Cable Internet shit the bed.

Wasn't sure to post this here or in PrepHole but dealing with dumb internet stuff.

Anyone had to deal or work for spectrum?

So after this big storm my internet has been shit, they said my signal is off and that I needed a technician to come out and see the situation, the technician came and basically told me I need to go in my yard and find the cord or box between my end point and the telephone pole that their distributor is on.

for reference I have no idea where the cord terminates to a box in my yard, I have over an acre spread out with a gulch in between. Its about 460 feet from the pole to my end point and I need to find a box between the pole and my house, the guy basically said there has to be one.

Couple questions if anyone has had to deal with this;

Should it be their responsibility to find this cable on my property? I have no idea how I can start looking nor a rough idea on where the cable and box might be. It seems like in my head the technician was being lazy and didn't want to do the work in finding the box.

Secondly, he had a full work van. Is there not something that can be connected to one end of the connection and "sniff" the cable out to find its location enroute to the box, then the pole?

I'm just not sure how I should proceed. I need to get my internet working, my connection drops about 10 times every half hour and it makes streaming impossible.

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    OP here, I appreciate any insight on the situation. I work all day and just wanna come home and watch some streams and play vidya. Any idea is greatly appreciated.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Sounds like buddy doesn't know how to do his job.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    One, Spectrum are literally trained monkeys and one of the worst ISPs on the planet.
    Two, it's their equipment. Find the box? Frick you, buddy.
    Three, it's Spectrum. You need to be on the phone screaming at them and tearing them a new butthole to send an actual tech, not a monkey with a van. Repeat after me: "this is unacceptable." It will probably take you a week to get past the pajeet monkeys on the support line to escalate it to someone who can get anything done.
    Four, "Come fix this shit or I'm going to rip it all out and leave it in the street and get (competitor). Lie. They don't know. You can get sat internet service, or an ISDN line. Lie. They do. The "tech" straight up lied to you that you needed to find the box.
    There are times in life that you need to release your inner rage monster butthole. This is one of them. I've dealt with Spectrum, trust, it's time.

    >Secondly, he had a full work van. Is there not something that can be connected to one end of the connection and "sniff" the cable out to find its location enroute to the box, then the pole?

    No.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Hey man I see locators for communications use locating wands all the time. One end connects to the line you're locating and a ground, then you use the wand to pick up the signal.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Here's one right now, wand in one hand, spray paint in the other.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Call a bluestake and ask the locator for spectrum to help you out and explain your situation. It will likely be a contractor and it would be simple for him to mark where your line is. Anyone else here ever do excavations? I'm sitting on an emergency bluestake right now.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    OP here, gonna call spectrum with the rage of a 1000 suns to come solve this shit, I’ll threaten getting satellite internet

    If that doesn’t work I’ll call 811 to come wand, the property

    Really appreciate you all

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    i had a lot of problems with my internet connection because of the cables in the neighborhood
    So i got starlink, it costs 50 eur a month and it works flawlessly. I get around 150 Mbps

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      How's the upload speed? About 12-15 years ago I had satellite internet, it was great for downloading because it was getting data from a big powerful satellite transmitter, but the upload was awful since that relied on the limited transmit power of the little dish on the roof.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        The upload is around 25Mbps

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Cable internet typically has ass upload speeds compared to download speeds, and it's probably for the same technical reason as why the satellite uploads were slow. Both coax and wireless are shared medium with no switching, so anything transmitting back to the central station (or satellite) has to wait for its window to transmit among all other subscribers. Download speeds are higher because only the central station is transmitting, and the receivers only listed to what traffic is meant for them.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          It depends on how good your local cable company is. Docsis 3.1 can get fast upload and new specs are coming out that can handle symmetrical easier. Similar idea to how they figured out how to pump terrabits out of fiber just by wavelength management they are getting better at managing rf and moving what are called "remote phy devices" closer and closer to your house and having them serve fewer and fewer customers.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >"remote phy devices"
            this is fascinating, I had no idea such an analog-digital-analog chain would exist or terminate that close to the subscribers like that.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    > I have no idea where the cord terminates to a box in my yard,
    It SHOULD be on a WALL facing the closest powerline, or following the power line from your house.

    >Should it be their responsibility to find this cable on my property?
    Do you WANT some rando wandering around your property looking for something neither of you know what it looks like?

    > Is there not something that can be connected to one end of the connection and "sniff" the cable out
    You have to be within touching distance to detect IF there is a signal in the cable like whats done continuity testers for AC current.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >told me I need to go in my yard and find the cord or box between my end point and the telephone pole that their distributor is on.
    no that is his job

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Spectrum
    >Working.
    Ah, OP I found your problem. You expected that company to actually work.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Spectrum sucks, but is the only ISP in my area.

    At my house, their shitty cable goes from a box on the house underground to a tallish vertical green box at the edge of my property that also feeds the neighbor. They didn't bury it properly so I had them come retrench a new one.

    He also did a shitty job burying it and didn't even fill it in, but at least they put a new, more robust cable in the ground. Look for a box similar to picrel, but they are absolutely responsible for finding this thing. Check your property map or plat (or get one from your County Tax Office) and look for the ultility easment. To put these on your property they legally had to carve out an easement, though yours may go through a neighbor's box.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Forgot pic

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    If nothing else works you can call your local dig permit number and all the utility companies will come and spray to mark where their runs are, including cable. Could give you the direction to look for the box. Have you hooked up and tested as close to where it comes in your house as possible? Technically you could even hook up your modem right at the box on your house to see if the same problem happens.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

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