Faulty Electrical causing slow Internet speeds

Hi everyone,

I got big problem, I have Time Warner Cable RoadRunner High Speed Internet Standard 10mbs service in my house (Riverside Ca.) and getting very poor speeds of 400kb/s to 1mb/s down & 550 kb/s up.

TWC Service and Maintenance Techs are speculating it might be rare electrical problem at house causing dramatic drop off in speeds. Here's a run down of what they checked:


11/09
1) Service Tech from TWC came and checked line signal levels from cable, checked good.

2) Checked modem updated firmware, verified with three different modems including his laptop w built in modem, speeds checked equal with all setups around 650kb/s down & 750 kb/s up same as my PC.

3) Bypassed all splitters making a direct run from drop line coming outside of the house to my router directly. Same nothing

4) On driveway of my house Service Tech opened a Pedestal were a outside cable comes from nearby amplifier and checked signal levels, levels on his meter showed they were off.

Tech called Maintenance

1) Maintenance opened amplifier verified all signals with his meter, checked good.

2) Maintenance decided to check internet speeds from his laptop using my modem directly from amplifier connection using power from his trucks generator. Speedtest.net showed 21.85 mb/s down & 1.4 mb/s up excellent!

3) On the other end he checked (pedestal on my driveway) checked speeds the same way, (from cable coming from amp). Speedtest.net showed a big drop off lowly 1.38mb/s down & 700 kb/s up.

4)Maintenance proceeded to replace faceplate (Connection device) from cable coming from amplifier w new one (claiming device can short out from indirect current running through house cable, which can be caused by faulty electrical wiring in house, i.e. back feeding neutral and such etc... He suggested might need Edison to check line outside and electrician inside.

After replacement of faceplate connecting device, checked speeds again from laptop/modem/generator, Speedtest.net show 19.7 mb/s down & 1mb/s up excellent! (proof device shorted out)

5) In pedestal connected back my cable line to the new faceplate connector using another port and rechecked speeds using laptop/modem/generator. Speedtest.net showed a drop off from 19 mb/s down to 8.3 mb/s down.

(Maintenance stated connection of my drop cable running from house was causing other ports to drop off speed. Again, claiming a probable bad current or signal caused from faulty wiring, and that if this is the case faceplate connection device in pedestal could short out again and soon.)

6) Maintenance proceeded to check speeds on the other end of the drop cable (coming out of the ground to house) using Laptop/modem/generator. Speedtest.net showed another drop from 8.3mb/s down 830 kb/s up (from Pedestal) to 5mb/s down & 879kb/s up.

Maintenance requested drop cable replacement to be done in next 36 hours and left.

7)Service Tech and I proceeded to check speeds in my room (hoping for at least 5mb/s speed like end of drop cable ) Not a chance 400kb/s to 600kb/s down & 539kb/s up.

8) last check Service Tech connected a straight cable run from pedestal connection (bypassing bad drop cable) straight to my modem in my room *using power from house. Speedtest.net showed 600 kb/s down 540kb/s up bad speeds. It's looking like an electrical problem.

What's up with that! Can anybody help or had similar problems with electrical power in house dropping internet cable speeds?

I have electrical experience, Your input might help out diagnosing issue

electrical power in house dropping internet cable speeds?

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That is an on/off issue, AFIK. If the cable modem is functioning, then house power is okay.

Your reported issue #4 seems a facile excuse, essentially meaning "I can't fix the problem, but I can cast blame elsewhere". The link between installed coax and house wiring is hard to see.

And someone may know more than I do...

Hello and welcome to AAc.

Must be some house wiring to be worse than a mobile generator.

Do you have a power conditioner of any sort feeding the modem?
Does any other electronic equipment have trouble with your house supply?

studiot, No conditioner of any sort or electronic problems that I know of, will have to check.

However, I decided to run my pc and modem from outside directly from electrical panel using romex cable bypassing my homes electrical circuitry to see if indeed there was a problem with the electrical wiring.

Bingo! ran speedtest and speakeasy benched from 10mb/s down as high as 3.1 mb/s down & 1 mb up.

I kept benching speeds for about 25 minutes then I stopped and returned everything to my room and tested speed went back down to 400kb/s. There something wrong in wiring, what could it be (open neutral, a reverse neutral of some kind back feeding I don't know.

Since you are in the States (I think) I will have to hand over to american electricians who know your wiring better than I.

Every once in a while, I am tempted to say "that cant be happening".

This is one of those cases.... so let's just say that I WISH I was there to see this happening. Because there IS an answer to this, but I can't imagine what it is.

You use a wall wart, right? Does it have a ground (many don't)?

If not then check your line voltage with a DVM, it should be 110-120VAC (be careful here, it is easy to do, but the lines can bite ya). If the voltages are up to snuff, then maybe you need something like a low pass filter (aka, line conditioner) to remove trash from AC line (high frequency signals). If the voltage is low, get back with us.

When you run it from a notebook, NOT connected to power (running on notebook batteries) is the speed the same in both locations?

Or is the issue when your router is plugged in inside or outside?