anywhere to test to see if my modem is going bad?

I have a high speed dsl modem from netopia that I fear is going bad. It's probably 5 years old or more. I've called my ISP service desk and they say the dsl is showing up and the correct speed but there was some "static" in the telephone line. I disabled filters and plugged the dsl directly into the phone jack and unplugged all phones. That seems to help some with the upload/download speed as before it was varied and would have intermittent drops in dsl traffic and I would lose my connection. Now the service desk reports the static is way down but still showing although the speed seems to stay up. But I have my dsl drop from time to time even after the ISP service desk calls. After a cycle of my modem there is varied upload/download speed but it eventually levels off. All cords seem to be in proper order and I even used a new cord recently to connect the modem to the computer which seemed to help some.

Is there a place online where I can check to see if my modem is going bad? Or should I just go buy a new one?

 

If it were me, I would find someone who also had that service/modem and swap to do some testing. It could be the lines just as easy as your hardware, or any number of faulty parts not within your control. Testing your modem at another location would verify this.

I know a guy who is constantly having issues because the phone company put a piece of copper in a conduit that is filled with water much of the time. They refuse to go aerial, so his connection is very hit and miss. Recently he said they did some changes near him and it has been better.

That is what I would do, to rule that out first.

Sul.

 

ok thanks

 

Isn't dslreports.com a good place to test?
I would vote for buying a new one, by the way.
Okay, it may be needless, but doing so certainly eliminates the modem from the mix when you proceed with troubleshooting.
(Unless you buy a new one that is damaged)

Edit in: Lots of how-to articles available, as I'm sure you know. But this one looks like it may have some good suggestions... Troubleshooting Your DSL Connection. Good luck!

 

will look at those, thanks

 

Let us know what, if anything, you discover.

 

Well I started testing with different combinations of phone jacks, filters, phone plugged in or not along with the modem. I finally narrowed it down to one particular phone jack with one particular filter seeming to work pretty well. I also ended up unplugging everything from one jack completely. So far so good.