GatewayRedbirds.com

My internet connection has been going out all the time for the past two months or so and it is really pissing me off. More days than not I lose connection. At this point I go through the whole unplug the modem and restart everything. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Then I have to call my ISP and go through the automated troubleshooting and try to fix it that way. It will be out for several hours and then magically come back on. I've already had techs from them out to my house twice. The first time of course it was working fine when he was here so I look like an idiot. The second time it wasn't working and he decides I need to replace the wire from my wall to my modem and pronounces everything fixed. I lost connection today in the eighth inning and it just came back on. I wish it would just work right or go out completely so they would admit there is a problem and get it fixed right. I'm pretty sure it is a problem on their end and they just don't want to acknowledge it.

this would (and has, in the past) driven me completely insane.

i know i mentioned this a few months ago - but this situation made me literally insane. During the day, I had an internet connection. At night, I did not. Consistently, like 89% of the time. It took a week or so to totally get it, that it worked during the day and not at night.

But after hours and hours on the phone with techs, and hours and hours of my own diagnostic work...I managed to destroy my hard drive from so many cold boots.

It turned out that the dusk to dawn light on my porch was the culprit. I had recently used one of those low energy coiled bulbs in the porch light. I don't know why, but that light kills my internet connection.

It took a week and a half, 10 hours of tech support, a fried hard drive and an insane person (me) to finally get through it. I figured it out on my own though. Tech support gave up. (after they replaced all kinds of stuff that maybe will end up being helpful in the long run)

This problem was just fixed at my house. The worst was when it would go out while I was playing a poker tournament. I've lost at least $50 real dollars and an unknown amount of potential $$ because of this. Its probably the most annoying thing that can possibly happen to you. Just make sure you don't punch the computer screen. That's how I broke my old laptop....

docellis wrote: It turned out that the dusk to dawn light on my porch was the culprit. I had recently used one of those low energy coiled bulbs in the porch light. I don't know why, but that light kills my internet connection.

I thought you were nuts, but I looked it up and it's real. I didn't realize those lights used radio frequencies.

ghostrunner wrote:

docellis wrote: It turned out that the dusk to dawn light on my porch was the culprit. I had recently used one of those low energy coiled bulbs in the porch light. I don't know why, but that light kills my internet connection.

I thought you were nuts, but I looked it up and it's real. I didn't realize those lights used radio frequencies.

wow, i didn't know why. that is really weird. i am going to check myself, but right now i can't even think of a reason a light would need a radio frequency.

ghostrunner wrote:

docellis wrote: It turned out that the dusk to dawn light on my porch was the culprit. I had recently used one of those low energy coiled bulbs in the porch light. I don't know why, but that light kills my internet connection.

I thought you were nuts, but I looked it up and it's real. I didn't realize those lights used radio frequencies.

Eh? What frequency? Is it supposed to interfere with wireless routers?

That light thing is really strange.

It's just frustrating because I'm pretty sure it is a problem with them. I live in an older house in an older part of town and I even got a tech to halfway admit that their service sucks in this area overall. But I find myself without service that I am paying for all the time and everytime I get them on the phone they always try to frame it as a problem on my end with my equipment, when it doesn't make any sense because then it would never work.

I had this problem at a place I lived in Columbia, Mo. At some point we ended up just insisting that they prorate our bill every time the Internet was down for more than 10-20 minutes or whatever. If you do everything the tech support monkeys tell you -- ie, unplug the router a couple of time and restart your computer -- then there wasn't a whole lot they could say. After they knocked the bill down a couple of times and sent some guy out to the house on another occasion, the problem was magically resolved.

These type of problems can be really difficult to diagnose. They may be trying to get rid of you because they don't really know what's wrong and aren't interested in investing the effort to figure it out. What type of connection do you have?

I have Cox High Speed Internet (cable) at 1.5 MB.