Breezeline → Re: Atlantic Broaband MegaMax 16mb service

Had the megamax for a month and a half now, and I've enjoyed the increases. I only wish they'd really do some increasing in the upload area. Better, yes, but I wish it were more comparable to other providers.

Day in and day out, there are just times of the day where the speed is 2.5Mb/s - 8Mb/s... and that can last for hours. It usually doesn't bother me TOO bad, but it's annoying to see only a third of what you're paying for sometimes.

Is anybody else having latency issues, in Johnstown with the HSI?

I don't remember having any connection problems once the Internet was upgraded.

Then randomly one day I'd say 2.5 weeks ago my friend who also has ABB HSI and TV Service said his cable randomly become very snowy and his modem cut out a few times.

Now I have not really noticed the snow in the TV channels but I am mainly just a ClearQAM user which those channels don't get snow being digital.

I would have to say in the past 2 weeks or so, I must have seen my modem up and reboot randomly at least 3 times, and I have known it to do that maybe once every 6 months or something, not this much.

What section of Johnstown? I'm in the West End and have had some minor modem reboots occur a little more often these past few weeks, but nothing much before that. Latency seems fine.

Can you post your modem signal stats?

Usually if you have a surfboard, you can see them at:

»192.168.100.1/RgSignal.asp

For example mine (at the time of posting) is:

Downstream Value
Frequency 681000000 Hz
Signal To Noise Ratio 38.3 dB
Power Level -1.9 dBmV

Upstream Value
Channel ID 1
Frequency 31008000 Hz
Power 46.5 dBmV

I am also in West End.

Downstream Value
Frequency 681000000 Hz
Signal to Noise Ratio 36 dB
QAM 256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level 0 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 3
Frequency 31008000 Hz
Ranging Service ID 303
Symbol Rate 2.560 Msym/s
Power Level 49 dBmV

EDIT: It appears I must have a bad modem, because ABB said since Sunday, my modem has cut out 40 times. They recommend that I exchange my modem at the office, and that's what I will do.

I think honestly that the lines down here suck.

But maybe not, it's hard to say. Let me know what modem you had before, what they replace it with, and if you notice any difference.

Sometimes I think they just say that the modem is bad, which isn't always true because really we're both sorta on the higher end of the spectrum for upstream power levels.

I just checked mine now, and it's above 51dBmV.

Once you start hitting around 55dBmV, then you get more frequent disconnects (T3/ranging timeouts will appear in the logs). I had this issue happening to me a lot, then I picked up a cable amplifier (with a passive return) and it seemed to help a bit for my situation, since the internal wiring for this house is a mess.

Posting my stats again:

Downstream Value
Frequency 681000000 Hz
Signal To Noise Ratio 38.2 dB
Power Level -2.1 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 1
Frequency 31008000 Hz
Power 51.0 dBmV

Speed Test:

They gave me the exact same modem a Motorola SurfBoard SB5120, but weird thing is it has a totally different AC plug, which is kinda annoying.

My old one had the "wart" in the middle and a normal plug on the end but this time they have me a "wall wart" plug and I barely found a place to plug it in, being so big .

Anyway, more to the point the modem appears to be working fine as far as I can tell I do not have any disconnects that are noticeable and oddly enough the new modem doesn't show Baseline Privacy I believe it was a failed anymore.

Here is my new numbers:

Downstream Value
Frequency 687000000 Hz
Signal to Noise Ratio 32 dB
QAM 256
Network Access Control Object ON
Power Level -3 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 3
Frequency 31008000 Hz
Ranging Service ID 1022
Symbol Rate 3.200 Msym/s
Power Level 50 dBmV

Though the bad news is I am seeing T3 timeouts just like you said

EDIT: The last time I seen one was 110701210245 (timestamp) and I have not noticed anything timing out, so I don't know if it's happening just some times or the modem recovers so fast my network can't tell. I am able to watch a fair amount of streaming video and use a VoIP phone (not from ABB) and really noticed no problems. Before my phone calls would randomly go silent.

Do you have a lot of splits before the modem?

If so, fixing this is another major thing that helps fix the signal.

Additionally, you could opt for an amplifier solution if you can't modify the cable runs or if you make changes and it still has you on that threshold above > 48dBmV for upstream.

I personally ended up re-running a direct line for the modem, and then let the rest of the cables alone to run for video. Adding an amplifier fixed my TV fuzziness on the runs as there are too many splits that I can't directly access to change to a more reliable path.

If you are interested, here is the one I purchased:

»www.extreme-broadband.co ··· iers.php

It provides a special "passive" return for cable modems, or if you are feeling lucky, you could attempt the normal amplified return path, haha. I'd rather not piss off my ABB neighbors (aka: you and the cable company itself) by potentially feeding interference back through the CMTS and causing issues for everyone. However, if your signal is that marginal, it might not hurt. I have remained cautious about utilizing an active return path.

Also, are you renting a modem?

yes I am renting a modem and they claim since I got this new modem I have not been disconnecting at all, so I dunno.

If I have problems later I guess I will try those solutions.

EDIT: I contacted ABB Tech Support, and since I had this modem for 4 days now, they claim they don't see any disconnecting from me at all. So I guess for now I'm good. This is vs when they said on I think it was a Thur, 40 disconnected since Sun.