Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

Wed Oct 7 14:52:55 UTC 2009

Trying to pinpoint the failure point on one of those circuits is a PITA as well.  Getting a telco tech out to test on a circuit that only goes down when it rains is an exercise that Sisyphus would probably decline. 

Network Engineer, JNCIS-M
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-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Greco [mailto:jgreco at ns.sol.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 9:49 AM
To: Hank Nussbacher
Cc: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?

> http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-10/ts_burningquestion

It used to be that we would notice this, except that it had everything to
do with temperature *and* dampness.  In the '90's, it was still quite
common for a lot of older outside plant to be really only "voice grade"
and it wasn't unusual for copper to run all the way back to the CO,
through a variety of taps and splice points.  Even though Ma Bell would
typically do a careful job handling their copper, the sheer number of
potential points of failure meant that it wasn't unusual for water to
infiltrate and penetrate.  If I recall correctly, the worst was usually
a long, hard cold rain (hey we're in Wisconsin) after which people who
had been getting solidly high speed modem connects would see a somewhat
slower speed.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
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