Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
 ·Comcast
|  [Connectivity] My neighbor and I are having major connection pro
I have Comcast and I've been having a problem for the past two weeks, where off an on I'm getting horrible packet loss on my Internet connection and my phone service sounds bad. Every time I scheduled a tech to come out, the problem miraculously goes away before the tech shows up. I've had 4 techs scheduled to come out. Two came out and found no problems (since I wasn't having any at the time) and two I canceled since the problem wasn't occurring when they were scheduled to come out. I've even tried contacting a supervisor tech number that I know from a major problem I had back in October 2007, but he's either never at his desk or screening his calls. Every time I called Comcast, they behave like it's the first they've ever heard of the problem. I tried contact email support, but they keep telling me to check my DHCP settings. I've been told by phone support that based on the signals, the issue seems to be an outside problem and based on the data I'm seeing I would agree, but of course they can't schedule a line tech unless the local tech sees the problem.
Today I spoke to my next door neighbor and she told me she was having major problems with her Comcast phone service and that morning two Comcast guys were fiddling around in her attic trying to fix the problem. Well since I'm also having problems and live right next door to her, you'd think Comcast would put two and two together and realize the problem was outside. By the way, the problem wasn't occuring this morning, but started up around 11:40 AM after the Comcast tech had left. It's still occuring right now as I type this e-mail. She actually told me her Internet was out a few days before I first saw the problem in my house, which makes me wonder if Comcast did something that screwed up my connection as well.
I've had numerous phone support people and one local tech tell me that most likely an outside problem. One tech actually did schedule a line tech and of course he came one day when the problem wasn't occurring and closed the problem report out as fixed. The main problem is that there is no way to get in touch with the local office when the problem is occurring so they can send a line tech out to track down the problem.
For reference, here's a chart showing the packet loss I've been getting recently. If the line is any color other than green, there is packet loss.
My neighbor said she's had it with Comcast and I'm getting there myself.
Any ideas on what to do at this point?
Data:
Here's my smokeping
Latest line quality test
I'm getting a lot of T3 timeouts in my modem log.
Here's a log I've kept of the problem:
quote:
Thu 4/24/08 - 8 PM to 10 PM
Fri 4/25/08 - canceled appointment because no problems
Sat 4/26/08 - 2:20 AM to 11:21 AM, 8:45 PM to 9:46 PM, 10:29 PM to 10:35 PM,
10:37 PM to 10:54 PM, 11:40 PM to 4:31 AM
Sun 4/27/08 - 2:30 PM to 2:50 PM, 3:30 PM to 4:11 PM, 8:20 PM to 8:30 PM
- Supposed to have appointment this morning, but no show so
scheduled another one.
Mon 4/28/08 - Modem reported a T3 at around 12:30 AM, but other than that no
problems. Comcast came out at around 7 PM and all signals were
good. Everything was working fine. Log shows minor issues after 8
PM.
Tue 4/29/08 - Started getting bad packet loss at around 8:20 AM, lasting till
about 6:00 PM.
Fri 5/02/08 - 10:10 AM to around noon. Called Mike Holmes and he saw problem
and is forwarding it to line tech department.
Sat 5/03/08 - Smokeping stopped last night, but saw problems from at least
10:30 AM till after midnight. Called and scheduled for Monday
4 to 6 PM. Phone person reported my upstream SNR was going up
and down,though I was still having issues when he said it was
good. He reported other people in the area had low upstream SNR,
but they were not dropping packets.
Sun 5/04/08 - Continuing off/on packet loss from midnight till around noon.
Mon 5/05/08 - Canceled 4-6 pm appointment since problem isn't occurring.
E-mailed Comcast with history.
Tue 5/06/08 - Packet loss started around 11:40 AM till after 10:40 PM. Called
Comcast and was told I had 16% packet loss to modem (16 lost out
of 100). He also told me he saw a 12.6 dB upstream SNR which
later changed to 24.4 dB. I made an appointment for Sat 5/10/08
with hope that problem will be occurring on Sat.
Signal info (upstream info comes from phone support):
4/29/08 1:40 called PM in and got signal info:
Upstream power: 42
downstream power: -6.5
downstream SNR: 34.4
upstream SNR: 16.3 dB (25 dB or above it good)
4/29/08 1:44 PM:
Upstream power: 42
downstream power: -6.5
downstream SNR: 0 dB
upstream SNR: 11.4 dB (25 dB or above it good)
upstream receive: 15.6
4/29/08 1:46 PM:
Upstream power: 42
downstream power: -6.5
downstream SNR: 34 dB
upstream SNR: 33.6 dB (25 dB or above it good)
upstream receive: 0.7
5/3/08 7:45 PM
Upstream SNR: 23
Upstream SNR: 24
5/6/08 10:40 PM
Upstream SNR: 12.8 dB
5/6/08 10:51 PM
Upstream SNR: 24.9 dB
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The Comcast Disney Avatar has been retired. |
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daveinpoway
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA
| Re: [Connectivity] My neighbor and I are having major connection
The second set of numbers (4/29/08, 1:44 PM) looks strange. A 0 dB downstream signal/noise ratio means that the signal and the noise are equal; either your connection has some serious problems or else the modem is defective and is reporting the wrong value. |
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captblaze
join:2002-02-15
Pontiac, MI
| reply to Morac
i was having mad packet loss a few weeks ago. as much as comcast tried to make it my problem the real cause was squirrel chews on the line from my house to the pole. it seems Motorola surfboard modems are sensitive to interference when the line has breaks in the insulation, and that causes packet loss as well as increased ping times.
I'm not trying to say this is your problem, but it kinda sounds like the problem i was having and then was fixed by a knowledgeable tech who spent some time tracking the problem down
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flame on! |
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Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
·Comcast
edit:
May 7th, @08:17AM
| reply to daveinpoway
said by daveinpoway  :The second set of numbers (4/29/08, 1:44 PM) looks strange. A 0 dB downstream signal/noise ratio means that the signal and the noise are equal; either your connection has some serious problems or else the modem is defective and is reporting the wrong value. I thought that was strange myself, but since the Comcast person on the phone gave me that number (I wasn't home at the time) I figured he got it wrong. Every time I check the signals on my modem when I'm having loss they are fine.
The upstream SNR's are way off though. What makes no sense is last night I was having major problems (16% loss) and the person on the phone said I had a 12.8 dB upstream SNR. He said his screen showed that 12.8 dB was "green", meaning good. From the FAQ on this site it says it should be over 29 dB.
I'm convinced it's an upstream problem, but it's intermittent (some days are good, some are bad) so I don't know what's causing it.
I changed my appointment to this morning from 10 AM to noon since the problem is occurring now (though the packet loss is currently low). I'm just hoping I don't have to take off from work for no reason.
Here's my current line quality test. As you can see basic pings are now good, but high bandwidth pings are failing.
»/linequality/nil/2381737 |
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K Patterson
Premium,MVM
join:2006-03-12
Columbus, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
| Here's some information, but no solution.
The SNR's reported by your modem and by thhe CMTS are not based upon actual measurements. They are estimates based upon the observed error rate. That rate is plugged into formulas developed by a guy named Shannon years ago. Since the signal level of all modems on an upstream is the same or nearly so, it is an estimate of how much noise is arriving at the CMTS, and would be the same for all folks on the upstream if the only issue was noise. Unfortunately this measurement cannot distinguish the other potential problems including amplifier and node distortion and modulation errors in your modem, which can vary from user to user.
So, if they are on the ball, when they see that you have a bad upstream SNR, they will look at other modems on the upstream and see if it is a common problem, or perhaps common to a group of modems in the same area of the cable plant.
At this point I would replace the modem if you have not done so already. Other than that, all you can do is keep after them. |
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drdoct
join:2005-06-20
Griffin, GA
·Comcast
| reply to Morac
I had that same problem at home and have a suspicion that it was squirrels chewing, but comcast never found the problem. I eventually had to get rid of comcast and go back to att which hurt because it's so slow. Hope you have better results, but it really depends on how lazy the techs are in your area. |
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Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
·Comcast
edit:
May 7th, @09:54AM
| reply to K Patterson
said by K Patterson :At this point I would replace the modem if you have not done so already. Other than that, all you can do is keep after them. I had major problems back in October and they replaced my modem 3 times back then until they finally tracked down an intermittent upstream issue.
Somehow I doubt my modem is the problem in this case since if the modem was bad I would think the problem would be occurring all the time, not every other day or so. It also wouldn't explain why my neighbor is having problems.
I'm convinced if I could get a line tech out when the problem was occurring I could get this fixed. The problem is a) getting a line tech out and b) getting one out when the problem is occurring.
As for squirrels, all the lines in my development are underground so I don't think it's "line chewing". Plus my digital TV pictures are fine (99% of the time).
It's about 7 minutes until the 2 hour window when the tech is supposed to come and the problem is still occurring so hopefully this time I'll get results. |
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K Patterson
Premium,MVM
join:2006-03-12
Columbus, OH | My point about the modem is that by exchanging it you would rule it out and leave one less hole for the mice to hide in. I agree that it is probably not the cause. |
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plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY
clubs:
edit:
May 7th, @01:53PM
| reply to Morac
you are right about needing a line tech from what i'v been told regular techs don't have the equipment or training to diagnose and fix these types of issues
if you hit a roadblock with the normal methods go this route
»Comcast High Speed Internet »How do I contact the Comcast Executive Complaint Center? |
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Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
·Comcast
| Thanks for the link. I got a lead tech out (coincidentally the same one I had from last October) and he saw the problem. At the local office they saw that modems in a small radius around my block were having all kinds of signal issues so a line tech was scheduled for sometime today.
Of course, according to the Smokeping, everything cleared up right after the tech left. Hopefully the line techs don't (didn't) just assume everything is now working and leave it at that since from experience the problem will return in a day or two.
At least the wheel is getting some grease now. |
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