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C_town55's avatar
C_town55
New Contributor
4 years ago

Consistent T-3 Timeouts and Subsequent Modem Reboots

So I have only been a with Cox for a couple weeks now but I have been plagued by these random yet consistent disconnections from the internet. Be it while watching a YouTube video or streaming Netflix or most frustratingly while playing an online video game. 60-70% of the time it reconnects and I just go about my business continuing with what I was doing but the rest of the time I had to reboot the modem. So I had a technician come and investigate and he did some stuff and said everything should be good. Lo and behold it was not good. So I started doing some research and found that it could be the modem I received from cox so I ordered myself a fancy ASUS CM-32 and got it setup having to downgrade my plan from the gigablast to whatever the 300mbs plan is (and somehow having to pay more for it). Hoping this would solve these issues. BUT no. Same issues but now I can look at what is happening with it. I do some digging after one of these episodes and see that this is going on fairly consistently which is the same time I am losing connection with the internet. So I put two and two together. 

2020-11-21 17:46:48 [CRITICAL] No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
2020-11-21 17:49:07 [CRITICAL] SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync
2020-11-21 17:51:00 [CRITICAL] Unicast Ranging Received Abort Response - initializing MAC
2020-11-21 17:51:00 [CRITICAL] No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
2020-11-21 17:51:33 [CRITICAL] Unicast Ranging Received Abort Response - initializing MAC
2020-11-21 17:51:33 [CRITICAL] No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
2020-11-21 17:51:40 [CRITICAL] Unicast Ranging Received Abort Response - initializing MAC
2020-11-21 17:51:40 [CRITICAL] No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
2020-11-21 17:53:19 [CRITICAL] Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out
2020-11-21 17:53:49 [CRITICAL] No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

Now I am not in any way shape or form an expert on the intricacies of the internet and how it works. But I am fairly good at googling things. And what google says is this: T3 timeout errors are caused by too much noise signal on the upstream channel. If the cable modem cannot raise its upstream transmit power level to a level that allows successful communication within the maximum timeout period, it resets its cable interface and restarts the registration process.

Now I do not really know what that means but it sounds like something I cannot fix on my end.

So how would I go about having Cox see what I am seeing as it is fairly random (Consistent but random) without having a technician sit with me at my computer long enough for him/her/they to see what I am going through and how frustrating it is sometimes. 

If anyone has had any similar issues and subsequently had them fixed, please let me know what you had to do to accomplish said fix.

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  • Dave9's avatar
    Dave9
    Contributor III

    I've had similar issues with T3 and every time they have been fixed. Yours might be even worse since you also have the T4 timeout, which is what causes the modem reboot. You might have issues on both your upstream and downstream. The good news is that it's often easier for a tech to find a major issue than a minor issue.

    Here's what you need to do to get this fixed:

    1. Replace all interior wiring with brand new high quality RG6 cable.
    2. If you're still having a problem, make sure you're confident that your modem is not defective. It almost never is, but if it's very old or has weird problems you might want to replace it.
    3. (This one is the most important) Be confident enough in your modem and interior wiring that you won't be scared off when Cox says they will charge you $75 if the problem is your modem or wiring. This is what prevents so many people from getting their problems solved. They come here and say they refuse to call for a tech because they won't pay $75 for Cox to fix the problem and what is wrong with Cox for saying that. But if you're confident in your own equipment you won't be worried about this.
    4. Call for a tech. Usually they can find the issue on the first try, but if not, call for another tech until it gets fixed.
    5. If it somehow ends up being a problem with your modem or inside wiring and you have to pay $75, well that's an incredibly low price for on-site tech support these days and you got your problem fixed. So it's still a win.

    TL;DR: Check your interior wiring and then call for a tech. It's the only way.

    • C_town55's avatar
      C_town55
      New Contributor

      How do you go about checking your interior wiring?

      • Dave9's avatar
        Dave9
        Contributor III

        Ideally replace it. If you can't do that for some reason, make sure the connections are tight and there are no kinks. Once cable has been kinked it's ruined forever. Throw it away.

        Cox is only allowed to say hand tight for connections to make sure you don't damage your equipment, but I prefer to have mine slightly more than hand tight. Not crazy tight but maybe 1/8 to 1/4 turn beyond hand tight depending on your fingers.