thermal stress
we have cable for internet. it works great. except when it drops. once is a random event. but the second time in a day something is very very wrong. the tech support folks tell me to power cycle the modem. which pretty much does nothing whatsoever. sometimes they reset the modem from their end. i think this resets their modem too. sometimes this fixes the problem. at least for a while. which makes me think the quality depends on which frequency band the modem happens to connect to. ie until we end up back in the bad band. sigh. the most reliable solution is to not call. and not reset the modem. but to loosen then re-tighten every cable connection in the house. note to self: next time, put the cable modem on the top of the stack. sigh. i've noticed that a connection that isn't cranked down really tight has a lot more noise than one that is. hrm. this makes me think the connections are being loosened because of the constant change of temperature. the swings have been pretty dramatic recently. heh. global warming makes your internet suck. hee hee.