Forum Discussion

New Contributor

3 years ago

Poor connection quality for the last week

I've been struggling to diagnose this issue and I'm unsure where to go with it. I have an Arris SB6183 that has been going fine until recently. Here is the data from my modem:

Downstream

Channel	Lock Status	Modulation	Channel ID	Frequency	Power	SNR	Corrected	Uncorrectables
1	Locked	QAM256	29	951000000 Hz	4.3 dBmV	44.2 dB	9	0
2	Locked	QAM256	19	891000000 Hz	5.1 dBmV	45.2 dB	28	0
3	Locked	QAM256	20	897000000 Hz	4.9 dBmV	45.1 dB	33	0
4	Locked	QAM256	21	903000000 Hz	4.5 dBmV	45.0 dB	33	0
5	Locked	QAM256	22	909000000 Hz	4.6 dBmV	45.0 dB	5	0
6	Locked	QAM256	23	915000000 Hz	4.6 dBmV	44.9 dB	17	0
7	Locked	QAM256	24	921000000 Hz	4.6 dBmV	44.8 dB	27	0
8	Locked	QAM256	25	927000000 Hz	4.6 dBmV	44.4 dB	0	0
9	Locked	QAM256	26	933000000 Hz	4.7 dBmV	44.7 dB	16	0
10	Locked	QAM256	27	939000000 Hz	4.5 dBmV	44.5 dB	28	0
11	Locked	QAM256	28	945000000 Hz	4.5 dBmV	44.4 dB	24	0
12	Locked	QAM256	13	855000000 Hz	6.3 dBmV	45.6 dB	0	0
13	Locked	QAM256	30	957000000 Hz	4.1 dBmV	44.1 dB	0	0
14	Locked	QAM256	31	963000000 Hz	3.9 dBmV	43.9 dB	0	0
15	Locked	QAM256	32	969000000 Hz	3.7 dBmV	43.8 dB	0	0
16	Locked	QAM256	37	381000000 Hz	6.3 dBmV	44.4 dB	15	0

Upstream

Channel	Lock Status	US Channel Type	Channel ID	Symbol Rate	Frequency	Power
1	Locked	ATDMA	3	5120 Ksym/sec	23500000 Hz	47.5 dBmV
2	Locked	ATDMA	1	5120 Ksym/sec	36300000 Hz	47.5 dBmV
3	Locked	ATDMA	2	5120 Ksym/sec	29900000 Hz	47.5 dBmV
4	Locked	ATDMA	4	5120 Ksym/sec	16900000 Hz	46.0 dBmV

I do not have a splitter, the modem is tied directly into the wall. Frustratingly I've been trying to work through first tier tech support to get someone intelligent on phone but I have not been able to. Despite me saying I have the downstream/upstream information and the event log available they INSIST it is the fault of my router. It is obvious from these tables it is a problem between the router and the box on the street. I'm absolutely sick of dealing with first tier tech support and they refuse to escalate. They've gone so far as to try to suggest I need to completely replace my modem, which may be true, but I'd rather figure out WHY first.

The downstream errors are a relatively new experience. In the last month I've gotten most correctables but sometimes uncorrectables. The events from the event log seem to tell a story too:

Event Log

Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	DHCP FAILED - Discover sent, no offer received;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established	Critical (3)	No Maintenance Broadcasts for Ranging opportunities received - T2 time-out;CM-MAC=74:ea:e8:ef:05:bb;CMTS-MAC=00:a5:bf:0e:86:b8;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;

The modem does not appear to restart or anything. The connection quality is just incredibly poor. For example, this morning it took several minutes to load a news website. Resetting the modem temporarily remedies the situation but it quickly returns.

What could be wrong? Is there a better place I can contact to get a tech to come out?

Morbert
New Contributor
3 years ago
If you run a TRACERT through command prompt (One line of text , Easily Googled) You can see where you packets are getting dropped. You'll notice that no Cox Tech will EVER mention this test. It can provide proof of NETWORK issues outside your home, and they would rather not spend money to maintain their infrastructure.

Once you run the tests, If you notice the issue is dropping around the Cox Nodes , Take screenshots and submit an FCC and FTC complaint form.

Cox is a utility provider that MUST operate under federal guidelines... And inconsistent service will only be address if YOU can pinpoint the issue because the techs wont run the most basic of test.... You'll notice they give you PLENTY of reasons for poor signal, without ever testing for packet loss. My personal favorite lie was "Noise or ingress on the line"

I wasted 6 months, had 7 technicians to my home, hundreds of phone calls.... Come to find out the issue was with a node in the Los Angeles area dropping tons of people in South West Region (Cali, NV, AZ) Seems weird that NOT ONE of the techs I spoke to mentioned this test...even weirder that ALL techs who refused to document/acknowledge the packet loss and tracer results...

Once I had the screenshots submitted to FTC & FCC... Node was resolved in less than a week. Probably just a coincidence though.
ChromeDome
New Contributor II
3 years ago
Where are you located? I'm in the exact same boat. APS repaired a power cable in our area recently. Last Monday morning, our power went out for a few minutes while they switched from the temporary trunk back to the fixed main one. Ever since then, I'm dropping packets and getting dropped from my work computer through RDP. RDP doesn't handle dropped packets well. I'm at about 28th Street and Aster in Phoenix, 85032. Long story short, a tech came out Saturday morning and confirmed it's at either the box on the street or upstream. I'm chatting with Cox right now to try to get a status update.