I've lost my at&t Uverse signal 100's of times since it was installed last October. I filed a claim with the BBB 3 weeks ago and I actually got a call from at&t about my problem. He said that he was seeing ac voltage problems with my modem. I thought that he was bsing me because he is in Atlanta and I'm in Cleveland, but last week a transformer on my street blew and he called me a couple hours later and said that he had seen some strange voltage readings. I told him about the problem and that I was running on a generator for a little more than an hour. Per at&t's request, I replaced my surge protector that my computer and at&t modem is plugged into. The problem still exists. I put my Fluke meter in the outlet and set the min-max to record the voltage. My normal voltage is 123 volts. When I lose my Uverse signal, I check my meter and found that it had dropped to 114.2 volts at some point. I then set my meter on min-max again but used the hot and ground terminals instead of the hot and neutral terminals and I had the same readings so it must be the hot wire that is fluctuating, not a problem with the neutral or the ground circuit. I don't notice any dimming lites or any other problems in my house other than losing my Uverse when the voltage drops to 114.2. What is the normal voltage fluctuation? When I went to work yesterday, I set the min-max and checked it when I got home. It went to as low as 114.1 to a high of 133.2. The only thing operating was my refrigerator. The ac was not on. I am the last house on the First Energy transformer. Several years ago I was losing power to 1/2 of my house intermittently and First Energy replaced all of the crimp connectors at my house meter and at the pole by my house. I don't think that I should lose my Uverse signal at 114 volts, but I need to know if this is an at&t or a First Energy problem, or both. Thanks
Please check your signal strength going into your modem. On your computer , go to 192.168.1.254 to access you modems GUI. Select broadband. Look for the reading of SN Margin (db). Assuming you are on copper and not fiber. Numbers in the teens or higher are good. At 6 or below signal is more noise than signal. If you have 2 lines feeding, the numbers should be close. Put the fluke away, have them swap the power supply at the minimum. Ask what the signal is like coming to your house and at the jack. Document everything. Ask for a managers phone number. Try a outlet jack on a different circuit breaker.
Do you have a frequency meter on your generator? Should be stable at 60Hz which depending on a 2 or 4 pole generator should be 3600, 1800, or even 900 RPM. On mine, a slight rpm drop drops the Hz down to as low as 56 which drops the line voltage, and increases the amp demand. In other words, my shore power plug gets overloaded and hot. All this electronic crap is overly sensitive to swings in service. Theres a standing joke between us as Charter users and the 3 guys that service our area; they just keep a new spare modem, router, and cable box on the trucks because our stuff lasts the average of 30 days and one goes bye-bye. FWIW... its all refurbed even in new plastic bags. ws
I don't have copper, I have optic fiber. I checked the voltage coming into the house at both hot terminal at the main today. Both hot wires from the meter varied between 117 to 124 over a 1 1/2 hour period, but I have not experienced any at&t problems today. I only have problems when the voltage drops to 114.2 or below.
I'm not saying this is your problem but what you are describing is what we were experiencing. The voltage swings and sometimes a lack of half the panel. I wouldn't recommend doing what I did if you aren't comfortable with a volt meter and the inside of an electrical panel. But that said I pulled the cover and was taking readings on the output of different breakers. I left the panel cover off and waited and got several different readings from 80v to 121v and then the power want off on half of the beakers. I took reading on the two incoming wires and one was dead along with Hal the box. So I called the power co to check the incoming. He was satisfied it was good so he pulled the meter and found the offending piece. So we put new meter base as they don't sell the parts. Had to call em back(and get a second charge) to reinstall the meter. So far so good on ours. Wife happy the extension cords are back in the garage and power working again.
Several years ago I was losing power to 1/2 of my main disconnect. I called the power company and they inspected the meter and it looked good They did find that whoever connected the wires to the mast (one of their workers) used the wrong connectors. They replaced them and all was well until I got at&t Uverse. I don't think a faulty connection can cause my voltage to go up to 133, especially when I'm not home and the only things on are 2 aquariums. refrigerator, and 1 lite. If there is a bad connection somewhere and the voltage drops, can I get a surge to 133 volts?I am the last house on the transformer and over the last 30 years, the fuse on the transformer has blown 4 times that I know of. I know one time a squirrel shorted it out. I'm not sure why it happened last week but the power company left a pile of branches below the pole. I don't think that the branches actually caused a problem. I think they were just in the way of their access.
Another side of this problem might be fluctuations that you don’t have a way of filtering out with a surge protector or line conditioner - the ones carried to your house via the power grid. Have you considered putting the AT&T stuff on a mini UPS? I was having issues with my security cameras that went away once I ran it from the UPS instead of main power. I’m no electrician, and I don’t play one on TV, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Uninterruptible Power Supply. Basically, your incoming power goes to it and gets cleaned up via an inverter, which charges a battery. The battery gets inverted back to clean 120V power that doesn’t fluctuate because it’s no longer connected to the grid. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
Your neutral and ground are bonded so you will get the same readings using either. As to your voltage fluxation, everything in your house is designed to work between 110 and 130 Volts, 120 being of course the optimum voltage as supplied by the Utility, but if you are see swings more than +/- 3 % there's a problem and the utility needs to come and fix, wether its the Meter or pole or transformer.
If getting a UPS, make sure it has AVR, otherwise it won’t actually clean up the voltage. Without AVR, it will still pass on the low/high voltages.
