Frequent Disconnects / Slow Internet Speeds -

[quiksilva]

I know that electrical components don't like the heat, and I'm guilty of leaving my leaving modem on 24/7 often in a room without air-conditioning.

Can the source of my internet woes (and perhaps many others) be overheating?

It seems logical that this practice can't be doing the modem any good, but I dont know for sure if this will affect speeds and even cause frequent disconnects, so am hoping someone on here can confirm if thats the case??

If so, what can the home user in Thailand do?

Are there modems better suited to this climate?

Or should I just buy new (again) and only turn them on when I them?

[Pib]

It's possible as many modems have room temperature/humidity operating specs of approx 0-40C and 20-85%. Now please note this is the temp/humidity of the air in the room/around the modem and not inside the modem. The modem with get much warmer as the circuity generates heat and some parts of the circuity could get down right very hot to the touch, but that is normal operation. Kinda like the CPU in a laptop; usually when you touch the area of a laptop underwhich the CPU is located you will notice the laptop is very warm...and if you were able to touch the CPU directly you would probably burn your finger.

If the temp is steady in a room (cool, warm or hot) the modem will reach normal operating temperature after about 20 minutes and if it's a heat problem the modem should start acting up within the first hour or so. For testing purposes, you could try letting a fan blow on the modem to cool it down. If the modem works good when cooled down then you might want to go buy yourself one of those small black cooling fans (approx 35-200Baht) that come in a variety of sizes and operating voltages (i.e., 5VDC, 12VDC, 24VDC, etc) and buy a cheap power adapter (like a 12VDC adapter for around 150 Baht)) and rig the fan to suck out of or blow onto the top of the modem.

But IMHO, your problem is more likely to be a bad physical phone/DSL line (i.e., high attenuation/low signal to noise). Cheers and good luck.

[siamect]

It's possible as many modems have room temperature/humidity operating specs of approx 0-40C and 20-85%. Now please note this is the temp/humidity of the air in the room/around the modem and not inside the modem. The modem with get much warmer as the circuity generates heat and some parts of the circuity could get down right very hot to the touch, but that is normal operation. Kinda like the CPU in a laptop; usually when you touch the area of a laptop underwhich the CPU is located you will notice the laptop is very warm...and if you were able to touch the CPU directly you would probably burn your finger.

If the temp is steady in a room (cool, warm or hot) the modem will reach normal operating temperature after about 20 minutes and if it's a heat problem the modem should start acting up within the first hour or so. For testing purposes, you could try letting a fan blow on the modem to cool it down. If the modem works good when cooled down then you might want to go buy yourself one of those small black cooling fans (approx 35-200Baht) that come in a variety of sizes and operating voltages (i.e., 5VDC, 12VDC, 24VDC, etc) and buy a cheap power adapter (like a 12VDC adapter for around 150 Baht)) and rig the fan to suck out of or blow onto the top of the modem.

But IMHO, your problem is more likely to be a bad physical phone/DSL line (i.e., high attenuation/low signal to noise). Cheers and good luck.

Well written...

For normal operation an ambient temp of 40C would not be a problem.

20 years ago they say 10C increase in temperature would cut the life of a component in half so from being able to run fro 100 years you are down in 50... at the same time they said that transients in temperature is more destructive than the temperature itself which I'm prepared to believe.

What does this translate to? Keep the thing on all the time... there is hownever a problem with capacitors that tend to dry out... I have seen this problems on motherboards and in powersupplies. Server hardware usually have better quality capacitors...

Another thing that I think is a problem is dust... computers are... well take a look inside... modems are probably less exposed but more difficult to clean out. Dust reduces the airflow and increases the temp...

Solderings on the PCB are also a source of problems due to corrosion and there may also be short-circuits due to a phenomenon that cuases the solder to grow small "roots" ... really odd stuff.

I have my Belkin from 2006 on all the time and I have doors/windows open all the time... the wind is salty... My old desktop computer case was rusting away...

Martin

Edited August 25, 2010 by siamect

[trogers]

Disconnects and slow speed. May be due to overheating, but may also be due to disruption of signals. Sources of such disruption can be electromagnetic interference emitted by some nearby device such as phone set, speakers, and even the router. Another possibility is coiled up excess length of signal or power cables.

[garyh]

Log into your modem and have a look at the statistics etc. Modems are a lot less likely to be affected by dust as they don't have fans sucking air through them.

[Pib]

I totally agree the mentioned devices can possibly interfere with each other, but at the same time my own personal experience over the years has found this to be a low occurrence problem (I've never had the problem) where the wireless transmission of a wireless router or cordless phone (if a person happens to have cordless phone nearby) interfere with each other or the DSL/cable modem. Plus, a wireless router and modem are expected to be placed close together/side by side.

But to play it safe, a person can set the frequencies of the wireless router and cordless phone (if having a cordless) to different frequencies to help insure no interference. And yes, a bluetooth device could possibly interfere with a wireless modem but I've never had the problem. Over the past ten years or so, I've always had my DSL/cable modem, wireless router, a cordless phone, and a VOIP adapter setting side by side. This was usually driven by where the cable/phone outlets were in the house. And I have such a setup right now for the past two years with no problems. "But" there is indeed the possibly the devices could interfere with each depending on the design sheilding built-in, but IMHO the possibility is on the low side.

Edited August 25, 2010 by Pib

[quiksilva]

Thank you some great replies, Pib I'll be sure to test the modem's performance with a fan.

This is all based on the advice (or should I say excuse?) from TOT's engineer claiming that my usage and a hot room were to blame as they were unable to find any physical faults with the line.

[spacemunk]

Thank you some great replies, Pib I'll be sure to test the modem's performance with a fan.

This is all based on the advice (or should I say excuse?) from TOT's engineer claiming that my usage and a hot room were to blame as they were unable to find any physical faults with the line.

samething 3BB told me , went to the extent of changing new lines and still get the same crap.

paying for a 10mb line and im getting 0.5mb speeds and dropouts

[tezzaaa]

If u leave in an area where there is other wireless modem they could be conflicting with yours if using the same radio channel...try to check that out... there's a software called WiFi analyser for android phones... try to find pc equivalent..

Cheers

[quiksilva]

Thanks its not actually the wifi signal that has the problem, rather it is the internet connection itself. The modem's ADSL light remains on, but Internet light fluctuates from stable to flashing and occasionally (and with increasing frequency) disconnects.

[dddave]

Thank you some great replies, Pib I'll be sure to test the modem's performance with a fan.

This is all based on the advice (or should I say excuse?) from TOT's engineer claiming that my usage and a hot room were to blame as they were unable to find any physical faults with the line.

I was having the same problems and it turned out to be my (very old) desktop computer and not my modem.

Although I had periodically cleaned my computer, I had never unscrewed the cooling fan from the processor itself. A friend suggested I do that and when I did, I found all the heat sinks packed with lint and dust. Once it was cleaned and cooling properly, all the problems went away.

[iono]

Thank you some great replies, Pib I'll be sure to test the modem's performance with a fan.

This is all based on the advice (or should I say excuse?) from TOT's engineer claiming that my usage and a hot room were to blame as they were unable to find any physical faults with the line.

Oh this is TOT techs telling you this, well then here is my advice, look for a new provider as they are a very F'd up ISP, they jam pack their circuits with customers, complain loud enough and they will put you on a new circuit, once they find out you are happy and satisfied they will put you back on the crowded circuit....you will never get the speed up or down promised....I actually complained at the beginning when my services went to hel_l, now I accept the fact that they have incompetent management trying to save a buck....I"m actually looking at getting my own dish and with the ISP out of the country....rant, rant, rant...there is nothing wrong with your equipment nor spurious emissions degrading your signal

[siamect]

Thanks its not actually the wifi signal that has the problem, rather it is the internet connection itself. The modem's ADSL light remains on, but Internet light fluctuates from stable to flashing and occasionally (and with increasing frequency) disconnects.

Soo

Do you have more than one computer, same problem?

Do you have the same problem with wired connection as you have with the Wifi?

What speed does your modem connect with and does it match the speed you pay for> something like this: Data Rate Down/Up 11771Kb/610Kb

Does you modem have any signal to noise ratio that you can read out? (anyone who knows the numbers please give a hint because I don't know what it should be and my modem doesn't tell me...)

EDIT:

found it http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/433293

The following may help. It is not my research but was posted some weeks ago by someone whom I neglected to identify.

Noise Margin (AKA Signal to Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio)

Relative strength of the DSL signal to Noise ratio. The higher the number the better for this measurement. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below is bad and will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems

7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions

11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems* (but see note below)

20dB-28dB is excellent

29dB or above is outstanding

* Note that there may be short term bursts of noise that may drop the margin, but due to the sampling time of the management utility in your modem, will not show up in the figures.

Line Attenuation

Measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB the better for this measurement.

20dB and below is outstanding

20dB-30dB is excellent

30dB-40dB is very good

40dB-50dB is good

50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues

60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues

Martin

Edited August 29, 2010 by siamect

[lomatopo]

TRUE also offers the "overheating of the modem" as a stock excuse for line problems. I would consider overheating as a cause of your problems after having looked at maybe a hundred other possibilities.

Did this modem ever provide acceptable service?

If so, when did it degrade?

Can you share the modem details (manufacturer, model no. hardware and firmware levels)?

Who is the ISP? What service level do you have?

Can you borrow a different modem to try?

What you'll need to do is gather, and share (if you want to) the line statistics. That would be the first place to look.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

Does the ISP confirm your frequent disconnects?

You might also take a look at the modems activity log to see if anything unusual jumps out.

DSL CPE (your modem) are designed to run 24/7; unless you have a blast furnace in your room I'd discount high operating temperatures as a cause of your issue(s).

[willyumcr]

For what it is worth. For six months I have been cursing TOT. Every 3 days or so I would get red light on modem (Internet). Last for a day or so and then come back. Lately had all green lights on modem but so slow could not connect to sites however I had Skype. Go figure. I finally got TOT to come out and check out the problem. There was no problem with TOT up to the building. I got maintenance in building and TOT and they checked out lines to my apartment. Sure enough there was a bad wire in building. It was fixed and now I have excellent service. Just checked speedtest.net and had 2.97 download. For one week now no problems. Also checked with other people and no problems with TOT. So.........It has been a problem all along with the building line and not TOT. This was checked out with TOT person so I take back all my negative rants about TOT.

[Lost in LOS]

get a fan and blow it on the modem and see if it fixes your problem. then you will know if it is overheating or not. You have to start somewhere and eliminate things

[roc634]

My ADSL modem and wireless router are always on 24/7. The modem always works properly, but the router do halt once in a while. However, this may happen once or two in a month and what I need to do is restart it in less than 30 seconds. Most of this situation happened when I downloaded with full speed (220+KB/s), so I think it is just because it can not handle heavy duty.

[Pib]

For what it is worth. For six months I have been cursing TOT. Every 3 days or so I would get red light on modem (Internet). Last for a day or so and then come back. Lately had all green lights on modem but so slow could not connect to sites however I had Skype. Go figure. I finally got TOT to come out and check out the problem. There was no problem with TOT up to the building. I got maintenance in building and TOT and they checked out lines to my apartment. Sure enough there was a bad wire in building. It was fixed and now I have excellent service. Just checked speedtest.net and had 2.97 download. For one week now no problems. Also checked with other people and no problems with TOT. So.........It has been a problem all along with the building line and not TOT. This was checked out with TOT person so I take back all my negative rants about TOT.

Physical lines problems which cause high attenuation (high is bad; low is good) and low signal to noise (low is bad; high is good) probably cause the great majority of DSL disconnects and low sync speeds. Numerous posts on ThaiVisa give specifics on what are good or bad values and how to get the values. And as you found out, the phone company's line up to the residence may be fine but the residence wiring is bad which the ISP tech normally can not help you with....it's that final few meters of wiring inside the residence causing the problem. And just switching ISP's who may string a new line to your residence ain't going to fix the residence wiring problem, and more than likely you will have the same disconnects/low sync speed as with the previous ISP since the residence wiring is still faulty.

Folks really need to figure out how to check their phone/DSL line attenuation and SNR values by logging into their modem setup menu and finding the submenu that gives the info. Pretty simple process to do...if a person originally logged into the modem to set up their ISP User ID and Password then a person can also checkout their attenuation/SNR values by logging into their modem and checking the attenuation/SNR under the applicable submenu. At least being armed with this info a person should be able to more intelligently talk with customer service/the technicians by being able to point out a definite problem is. And that one definite problem may be the whole problem.

I've been with TOT for about 5 month now and the service has been 99.99% reliable with good speed 24/7. Fortunately I've got a good line wih low attenuation and high SNR.

[gonzobrains]

It's possible as many modems have room temperature/humidity operating specs of approx 0-40C and 20-85%. Now please note this is the temp/humidity of the air in the room/around the modem and not inside the modem. The modem with get much warmer as the circuity generates heat and some parts of the circuity could get down right very hot to the touch, but that is normal operation. Kinda like the CPU in a laptop; usually when you touch the area of a laptop underwhich the CPU is located you will notice the laptop is very warm...and if you were able to touch the CPU directly you would probably burn your finger.

If the temp is steady in a room (cool, warm or hot) the modem will reach normal operating temperature after about 20 minutes and if it's a heat problem the modem should start acting up within the first hour or so. For testing purposes, you could try letting a fan blow on the modem to cool it down. If the modem works good when cooled down then you might want to go buy yourself one of those small black cooling fans (approx 35-200Baht) that come in a variety of sizes and operating voltages (i.e., 5VDC, 12VDC, 24VDC, etc) and buy a cheap power adapter (like a 12VDC adapter for around 150 Baht)) and rig the fan to suck out of or blow onto the top of the modem.

But IMHO, your problem is more likely to be a bad physical phone/DSL line (i.e., high attenuation/low signal to noise). Cheers and good luck.

Well written...

For normal operation an ambient temp of 40C would not be a problem.

20 years ago they say 10C increase in temperature would cut the life of a component in half so from being able to run fro 100 years you are down in 50... at the same time they said that transients in temperature is more destructive than the temperature itself which I'm prepared to believe.

What does this translate to? Keep the thing on all the time... there is hownever a problem with capacitors that tend to dry out... I have seen this problems on motherboards and in powersupplies. Server hardware usually have better quality capacitors...

Another thing that I think is a problem is dust... computers are... well take a look inside... modems are probably less exposed but more difficult to clean out. Dust reduces the airflow and increases the temp...

Solderings on the PCB are also a source of problems due to corrosion and there may also be short-circuits due to a phenomenon that cuases the solder to grow small "roots" ... really odd stuff.

I have my Belkin from 2006 on all the time and I have doors/windows open all the time... the wind is salty... My old desktop computer case was rusting away...

Martin

I would bet most equipment is obsolete before 50 years. LOL. But yes, bad caps do occur. I have a 24-port switch back home I'm thinking about bringing here for repairs just because the price to replace some bad caps would be minimal here.

gb

[nikster]

But IMHO, your problem is more likely to be a bad physical phone/DSL line (i.e., high attenuation/low signal to noise). Cheers and good luck.

^^^ Yes. That.

If the modem overheated, I am 99% sure it would just crash and or cease functioning. Doing something subtle like disconnecting you or slowing your internet is possible, but very unlikely.

I just called 3BB about frequent disconnects and it turned out they had silently upgraded me to 12Mbit (since they discontinued the 10Mbit package I had been on before). I now believe that that pushed my line over the edge - it can't deliver 12Mbit with the quality it has. I'll wait for the tech to fix this for a few days, and if nothing happens downgrade to 8Mbit and see if that helps.