Frequent Disconnects High Upstream Power
Hello,
I am having frequent disconnects from the internet, connection to router is stable but the modem drops. No splitters and this is the only connection in the house its a direct line ran from the street many many years ago. The downstream powerlevels look beautiful they are all close to 0 dbmv which is optimal I take it? The concern is the upstream.
First in order to fix the issue I have to either call in and have a hit sent to the modem either via chat, telephone, or automated system, or I have to reboot only the modem (modem reboot fixes but I usually cycle all equipment), or factory default the modem via 192.168.100.1 page or via the physical modem itself (hole in the back, etc). I have a Netgear CM400 which is supposed to be good for Premier internet which we currently have but we tried it on Essential and Preferred and have experienced the same issue. Speeds are no problem we get the full 150mbps even on wifi we got a great AC setup going. After modem hit or reboot or default the upstream levels are in the 40's on all 4 channels dbmv usually mid to higher 40's to be exact but it slowly creeps up to 51dbmv on all 4 channels then it drops sometimes the modem status says its "online" but some of the channels arent locked and have question marks next to the frequency and decibels and there is no browsing activity even with router bypassed.
We tried a Zoom 5341J just to rule out it being the modem. It seems we are having some sort of signal issue that normally happens daily from about 8am to 2pm like clockwork and it disconnects multiple times within that timeframe, the rest of the day it'll work flawlessly but sometimes sporadically the nights have issues as well. Also for the router we have everything split between the tri bands and as far as I know a router can't cause the modem to have high upstream power causing a disconnect, the modem lights will stay solid unless theres like an extreme major outage usually the outages are like degraded service or connectivity drops. Also the modem logs register a ton of T3/T4 errors and uncorrectables everyday. We had people out years ago when we had signal issues but this was with the downstream at that time it was at best -10dbmv.
Contractors kept coming out when he had requested in house cox supervisor technicians and they at the time said the drop needed to go but they never did a thing and it really resolved itself once we dropped cable, even with a direct line there was never any splitters but it seemed to go away and work fine for a while. One guy said even though the house was build in 1999 and the original install they cut a bunch of holes in the garage and ran a lot of wire maybe the gauge of wire is an older spec but they wouldnt replace that. Either way it'd be nice to figure out what's really causing it.
I posted what the log looks like right before it disconnects below:
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Below is what it looks like right after I have them send a hit:
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Then after a few minutes of being connected:
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As you see it goes to the mid 40's on upstream right after the hit, pre hit it was 51 dbmv all 4 channels (moments before crash), then even a few minutes post hit it creeps back up toward the 50's which I was told is too high for upstream sometimes the channels have high variance between them more than 1-2dbmv each upstream chnl and it'll disconnect shortly like at least once per hour sometimes many times per hour. Usually the disconnects resolve within minutes but sometimes they stay and it gets stuck and has to physically have the modem sent a hit or manually rebooted because sometimes it doesnt accept hits. The uncorrectables and T3/T4 go up pretty fast over time and sometimes where the downsteam channel at the top its like 939000000hz sometimes it downgrades itself to like the 800000000hz range. Normally though the downstream sits close to 0 now havent seen it go -10 in a while.
Please also make sure right modem, codes, and firmware is on the acct thanks!
So we're still sitting good no disconnects yet the only cause for concern is that the downstream is fluctuating between 4-7dbmv per channel with a small gap in between channels which is probably normal that's not really the concern just noted and unless someone tells us otherwise is fine it seems like a very small fluctuation. The upstream however is more the cause for concern as it ranges from 39-48dbmv and it constantly changes every few minutes it'll go up or down by 5+dbmv per channel and sometimes have more than a few dbmv variance between the channels. Thankfully it hasn't caused it to disconnect. T3 timeouts only happen anywhere from once to a few times a day but aren't noticeable. With the outside splitter it would've crashed when levels rapidly rose on the upstream especially when all 4 reached 51dbmv. Just glad its handling the fluctuations just weird and wonder why its so extreme. Hopefully its not hurting anything. Just hope it holds in all weather conditions especially the summer when its super hot or next winter and such. Most of the time when I check it is in the low 40's but if you tend to check it at certain times or every few minutes when temperatures are pretty much the same outside inside and on the device the levels seem to sway a lot like jump from low to upper 40's and maybe like one channel is upper one is lower another is upper another is lower with a few dbmv in between and they'll either all meet high or go back low again but it happens over a course of minutes constantly. So I'm sure on your end its still showing major adjustments? As long as that's fine I mean its not interfering with anything since the visit on this end. Just noted that the connection on the outside is no longer grounded to the circuit breaker with the green wire (one with cable companies tag on it) as it apparently looks to have been severed so as long as the disconnected ground isn't causing mass upstream fluctuations now post visit. I mean even the single direct connection had a direct ground wire running to it that looks like it broke off maybe during the recent visit due to it being old when the splitter was removed outside cause I saw it pop when he removed it and thats why he told me that was basically a 2nd ground and for some reason they require it now but it wasnt necessary so that wasnt fixed I guess the first ground is probably somewhere in the home or at the street or so he says but to me that was the only ground wire I ever had knowledge about. It was the only one running from the circuit breaker to the co-ax on the side of home when there was a splitter but without splitter the single line had a hookup for it as well but its like broken off from that so grounds just hanging. Long as it doesn't harm anything.
Are you guys sure theres no ingress or anything plant side? Now that we are entirely splitterless (and groundless it seems) and having tried multiple modems I mean even though the connection is perfect in itself and flawless since post tech visit this week I just figured the maintenance guys might have a cause for concern for the upstream levels jumping up and down between 5-10dbmv every few minutes per channel on the upstream at my home. Just seems abnormal to have such a huge and high amount of adjustments. I mean im 100% happy and satisfied now that service is perfect but wanted to give ya'll a heads up and if its true not many have the service in my area (harder and tougher to trend or diagnose) it might be something legitimate to look into. I mean it is fluctuating a lot constantly every few minutes within spec but large jumps up and down though. Just happy connection is 100% stable and doesn't drop which is all that matters to me. Just hoping the power adjustments don't lead to another issue down the road when maybe something on your end can be fixed or corrected to stabilize it now. I don't think its anything a call can fix because if a simple modem plug in and signals look fine its something that would have to be ran over a 24 hour period to catch rather than just plug it in for a few seconds to do a capture plus if all lines and fittings and such look good sure those can be replaced but how likely would that be the cause it could still very much persist and the techs not going to want to go that far since they'll capture good signals when they come rather than be able to hook up like a diagnostic monitor over a 24 hr period to see what really is happening with the high variance of adjustments. Again though I'm fine with how it is now since it works 100% just don't want the heavy adjustments to lead to anything bad on either end in the future. Please let me know!
So like a crazy jump every few minutes would be 39, 40, 41, 42 on the log for each channel upstream and a few minutes later it would be like 45, 48, 42, 40 (notice some channels changed a lot individually, have a large gap inbetween, plus like normally ch 1-4 or 4 to 1 increments or decrements in order and instead some are like out of order or place) and then they'd eventually either normalize back down to 39,40,41,42 or change to like 45,46,47,48 or 41,44,46,48 until it gets back to 39,40,41,42. But its basically running through this cycle every few minutes without thankfully causing a disconnect like it did prior to the tech visit nor is it reaching into the 50's which was when the disconnects were happening before.
@DerrickW
Well we already had 1 tech out in the last 30 days (3rd party when in house was requested) who just tried to say he and his boss thought it was the modem since his test modem was fine and not to trust those non arris modems and you get what you pay for and power adjustments are only caused by a bad modem and nothing else until he removed the splitter from the side of the home near the street then he changed his tune but said problem solved and left and only reason he removed it was because I pressured him into investigating outside he was just going to say bad modem and call it a day solving nothing he even said the call was just to go inside and check the modem and nothing else which is bs because on here I was told it was going to be thorough from an in house supervisor so got the runaround again thankfully I got through to him enough to check the street.
Basically that made it so the downstream rose and the upstream lowered so we havent had as many disconnects as we used to. It used to go down for many hours everyday which now it goes down thankfully not as often but isn't perfect either. Any high bandwidth activity is slowed down even with a direct connect. Sure speed test shows the speed is there but even browsing page to page takes quite a while like its waiting for something and this was tried on different fully optimized computers.
It should be instant even browsing cox's site is like click a link wait 5, 10, 15 seconds, new page comes up and loads slowly. Reset the modem, fast for a bit then slows back down, yet speedtest is fine of course. I'll see like ch 1 upload 40dbmv, ch 2 and 3 42dbmv, then ch 4 up at like 46 or 48dbmv. So I really dont want another incompetant tech to come out from 3rd party and say "get a new modem" when he doesnt have a clue what hes talking about.
Sure his modem my modem everything will be fine for 5 minutes a tech cant stay here 24/7. I think rather than keep sending this *** to my house escalate this to maintenance because it'll end in a very unhappy customer. Love how retention doesn't give a rats **** and just says "well theres centurylink" and then proceeds to bash them like its cox or nothing. It ** though one thing I can agree is the vegas market has a monopoly here and ** that there isnt other cable providers competing. CL might not be so bad just havent wanted to invest in equipment for them.
These 3rd party guys come out and say zoom modems ***, motorola modems ***, netgear modems ***, go with arris... So why have a modem compatibility list at all and just say only one modem works with cox? What to get people to just rent for life and call in every 30 days to replace the modem? I'm done with going to the store getting a new modem and being told a month later I need a new one and I'm stuck with the bill. Obviously its not the modem or anything inside of the home so why have some jack **** come over that is inexperienced and hasn't a clue what hes talking about and just mumble and make *** up while he's here. Like I could've removed the splitter from the street but its not my equipment hence the tamper tag over it from the cable company.
Obviously that did do 1 good thing its just made it a direct line from the street to the room with nothing in between just a single dedicated direct line. So the splitter probably just made a bad situation worse by causing *** to our connection when it was on. Now at least its staying connected much longer but its still far from perfect when it comes to enjoyment as doing more seems to destabilize the connection and cause more adjustments. Not going through being promised on here and on the phone by dispatch that a "in house senior supervisor tech from cox" is coming out and then bam a 3rd party shows up saying "well we can't guarantee.." well *** guarantee it you can set aside time send the regular guys to the regular jobs not the ongoing ones there hasn't been an official COX van or truck here in like 10 years and they do make a big difference.
Difference between cox tech they come out and check everything from street to inside. 3rd party comes out only wants to come in and not even bother with the street and just brag about how its their last day or two weeks and they hate being a contractor for cox. My neighbor and I are the only two left with cox on our street/block everyone else is using different providers for their isp and tv for many years now. The service worked great in this neighborhood until Docsis 3 was rolled out. Docsis 2 never had any issues with speed wired or wireless or connectivity issues minus maybe the monthly maintenance in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping and no one was using it anyways at that time so nobody cared! Its like you guys infrastructure is 1990s garbage still buried under my block and was never upgraded to support the D3 rollout.
I remember a guy like 5 years ago said the guage was a different older spec in the neighborhood and it should be a newer spec but they cant do anything about it cause it costs $ so it seems when you guys decide its good enough to have a neighborhood hooked up with quality equipment and lines based upon the number of subscribers it has then you will invest in replacing lines and boxes and poles to guarantee uninterrupted fast service. We even cancelled TV from you guys years ago because we always had tiling like crazy even without the digital receiver on local channels. Got an HD antenna and for it being over the air it tiles much less than a wired cox connection did, it barely tiles at all!
@DerrickW
Rather than send another tech out or keep sending techs you should just escalate a ticket to your maintenance team for further investigation. Reason being the problem happens slowly over 24 hour periods mostly between 8am and 4pm daily (weather, temperatures, and rain affect it too even if the outside lines look healthy!). Sending techs out to plug in a modem and sit for a minute or two won't tell them anything. Signal levels upon connect are fine as it is over the long term they are not (before they'd spike fast because of that outside side of home to street splitter which is now gone and ran as a direct line so rather than a sudden issue this is a slow building issue). My problem happens after hours of uptime something a tech cannot stay for nor leave an equipment monitor to properly diagnose. I know they'll come out and just for a few minute visit say everything is fine and leave (with no ticket escalation to maintenance and nothing solved) yet you guys can clearly see from your end impedance and power adjustments/flaps that are happening constantly every minute which could be very well happening at the plant or outside (which when everything shows fine in a visit how can anything be replaced, fixed, or corrected right? Not like they'll just gut everything free of charge until the problem is fixed since they can't pinpoint it in any of the tech visits or bring a volt/multimeter. This is why this needs further investigation over a longer period of time by a specialist rather than a very short visit). Cant be too many options causing it but most likely isn't an in home issue. Also I've noticed there have been like daily outages in my area recently as well during those times but not every time there is an outage with the issue. I just want to get this resolved asap! Didnt the maintenance guys used to use like Digiweather or Netweather to diagnose issues like this that occurred over longer periods of time? The tech also said they got paid per visit or job and not by the hour so they try to be in and out as fast as they can. Also there seems to be lack of communication to dispatch, field, and maintenance in general rather than them getting all of these notes and descriptions of the ongoing issue a ticket is just simply made to say "check residence" so how does that differ from one person just needing a simple splitter removed or another needing like a 24/7 monitor being looked at by a specialist? Thats why this last guy comes out and has an answer before he comes in just to blame the modem lol and made it sound like from the start it was written off as a customer issue before it even got to him. I mean if the tech support people just want to brush everything off then so be it. You'd think being a customer of over 20+ years there'd be some sort of respect or retention attempt. Not one to call in and ask for credits or free service ever just want it up and running without constant daily disconnects even if the disconnects are seconds or minutes at a time they are frequent and things like phone service goes down too at the same time which makes emergency services useless. Please investigate! When you guys give me the green light and say everything is 100% from signal levels being stable and service being up 100% and power adjustments no longer happening then everything will be ok.
Also for my Netgear CM400 Docsis 3 8x4 Cable Modem it is running Firmware Version V1.01.13 please make sure this is the latest and greatest firmware. I read that recently newer better firmware might have been released and implemented for the CM400? Possibly a v1.01.16 or such.
@ChrisL
Yeah that doesn't make a difference as you guys see there is high power adjustments constant and consistent on the upstream which is probably impedance from outside, street, box, or plant. Another tech out or alternative steps aren't going to solve a modem connection that is constantly changing channel bonding numbers and frequencies.
@ChrisL
Problem is we just had a tech out and having another tech would yield the same results. Tech would come out find no signal issues and plug in a "known good modem" into the line and say lookie no power adjustments blame the modem as all 3rd parties do and ill purchase yet another modem and have the same issue when a maintenance guy comes on the forums and basically says majority of the time power adjustments have nothing to do with the modem (when he only connects it for 30 seconds then disconnects it) and is impedance from the plant, box, street, side of home, etc nothing thats going to be diagnosed off of a quick visit its something long running and from the logs and previous tech visit if you trust your techs so much you should escalate this to maintenance at this time please and thank you. No more techs as they all love to threat or mention possible charges which just sounds like a way of pushing it on the customer even if its not a customer issue to incur charges. If it was my equipment id have no problem ruling that out as we've tried just about everything so don't give me that bs about its the modem lol. Thing is power adjustments dont happen in a tech visit that lasts only a few minutes unless he can plug in and leave the modem for 24 hours then you'll know the real story but obviously you guys do not do this and just give everyone the run around. Surprised in this day and age you dont have a tech come out and a follow up the following day for issues like this ongoing from a supervisor in house instead of 3rd party I mean patients that have heart issues that come and go are hooked up to 24 hour monitors to go home with because they arent consistent issues they are come and go issues, why dont you guys do this then for people like us with harder issues? You could leave a trusty 100% modem that ya'll say is flawless and leave it for a day and you'll see you can pull up logs see it connected for 24 hours the mac address and such and be able to see if it has power adjustments... You guys don't do this though which is pathetic for people in my situation... Pay for service but get ** instead. If you can fix the power adjustments where you guys basically say there is 0 going on as you say logs, levels, stability, and adjustments, nothing changing or fluctuating signifying a perfect (or whatever your terms of service say your QoS is supposed to be legally and everything within DOSCIS and COX's standards in the fine print) then I'll stop bothering you guys.
Also I'm curious as to why is there a maintenance and an outage reported in my area each and every single day I call in from 6pm to 6am? My bills never reflected or been given credit for service being down for half a day every day and the IVR says outage, the web site says internet outage and it always starts between 6pm and midnight and ends at 6am for the ETA to fix. Connection still unstable especially during those times and power adjustments not router. Please do something to fix. Thanks
