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Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

bbc.com

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Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#151

Post by newforms »

zimpenfish wrote: post #98
ricardo81 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had an issue with line noise when I moved house. Took a while to figure out but apparently when it rained, I'd lose Internet connection. Took a bit of back and forth with British Telecom to convince them there's an issue after their continual "our tests indicate the line is OK"- if only they tested it when it was raining here! Line got replaced, apparently it was 60 years old. Worked a charm since.

Parents had the same issue with rain before they moved to fibre (which also barely works but eh, at least it barely works reliably.) Seems to be common enough that's it's trope-y.

This was REIN not RAIN, also common enough

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#152

Post by Famicoman »

dt3ft wrote: post #145

Like clockwork at 7? Seems impossible. Who turns on their tv exactly at 7.00 every day? Something does not add up here.

I have a television that's about 20 years old with a built in timer to turn it on. I used it as an alarm clock back in school because I wanted to watch the news every morning anyway and it was much harder to "snooze" than a normal alarm clock.

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#153

Post by generationP »

justin66 wrote: post #118
newsbinator wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comcast wouldn't be able to send anyone out for a month Is there a good explanation for how this can be the case in a developed country?

The invisible hand of the free market did not want anyone there for a month. We all follow the invisible hand (like, instinctively, since it's invisible). You're not questioning the wisdom of the invisible hand, are you?

Pointless bullshit that adds no information to the topic while ignoring some that is already there (note the "about 3 months ago" and try to think of what was happening in various fields of work at that time).

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#154

Post by tonyhb »

dt3ft wrote: post #145

Like clockwork at 7? Seems impossible. Who turns on their tv exactly at 7.00 every day? Something does not add up here.

Older generations that use TV magazines to plan their schedule.

This old TV doesn't have chromecast or netflix built in for on demand streaming

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#155

Post by popotamonga »

LeonM wrote: post #74
popotamonga wrote: post #67

Everytime i turn on my fan, my computer screen goes black for 2 seconds, only when used on same outlet.

That's not RF interference, but a phenomenon known as brownout [0]. When the fan spins up it draws more power, this causes the voltage to drop at the outlet, which causes the powersupply in the monitor to (temporarily) shut down. Normally, this shouldn't happen. So either the monitor is badly designed or old (the capacitors may have dried out), or you have a wiring issue in your house. The latter is a fire hazard. Yo…

Weird its a newish monitor 1 yr, also the pc is connected there and no issue. The one not usual thing is that they are all connected to a tplink powerline. ill try without the powerline.

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#156

Post by capableweb »

dt3ft wrote: post #145

Like clockwork at 7? Seems impossible. Who turns on their tv exactly at 7.00 every day? Something does not add up here.

Why it seems impossible? If you're a fan of a show that starts at 7:00 every day but you don't care about other shows before that, you'd end up in that pattern.

Even without watching scheduled TV, if you have a normal day things usually follow the same pattern. Finish work at 17:00, arrive home at 17:30 and all chores done by 19:00, time to watch TV!

Doesn't seem too impossible.

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#157

Post by throwanem »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #123
throwanem wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be done deliberately. If anything, it's an example of how electricity's invisibility and sometimes very counterintuitive behavior make it never wholly trustworthy, no matter how we've come to rely on it. I wouldn't change that reliance on a bet! Electrical power infrastructure is the most revolutionary human application of energy since the discovery of fire. But, like fire, there's only so far you ever wa…

I agree that electricity has unintuitive behaviour though it is trustworthy, at least as far as you would trust a water system, if one understands why electricity doesn’t behave the same as water.

You can see water. It's a lot less potentially lethal, too.

I understand how electricity works well enough to handle it safely - and, at least as important, to know when I can't handle it safely and it's time to call in a professional - but that's not the same as trusting it. Honestly, it's a lot more the same as not trusting it. I can and do prototype line-voltage filament LED lamp designs on my bench without a problem, but I think more than anything else it's maintaining a lively awareness of the danger involved that helps there not be a problem.

What's really scary is stuff that's as dangerous as those prototypes and doesn't look it - a condition that I think only ionizing radiation excels electricity in making it possible to create. All anyone has to do is screw up wiring an appliance with exposed metal parts, and the whole thing can be live at potentially lethal mains voltage - and I'll freely admit that having had my batteries very unpleasantly charged that way once, thanks to a miswired ceiling fan, strongly informs my perspective on the subject.

As with fire, so with electricity: an indispensably useful servant, but also an ineluctably dangerous one, to be regarded with respectful mistrust at all times lest a moment's carelessness end in tragedy.

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#158

Post by lozf »

jayflux wrote: post #25
DanBC wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK we've got two levels: the ISPs (who don't put cable or fibre in the ground) and the network (who don't provide ISP services but do maintain the cables / fibre). In this example customers would have been calling their ISP to complain, and having to go through the layers of escalation. Also, it's a pretty remote location. Lots of rural areas in the UK have terrible Internet. I think this is the area in Google…

> In the UK we've got two levels: the ISPs (who don't put cable or fibre in the ground) and the network (who don't provide ISP services but do maintain the cables / fibre). Mostly true, I believe Virgin put their own cables in the ground, and younger companies like hyperoptic.

More or less, but Virgin inherited most of their legacy fibre from the likes of Telewest, NTL / Cable & Wireess, Vidoetron, & Cable London.

These days the Virgin name is just about brand recognition.

Re: Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months

#159

Post by cm2187 »

mercora wrote: post #137
cm2187 wrote: post #101

I had something similar in my previous flat. The phone cable was going through the living room under the wooden floor, and passing right underneath my big plasma TV. Every time the TV would display a big white screen, the DSL would disconnect (you can imagine the experience of playing games online). Problem went away when I replaced it with an LED TV.

are you really sure the problem was caused by the TV and not just exposed by it?

I have not pulled the wires out of the floor if it is your question. But the fact that the plasma's interference was causing the disconnection was reproduceable. But I am sure the wires were old / in bad state as was the general state of broadband in London 5 years ago (and still today).
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