Equipment Support > Hardware By Brand > Other Manufacturers > Strange "Packet Loss" Issue

Strange "Packet Loss" Issue

Try this test - »/pingtest - and post back the URL of the result. Maybe it will shed some light on the issue.

Alright, it's gotta just be that I'm getting bogus results from pingtest.net. I ran the test you linked to above twice and got 0% packet loss and an average of around 60-70ms latency. I also manually ran some continuous pings to google.com and yahoo.com for a couple of minutes each and didn't see a single dropped packet.

It has to be something weird between the modem and pingtest.net. I had another Ubee DOCSIS 2 modem (the U10C018) prior to this one and pingtest.net never showed any dropped packets, yet for some reason this one is.

I don't know enough about how DOCSIS 3 works or how TWC is pushing the signal to this modem to make a guess as to why it's doing it, but as long as I don't get constant drops, I guess I just have to live with the fact that I can't use pingtest.net to check my line.

reply to Meatball
The UBEE modem is a POS! Get rid of it now!

Those guys used to be AMBIT, they are going out of business. So, you will get no support from TWC after March.

TWC has pulled all UBEE modems that have not been installed because of a security breach in the modem.

Just an FYI

Ah, great. Any idea what modem I should request? The UBEE is what TWC supplied and when I told them I didn't need the whole wireless gateway deal, they seemed oblivious to any other makes/models.

Any linkage to the security exploit btw? Be good to point them at that in pushing along a new modem request.

reply to Meatball
Dude, seriously. TWC is the worst... Now I remember why I left them the first time.

So I call them up Monday night to see if they have any other modem options available for their "Extreme" (DOCSIS 3.0) service. After being transfered 3 times I finally get a guy who tells me that he thinks they do, but he's not sure. I'd have to go into one of the payment centers and see about swapping for a different modem.

The closest one is about 20 minutes away, so today, I bail from work 45 mins early to get over there before they close at 5. I get there and the woman just starts shaking her head no before I even finish saying, "Do you have any other DOCSIS 3 modem models available?" Must have been too close to closing time and apparently I was the "First one to ever come in and ask that question." So, noone has ever asked the question before and she knew the answer before I finished asking. Alright..whatever.

On my way home, I stopped at Best Buy for something unrelated and as I'm walking the aisles, there sits a Motorola SB6120 Extreme DOCSIS 3.0 modem. On an impulse I grab it, figuring I'll just buy my own. I get home and spend 20 minutes on the phone with a tech guy trying to get it to work when finally he says, "Hmm...my supervisor just told me that no other modems other than the one we supply will work with the Extreme service."

Seriously? Man, I wish I had another legitimate option for service here.

To give a quick update on this thread ... I am in the (infamous) Beaumont TX TWC market area. You know the one where they tried to roll the bandwidth caps on us and it backfired. I was one of those customers that spent hours on the phone complaining.

Anyway ... I upgraded to "extreme" which is 20mb down and 2mb up (actual consistently 2mb down and 1mb up on large downloads) the upload was a big factor for me as the other one I had was capped at 512kb.

When I upgraded I pointedly asked for a modem, not a "UBEE Modem/wireless router" combo. But thats what I got. When I called support about the strange packet loss you mentioned, I was told "no problem just go to the local office and swap out for the motorola SB6120" I was very happy hearing that, as I really did not want to buy something that they should provide.

Once I arrived at the local office today, several of the staff didnt even know what "extreme" internet was or Docsis3.0. WOW. A guy sitting in their office (maybe a tech) said no we dont keep those here. I asked where do I get one, that phone support had told me to go here and get one. He said I dont know. WHAT??? THEY DONT KNOW ???? REALLY ?

To make matters even worse, one of the ladies brought me another ubee modem a docsis 2.0 one and said here you will have to use this. Then she started to cut off my service (extreme).... I said WAIT... I dont want you to cut it off, just tell me where to get a moto modem... At that point I walked out.

I called support again, referencing the previous support call number, they apologized and said that docsis 3.0 is being rolled out and that all the ubee modems were being phased out. That I would have to get the Moto 3.0 modem from a tech person in a truck delivered to my house. No store has them, or will know what I am talking about. (She confirmed this !!!). The sad part is .... based on what I was told WHY DID THEY BRING ME A UBEE MODEM A WEEK AGO AND INSTALL IT ??? WERE THEY TRYING TO GET RID OF THEM ? ??

Wow ... Time Warner Cable are freaking idiots. Many are good people, i'm sure the lady that helped me today on the phone was knowledgeable, but the company is run by a bunch of incompetent idiots.

Anyway ... for those out there needing a good docsis 3.0 modem in the Beaumont TX TWC market.. DO NOT GET THE UBEE, get the Motorola SB6120, they will bring it to you for free. You just have to ask for it, (several times in my case). ~end of rant~

P.S. One more thing ... when I turned the firewall to "off" on the Ubee modem/router ... the packet loss went away. I think that it was mistaking the test packets in the test as garbage and rejecting most of them. Of course there's so little cfg on that modem you cant fix it. Good riddance.

Man, I wish I could get the Moto. So even more drama in my sage. Over the last few weeks I've started to notice sites resolving DNS slowly or even timing out. Figuring it was the TWC DNS servers I started trying a few public options and it was just as bad, so I guessed it was the modem. Though I wasn't positive since I was still getting great speedtest results.

I jumped on the Direct Support forum for TWC here on DSLReports, and let them know what I was running into. They checked into and noticed that some of the channels were not bonding correctly to the modem, so set up a tech appointment. Tech shows up, he can't seem to find any problem, but swaps the modem out anyways. Of course, for another Ubee DDW3611 and he didn't have anything else on the truck.

The best part is, he calls in to get them to activate the new one, and they have it in their system that I actually have the Motorolla, that just a month ago they told me wasn't compatible and I couldn't use, so I returned, and they can't do anything till they 'balance' things on their end. Poor tech had to stand here for an hour to swap out a modem because their back end systems were wrong.

So far the modem is actually working better and I haven't had any major issues, but who knows for how long. Not that there's a lot I can do anyways. If I call TWC tech support or even drive down to the local office, I get the same keystone cops act that they have no idea about other modems or even what DOCSIS 3.0 is.

At this point, I'm just going start calling in every week and try to see if I can find anyone that has any clue what I'm talking about. Complete waste of my time, complete waste of their time/money, and all because they don't want to give their technicians 30 minutes worth of training on DOCSIS 3 and the modems that support it.

Please keep us posted on your saga Meatball. I can attest I'm running into the same issues here in Rochester NY. My situation is that my Ubee DDW3611 has problem resolving dynamic DNS for a minute or so when I start any of my computers. It does eventually start working somehow, but that's hardly what I would expect for paying 50% premium than my old DOCSIS 2.0 service.

I wouldn't pursue much with the "tech" that comes to your house. Chances are he doesn't even work for TW. More likely someone that TW contracts out. That was my case. When I starting asking him questions about the Ubee, his response was "Dude, this Ubee is awesome!" This while fielding calls as his girlfriend's baby daddy.

The actual Time Warner employees at the TW office, to their credit, did at least know the difference between DC2 and DC3. And did know that there are Surfboards available. They ordered me one out of the Rochester NY main office which I hope to pick up next week. I will keep you posted on my progress.

One possible solution I've seen using the Ubee's, is calling TW and having them walk you through dumbing down the Ubee as a bridge, and using your own router for your NAT & wireless. This would give you better control over your settings if all the Ubee was doing is passing through the signal.

Good luck.