TV causing internet drop-outs?

[Hezza]

Hi there,

We had 20Mb broadband in our house running fine for a couple of months on its own (19.5 Mb off giganews) but upgraded our package to include tv and phone and since then have been getting fairly regular dropouts.

At first I thought it was the wireless router but after finding this forum and reading the signal noise thread I think it could be related to the upstream power level. It was actually at 59dBmV earlier, but as a test I disconnected the tv cable and it dropped to 54dBmV, since screwing the tv cable back in its only gone back up to 57.5dBmV (pasted below)

Could the 59dBmV explain the dropouts? and can I get away with 57.5, connections not dropped yet but its only been about 30 mins. I've gone round and made sure all the connections are tight, and replaced the old looking splitter/filter with a new one that came with the tv package.

Any help is appreciated.
Cheers
Martin

Downstream Channel
Downstream Status Operational
Channel ID 5
Downstream Frequency 339000000 Hz
Modulation 256QAM
Bit Rate 20480000 bits/sec
Power Level 0.8 dBmV
Signal to Noise Ratio 41.4 dB

Upstream Channel
Upstream Status Operational
Channel ID 2
Upstream Frequency 22200000 Hz
Modulation 16QAM
Bit Rate 768000 bits/sec
Power Level 57.5 dBmV

EDIT:
One other thing I just remembered, when I was trying to get the set top box activated it didn't work the first few times, the lady said she would send a stronger signal down and then it started working, I don't know if that was just a stronger activation signal or what though.
Cheers

[Axegrinder]

Your upstream power is too high for QAM16, need to be 55dbmv or lower for things to work properly.

[Hezza]

Thanks for clarifying, should I just phone tech support as usual, is there a specific department I can get to without going through the usual first level support script, "Power the modem off and on.... etc"

[chickendippers]

If you post your signal levels on the virginmedia.support.broadband newsgroup they'll get an engineer booked for you. http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/newsgroups/

[Hezza]

I got onto tech support today, after the usual restarting of modem, being told my router is whats dropping out I asked about the dB's and was told to go to the gscan page and set my Starting Frequency to 331000000, tried a couple of times while on the phone but it keeps defaulting back to 339000000 and upstream dB has gone up to 58 now. She also asked me to disconnect the power a couple of times while she sent a signal down so not sure if anythings changed VM's side.

Its not dropped yet but only been on about 20 mins, will see how it goes otherwise post on the newsgroup.

[spiderplant]

That really is borderline on the upstream power. There's nothing they can do remotely to fix it. You need to get a tech out to it.