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RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

4 edits

RRod

Member

[Speed] Comcast Leased Arris TM722G/CT Modem Too Fast?

This is my very first post here on the Forum and no other similar issue was found on the Search and FAQ Section:

I've been leasing a Comcast TM722G/CT DOCSIS 3.0 modem for over a year now in the Portland, OR USA area as part of a triple play package for phone, TV and HSI.

I'd been a Comcast TV only customer for about 12 years here at the house previously.

I initially was on the HSI "Performance" Tier but later was offered a 3 month free trial at the faster HSI "Blast" Tier in mid-2012. At the end of the 3 months I called and asked to go back to my original lower "Performance" Tier (around Oct or Nov 2012).

So far so good and no additional billing since then.

However, my speed tests from several different sites (and not just Comcast's test site) continue to report the higher "Blast" Tier speed and most recently when Comcast advertised a doubling of speeds, I also saw my average test rates double.

I get anywhere from 75mbps to 120mbps down and 5mbps to 11mbps up depending on the time of day and distance of the test servers.

I can download a 1 GB file at a rate of about 7,000KB/sec which would seem to indicate I may still be on the Blast Tier (50/10) at the very least.

Can anyone share their thoughts here? I have not said anything to Comcast about this speed thing other than asked if I could purchase my currently in-place modem, but they said no and I'd need to buy a replacement like at Best Buy, etc.

I'm really concerned that if I decide to purchase an approved Comcast modem for HSI and Phone in order to ditch the $7/mo lease fee, then my speed rate may possibly go back down to the lower Performance Tier when they provision the new replacement modem.

Or ..... is the setting of the speed Tier handled outside the modem?

As it stands now, I would come out ahead by doing nothing if my Tier level does drop with a new modem purchase (thus requiring another $10/mo to get back up to my suspected Blast Tier speeds).

BTW, Comcast pushed through an updated TS070659C_050313_MODEL_7_8 Firmware Dated May 3, 2013 to the leased modem about a week ago (which did not change anything as far I can tell except that the Arris CM State Status page indicates that there has been 1 DHCP attempt to obtain an IPv6 CM IP Address and the Comcast IPv6 Information page link says "Your CMTS is ready for IPv6").

Please advise (anyone) ..... Everything seems to be working good as-is and I'm a big believer in Murphy's Law.

Here is my speed test result from this evening at 11:05 pm on the West Coast USA:
_____________________________________

DiffProbe release. January 2012. Build 1008.
Shaper Detection Module.

Connected to server 38.102.0.87.

Estimating capacity:
Upstream: 11830 Kbps.
Downstream: 117402 Kbps.

The measurement will take upto 2.5 minutes. Please wait.

Checking for traffic shapers:

Upstream: No shaper detected.
Median received rate: 11424 Kbps.

Downstream: Burst size: 6780-8075 KB;
Shaping rate: 58053 Kbps.
______________________________________

Thanks .... RRod

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

For the longest time I was seeing faster speeds on my account then I was actually supposed to receive, like 36Mbps when I was paying for a lesser plan. When I swapped modems due to a failure, I saw the drop of the bonus speed and it was back to "normal"
When I moved up to Blast, I would again be seeing those faster speeds.
When Blast doubled to 50Mbps, I was seeing 55Mbps. Now out of the blue I'm seeing 58Mbps for the past month or so.

From my understanding the provisioning takes place where it sends a configuration file to the modem with the corresponding speed tier on the account. It's possible that the configuration file and the billing information can become out of sync. Sometimes it works itself out when someone notices after you call in on an unrelated issue, and sometimes years can pass without ever being detected.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

2 edits

RRod

Member

Mike .... that's sort of what I figured ..... Since you mentioned the config file goes to the modem, I think I'll just keep silent and enjoy the faster speeds as long as they last for a $7/mo lease fee and pat my modem daily with a "good modem, good modem" phrase in hopes it lasts a long time (and minimize any changes to my Comcast account for now).

Thanks!

scaredpoet
join:2001-03-26
Monmouth Junction, NJ

1 recommendation

scaredpoet

Member

Most people would LOVE to have your "problem."

The issue is definitely a modem configuration file. For a while I had the opposite problem: I had upgraded to Blast and was paying Blast pricing, but my modem was giving me the lower tier speeds. Several calls to customer service yielded no results. Ultimately, I had to go to the Comcast HSI direct forum here to have a tech both load the config file, and verify it was working on my modem.

At the time, I thought the problem was that I don't lease my modem, I bought it from NewEgg. But apparently, having the wrong config file can happen on leased modems, too.

YukonHawk
join:2001-01-07
Patterson, NY

1 recommendation

YukonHawk to Mike Wolf

Member

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

For the longest time I was seeing faster speeds on my account then I was actually supposed to receive, like 36Mbps when I was paying for a lesser plan. When I swapped modems due to a failure, I saw the drop of the bonus speed and it was back to "normal"
When I moved up to Blast, I would again be seeing those faster speeds.
When Blast doubled to 50Mbps, I was seeing 55Mbps. Now out of the blue I'm seeing 58Mbps for the past month or so.

From my understanding the provisioning takes place where it sends a configuration file to the modem with the corresponding speed tier on the account. It's possible that the configuration file and the billing information can become out of sync. Sometimes it works itself out when someone notices after you call in on an unrelated issue, and sometimes years can pass without ever being detected.

Okay ....I thought I was the only one here seeing the faster speeds as well.....I was on the 20/5 plan then CC double that to 50/10. I have a Cisco DPC3008 and my speeds the last two months have been closer to 58 to 65 on any given nite. Upload has been consistent at 10 to 11. Not complaining by no means just lov'in the extra bit of speed. Modem is leased.

annoymous
@comcast.net

annoymous to RRod

Anon

to RRod
With DOCSIS 3.0 modems only, Performance tier 25/5 has "silver" boot file and Blast tier 50/10 has "speedtierextreme2" boot file. All download higher speeds you have seen are normal with lease or owned modem. Uploads speed stay the same.

mustang50
Premium Member
join:2005-05-06
Roseville, MI

mustang50 to RRod

Premium Member

to RRod
MY Blast 50/10 "problem"

Speed isn't really that good, but it keeps my spirits up.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

RRod to annoymous

Member

to annoymous
said by annoymous :

With DOCSIS 3.0 modems only, Performance tier 25/5 has "silver" boot file and Blast tier 50/10 has "speedtierextreme2" boot file. All download higher speeds you have seen are normal with lease or owned modem. Uploads speed stay the same.

Thanks for the info ..... It is interesting that I do not see any boot file info or references to Silver or speedtierextreme2 anywhere on my Arris logs at 192.168.100.1 (no reference to any boot file at all). However, my Comcast Speed tests do mirror the results of what mustang50 posted just above. In my case, it is for Comcast test servers in Portland (0 ms Ping at 10 miles) and Seattle (10 ms ping at 170 miles to the north).

May I presume that with upstream results using Comcast's Speed Test from my two nearest servers always yielding 10 to 11 Mbps uploads consistently, would one reasonably conclude the 50/10 Blast Tier is in play? Conversely, if the upload speeds at the same test sites were consistently 5 to 6 Mbps, then would an assumption of the Performance speed Tier be reasonable?

Thanks again for the help.

delchuckles
join:2007-04-05
Somerset, NJ

delchuckles to RRod

Member

to RRod
Here's my modem info...wonder if my firmware needs to be updated?

Hardware Information

System: ARRIS DOCSIS 3.0 / PacketCable 1.5 Touchstone Telephony Modem
HW_REV: 3
VENDOR: Arris Interactive, L.L.C.
BOOTR: 1.2.1.25
SW_REV: 7.4.63A
MODEL: TM722G
Serial Number: AAXBPG47J368874
Battery Charger FW Rev: 02.30
Options:

Firmware Build and Revisions

Firmware Name: TS070463A_011312_MODEL_7_8
Firmware Build Time: Fri Jan 13 19:51:50 EST 2012

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to scaredpoet

Member

to scaredpoet
When I first got Comcast, I rented their modem and was paying for the Performance tier, which at the time was 6Mbps. But strangely when I did speed tests, I would be seeing speeds slower then DSL. I called Comcast and they checked everything, and even sent a tech and couldn't figure out the problem. The tech told me he thinks the modem was bad "possibly from lightning", and said I should get my own. I did, but the problem continued. After a second visit from a tech, I called Comcast again and asked if the account was setup correctly, since I think I saw a post on here about the same issue. The agent on the phone checked and discovered that the configuration file that was being used on my account was for the economy tier. After a quick remote reboot and re-provisioning, I was on the right track and all was happy. I'm still confused by how everyone missed that from the get go, and why the same problem occurred with the customer owned modem since it would had to have been provisioned and configuration file sent to it which would have been done by a different agent.
Mike Wolf

Mike Wolf to RRod

Member

to RRod
A UPS battery backup always makes routers and modems happy because they don't like power failures, just like the rest of us.

owlyn
MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA
Netgear CM2050V
Netgear RBRE960
Netgear RBSE960

owlyn to delchuckles

MVM

to delchuckles
said by delchuckles:

Here's my modem info...wonder if my firmware needs to be updated?

Hardware Information

System: ARRIS DOCSIS 3.0 / PacketCable 1.5 Touchstone Telephony Modem
HW_REV: 3
VENDOR: Arris Interactive, L.L.C.
BOOTR: 1.2.1.25
SW_REV: 7.4.63A
MODEL: TM722G
Serial Number: AAXBPG47J368874
Battery Charger FW Rev: 02.30
Options:

Firmware Build and Revisions

Firmware Name: TS070463A_011312_MODEL_7_8
Firmware Build Time: Fri Jan 13 19:51:50 EST 2012

Yes, that is the old firmware. You should be able to get the latest by hitting the reset button on the back of your modem. It takes a little while to download, so don't panic if it looks like nothing is happening.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

RRod

Member

Because I do not see any boot file info or references to Silver or speedtierextreme2 anywhere on my Arris logs at 192.168.100.1 (no reference to any boot file at all within the listing of log entries) .... can anyone help me find them?

I did once remove the Arris unit's battery couple of months ago for a whole minute to do a full hard reest ..... could that be the reason?

Otherwise, it works great as per my original post with what appears to be Blast speeds.

Thanks everyone .... RRod

owlyn
MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA

owlyn

MVM

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Darknessfall
Premium Member
join:2012-08-17
Motorola MG8725
Asus RT-N66

Darknessfall to mustang50

Premium Member

to mustang50
said by mustang50:

MY Blast 50/10 "problem"

Speed isn't really that good, but it keeps my spirits up.

That's just powerboost though :P.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

1 edit

RRod to owlyn

Member

to owlyn
said by owlyn:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Agreed .... However, it is simply the curious life-long real engineer in me that make me wonder why the boot file is not listed in my logs.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

On my SB6121, the only time I ever see a boot file in the log is when there is either a firmware update or I change my speed tier.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

RRod

Member

said by Mike Wolf:

On my SB6121, the only time I ever see a boot file in the log is when there is either a firmware update or I change my speed tier.

Ahh .... that make since now as I pulled the battery thinking it was bad to have it tested at Batteries-R-Us a day after the new firmware came through a couple of weeks ago, when in fact the new firmware was simply doing a normal battery discharge and test cycle (thus the battery was blinking green for a day or so). When I pulled the battery I also unplugged the modem from my UPS thus created a hard reset. The battery is back in and after a while the green light for the battery is now steady green. None of this info was described in the Arris User's manual about a blinking battery light during a test .... only that a blinking green battery light means a bad battery. I wonder how many poor suckers paid Comcast $40 for a new battery (at a 200% markup) after they pushed through new firmware recently?

Capitalism at at its best (especially for the non-technical lay-person subscribers .... I guess).
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to RRod

Premium Member

to RRod
I know sometimes when a speed is changed on service the signal is sometimes not sent to instruct the modem to reboot.

Also since its an EMTA it is also possible that Comcast has setup the system not to send reboot signals automatically to EMTAs in your service area. Because if you were working with Comcast on the phone and an internet change is made it would boot your call when it did reset.
RRod
join:2013-08-22
Goleta, CA

RRod

Member

Thanks .... Well, whatever the case may be, I certainly can not complain about the Blast Tier speeds I experience at Performance Tier pricing .... I better stop talking now about this Tier provisioning error in my favor.

Thanks again to all who helped with my questions!

delchuckles
join:2007-04-05
Somerset, NJ

delchuckles to owlyn

Member

to owlyn
got it, thanks!