Slowing Modem... An Easy Mistake to Avoid

[REStewart]

Did a big all day job with my P4P creating 45GB of data. Started uploading to customer and was going very well for 5-10 minutes. Slowed to a crawl after that; message said 4 hours then 5 hours then then then and leveled out at 10 hours to go. Reset the modem and ran well for about 5 minutes. Now it's confession time... my modem is the latest and greatest but behind the TV in an enclosed area (yes I read the directions saying not to put it in a confined area). Long story short, got to thinking about that i squared r is heat so brought a fan to blow in that area and it went back to rocket speed and got it all uploaded in about 3 hours. I'm a retired Electrical Engineer which makes me doubly dumb.

 

[ArnoldLeVine]

I thought maybe it was being throttled by your provider. but you are saying it throttled itself due to overheating? anything in the directions about confined placement verify that?
btw, thats pretty fast upload speed!! Mine is throttled way down on uploads.

 

[REStewart]

We changed plans, got a new modem and did in fact see a significant improvement in upload speed. But this is the first 40GB+ upload since the new box. We've done a couple of 4-5GB uploads and it was running fast when we went away. This upload started fast (3 hour remaining) and within an hour was showing 10 hours remaining. Honestly, the fan thing was a desperation move and I was surprised it worked.. That's why I posted. I don't remember the details of the installation directions but common sense kind of says back in an enclosed box is not optimum.... but I was thinking about signal strength. I did reach in and the box was quite warm to the touch. Brought the fan in and within minutes the upload speed increased visibly and the time remaining went from 8 hours to 3 hours with it actually finishing in 2. Maybe a fluke but if we help one other pilot it's worth it. Thanks for the comment.

 

[ArnoldLeVine]

Fascinating. I would never have thought of that solution. I'll keep it in the back of my mind, in case I ever get so lucky as to have a 45 gig customer job.

 

[TontoFAC]

Ethernet cable would have been faster if you were using WiFi.

 

[DillanHolman]

Haha, hey, we all have those moments, even retired Electrical Engineers! It's easy to overlook things sometimes. But props to you for figuring out the solution with the fan. Heat can definitely mess with tech. Glad you got that massive upload sorted out in the end!