Short Stories and Fixes

Short Stories and Fixes

Most of the information on this page is contribution from our readers. These situations might prove useful in solving some of your issues if nothing else works, they might give you ideas or just prove an interesting reading, as the title suggests. If you have a story you'd like to share, e-mail us and we will gladly add it to the list... 

PC Subwoofer interferes with Cable Modem

By Larry Schneider (@Home)

I've implemented the performance tweaks from this site and they've brought about a major improvement. As my way of saying "thanks" I'd like to share a short story that might help someone else.

Shortly after I received Comcast @home cable modem service I had difficulty maintaining a connection and when I could throughput was abysmal.  The Level 2 Tech Rep called the modem bad and a Field Engineer was dispatched to replace it.

A few days later I had the problem again.  I spoke with a decent chap at Level 1 Tech Support. I told him the front panel lights on the RCA Digital Broadband Model DCM205 cable modem showed the modem was hung in Ranging state and never advancing to the Connecting state. He told me his network diagnostics indicated packet retransmissions for ~98% of my packets. I asked him what could cause this and he reeled off a litany of possibilities that I dismissed and then he said "electro-magnetic interference". Bingo! I moved the cable modem a few inches further away from the computer's subwoofer and things have been fine ever since.

L. S.

Speakers Interfering with Cable Modem...

By Neana Saylor (@Home)
Networking & Cable Modem SOLVED

We solved our problem with networking our cable modem on two computers. We use TCI's @Home service, and of course, they do not support networking. After three weeks of frustration, twice getting both computers online (we have purchased two IP addresses), and more often NOT getting the second computer online, we finally seem to have stumbled upon the problem. We unplugged all of the peripherals and attached only the keyboard, mouse and network cable. (We did not take cards out of the computer, only left them unplugged in.) Lo and behold! The cable modem worked! So we began plugging in one item at a time, beginning with the least likely things - soundboard speakers and joystick. The cable modem still worked. Since we chose to keep the 56k dial-up modem in case of power problems with the cable modem, we next chose to plug in the telephone line and the speakers that my husband has attached to his dial-up modem. The cable modem no longer worked. So we knew it was something in the modem connection. We then remembered that the dial-up modem received radio signals from a local radio station that went 100mgz a year ago, and the sound comes out of the speakers. So we detached the speakers from the modem, rebooted the computer, and the cable modem now works. It was receiving interference from the radio station. It has been working ever since! I hope this will help at least one person out there.
Good luck!!!

Power Supply Interfering with ADSL

By DonutMan
Cheap PC Power Supply Noise vs. ADSL

A WORD OF WARNING ABOUT CHEAP POWER SUPPLIES!!!!!

I've been having a problem with my wife's computer disconnecting the ADSL connection whenever it is turned on, with the phone line plugged into her modem. I had tried everything else to no avail, so I opened up the power supply in her computer and found that there was absolutely no filtering on the power line whatsoever. I had an old junker power supply from an XT sitting around so I scavenged the filtered power input plug and a couple of inductors which were in series with the power line and put them into her power supply. 
NOW EVERYTHING IS OK!!!
It seems like noise from that power supply was somehow interfering with the modem.