Comments on: Using X10 Home Automation and Linux to manage your home internet connection

by: Deb Reppenhagen

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:00:42 +0000

Can anyone translate this for use with a plain old windows (XP) PC?

I have COMCAST cable internet. I have it hooked up to my LYNKSIS wireless router. The router has never had a problem. The modem needs to be restarted several times a day on some days but on the average only several times a week. A few times, the modem ran for weeks without a problem. I’ve tried different Modems without result. Calling Comcast does no good. I don’t think they even log these kinds of issues; they’re out of the picture if restarting the modem gets you running again. This has been going on for years.

by: muffin

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:27:04 +0000

I have a similar problem with my SBC DSL connection (that I am quite happy with, best upload rate for the price). It seems that before the connection crap out entirely it goes though a “fuzzy” period where anything bigger than text only Google is too mangled to be read. Images time out 90% of the time but text will still pop through. IMHO wget-ing something like the Google banner or your local weather stations radar images would be a better test of connectivity than pings. Nice idea though, they should just send one of these out along with the modem.

by: Insolence

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:04:06 +0000

Commenting on carlton’s recommendation, I actually did this 4-5 years ago for a client who’s DSL would die about once a week and require me to drive for a hour to mindlessly unplug it for a minute and plug it back up. I used a existing linux server there that was sharing SMB and was their gateway, and made a simple parallel relay. I just wrote a simple script to run every 5 minutes in cron that pinged random reliable sources on the internet (google, msn, etc.) if one failed, it would try two other reliable sources, and if those failed, it would power off the DSL modem for a minute and power it back on. The project in all cost me less than 9 bucks from a local electronics store. Nice quick and dirty hack.

- I

by: Winston

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:52:09 +0000

For all the people about the LM14A, it shouldn’t cause a problem… all the power supply for the cable modem is is a transformer and a rectifier (aka diodes) to convert AC->DC… The modified wave of the scr and all that will just lower the output voltage a little, and shouldn’t affect anything.. The cable modem itself will regulate the input dc to a lower regulated voltage internally. They do this because variances in the line current are normal, so they feed the modem with a higher voltage so that if you’ve only got 110 vac instead of 120, stuff will still work happily for your devices.

Second, sometimes the flakiness of the cable modem is caused by the cable company.. Rogers here in Canada will cause purposeful disruption of your connection if they detect certain download systems.

by: Steve

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:04:59 +0000

I had the same problem with SBC/Yahoo!/AT&T DSL flaking out once at least once a week (and I’m also in the St Louis area and run linux). Power cycling the modem was the only cure.

3 weeks ago I had multiple lockups on a Saturday and installed a different modem from one of SBC’s self-install kits I had sitting around. Replacing the Speedstream 5100 with the 5260 seems to make all the difference. No lockups since, no impact on speed (4500 kb/s download), just better reliability.

by: carlton

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:25:22 +0000

As mentioned by a previous poster, I would have just gone with a simple parallel port device with a relay and a transistor to drive the relay coil (or just a solid-state relay). That’d be wicked cheap. And if you’re already running linux, making a simple device driver (especially for a parallel port device) is really cake. Really, would only take like 5 minutes (if you know what you’re doing), or less than a day (if you’ve never written a device driver for linux before).

Just my two cents for anyone else planning on doing this.

by: Brian

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:18:40 +0000

All, this is a DSL connection. During an “outage” that i am experiencing, the lights on the modem will indicate that everything is fine. HOWEVER, i will be unable to reach the internet, and, any attempts to pull up the modem’s configuration page at 192.168.0.1 will fail. This tells me the modem has locked up and needs to be power cycled.

Matt,
Cable in st. louis is TERRIBLE. The speeds are nice, but there are frequent service interruptions from the only cable ISP in town, Charter, and their customer service is the worst thing i have ever experienced. I am quite happy with my DSL reliability. My modem flakes out maybe once a week, and once this solution ceases to be a solution, i will spend the requisite hour on the phone with AT&T getting them to replace my modem.

by: bubbafunk

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:46:26 +0000

dude, i did the same thing about a year ago, except i used a pic micro, i was super pissed at my isp, blaming them for a poor connection.. they sent tech after tech out to tell me everything looked fine, WE BOTH WERE WRONG! i promise you that your getting a bad cable in connection to your modem, if you have ANY weak links in your cable distribution, your modem will flake out. ie a splitter in a “star” pattern… you need to put your modem as close to the signal comming into your house or apt as possible by putting in on a three way splitter (at the drop if possible!) and using as short as possible cable to first the modem, then run the rest of your house off the other line, splitting it as needed. use quad-shield RG-6 for EVERYTHING! sadly its your problem if the wiringin your pad is poor, not the isp.. dsl users are well, dsl users, sorry guys… maybe trying the same thing with your phone lines will work as well?

by: matt

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:44:20 +0000

I can’t speak for a DSL modem but I work for a cable internet provider. If there was some sort of neighborhood problem going on the modem would of course act odd and possibly lose sync. Powercycling the modem forces it it re-ask for how it is supposed to operate. If it was a simple outage then yeah, I can see this working out good for you. If this is a intermittent issue such as any number of a hundred things starting to fail in your neighborhood you power cycling your modem constantly is going to screw up the diagnostics screens we check and cause all sorts of headaches. If the problem happens more then once, get on the phone, refuse to diagnose the issue for some reason or another and make them roll a tech. a few minutes lost but a far better solution.

Of course if this powercycle is a once a year thing then by all means, do this trick.

Again, I don’t know anything about DSL aside from how much I dislike it. Cable is the way to go.

by: Brian

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:39:47 +0000

Neil,

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you may have a little bit more experience with this than i do. Since what you’re saying means that this could possibly effect the life of the modem, i have added a notice in the how-to warning people as such. As i state in the new section, I’m willing to risk it, but it’s not fair not to warn people. I’m keeping my setup, and i’ll be sure to update the page if it fries.