TekSavvy → Teksavvy Cable - Connection Dropping every 4-8 Hours

I just got off the phone with the tech support and the guy said he thinks it's my router causing it. I don't buy it.

Status Code: Operational
Software Version: STAC.02.08
Software Model: a81a
Bootloader: 2.3.0

Cable Signal Details
Forward Path:
Channel Frequency Power SNR BER Modulation
1 603.0 MHz -2.2 dBmV 38.4 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
2 591.0 MHz -1.8 dBmV 38.8 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
3 597.0 MHz -2.1 dBmV 38.8 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
4 609.0 MHz -2.1 dBmV 38.6 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
5 615.0 MHz -2.1 dBmV 38.5 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
6 621.0 MHz -1.9 dBmV 38.5 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
7 633.0 MHz -2.7 dBmV 37.8 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
8 639.0 MHz -2.8 dBmV 38.2 dB 0.000 % 256 QAM
Return Path:
Channel ID Frequency Power Modulation
1 31.3 MHz 39.3 dBmV 16 QAM
2 25.3 MHz 37.3 dBmV 16 QAM
0 0.0 MHz 1.0 dBmV QPSK
0 0.0 MHz 1.0 dBmV QPSK
Data Service Details
Provisioned Address: Yes
Provisioned Time: Yes
Provisioned Configuration: Yes
Registered: Yes
BPI: Enabled

I cleared the log, just before the last drop... and this has popped up since:

Time Priority Description
Wed Feb 15 21:44:34 2012 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=00:26:24:b...
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=00:26:24:b4...
Wed Feb 15 21:19:30 2012 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...

Any words of advice?

Easiest way to test? Just do a direct connection to the modem and connect that way.

If distance is an issue a pair of these should do the trick.

»www.newegg.ca/Product/Pr ··· &x=0&y=0

Nice 8/2 bonding there.

Only thing I can see that might be an issues the firmware version "Software Version: STAC.02.08", the approved version is STAC.02.16.

Same thing happen's to me, called tech support and one person told me to plug my dcm475(stac.02.08) to another power bar, Really? Teksavvy, treating people like they are toddlers.

Anyway on topic, junkmail2002 it's the firmware of the modem we need stac.02.16, I'm getting pretty tired of disconnect's myself.

T3 time-out isn't good. Many posts were made about the T3 time-out.

I have the same log in my DCM475. Connection drops for about a minute at a couple of time everyday.

Why doesn't TSI just replace the modems having 2.08 with modems having 2.16?

My modem reset at the exact moment that I clicked reply.

TekSavvy won't just replace every modem with that firmware because they may not all be faulty modems. Why would you go and replace a bunch of hardware, that you will lose on if it ends up being in working condition, if you can test everything else first and one of those things fixes the problem?

The only issue I have with this: I had to do pretty extensive and annoying tests to get them to finally send out a replacement - I don't know anyone else on cable, just DSL, so that added delays since I couldn't test my connection with their modems. What if I was just part of the general populace and didn't know how to use my computer - how does this situation get handled with the average person?

Of course, after my new modem gets here and I continue to have the same problem, I'm going to have to pay a fee and there's still going to be a problem that Rogers must be sent to fix. Is it a high chance of that being the situation? Probably not - it will very likely be smooth sailing after the new modem is plugged in.

Where are you located?

This problem first started popping up about 6 months ago (as far as I can tell) in Brampton. The firmware causes some sort of issue where the modem reboots arbitrarily it seems every 6-8 hours.

At the time it seemed to be limited to only people with the DCM475 on firmware 2.08 located in Brampton, but I am wondering if the issue has spread now.

Either way Tek eventually replaced my modem with one that has firmware .16 on it and the reboots stopped since that day

I am in Richmond Hill, ON

Same problems in Markham too, I know it can't just be me because 3 of my friends have the same problem
TSI should roll out (Or at least get Rogers to) 2.16 for people with 2.08 firmware

TSI Martin???

In my case, or the case of Brampton, it took months of delays before they finally had to replace my modem as a fix.

Rogers wouldn't push out the firmware update apparently.

Its also not the firmware causing this or even the modem.

Seen this with both the 2.08 and 2.16 firmware not to mention other modems.
Up tell recently on my dcm 475 didn't drop connections but after the recent upgrade to fix the dhcp issues it does restarts 3 to 6 times a day.

A quick look at the log shows plenty of dhcp issues so it doesn't take much to figure out that they upgrade didn't fix the issue but merely traded it for another one.

I'm having the same issue the last week or two I got my Thomson dcm 475 in June of 2011 so I'm assuming I have the 2.08 firmware.

i am also having frequent disconnects, i am on dsl in richmond hill.

this is frustrating since there is no fix for it and the only thing teksavvy will tell me to do is " please plug your power directly into the wall, it's not getting enough power"

rofl, such a joke. i switched to teksavvy because i thought their customer support was good, JOKES ON ME

Its annoying for sure but hardly the end of the world since its a brief disconnect and back up and running shortly after.

The questions is whats going on with the upgrades thats causes this and move on from blaming the modems which clearly isn't the cause.

Actually it's a pretty big deal to gamers when they get dropped from a game just about every day. One guy I know plays Starcraft and this (along with Teksavvy's unfortunate inability to deal with it) is driving him crazy.

I've been having this same issue off and on with my SB6120, worst resulted in an outage lasting about 2 days about 4 weeks ago, and most recently as last night which lasted about an hour. Last night's outage resulted in it reconnecting without any channel bonding, but at least it works. With the 2 day outage I had, the tech I spoke with wasn't interested in anything in the log ("That's not important" was his comment when I asked him if he wanted any of the log info) and gave me the same line about plugging it in directly to a wall socket. I ended up putting in a ticket for a Rogers service call, but the modem came back online on its own about an hour before the tech was due to arrive. Pretty sad when that's the extent of support TSI can offer for cable, and yeah yeah, I know it's Rogers' fault. All the same though...

I'm leaning pretty strongly for going back to DSL, a minute or two downtime once in a while is one thing, but repeated outages for hours at a time is unacceptable.

Yup .. I am in Ottawa and have a DCM475 stac.02.08 and getting resets several times a day. last reset terminated a call to my boss over my VOIP :P So why is it so difficult to get firmware updates for these things? I have done the whole troubleshooting thing .. direct connect to PC.. removed router, etc .. I would buy a new modem .. but pretty silly to have to buy new just to get a firmware update.

I only started noticing the problem in December .. none of my equipment has changed.

Why wouldn't the logs be relevant, I've never gotten a straight answer out of anyone on that either. I just have to go by a link about T3 and T4 timeouts not that its any more helpful Here: »bradyvolpe.com/docsis-10 ··· tenance/ which is pretty generic far as that goes.

And I don't 'get' why it matters if its pluged directly into a wall or into your UPS box. The whole idea for the UPS is power backup in case of brownout and surge protection on the modem too.

>plugging it in directly to a wall socket.
It is one less thing to go wrong, but that's hardly useful. Going by that logic, why don't the user climb up to the hydro pole and plug it to the distribution transformer...

It is a distraction and waste of time for everybody going by a sequential search. A more efficient way of doing diagnostic is going by a binary decision tree. Service manuals for equipments are done this way.

If a user see certain things, an entire branch can be pruned off. e.g. If the user can see the modem webpage, a lot of things are working already.

Teksavvy support opened a ticket with Rogers a few days ago and just called me with an update.

---

Dave: Hi Sir, we have an update from Rogers, they just updated the ticket we opened a few days ago.
Me: So what's the update?
Dave: They ran some tests on the line
Me: So did they find any issues?
Dave: I can't tell that from their comments.
Me: So what should I do now?
Dave: Well monitor the connection and let us know if anything changes?
Me: So is what they did going to fix the problem?
Dave: We don't know sir sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't
Me: So it's possible they didn't do anything?
Dave: We can't tell that from the ticket
Me: OK, I guess I will just monitor the link and let you know when, I mean, if it drops again.
Dave: OK Sir.
Me: Dave, do you know this is also happening to a whole bunch of people, I am not the only one.
Dave: Well I don't know about that sir.
Me: OK, I will contact you if it fails again. Thanks for the update.

---

to paraphrase...there is something rotten in the state of Teksavvy.

Its not the modem or the firmware.

It doesn't matter the modem or whats on it since this issue is not happening at the user level.

This is a issue with the equipment in rogers ownership and all we can do is wait for them to fix it.

No firmware upgrades to any modems is going to make any difference since there nothing wrong with the firmware as it is now.

Teksavvy clearly knows something is up since there is a whole lot of people complaining about this issue.

Our vendors have been told both on modem & line side & issue still didn't get resolved until firmware STAC.02.16 came out. Although there are plenty of people on STAC.02.08 who don't have issues.

Also, after multiple attempts at getting Rogers to push a firmware update, they still refuse to do so. We've been looking at other methods, such as getting the modem back from user & sending it to our Modem vendors for them to upgrade. Looking into getting a CMTS ourselves to do the upgrades. These have been ideas put on the table, whether or not they'll be considered to go forward... I don't know.

I have my doubts thats going to fix the problem.
I seen this issue on every model of modem you sell and more so recently since the upgrades last month.

I got a tenant who has the 2.16 firmware and he gets disconnects just as everyone else does.

Not to mention i never had this problem tell the upgrades last month.

Hard to explain it away as a modem issue when it happens across the board .

I work in the business and something about this simply doesn't add up here.

Not saying you guys are hiding anything but there seems to be too much focus on one type of modem and not looking at this being a larger issue.

Hi Martin,

I appreciate your candid response and here is my feedback as a user:

- It has been over a week since I opened the ticket and I've been asked to perform various tasks to help Teksavvy troubleshoot the issue. If there is a widespread problem out there, why not just declare it upfront and save everyone some time.

- Whether it is the modem firmware, something Rogers is doing or something on Teksavvy side, I am a user who at the end of the day has a problem with Teksavvy services. I pay you guys to make sure it's working and expect you to get it working in the shortest possible time. Since it sounds like this issue has been happening for several months, one could argue that you are not doing your due diligence to fix it.

The reason I selected to have my phone service, my DSL and now my cable internet service with Teksavvy is because of the "no BS" approach that your organization has historically taken. If there is an issue out there and you are not doing all you can to fix it, or worse, are trying to hide it. This would seriously impact my perception of Teksavvy.

People with 2.08 do not have issues likely because they did not notice it or they do not bother to report it like myself. For me, the connection just freezes for a minute a few times a day, since I work from home, I notice the issue, and since it's only down for so short time, I hesitate to report it.

Does your vendor have any proposal on how to solve the firmware issue? I am surprised that it's like you guys begging the vendor for replacing the modems.

There was before Christmas a cluster of people having an issue in Brampton. But now we just seem to be having random people popping here & there with the issue. Were not saying that the issue these folks are having are not important. So we are trying to deal with these on a one by one basis.

Put me down as still having ongoing disconnects, happened again today and took about 30 minutes for it to come back. This is with a SB6120, I see most of the discussion on here has been to do with the Thomson DCM475 modems, so either my issue is completely isolated to my line or it's a more widespread issue that has nothing to do with modem firmware. I just wish it would get sorted because the downtime is getting to be a real pain in the arse. I'm on the Fallowfield POI if that's any help.

This should help.

Before last month on the bloor poi i didn't have this issue other then a odd disconnect once in a blue moon.

After the upgrade last month this started happening.

So whatever the upgrade was its started this for my area.

Whatever was done to fix the dhcp issues you where having created this mess.

It shouldn't be too hard to track back and see what was done and then figure out from there why this is happening.

Hi Schnauz,

If you haven't called in or posted in the »/forum ··· avdirect Forum, I'd suggest you do so. As your issue would definitely be an isolated case.