Question for Phone Teck or Larry the cable guy?

I don't have a landline anymore at my place in the south. I still have high speed internet which takes spells of not working, especially after a good rain which we just had. By the time the Teck gets here days later it's working again. Yes we reset modem many times. Somes internet wakes up. This morning it didn't.

About a year ago I found this meter where my phone line was connected at my other place in the north. I no longer have either landline or internet on this property.

Last time Phone teck was out at place in south, I watched what he did and asked question. He connected my meter and it works same as his. He said I need a 20+ on stress.

This morning internet went to sleep. I connected my meter where phone teck connected his. Zero on the stress test. A few seconds later, meter starts making a data sound, similar to a dial tone. My internet woke up and started working.

Turning modem off is called a hard reset. Is connecting this meter to phone line acting like a hard reset too? Any idea why meter woke up my internet? Any idea what it takes to fix my problem permanently?

I'll try again to download pic.

Geo, are you using the meter outside the house where the phone line goes into the box? Make sure the ground wire is intact, my dad had problems after he weed whacked the ground wire off....

(quoted from post at 09:04:55 12/02/18)I still have high speed internet which takes spells of not working, especially after a good rain which we just had. By the time the Teck gets here days later it's working again.

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I had a tech explain to me years ago that even the silicone (waterPROOF) connectors that are meant for use underground and in wet areas will often fail after time. It may be that wire insulation is compromised, and that when moisture is present, the moisture invades the insulation and shorts/grounds out.

There's something more going on than your tech wants to admit, or maybe something he never learned. Your connection should be good in wet weather as it is in dry. The ONLY time that isn't the case is when you have to rely on a wireless signal. Anything hard-wired should be good all the time.

Since you say the problem happens after a good rain, that (to me) suggests the problem is exposed to the elements, and is likely their responsibility rather than yours.

Outside and inside, same reading after I wake it up.

We are about 20,000 ft away from phone place. That's in excess of the acceptable range. So it like complain too much and no internet service in the country.

I'm only guessing at the following. It takes a low resistance for modem to shake hands with phone company. Like a phone connect it to the line, it takes a certain resistance for you to get a dial tone. The extended phone wire adds too resistance. The meter may have less resistance than modem and meter wakes up phone company system.

I have a place in garage where there is an old phone interface box with a ground wire to connect to. Easy for me to connect meter. Have to experiment to see if meter wakes up internet next time it fails.

Need someone to explain what the meter is measuring on the stress mode which is measuring db.

Well, at least you HAVE land lines nearby. No hard wires anywhere near us! We're totally at the mercy of cellular....and even with that, the nearest cellular tower is 30 miles away!

Sounds like there may be a faulty splice/connection somewhere. I found this at sandman.com: "Some of their test equipment will "stress test" the line, which puts out a pretty high voltage/current to try to cure problems with a copper cable."

This link has an explanation of the meter you have.
https://www.datacomtools.com/store/tempo-sidekick.htm
Good find! Note the price. The noise you hear is a test tone sent by the meter itself. Probably 1004hz

If you have DSL, the problem is likely in the equipment, not the wire. But, it could be a high resistance connection that is jolted by the test tone

WOW, $1029 for meter. That is some find.
Thanks for the post. Guess I may need to read up on how to use it so I can pass it along to phone teck.

When it rains or gets foggy my land line does not work. techs come out many times, we got it fixed now. No ya don't fella. Good thing I am not connected to that for my p.c.

George,Here it is
Meter

WOW this meter is worth even more. I guess I'll keep it.

I'm only guessing that my first assumption was correct. Meter adds a load to a line that is longer than it should be for high speed internet, longer meaning it has more impedance than there should be. Meter's stress test tells phone company to send a message for modem to wake up. That would account for hearing something like a dial tone when I connected the meter. Again this is only a guess. Need to pick the brains of next serviceman from phone company that comes out to work on it.

(quoted from post at 16:28:42 12/02/18) WOW this meter is worth even more. I guess I'll keep it.
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$295 on ebay.

Hello:
I have almost 22 years in the telecommunication industry as a tech. I think I can explain whats happening with your service. First the meter you found is called a sidekick made by tempo research. It is nothing more than an analog volt ohms meter. I have have one in my tool kit right now. There is nothing in the central office to "wake up", the meter is only showing the health of the line. There are 3 possible reasons I can think of that will cause the issue your experiencing. 1 you are crossed with another line. 2 you have a ground on your line. 3 you have a high resistance open on your line. All of these can and usually are caused by wet weather and poor insulation in the main phone cable. From what you describe there is almost no chance the problem is your equipment or the office equipment. The 20 stress reading is just a benchmark test. The better the number the less noise there is on the line the better the service will be. All three problems i listed will induce noise onto your line and kill your service. At 20,000 feet, which is about 10,000 feet longer than is should be, it dosent take much to ruin your service. The longer the line is the more resistance there will naturally be, so any trouble on the line only acts to amplify that resistance. As the phone cable ages the insulation starts to crack and flake off, just like old tractor wiring, leaving bare copper with no insulation to protect it. introduce water into the equation and bingo you have no service. The problem is there are tons of places for water to intrude into an aging cable over 20,000 feet. The phone company isn't going to invest in new cable to fix the issue, and the tech wont be given the time to properly repair or replace all that wire. So the tech is left with patching it up best he can, and your left with no service in wet weather. Now the reason the meter seems to help your situation is because that meter will put a low to moderate pule of voltage on the line when it is switched to the stress test which can temporally close a high resistance open, but its not fixing anything. In a few hours, days, or next rain the high resistance open will reappear and cause you trouble once again. Grounds and crosses will go away when the moisture does since there is no longer a path to ground, they will reappear as soon as the rain does. The answer to your problem is to put your phone company on speed dial and make come out every time your service acts up. eventually they wont like the man hours and material costs and might actually fix the problem. I hope this explanation helps. Good luck.

Forgot to mention. The stress test on that meter is measuring noise in decibels that's all. The meter reading you show in your picture is not telling you anything unless you have taken to line apart at the interface box on the side of your house. The high reading your getting is the modem in your house trying to connect. That is also the noise you hear from the meter, the modem in your house sending a signal trying to connect. You cant have active equipment on and get a reading that tell you anything other than hey there is equipment on the line.

It used to be that a true landline phone was hardwired in, so even if the power went out, your landline phone continued to work. Now the cable and satellite providers have bundled so many people that their phones are not true landlines anymore. They actually work through a modem, router or a tower, so anytime there is a power disruption, it messes up your phone, and has to be reset. P.I.T.A.

(quoted from post at 14:14:56 12/02/18)

We are about 20,000 ft away from phone place. That's in excess of the acceptable range. So it like complain too much and no internet service in the country.

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What language is that or what were you really trying to say?

Thanks for your explanation.
I've watch a Youtube video explaining the functions of sidekick. I need to let it soak in, watch it a few more times and run some test .

If my modem is giving me a stress level over 60 does that mean there is an open somewhere?

Is the sound I hear on meter coming from modem?

As for speed dialing phone company think again. It takes forever for them to answer if they answer at all.

Problem is intermittent. Sometimes it lasts for days and always working by the time service man shows up. He can't find anything wrong. So I may need to find problem. Take a Pic of meter reading and then see what happens. The meter does seem to jump start modem.
Thanks.

drawing current through the line will actually slowly improve the bad or wet connections. By using the meter, you "dried" you line a bit, or enough that the ac and dc loss decreased enough for the modem to sync up with the vrad. Also as the connections improve, the line becomes more balanced between the pairs and this GREATLY reduces the ac noise or hum from the power circuits, so the noise level drops down so the modem can now sync up. I have the same problem, but still have a phone on the line, so I can help get it back up by taking the phone off the hook several times and or calling the line to put the ring current on the line. I am suspecting your doing the same with the meter or sidekick. A sealing current is the same phenomenon. It keeps connections sealed or at low impedance.

The modem giving you a high stress reading is normal and does not indicate any trouble at all. It should give a high stress reading since it is sending out an audible tone (noise) to try to connect to the equipment in the central office.

Yes the sound you here on the meter is the audible tone from the modem. ( Think of the sound you here when a FAX machine tried to connect, same principal).

You have to disconnect the modem ( unplug the telephone line from the back of it) then go to the interface box on the side of the house. there should be two posts on the inside that the incoming line attaches to. Disconnect them. Now you can begin to use that meter. The sidekick is know as a kick meter once you have the tip ring and ground wires attached you flip the rev switch bac and forth slowly and watch the needle deflection this gives you distance of the wire. Simply looking a the needle with out touching anything will show you a short depending on needle position ( basically if the needle deflects on its own there is a short. The farther the needle goes the harder the short is). If you push up on either the tip or ring lever you are know looking at that wire only and if the needle deflects you have a ground. Again the farther the needle deflects the worse the trouble is. I like you use the Rx 10,000 setting for these tests because its like using a microscope on that line and it will show slight trouble the other setting will miss.


As far as getting ahold of the phone company my best suggestion is the next time you have a repairman out get his bossed name and number and call him directly. You can usually get better quicker response that way if hes any kind of boss at all he can and should get a repair man to you quickly.


The intermittent trouble is absolutely a sign of water intrusion in the cable. The reason the guy cant find the trouble is because the water has dried up by the time he gets there. More than likely the problem is a ground caused by water. You have to get the repairman there when its happening. As far a fixing it you self, if the trouble is on the phone company side of the interface box you cant go after it. They own the wire and they fix it. If the trouble is on your side of the interface box, ( could be but very doubtful) then go for it.

You nailed it. That's exactly whats happening when hes putting that meter on the line. The problem is his service is degraded to a point that hes well beyond the old" put a little current on it trick". I needs to be isolated and repaired.

When I got dsl here a little over a year ago it would lose connection at random and reconnect at random. They put me on a different twisted pair. It helped but not fix it. Now I have a landline so the phone signal was on the same line. They finally separated the dsl from the phoneline. NO problems since.

I know you have only dsl, but ask if they can put your line on a different twisted pair.