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Uncle Skeleton · Dec 6, 2006, 10:39 PM

My cable internet died in 2 of my apartment's 3 jacks (the 2 are on opposite sides of the same wall). Here's the kicker though, the cable TV still works from the bum jacks. So obviously if I open up the wall, I'm not going to see what's wrong (am I?).

So how could only the internet half of my cable (in the wall) go bad? Any ideas how to fix this?

TIA

brokecollegestudentF04 · Dec 6, 2006, 11:19 PM

Check all your splitters.. To check to see if theres a bad splitter. go and find the line coming in to your house and hook directly up to that, sounds like a bad splitter to me if 2 of the jacks arent working..

sohailamir · Dec 7, 2006, 10:38 PM

try a new cable

ghporter · Dec 8, 2006, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by sohailamir

try a new cable

This is actually most excellent advice. We often skip the simple stuff because we mentally overcomplicate our hardware. ALWAYS check cables and plugs FIRST. This is critical, and will save you hours and hours!!!

You MUST eliminate things like cables before getting into the guts of the hardware.

sohailamir · Dec 8, 2006, 10:16 AM

I know as I have had a lot of experience and trouble with wires before as I used to be a setup engineer but I am also a proffessional animation and graphics designer.

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 8, 2006, 12:30 PM

I had already tried new cables. I'll get into the wall this weekend. Thanks for the help guys.

Glenn, what do you mean by plugs? The jack that sticks out of the wall?

ghporter · Dec 8, 2006, 03:20 PM

Not just the ones out of the wall, but ALL the connectors between the wall and the cable modem, including every one on any splitter between the modem and the ORIGINAL input from the cable company. A flakey connector on a TV's cable might just knock the signal down a little, but it could potentially kill a cable data signal. OR it could kill the signal going to the modem through another port on the same splitter. Cable is a funny medium; it is often very robust, but it can also be a royal pain when you run into an impedance issue-which is what checking all the connectors addresses (if only somewhat).

And in case you hadn't thought of it, call the cable company and tell them what happened. They may have a quick fix, or a history of that particular modem going weird or something. And they should address your problem FAST-you're paying for a service you can't use.

sohailamir · Dec 8, 2006, 09:36 PM

Are the two jack in the wall networked or do they have seperate connections?

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 8, 2006, 10:01 PM

As I mentioned, I'm in an apartment (well, a condo). I don't have access to the signal as it enters the building, though I might be able to get it if I ask enough times. But also as I mentioned, a third jack in my unit still works fine (that's how I'm managing to post here). So I don't think the problem is higher up the chain than my wall, nor in the modem or other equipment. Lastly, I don't have the signal split outside my wall. I tested it on two different cables, direct from wall to modem, and they were both very good cables (not the crappy paperclip-sized ones). I still haven't had a chance to look inside the wall, and I won't until tomorrow because my girlfriend is sleeping in there.

What do you mean by are they networked, and how would I tell?

sohailamir · Dec 9, 2006, 09:34 AM

I mean networked by - are the 3 jacks connected together. If the 3rd jack works then check the difference between the first 2 jacks and the third one, maybe youl'l be able to fix it that way.

ghporter · Dec 9, 2006, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

As I mentioned, I'm in an apartment (well, a condo). I don't have access to the signal as it enters the building, though I might be able to get it if I ask enough times. But also as I mentioned, a third jack in my unit still works fine (that's how I'm managing to post here). So I don't think the problem is higher up the chain than my wall, nor in the modem or other equipment. Lastly, I don't have the signal split outside my wall. I tested it on two different cables, direct from wall to modem, and they were both very good cables (not the crappy paperclip-sized ones). I still haven't had a chance to look inside the wall, and I won't until tomorrow because my girlfriend is sleeping in there.

What do you mean by are they networked, and how would I tell?

If the building cables are involved, if they splitter then someone else is also probably going to experience sort of problem. If it's a distribution amp, it will isolate your connection so nobody else will have that problem. But that's not your concern; if one of YOUR cables or connectors is giving you problems then you can easily and quickly fix it, but if your cables are cool then it's CABLE COMPANY time! Since you've tested it AT YOUR WALL JACK, then that adds up to "their problem." And as I said they should be more than happy to come out and fix it fairly promptly.

I think (wild guess here) that sohailamir was asking about either if there's a splitter AT the wall, or if you have a separate jack at the wall for your cable modem. The difference would basically be that the splitter is outside the wall or just inside it. A friend of mine (a cable TV fiend with something like six drops for his house, and he and his wife live there alone) has a number of splitters all over the place, and his cable modem is upstairs and at the end of one branch-he has zero problems due to splitters and where they are.

Uncle Skeleton · 02:10 PM

Well today the flakey jacks work again. Intermittent problems suck. I can't troubleshoot anymore until the problem reappears, can I?

edit: I don't want to bump the thread, but I do want to let anyone who finds it know what happened. The cable guy came out (while it was working again), found nothing, blamed the network, told me to call back when it broke again. I did when it broke that same night, phone guy is confused, knocks it up to a manager. Manager doesn't call for a few days, i call back, yadda yadda yadda. Finally a manager comes to my place, the problem is happening at the time (fortunately), he futzes for a long time, finally decides my building's signal strength is too high. Also, apparently, when you split a cable signal, the strength actually gets higher, so because my bedroom jacks were split one extra time, my already high signal goes over the limit. He disconnected one of my bedroom jacks, and also sent someone to lower the building's signal to the right level. The problem hasn't come back (after about a week).

ghporter · Dec 10, 2006, 03:44 PM

You CAN fiddle with the suspect jacks to see if they again cause a problem. Depending on where they are and what's around them, cable jacks can be either rock-solid or quite fragile.

So go for some manual manipulation of the cable, primarily the cable on the wall plate side (as opposed to the room side) of the suspect jacks. Of course if you see something like the cable pulling out of the connector, or a nasty crimp in the cable (RG6 needs BIG bend radii or it'll goof up badly, while RG59 needs only fairly large radii-but either way they need bends, not kinks), then you've found something the cable folks need to fix. And intermittent functional problem or not, a noticed physical problem with THEIR cable is something they should attend to.