By Matt Hartley

So you are at a client’s home, troubleshooting why they cannot maintain a decent connection to the Internet. You have been able to determine that it is not the ISP or the modem since both worked just fine when you had their PC back at the shop. I have seen a number of people stumped by this. You know the connection should be fine. You have a dial tone from their phone, the ISP is working, and you have triple checked that modem - what else is there? Two words: line noise.

Steps to repairing this issue:

• Change the cord. Try swapping the phone cord for a new one. While this may seem overly simply, it can help if the old cord has “had it.”
• Hong long is the cord? If you have one of those really long phone cords, this often causes issues with Internet connections.
• Is the cord around a lot of electrical devices? Do you have the cord strung all over printers, power strips, etc.? EM interference can cause connection issues that can frequently prove annoying when trying to remain connected to the Internet.
• Any rural power lines in the area? Are there any of those large, humming power lines near the home in question? The EM interference from these can sometimes cause a flaky Internet connection.

A home’s internal phone wiring:
While most of you are thinking, “Duh, Matt! I had the phone company run a line check and it come up fine.” Fair enough, you did that, but did you know that those line noise checks only check up to the home and not inside of it? It’s true! A line noise check will only verify that the line is quiet *up to* the outside box - that’s it.

Now I have been told (by a phone company employee) that it is a good idea for folks to have a service called “linebacker” on their landline phone accounts for situations such as these. This plan will not only cover the cover the cost for the phone company to come out and check your home’s internal phone wiring, but in many states it covers the charges for any needed line repair work inside your home.

Chances are one of these solutions will make you look like a real hero to your client. At the very least, you will be able to get paid for the time you spent trying to help them deal with their connectivity issues. ;o)