I have been trying to troubleshoot an ongoing issue with my Comcast HSI connection, and am looking for some help, as I have limited knowledge in this area.
I have not noticed any problems with general Internet use or video streaming, but my VoIP sound quality has been so bad that the phone is unusable. When I reboot (unplug/replug power) the cable modem (Zoom 5350), the quality is good and it deteriorates over a few days. My VoIP provider (Phone Power) support had me use their speed test app, and determined that my speed is great, but the jitter is bad. Sure enough, jitter is fine right after a reboot, but after a few days it's terrible.
I don't quite understand what causes jitter (although I'm told it's the physical cable quality), but since it gets worse over time, I was guessing it's a cable modem hardware problem (as the coax condition would be constant). So I called Zoom support and they educated me on Correctables, which shot up into the thousands within and hour or so of rebooting. He told me to remove any unnecessary splitters and check the line condition.
This is the part I really don't understand. I remove an unnecessary splitter and replaced it with a straight-thorough male to male connector. My downstream power went from around the 3.5 range to the 6.6 to 7.5 range. And my Uncorrectables, which had always been zero is now also in the multi-thousands.
Is my understanding correct that the power level is what is required to overcome attenuation on the line, so a lower value would indicate a cleaner connection? If so, why would the power go up when removing a splitter?
More importantly, are there any suggestions for resolving this? Are there any utilities that would give realtime connection quality indications as I play with the coax? Right now I'm just guessing as to how quickly the Correctables and Uncorrectables counts climb. There must be a better way.
Thanks a lot in advance for any advice.
Gary
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