Can anyone explain how rain is linked to internet dropping out?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Nearly every time it rains, my Livebox drops off the net and I have to unplug it and plug it in again. When this happens I check the line with my phone (to see if the dial tone is gone and it never is).

So what's going on? How can a bit of rain stop the liveboxes connection yet have a perfectly operating phone line?

Very curious. Many ta's.

[andyh4]

Can't explain except that ours is the other way around - no phone but the livebox and Skype still work.

[Anton Redman]

Telephone and Internet use different frequncies down the same wire. May be that damp partically earths the 50 volts on the 'phone line and therefore drops the box out. First stage for would me would be to check the state of connections to the house.

[Martin963]

All I can suggest is that somewhere between you and the exchange there is a connection that is getting damp,  and that when this happens its ability to pass radio signals around 1 MHz (1,000,000 cycles per second) becomes impaired,  thus slowing down and/or stopping your ADSL.      

Whereas good old baseband (ie no radio carriers) for your telephone whacks its way through regardless.  

When you do get it to reconnect is the ADSL running slower while the rain lasts?

Having said that it's also possible (I would have thought) for the effect to happen the other way round;   for example I've seen a case where a broken contact on a TV distribution system allowed the higher frequency UHF signals across with next to no attenuation but stopped the VHF/FM signals dead in their tracks.

But it does seem very odd and I'm by no means entirely convinced by my own arguments here!

(We crossed again Anton!)

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="Martinwatkins"]
Having said that it's also possible (I would have thought) for the effect to happen the other way round;   for example I've seen a case where a broken contact on a TV distribution system allowed the higher frequency UHF signals across with next to no attenuation but stopped the VHF/FM signals dead in their tracks.

(We crossed again Anton!)
[/quote]

How interesting. In my West Midlands village at the moment we have a severe problem with ADSL: it disappears sometimes for several hours at a time every day. At least 30 houses are affected, including several who rely on the internet for their businesses. BT Outreach tell us that it is due to a Samsung tv whose owner refuses to do anything about it because he does not have a computer and as far as he is concerned the tv is working satisfactorily. Data Protection legislation prevents the owner being identified. Stalemate! There are mutterings about going to the press ... and Watchdog.

Anyway, it would seem that if you are near the limits of a copper local loop (about 5 or 6 km) the high frequency component of ADSL is vulnerable to interference from many sources.

[powerdesal]

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Nearly every time it rains, my Livebox drops off the net and I have to unplug it and plug it in again. When this happens I check the line with my phone (to see if the dial tone is gone and it never is).

So what's going on? How can a bit of rain stop the liveboxes connection yet have a perfectly operating phone line?

Very curious. Many ta's.[/quote]

Exactly the same in our area, or rather on our line (only our line), rain = no internet but phone ok.

Net was off from Saturday AM till midday Monday. I put it down to our line being old, decrepit and with poor insulation - what to do?????

[woolybanana]

Well, where I used to live we could see the covering hanging off the cable; even the FT engineers said it would get damp and bugger itself up eventually. So, suggest you start by replacing the telephone cable for a few miles.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="powerdesal"][quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Nearly every time it rains, my Livebox drops off the net and I have to unplug it and plug it in again. When this happens I check the line with my phone (to see if the dial tone is gone and it never is).

So what's going on? How can a bit of rain stop the liveboxes connection yet have a perfectly operating phone line?

Very curious. Many ta's.[/quote]

Exactly the same in our area, or rather on our line (only our line), rain = no internet but phone ok.

Net was off from Saturday AM till midday Monday. I put it down to our line being old, decrepit and with poor insulation - what to do?????

[/quote]

Mon dieu! That's a long time. Ours goes off, I reset it, it's ok for 30 mns, drops off again and so on until the rain stops.

Typically, it always seems to start raining when I want to stream a football match.

[andyh4]

Martin / Anton

your explanations certainly make sense in my case since our line between the house and the telephone pole has a break which has been professionally repaired with a chocolate block connector!

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Thanks for the scientific answers. At least I have an idea why it happens now.

[Anton Redman]

[quote user="andyh4"]

Martin / Anton

your explanations certainly make sense in my case since our line between the house and the telephone pole has a break which has been professionally repaired with a chocolate block connector!

[/quote]

Hi Tech - You are lucky neighbours had theirs rejoined with sticky backed plastic

[Baz]

This topic has solved a problem for me as I now realise that I suffer my drop outs moistly when it is raining. The biggest annoyance and time waster was that to get reconnected I had to close down my computer before I could reconnect. However, just by chance yesterday I found a quick method to reconnect, all I had to  do was remove the USB lead from the modem and then replace it back in.

Baz

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Baz"]

This topic has solved a problem for me as I now realise that I suffer my drop outs moistly when it is raining. The biggest annoyance and time waster was that to get reconnected I had to close down my computer before I could reconnect. However, just by chance yesterday I found a quick method to reconnect, all I had to  do was remove the USB lead from the modem and then replace it back in.

Baz

[/quote]

Is that a deliberate pun? [:)]

[Martin963]

The other thing that occurs to me to add is that I'm sure I read somewhere that the propagation of radio waves can be affected if the cable (even if insulated properly) is wet.    Presumably all sorts of capacitive and inductive effects could come into play....

So I just wonder whether a long wet cable,  itself not designed to carry anything much above 5 kHz,   can become a lot less efficient when called upon to transmit signals in the 500 - 1100 kHz range.    In which case no amount of waterproofing of connections is going to make a difference (although obviously it's good practice)

[powerdesal]

[quote user="Baz"]

This topic has solved a problem for me as I now realise that I suffer my drop outs moistly when it is raining. The biggest annoyance and time waster was that to get reconnected I had to close down my computer before I could reconnect. However, just by chance yesterday I found a quick method to reconnect, all I had to  do was remove the USB lead from the modem and then replace it back in.

Baz

[/quote]

Its not the computer that drops off but the live box, goes to a flashing red led which tells us its trying to resynchronise(?????) but can't lock on.

Woolies suggestion would be a good one but................

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="powerdesal"][quote user="Baz"]This topic has solved a problem for me as I now realise that I suffer my drop outs moistly when it is raining. The biggest annoyance and time waster was that to get reconnected I had to close down my computer before I could reconnect. However, just by chance yesterday I found a quick method to reconnect, all I had to  do was remove the USB lead from the modem and then replace it back in.

Baz[/quote]

Its not the computer that drops off but the live box, goes to a flashing red led which tells us its trying to resynchronise(?????) but can't lock on.

Woolies suggestion would be a good one but................

[/quote]

Sometimes when the livebox falls off and comes back on again I have to disable and re-enable the wifi on my computer for it to reconnect.

[AnOther]

I have noise on my line intermittently. After a decent rain it's quite noticeable but even at other times there's often a bit of crackling to be heard.

My synchronisation speed varies from as low as 3.5mb to well over 6mb but I'm actually on a 2mb package which is exactly that, a flat line solid 2mb when downloading, so I've learnt to live with it.

I've had a couple of stabs at FT to do something about it but I'm sure they learnt all they know about customer service from BT [:'(]