Extension Cord Slowing Connection?

[fl34bit3]

with any improperly grounded equipment it can create electronic noise as und3ertak3er has stated. Network cabling doesnt get along with noise and it can cause disturbances in the flow of the signal over your cabling. This means that the signals will end up lower or higher longer etc... than usual which could be mistaken by your equipment as not even being a packet.

PeacE
-BoB

[RoadClosed]

Ground or "earth" is a curious thing. In some equipment it provides a reference point for data. For instance a 1 could be 5 volts in referece to ground. Some equipment electronics do a good job at providing their own referece above ground and aren't as effected by a lack of ground, meaning you still satisfy all the laws of electrical conduction and still have a decent difference in voltage differential and everything is OK. What is most likely the problem, since I am assuming the lack of ground is not inherent when the surge outlet is plugged into the wall, is EMF.

ground wire does not normally carry a charge that could create an EM field.

or maybe the longer cord has more length to create an EM field?

You almost have it there but it's the opposite. A ground wire is there to provide a referece in advanced equipment AND whisk away noise that could be reproduced in transmission media. Basically you are sticking this long copper conductor onto your equipment with no way to shield it agains EMF in other forms that occur outside the conductor. Basically it's acting like an antenna and picking up some electrical disturbance. It could be bad contacts on the dryer or washer or even an improperly seated circuit breaker or loose electrical wire in an outlet. Who knows.

It's amazing that your equipment is that sensitive. When noise is induced; it becomes hard to distinguish between the noise and actual data signal.

[jeffs72]

I had a very similar problem back when I had isdn (before my area has adsl). My 2nd channel would never come up with my ISDN modem. It turned out that the interface where my power meter plugs in, the screws that mount it to the electrical system were loose, once they were tightened everything worked fine.

[RoadClosed]

ISDN is especially sensitive to "dirty" power or "hum" as und3rtak3r put it. It uses a voltage level to reperesent 2 bits (00 01 10 or 11) all at different levels and not very high above ground. ISDN needs nice clean power.

[Deaflamb]

Good to know my post helped. The new extention cord should fix you right up.

DeafLamb

[cutty]

Like most have said, the problem is due to an improper ground. The router etc has a ground reference that it gets from the extension cord and if the extension cord is not grounded properly then you have the introduction of noise.

Noise is a big problem in audio devices for the most part and is very troublesome in transmission devices. Each device has it own noise floor and hence the device supply the source of power to the device in question should have a lower noise floor, in order words the extension cord should be less noisy. The more noise that's introduce by the extension cord the slower your connection will be, since this noise is fed into the flow path of packets being sent to your computer and back from your computer. This transmission collides with the noise causing a bouncing effect instead of the normal straight flow with direct contact with the sidewalls like in a normal optical fiber. Since there will be more collisions than normal this slows down the rate of transmission and hence your speed is slowed down tremendously.

Noise it the key element that slows down transmission followed by Harmonic distortion and indeed an improper grounded wire can introduce noise, since that introduces a slight open circuit leading to a partial incomplete circuit.

I hope I didn't confuse anybody and I hope this helps a bit.

Guidance...