Some of you complaining about lost signals and downtime may want to check with your nearby neighbors to see if they are having the same problems. Some of the symptoms being described are often due to signal problems or noise on your own home cable network.
Today's digital signals are much more robust on cable that is shielded and has proper connections. You would be surprised to learn how much noise can be on the line if you have a bad connector or there is signal interference coming into the cable.
Many older homes are wired with older cable (RG59) that will struggle to handle the bandwidth and signal clarity required of today's cable streams.
In summary, what you perceive as a provider problem may in fact be your problem.
Unfortunately, testing for all of this requires expensive equipment. Some cable companies will do minimal testing when you report a problem. But technially, their responsibility ends once the signal enters your house. They will come out and do more extensive testing if you are willing to pay for the service, and even then, your success will be very dependent on the skill and expertise of the technician they send. In my experience, the latter can be a crap shoot.
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