Multiple Recent Outages Of Internet And Phone Service Throughout Park Tower Were Traced To Wiring Modifications Made By Residents

ASTOUND fortunately identified and neutralized the problems causing intermittent outages with services throughout the community. This included residential units and the office internet and building phones. This did not impact every unit in the building, and for some it was on and off. On Monday afternoon, the office phones and internet were down for as long as 4 hours at one point.

It took some time to trace these problems. ASTOUND theorized that some residents may have been having issues for a couple months, but they were probably random and intermittent.

They determined the cause to be changes residents made in two separate units. In one case a resident installed a wall plate for a wall mount TV. The wiring used for the connections went bad and was creating noise. This caused feedback interference that travelled across the network.  Once ASTOUND removed the suspect wiring, the interference the noise was causing ceased.

In the other unit, the resident installed a non RG6 Coax cable to their line to connect a device in another room. (RG6 cable is what the building’s network uses.) Anything non-RG6 is not compatible and in fact in this unit it was causing most of the feedback and interference. This too was bleeding noise onto the main line.

Both cases were contributing to the problem. The interference impacted “nodes” serving the building. There are multiple nodes, so it thankfully did not impact everyone, and it was random. But in some units it caused serious and repeated interruptions.

The Association’s rules do prohibit residents from making these types of modifications. It is suggested that if you want to extend service and wiring, that you contact ASTOUND and have professional work done. The Association’s Rules and Declaration also prohibit actions that result in disturbances and nuisances that impact other units and the common elements.

This cause serious inconvenience for many residents. Also, being without phones in the office could create are really significant problem in the event of an emergency within the building. So it is critical that residents avoid making wiring modifications of any kind. Enlist professionals to help you with all such work.

We have extended our collective appreciation to ASTOUND for tracking down these problems and successfully resolving the matter.

If you are experiencing any outage or service problems, contact ASTOUND first. Their customer service line is 800-427-8686. It was in part thanks to calls from residents that they were ultimately able to triangulate the locations they suspected.