Time Warner Cable!

[ShaunW]

For the past 3 months my cable hasn't worked right! I have had three techs come and "attempt" to fix the problem, which they do, however after a period of time it fail to work again, :banghead: . Each time I have to take off from work since these guys give a 5 hour window on when they will arrive. I know there are some guys who work for Time Warner here, would you have any suggestions, the run around I am getting is off the hook!

Also, what are the other possibilities for TV? does anybody use satellite and what company would I need to contact?

 

[fritz]

What is the problem that they are coming to fix? Satelite sucks and so does verizon. Cable is the way to go hands down however you might be SOL for a few reasons. You may however be able to fix it yourself and be done with your problems or at least relay the correct info to TW and get it fixed. The "techs" that diagnose your problem get $7 an hour and have very poor training. They misdiagnose your problem and pass it off to a field tech. The field tech wants to ditch your job early so he can go sleep, or meet up with the other field tech's at a t!tty bar. If you know what you're talking about:

"YO son, this sh!t here is all RG59! RG59! I need a new drop and all this had to be redone. Dude check this return, see! This needs to all be RG6. There's no way you're going to pull 3 apartments splitting ONE DROP of old ass RG59 when each one has 2 digital boxes and a cable modem each. Plus check the old ass splitter outside which doesn't even have feet! Yo if you pull one of those out it's green. All corroded, and don't run the knife trick on that sh!t. Also, this isn't grounded right because if you shake the wire the rf return goes back to normal, then in a few days it starts to wander again."

 

[jhale]

LoL fred,

my cable internet connection has sucked for the past three months also.
they came to fix it (twice), and it still drops out :arg: I don't have time to wait for them either.

 

[Domboski]

My time warner cable constantly pixilates and freezes. I have had them here three times and after a bit ti is doing it again. I've learned to deal with it because I get tired of taking off of work too.

I had Directv for a long time and I loved it! Unfortunately, my building in Manhattan will not les us have satellites.

 

[fritz]

pixelation and freezing is a sign of poor signal quality. There are many many reasons for this. It gets complicated to fix in NYC because so much of the cabling cannot be easily replaced. If you live in a large building for example, access to the cabling is not possible some times.

WHat happened is back in the day everyone got wired for cable. Life was good. Then cable modems came out and digital cable boxes with thousands of channels. No one every expected to run so much data/tv and now phone over these lines. These new devices aren't like the old school analog cable boxes. Back in the day you could have 20 cable boxes fed from one line off the pole and all was good. Worst case scenario you added a "booster" and you could toss on 20 more. Back in the analog days all the cable runs were done in RG59 cable. Now RG59 cable isn't thick enough or shielded well enough to handle these demands. RG6 is now the standard. You can tell the difference in that RG6 is thick and stiff. RG59 cable is like a wet noodle. These new devices run within a very fine window. WIth digital signals it's black and white, ones and zeros. the signal is either there or it's not. No such thing as a bad picture, you either have one or you don't. Pixelation is the equivalent of a cell phone conversation getting choppy. It's packet loss for you tech peeps.

So in the big buildings you may have fiber, but most likely you'll have a node nearby and from there it will feed all the homes and buildings in your immediate area. Each account should should have it's own "drop" or "Main feed" that feeds your home. This cable line will carry strong enough a signal to feed 2 cable modems and 5 or so cable boxes. The problem is that each splitter causes signal loss. A 2 way splitter drops 3.5dB on each side. A 3 way splitter will drop 3.5dB on one leg and 7dB on the other two legs. The reason for that is you'll run the 3.5dB to the farthest room or to the cable modem. Now if you were to split the -7dB legs one again you're getting into problem territory.

A few tips:
1. Splitters go bad. They can succumb to outside interference from many things.
2. All signals degrade the longer they have to travel on a wire.
3. Most wire transmitted signals do NOT like electromagnetic fields.

YOu never want to run cat5 or cable over electronic ballasts or fluorescent tubes. (Happens a lot in office buildings)
You do NOT want an extra 50 feet of cable in an "o" sitting next to your PC. That will cause huge signal loss. Cable should always be in a figure 8. Take some high voltage cable and place it in an "o" and run juice through it. If you run enough it will melt and start a fire (cool trick)

Find the spot where the cable comes into your home from the outside, that is where it is the strongest. If you plus your cable box in there, BEFORE the splitter and go to channel 960 it will show you your signal strength. You can then see how each splitter effects your signal.

TW is also notorious for not using "feet" (rubber covers for cable connections that are located outside and exposed to the elements.) Cable is made of copper and copper does not like moisture. If you have a splitter outside that feeds your home unscrew it and check for greenish color or anything that looks like salt creep. If you have some scrape it off with a knife. In the winter the cold temp can also cause the copper to shrink and not make as good a connection. You can pull the copper out a little bit with pliers and hopefully it will make a better connection. Make sure you screw it in tight, use a wrench.

Hope that helps

 

[masterswimmer]

Fred, not sure what you meant after, "pixelation and freezing is a sign of poor signal quality." J/K.....that was a great explanation and one I heard almost verbatim from my Cablevision tech when he was here fixing my signal loss. Great information.....

swimmer

 

[ShaunW]

"YO son, this sh!t here is all RG59! RG59! I need a new drop and all this had to be redone. Dude check this return, see! This needs to all be RG6. There's no way you're going to pull 3 apartments splitting ONE DROP of old ass RG59 when each one has 2 digital boxes and a cable modem each. Plus check the old ass splitter outside which doesn't even have feet! Yo if you pull one of those out it's green. All corroded, and don't run the knife trick on that sh!t. Also, this isn't grounded right because if you shake the wire the rf return goes back to normal, then in a few days it starts to wander again."

When you first posted this I had no clue what you were talking about, sounded like jibberish to me! :lol: . But after your excellent explaination above it makes sense, :bigeyes: .

My problem is I don't get a signal at all. It works for a couple of weeks then dies, i.e. my cable box can't get the correct time and won't boot up.

My story continues..............once again, after taking a half day off and pissing people off in my department for being late to work, I still have no cable, :banghead: . The tech didn't fix it, and to add insult to injury he suggested that if I pay him extra on the side "maybe" he would be able to correct the problem by Sunday! Oh man, if I had a gun, you guys would be talking about me being in jail right about now.

 

[fritz]

If your line isn't grounded correctly an electromagnetic field can build up and choke your signal. It works like static electricity and is a total PIA to diagnose. Just like a static electrical charge it will dissipate with contact. So you call for no service and when a tech comes out to test the line, he dissipates the symptom by touching it to hook up his equipment. He finds no trouble and it takes a few days or weeks to build up enough charge to cause the problem over again.

You are correct in that it sounds as if you have NO signal. Herein lies the PIA, if you live in a 1-4 fam house it's no big deal but if you're in a building you have no idea the GIANT coordinated event that it takes to remedy the situation. In some cases the street needs to be opened up, it's no joke. The other problem with buildings is think of the signal like our return pumps but with 20 outlets feeding the tank at all different points instead of just 1 or 2. In order to push 900 GPH at a four foot head, 8 feet from the pump you're going to push 8,000 GPH at the outlet at a 1 foot head, 6 inches from the pump. Now how do you deal with that if all the outlets must have between 900-950GPH? (There are no ball valves for cable signals)
The answer is "you spend the money to do it right" and it becomes very easy. You'll never find any cable company going that route so no point in explaining.

It sounds like you are in one of two situations:
1. A new drop needs to be run from the poll or ground whichever your hookup is and most likely all the cable in your home needs to be replaced.
(Techs NEVER want to do that, it's a pain and they blow it off for the next guy to do when you call back in a week)
2. The infrastructure that feeds your area sucks. They can temp fix it but it requires another department to do that work, not the subcontractor that comes for a regular trouble call. On the upside cable companies get fined for every minute that people don't have working tv service. Because of that cable companies have vast computer system the look for trends, and any indication of larger problems. They are very big on preventive maintenance. Constantly calling in for the same thing will flag the computer that a larger issue is going on. The next time you need to have someone come to the house ask to speak to a supervisor then tell that supervisor the following: "Can you send a supervisor to my home? I've had X number of techs out here in the last two weeks and they can't fix it"
One of the more experienced techs (you won't actually get a supervisor) will be educated enough to escalate your issue to the proper channels.

 

[Dace]

if you live in manhattan i can help you out. i have no pull out of the manhattan area

 

[jhale]

Fred

wow, that's more detailed info than anything else on this board

if you live in manhattan i can help you out. i have no pull out of the manhattan area

Dave I might have to take you up on that :Up_to_som

:help:

 

[Dace]

sounds good, just letme know.

Fred

wow, that's more detailed info than anything else on this board



Dave I might have to take you up on that :Up_to_som

:help: