0400. Time to replace the drop.

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Update - internet is still dropping, usually in the wee hours of the morning. I have insomnia, and surf on my iPad around that time.

Charter replaced the drop and noticed there was water in the tap (no pun intended) so another crew came out and replaced it.
The only thing left in the equation is about a 3 foot piece of coax and the router.

Thinking more about this, the only device that is hardwired to the router is my Samsung TV, the Tenda MW6 mesh WIFi, and the HE hub. It could be the WiFi going down, not the internet connection.
I have an older Win7 Dell laptop so I connected that to the router. Now when I see no internet connection on the iPad, i just check the laptop to see if it has internet.

To make this easier, is there someplace in HE that logs lost internet connection?

If not, I would have to dust off my DOS skillz and write a batch file that would ping an IP, write a y/n to a log file depending on the result, wait a minute, and repeat. This seems like the old way to do it. Any suggestions?

You could certainly have HE ping some website and log the results every min or two... but I bet you can download something for windows or iOS that does the same thing. Your router may also log outages.,, but I think you checked that earlier.

You have choices here. There is an app by @bptworld that does this:

And a lighter weight driver by @thebearmay that you can use in a Rule:

Hope this helps.

Ping 8.8.8.8 -t >> c:\ImWatchingYou.txt

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Caught it. iPad lost Internet but the laptop had Internet because it is on the LAN. Bought the router October 2020 so letā€™s see what Tenda does if anything.

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Someone I know bought a Tenda mesh system 6 months ago. One of the mesh spots died a couple months ago. They replaced it.

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