HardwareBanter - View Single Post - Mysterious internet/ethernet issue (kinda need testing/connection/communicationservice to diagnose it ???)

**Paul[_28_]** · October 11th 18, 04:20 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt

wrote:
Today I decided to call Ziggo, a company who delivers TV, Internet and Telephony.
I originally called to report a problem with my Analog Television !!!
One of the channels "veronique HD/Disney XD" was displaying snow over the screen.
A cartoon was playing covered in mild snow.
The guy on the phone was very helpfull and very motivated to try and solve my
problem to my great surprise ! =D

I did not believe they could solve my problem. I thought they would laugh at me
for not using digital television, I thought they might tell me to simply switch
to digital television or blame it on me and my TV.

But the exact opposite happened.
First he asked me to check the tv channel, it was on a different number then their
TV card but that was ok.

I also reported mild snow on another channel.
Then the guy asked me to check the white cable.
I checked it it was firm... all other TV channels play/display well.
Then he asked me to check the "splitter box" which splits the signal into two or three.
One for television, one for internet, and maybe one for radio or something.
I told him the model is CTU 01.
He asked if I was sure if it was not CTUM. I re-checked and told him:
No it really is a 3 letter thing CTU 01.

Then I had to wait/hold for a moment, after a while he came back.
He told me they were going to send me a new splitter and a new cable to my modem.
This new splitter can be directly connected to the wall socket where the green
cable comes in and also a little white box is.
Now before I was going to hang up I told him about my recent internet experiments.
Where I tried to have a computer on the internet connect to my computer. I
also told him this failed recently... and I also told him my previous contact
with ziggo a while ago could not enter my cable modem menu ?!
To my great surprise he said: "I can access your cable modem just fine" !
I was stunned that this TV guy was also capable of checking internet at
the same time LOL.
So this was a double surprise.

But now comes the best part:

The guy says: "I can see errors on the cables, he says, it's the packets".

His speech/accent was sometimes a bit hard to understand but not too bad.
At first I thought he said: "I can see 69 dropped packets".
I asked him what did you say ?

He said:
"In the last 16 days there have been 69 million dropped packets !" =D

I could not believe it. I asked him are you sure these are internet packets
and he said yes.

Now I did notice a little bit of internet delays and lags, but this was
only during a short period, though yesterday indeed there was also some delay.

So I and him were thinking the same thing. Perhaps this very old splitter
has detoriated and it's cable and the noise on the TV is also interferring
a little bit with the cable modem now and then.

Strangely enough this NOISE has been on this cable for years and it never
really bothered my internet connection.

I can play games just fine... though perhaps this could explain why there
might sometimes be a bit of lag in company of heroes, though I kinda think
this is other guys.

But maybe it was me alll along ?! That would be funny !

So what is now the most revealing and interesting part of this story,
what is the moral of the story ?!:

MY ANALOG TV IS WORTH GOLD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cause it can actually DETECT a noisy SIGNAL.

I am not sure if a digital television would have been able to detect it ?!?!?!?!?
So I am now very curious if this will solve all of my weird connection issues.
I am very skeptical, but there is some merit to the story, since the TV signal
is indeed snowy on just one channel and slightly a second.

I am very skeptical indeed. But if this is indeed the problem then WOW !!!!!

WHAT A STORY !!!

=D

Bye,
Skybuck =D

P.S.: I tried to report this snow sooner via form/e-mail but that didn't work
also told this to this guy.

And usually I watch TV late at night beyond 22:00 when their service is not
available, working hours and such... so I never really got to it.

But since these problems started occuring I am desperate to solve this
connection issue so I am going through all possible causes including a
bad TV signal ! HAHAHAHA !

Funny story in a way !

I hope other ZIGGO users and cable modem/tv users/splitter users will
learn from this story !
Cause if your TV signal is BAD it may affect your internet as well !
I am not getting my hopes up too much, there may be other problems, but
this is indeed very intrigueing ! =D

Small applause for Ziggo for taking this complaint very seriously !

Thank you, time will tell if this actually solves my connection issues
and TV signal issues. I will keep you posted on this ! =D

Bye,
Skybuck.

An analog TV set is indeed a good noise monitor.

How it works, is the TV set has AGC (automatic gain control),
and the RF amp works with input signals ranging from 1 volt
all the way down to around 1 microvolt.

The cable TV line produces an analog TV signal of perhaps
1 to 3 millivolts, or roughly the geometric mean of the
two end values. That means the signal will not "saturate"
the TV internal amplifier, but the signal also has
sufficient amplitude there will not be analog "snow".

The degradation of analog TV is a smooth continuous process,
making it a good source of both amplitude monitoring, as well
as interference monitoring.

*******

Digital TV on the other hand, has a relatively abrupt "knee".

The video image will have good quality down to a relatively
low amplitude. Then, over a range of about 2dB, you'll start
to see snow and macroblocks. Then, the TV loses synchronization
and the screen goes black, because no packets at all are
being decoded. If the amplitude improves a tiny bit, it
might take ten seconds for the TV to synchronize and put
a picture on the screen.

This makes the digital TV a relatively poor direct detector.

However, some digital TVs have two "slider bars" in the
OSD, which display signal quality metrics. This can be
used to tell you what the TV thinks of the signal.

*******

I hope your new splitter helps.

But I don't think this story has ended quite yet.

A splitter should be relatively reliable.

The problem could be a problem with the cable company
and its equipment mounted on the pole or in a pedestal.

Most of the problems I've had with TV wiring, is with
the ends of the cables and the center conductor. The
wire does not have a shiny finish and is cheap stuff.

Paul