Internet out when it's cold

[Rushie]

For the past week, when overnight temps get below 30, our internet goes out. It affects everyone on our street using this ISP. When it warms to over 30 in the morning it comes back up.

We have called them and there are open tickets. Who ever we talk to on the phone doesn't give us any info on exactly what's happening. Yesterday afternoon I saw one of their trucks cruising down our street. I'm not sure they know where the problem is.

Naturally I suspect something is contracting apart in cold and then makes contact again as it warms. Or is there such thing as a digital command that disables something at a certain temperature? Sorry if that's a stupid question but it's just so exact.

Whatever equipment they have sitting around outside has to run at ambient temps over 100 all summer long, I'm not surprised it fudges up 70+ degrees lower, but I would like to understand exactly what device or wire is responsible. Any ideas?

 

[RJM62]

If I had to guess, I'd say a cold solder joint somewhere. Where is another question. It could be in literally any component required to keep the service online, including their power supplies.

This one wouldn't be an easy problem to troubleshoot. It wouldn't be rocket surgery either, but it's not the kind of thing that someone would immediately know the cause of.

Rich

 

[wsuffa]

If I had to guess, I'd say a cold solder joint somewhere. Where is another question. It could be in literally any component required to keep the service online, including their power supplies.

This one wouldn't be an easy problem to troubleshoot. It wouldn't be rocket surgery either, but it's not the kind of thing that someone would immediately know the cause of.

Rich

Assuming its cable, it's more likely to either be a shield that's cracked (makes contact when warm, doesn't when cold), a connection in the amp, or a bad amp/power supply. Should be easy enough to isolate.

Cable uses aluminum-shielded semi-rigid line. The shields are notorious for cracking, especially in colder weather, when the cable flexes in the wind or between poles. The connections between the cable and the electronics in the amp are not soldered. Power for the amp is supplied along the cable from a power supply down the line.

Assuming it only happens to the Internet and that TV on the cable is OK, it leads me to believe that it's either a cracked shield or a bad amp. TV, especially analog TV, is not affected nearly as much as internet for a variety of reasons. And TV may not be affected if the fall-off on the amp happens at the higher frequencies that are usually used for downstream data. We had a data loss issue here that affected Internet but not TV that was resolved by replacing an amp.

This should be something that they can fix fairly easily.

 

[Rushie]

The guy just left. He did indeed say he thinks it was an amplifier and he hopes he fixed it. He said he turned down the amplifier. The way he put it, the signal gets distorted too much if it's turned up high, when temperatures get cold. He didn't explain to me exactly why that should be but thinks turning it down should prevent the problem. I guess we shall see. If that didn't fix it maybe they need to replace it.