🚀 go-pugleaf

"Warren H." <wholzem@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<ScyP7.224$w85.15314@rwcrnsc54>...
> If the cable light is out, you have no RF signal.

I'm sure I have a solid RF signal at the cable modem. I swapped the
modem for a TV and get a good, clear signal on all channels. I even
plugged my digital cable receiver into the line at the cable modem
connector and I get a good signal there. Digital cable doesn't work at
all if there's any problem on the cable, but that's not the case here.

My cable installation is somewhat unusual, however. When I first had
@Home installed by TCI almost 4 years ago, they couldn't get enough
signal strength at the cable modem. They replaced the coax run to the
neighborhood junction box, but said the line was too long for a good
signal. They eventually put in a two-way amplifier in the cable line
where it enters the house and the original Motorola (non-DOCSIS) modem
I had then synced with the network and worked fine for 2 years.

Last year @Home switched to DOCSIS modems and an AT&T tech came out
and replaced the Motorola modem with an RCA DCM205 modem. He had
problems getting it to sync with the system and found that the signal
strength was *too high* at the modem. He put a 9dB attenuator in-line
with the cable modem and then everything came up fine. This setup
worked solidly for 1-1/2 years until @Home pulled the plug last
Saturday.

When ATTBI restored service on Tuesday, my modem had problems
connecting, as described in my original post. I changed nothing on my
end. Cable TV still worked fine, including digital cable, which is
very sensitive to problems on the line. I tried removing the 9dB
attenuator from the line--no go. I tried substituting a 6dB
attenuator--no go. I tried unplugging power to the amplifier in the
garage--no go (doing this had a negative effect on digital cable
TV--it stopped working entirely). Nothing I tried worked, so I put
everything back the way it had been.

Up until last night, the modem would at least initialize and I'd see
the activity light flicker, even though I couldn't connect to the
network (cable light not lit). The ATTBI support techs claim they
could "see" my modem on the network and that the provisioning appeared
to be ok. Last night, I noticed that the modem was constantly running
through its initialization sequence (lights one-by-one blinking in
sequence until all were blinking). It never got out of this mode, and
was still doing it this morning. Digital cable is fine as is analog TV
when I plug the cable modem connection into the TV system.

This is getting very frustrating and ATTBI "customer support" has a
different non-answer depending on who I talk too.

Anyone know if the AT&T field techs who service AT&T's cable Internet
are the same as the ones who service cable TV? If they are, perhaps I
can get a tech out to my house faster on the pretext that my cable TV
service is down.