Be careful when increasing your DSL speed!

Hi all,

Last week I decided to try out a higher DSL speed at my home, which
went into effect the other day.  I could immediately notice the difference --
much less computer tolerance, and also I'm bothered by any part of the
house that has a phone jack nearby (also probably any place in the house
that has phone wiring in the walls nearby).

My temporary fix is to simply unplug the DSL modem when nobody is
using the Internet.  That makes the whole house feel a lot better.

As for a permanent fix, I'm going to look at a few options:

  1) Downgrade back to the old DSL speed (the old speed was 1.5mpbs,
      The new speed is 7mbps)

  2) Have a phone technician come over and have them install a DSL
      filter on the outside phone box, and then install a single phone
      jack in the house that has the DSL signal on it (this way the
      signal is not polluting the entire house as much).

  3) Try cable internet.  I tried this a few years ago and found the
      cable internet to be worse than DSL, but I later concluded that
      my testing was probably flawed, as my cable was not properly
      grounded at the time.  This time, I'm going to try cable internet
      with the cable grounded outside, plus have a ground loop isolator at
      the cable modem, plus use the specific modem that has been
      mentioned here as being less "noisy" (the LinkSys CM100).

May the most tolerable option win!  :-)

Marc

Hi Marc,

Thanks ever so much for the valuable information.

I am wondering also if our neighbors, who are very close by, may have these higher speeds DSL. I would imagine that could effect me in my own home. Right? All I know is that I feel so much better when I leave my house. Yet I notice very little difference when I turn off my wifi in my own home.

Best of luck resolving your DSL intolerance problem. Let us know what worked the best.

Cheryl

--- On Thu, 5/16/13, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: Marc Martin <[hidden email]>
Subject: [eSens] Be careful when increasing your DSL speed!
To: [hidden email]
Date: Thursday, May 16, 2013, 10:15 AM
















 



 


   
     
     
      Hi all,



Last week I decided to try out a higher DSL speed at my home, which

went into effect the other day.  I could immediately notice the difference --

much less computer tolerance, and also I'm bothered by any part of the

house that has a phone jack nearby (also probably any place in the house

that has phone wiring in the walls nearby).



My temporary fix is to simply unplug the DSL modem when nobody is

using the Internet.  That makes the whole house feel a lot better.



As for a permanent fix, I'm going to look at a few options:



1) Downgrade back to the old DSL speed (the old speed was 1.5mpbs,

      The new speed is 7mbps)



2) Have a phone technician come over and have them install a DSL

      filter on the outside phone box, and then install a single phone

      jack in the house that has the DSL signal on it (this way the

      signal is not polluting the entire house as much).



3) Try cable internet.  I tried this a few years ago and found the

      cable internet to be worse than DSL, but I later concluded that

      my testing was probably flawed, as my cable was not properly

      grounded at the time.  This time, I'm going to try cable internet

      with the cable grounded outside, plus have a ground loop isolator at

      the cable modem, plus use the specific modem that has been

      mentioned here as being less "noisy" (the LinkSys CM100).



May the most tolerable option win!  :-)



Marc





   
     

   
   






 










[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On May 16, Cheryl Griffing <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I am wondering also if our neighbors, who are very close by, may have these
> higher speeds DSL. I would imagine that could effect me in my own home. Right?
> All I know is that I feel so much better when I leave my house. Yet I notice very
> little difference when I turn off my wifi in my own home.

Yes, I've always been concerned about my neighbor's wi-fi, but it's clear
that at the moment the biggest problem in our house is the DSL signal
on our own phone lines.  This is especially a problem for me because there
is (of course) a phone jack right next to where my computer is.

It's interesting that at work, the Internet connection is MUCH faster
than at home, yet is also much more tolerable.  So it's not that
"high speed Internet over Ethernet cables" is the problem, but rather
"high speed Internet over phone lines".

Marc

Mark,

Can you explain how they would ground a fiber optic cable system? Would it
be the same way you ground other things?
What is a ground loop isolator?  And what would it do?

Thanks, Kathy


On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Marc, your DSL is not wireless?

Alicja

--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin  wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Last week I decided to try out a higher DSL speed at my home, which
> went into effect the other day.  I could immediately notice the
difference --
> much less computer tolerance, and also I'm bothered by any part of the
> house that has a phone jack nearby (also probably any place in the
house internet
>       with the cable grounded outside, plus have a ground loop
isolator at
>       the cable modem, plus use the specific modem that has been
>       mentioned here as being less "noisy" (the LinkSys CM100).
>
> May the most tolerable option win!  :-)
>
> Marc
>

On May 16, Alicja <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Marc, your DSL is not wireless?

There's nothing wireless in my house.  But sometimes what's emitted
from wires is as bad or worse as wireless... after all, the phone lines
are spread all throughout your house, are not shielded, and have
voltage on them.

Marc

On May 16, Kathy Baumann <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Can you explain how they would ground a fiber optic cable system? Would it
> be the same way you ground other things?
> What is a ground loop isolator?  And what would it do?

This is a ground loop isolator:

  http://www.amazon.com/TII-Ground-Loop-Isolator-220/dp/B0070Q6URO

It's something you plug into your coax cable just before it gets to your
cable box or your cable modem.  It eliminates problems due to conflicting
grounds between your electrical power and your cable TV coax.  This is usually
to solve problems in your home theater system -- eliminating video roll
bars or a 60hz hum in your speakers.  I find that I have these problems
on the TV/stereo, even though the cable appears to be grounded at
the same source as the electricity.  

I have a theory that one reason I reacted so badly to the cable internet
the last time I tried it was because the cable was not grounded at the
time.  I could be completely wrong, but I'm going to check it out this time
around to be sure.  Because *in theory*, cable should be better here
than DSL, because the coax cable is shielded (while the phone lines
are not), and the coax cable only comes into my house in two places,
while there is phone wiring all throughout the house.

Marc

On May 16, Kathy Baumann <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Can you explain how they would ground a fiber optic cable system? Would it
> be the same way you ground other things?

Oh, and not sure about the fiber optic question.  We've got the old-fashioned
metal-wire cable here.  :-)

Marc

We have the old fashion cable wires, but inside flows fiber optics.


On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 12:48 AM, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I have trouble with wired stuff! As far as I can tell, wireless isn't a noticeable problem for me, oddly.

We have above ground powerlines. That seems to be quite a big part of my issues, as when I am in areas where the powerlines are buried, my reactions decrease, even tho there is wireless. I have a corded, landline phone, and it bothers me a lot. There doesn't seem to be a big difference to me between the corded phone and the cordlessphones. I rarely use the cellphone, tho.

What I figured out is that the above ground powerlines increase the magnetic field reading on the Trifield meter. This makes me just miserable.  And, I think they also increase dirty electricity. The readings get higher as the temperature increases.  I have measured various areas of my home and yard with the Trifield meter. The magnetic readings increase along the walls where the electric wires run, and increase greatly near the powerlines and phone line. The internet cable doesn't seem to be a problem.

If everyone hasn't read "Dirty Electricity" by Dr. Sam Milham, they should!

I had phone bundled with internet before, and I couldn't stand it.

Judy



--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@...> wrote:

On May 17, "judyl_nev" <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I have trouble with wired stuff! As far as I can tell, wireless isn't a noticeable problem for me, oddly.

Yes, these days you see a lot of concern about wireless stuff, and yet some of us
react just as bad (or worse) to things that aren't wireless at all.  

Marc

Thanks for the heads up, Marc.  

   

You have a good list of options.  Here's another possibility...I haven't done this, but have been told some people feel a lot better in their homes after they isolate the incoming ground for the phone and give it its own ground rod at least 5 feet away from any other ground rod to prevent any current between rods.  Same with cable or satellite TV service.    I don't understand what doing this alleviates, just passing it along in case it makes sense to you.  
 
Sue

--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@...> wrote:

Marc,

I have Comcast Triple Play--phone, TV, and computer.   There's one big  
modem for all of it (I assume the phone line is connected to that  
somehow.).  Do you think if I put a ground loop isolator between the  
cable and the modem, and one one between the cable and the DVR that  
would help?  With the latter, actually, I have a three-way splitter on  
the cable coming from the wall, with three short cables coming from  
that going to the TV, DVD player and the DVR.  Should I put a ground  
look isolator on the cable before the splitter instead?  Or should I  
use three GLI between the three cables and each of the respective  
devices (TV, DVD player, DRV?)

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Esther

On May 16, 2013, at 10:44 PM, Marc Martin wrote:



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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On May 19, Esther LeSieur <[hidden email]> wrote:
> I have Comcast Triple Play--phone, TV, and computer.   There's one big  
> modem for all of it (I assume the phone line is connected to that  
> somehow.).  Do you think if I put a ground loop isolator between the  
> cable and the modem, and one one between the cable and the DVR that  
> would help?  

I don't really know.  I just activated my Comcast cable internet yesterday,
and I have not experimented enough to say that the ground loop isolator
makes any difference for ES symptoms.  I do know that it got rid of an
annoying "hum" on my speakers, and some rolling bars on my TV
picture, but I never noticed anything ES-related from using one on the
cable TV box.  

Also, when setting up the cable internet, I noticed that the router (for
a home network) definitely makes things worse.  It was better when
I was just using the cable modem alone, but with that, you can't have
a home network...

Unless someone has found a router that is more tolerable than others?
I did find one on eBay that wasn't wireless and used a linear power
supply, so I'm going to try that.  For now, I'm using a wireless router
that has a Wi-Fi on/off button.

Also, when doing a "Speed Test", I noticed that it was the high upload
speeds on the cable internet that made my head hurt.  So I should
probably also experiment with some bandwidth limiting software
to see if that makes any difference.

Marc

Hi Marc,

Very interesting about the phone lines. I sometimes get sick within just a few minutes on my computer. So I figured I can't return to work any job that involves being on a computer, which is most jobs of course. But perhaps a computer at a work site might not effect me as much as the one I have at home. You gave a great example of this.

Cheryl

--- On Thu, 5/16/13, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:

From: Marc Martin <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [eSens] Be careful when increasing your DSL speed!
To: [hidden email]
Date: Thursday, May 16, 2013, 12:00 PM
















 



 


   
     
     
      On May 16, Cheryl Griffing <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I am wondering also if our neighbors, who are very close by, may have these

> higher speeds DSL. I would imagine that could effect me in my own home. Right?

> All I know is that I feel so much better when I leave my house. Yet I notice very

> little difference when I turn off my wifi in my own home.



Yes, I've always been concerned about my neighbor's wi-fi, but it's clear

that at the moment the biggest problem in our house is the DSL signal

on our own phone lines.  This is especially a problem for me because there

is (of course) a phone jack right next to where my computer is.



It's interesting that at work, the Internet connection is MUCH faster

than at home, yet is also much more tolerable.  So it's not that

"high speed Internet over Ethernet cables" is the problem, but rather

"high speed Internet over phone lines".



Marc



   
     

   
   






 










[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks Marc. Is a home network the same as the triple-play (cable TV,  
telephone, internet)?  Let us know what you find out about  your  
situation.

Esther

On May 19, 2013, at 7:33 AM, Marc Martin wrote:



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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On May 20, Esther LeSieur <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Thanks Marc. Is a home network the same as the triple-play (cable TV,  
> telephone, internet)?  Let us know what you find out about  your  
> situation.

No, a home network is when you've got multiple PCs, printers, and
file servers all hooked together via Ethernet cables, with an Ethernet
router (and optionally Ethernet switches) tying the whole thing together.
You're cable modem would also be tied into this so all the PCs have
Internet access.

For this kind of setup, you need an Ethernet router.  Sometimes
the router is built-into the cable modem, sometimes not.

Marc

Excellent explanation, one that my technology-challenged brain can  
understand.  Thank you, Marc

On May 20, 2013, at 6:46 AM, Marc Martin wrote:



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