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shreezbot
Premium Member
join:2014-04-28
USA

1 edit

shreezbot

Premium Member

I don't recommend using Charter in Pelham, AL

I've had issues with Charter for over a year now. I'm on the ultra 100 plan, and I've been fighting with support and we've run the gambit of possible resolutions. We've laid new wire in the yard and replaced the tap outside, and checked and replaced a number of other components They can't send someone out during the times when the problem is actually occurring, so they send a technician during the day and surprisingly they can't find a problem because everything is working as expected. I ask if someone can come out during the times I'm having troubles and they say they don't have anyone working during those hours. After a year of this mess, I was told that the switch to all digital on 7/22/2014 would help because capacity would be added to the network as a part of this upgrade. Since then, the problem has gotten worse during peak hours, and during non-peak hours, my speed has been cut in half. I was then told that it would be another month before more capacity could be added on August 8th. So they are basically telling me that there is no way that my problem will be resolved until a month from now, and that I just have to live with slow speeds during peak hours until then (IF that even resolves the issue. I'm not holding my breath).

Just to put my review in perspective, before the switch to all digital, I could at least get 100 mbps during off-peak hours. During peak hours, however, I usually can't get more than ONE megaBIT per second (yes, bit, not byte!)... Now, since the switch to all digital on the 22nd, I can't get a speedtest over 50 mbps, ever, even during non-peak hours.

I say I don't recommend Charter in Pelham, because I've gone around and asked a few of my neighbors and they are all having the same problems that I am (although they are only on the 30mbps plan, they still aren't getting anywhere close to that during peak times). I've been told by several technicians that there is no way the problem is node saturation because there are only 350 or so people on my node and a very small number of those are on Ultra 100.

I've posted about this before, but after a year, I'm beyond frustrated. If I had other options for ISP, I'd have switched a long time ago, but there aren't any other options for me that will work.

I'd also like to note that I'm leaving this same review on every social media outlet I can and I'm keeping my neighbors posted on my progress on getting a resolution on this issue. Some of them have already made the switch to uverse (they are too slow for me overall, or I'd do the same), but some of them are holding out until I can get more information.

B4Knight
Premium Member
join:2014-03-20
Colon, MI

B4Knight

Premium Member

Sounds like you have problems with congestion at peak times. What modem do you have and how many downstream channels does it show on your signal stats page. To get into your modem click here »192.168.100.1

-JD
shreezbot
Premium Member
join:2014-04-28
USA

shreezbot

Premium Member

The modem is the Arris TM822. For some reason I haven't been able to connect to 192.168.100.1 since one of the last technicians swapped my modem out to see if that would fix my problem. For some reason, this modem won't let me connect to it. I can't even ping 192.168.100.1...

neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL

1 edit

neofate to shreezbot

Premium Member

to shreezbot
If your neighborhood is all experiencing significant speed issues during peak hours it is most probable it is a saturation issue. If this "intermittent" problem occurred solely to you and your neighbors didn't have the same issues then it would be more of a mystery than needed to be continually investigated by a System technician.. and a line monitor (yes they can put them on your line for days at a time and analyze the data) -- But this is not a typical technician type of job and Charter only has so many more advanced technicians on staff at any given time in any given area.

I've dealt with both problems I've referenced -- With saturation you are at the mercy of Charter (the MSO).. and your persistence is a must,.. further I would suggest you get together with your neighbors who also experience this issue in "prime time" and write Charter Exec a nice, but appropriate letter.

You could simple take signatures of your neighbors, the more the better, and write the letter yourself.. Send to Corporate and also put contact information for them to reach you.

I run off the same headend as yourself,.. but on a different node as I'm closer to the Inverness-greystone area off 280 and do not experience peak saturation issues.

All digital does open bandwidth but that doesn't mean it will automatically be translated into internet "lanes" if you will.

Yes, having 8 channel bonding.. which you definitely should have given you are fed off the same headend as I is nice and gives infrastructural potential to alleviate this issue (Easy to check by going to 192.168.100.1 in your browser and checking the Downstream Channels) -- It should in some way show 8 channels..

IE:

Channel 1: 1.1dBmV 37.8 SNR
Channel 2: -0.9dBmV 37.6 SNR
.......(skip a few)
Channel 8: 1.9dBmV 38 SNR

Your Upstream at this point should still be a single channel which is going to just show something like Channel 1: 43.6dBmV

The values here are just random values that are in operational range parameters your values can and probably will be different.

Though having 8 Bonded downstream Rx channels doesn't automatically = no more saturation at prime time.

I have a feeling this is something that will need to be addressed at the CMTS (headend) for your node,.. and in some uncommon cases there are situations of egress or other structural issues that need to be addressed in the field between your node and the headend.

Point is.. don't give up on it. I understand if you are fed up with it and it's not really the customers responsibility to get Charter to make their service work properly.. but I understand the lack of choices.. I run off the same Leeds/Montevallo headend live somewhat close to you and have lived here all of my life. I know we have AT&T or Charter.. We have no other options really,.. other than cellular which does not reach the speeds on the Download we require.

I also know that Charters Backbone has been upgraded several times over the last decade and is *not* at capacity for our area -- I live in 35242, and I imagine you live somewhere in the 35124 area?

The Backbone has been at capacity in the past,.. but Charter has done a fairly good job at keeping it ahead of the growing market demand/speeds/use over the last 5+ years for our area.

I'm not saying be confrontational,.. it's just that you usually only get so far with the 1888getcharter reps and a local tech.. -- So getting a group of people to be represented and then presenting that professionally to Corporate/HQ should bring about a response from someone who CAN address the situation.

As another option.. sometimes upgrading to business class will elevate you to another department of people when you have speed issues. Business is guaranteed speed and is treated with , in general, more respect and timely solutions.

So sometimes it's worth going to business class for a temporary time period (if possible, depending on contract etc) to use the Business support techs to bring better attention to your issue which lends itself to a better chance of being resolved.

You can post your signal information from 192.168.100.1 here during when you are having issues and with a glance many of us can very easily determine if there is any issue with your end.

Combine that with a screenshot of a tracert to say google.com during primetime would be helpful information -- as well as perhaps downloading a useful program called Ping Plotter. Run this and screen shot it during your issue.

The combined info helps,.. but despite them telling you it can't possible be a saturation issue.. while I hate this expression,.. it applies here -- If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and quacks like a duck -- Well .. it's most likely a DUCK. Obviously the *duck* in this example being saturation during peak hours.

Good luck with the issue, and if you have any specific questions feel free to ask!
neofate

1 recommendation

neofate to shreezbot

Premium Member

to shreezbot
said by shreezbot:

The modem is the Arris TM822. For some reason I haven't been able to connect to 192.168.100.1 since one of the last technicians swapped my modem out to see if that would fix my problem. For some reason, this modem won't let me connect to it. I can't even ping 192.168.100.1...

Without making things complicated -- Simple plug the Ethernet from your modem into the Ethernet port on your computer (eliminate the router, etc).. At this point there should be no issue connecting to 192.168.100.1

It's always a good idea to connect one computer directly to modem during an issue for testing to rule out other variables.. you can then connect right back to your router, etc.. after looking at the results.
shreezbot
Premium Member
join:2014-04-28
USA

shreezbot to neofate

Premium Member

to neofate
Thanks for the reply. I've talked to quite a few people at Charter who claimed to be managers, but who ultimately ended up being dead-ends in terms of actually being able to get the problem resolved. It seems like most of the technicians I've dealt with are just as frustrated as I am to not be able to get the problem resolved. At this point I don't know how to get in touch with someone higher up in terms of management at Charter than I already have.

Later tonight after everyone in the house is in bed, I'll plug my laptop into the modem and see if I can check the SNR levels and post a screenshot. In the past, when I could reach that address, I have always had really good SNR levels across all channels.

I do have a Ubuntu machine on my network that I have running a script to do a speedtest every 15 minutes. I have a months worth of speedtest data showing what times the speeds get really bad. I've showed this information to the countless line technicians who have come to my house, and it has largely gone ignored. The data that I have doesn't show an intermittent problem. It shows a very predictable consistent problem every single day at almost exactly the same times every day.

B4Knight
Premium Member
join:2014-03-20
Colon, MI

B4Knight to shreezbot

Premium Member

to shreezbot
My neighbor has the same modem as you and he can access his logs, signal levels, etc. I've heard of other people having problems accessing that modem. If your area has 8 channel bonding that should help alleviate congestion during peak times, but not always. Sometimes you need to have your node split, but that doesn't seen to be necessary in your case.

Hope you get this issue resolved soon! Keep us updated

-JD

Modems
@71.81.67.x

Modems

Anon

The only way I can get into tm822a is: plug modem directly into computer, unplug power cord, unplug coaxial cable on back of modem, then restart modem. You can't see snr or power. Only the modem's logs

neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL

4 edits

neofate to shreezbot

Premium Member

to shreezbot
said by shreezbot:

Thanks for the reply. I've talked to quite a few people at Charter who claimed to be managers, but who ultimately ended up being dead-ends in terms of actually being able to get the problem resolved. It seems like most of the technicians I've dealt with are just as frustrated as I am to not be able to get the problem resolved. At this point I don't know how to get in touch with someone higher up in terms of management at Charter than I already have.

It can be frustrating. Especially when there is a congestion/saturation issue -- I know in the past when this occurred technicians , reps, etc would hardly ever call it for what it was.. which is a saturation problem that they couldn't do anything about and it WAS Charter's fault and until they upgraded the hardware (whether that be the backbone, CMTS router, etc) you would continue to have this in primetime...

Now I'm referring to 5+ years ago,.. And not in our area necessarily, just the way it seemed to be when Charter had plenty of oversaturated hardlines that they knew about and knew it would cost them plenty of money in upgrading their backbones to rectify.

I know your backbone is not over-saturated.. I'm ON the backbone and I get my speeds 103/5.5 or so constantly.. So that narrows it down a bit .. that's a GOOD thing, because when it's a backbone capacity issue it's just a waiting game.

So I can't tell you what the specific issue is here, but it could be something simple to configure at the Cable modem termination system (CMTS) .. I don't know how many of these the Leeds/Mont.. headend that serves us has.. but you are obviously not on the same feed my node is fed from.. May be a different CMTS rack all together (or they may have one.. I've never seen our headend so no idea.. ).

But,.. if the equipment , Peds, Coax, Hybrid fiber coax (HFC), Amplifiers, Trunk, etc is all in proper working order from your node to the CMTS and the backbone is not over-saturated then it sort of narrows the problem to the headend itself.

IE: They need to work in an area that looks something like this (this is NOT our headend lol)..




This is generally over a general level I Technician.. not that they don't know about all of this stuff, but they don't mess with the CMTS, etc..

You've said you have been talking to managers -- Are these local plant managers here? Or managers from calling the Charter Call center? Big difference there..

IE: The local plant manager should be able to get this handled,.. as he knows his own equipment and if in question knows what guy to call to check on your nodes equipment at the headend and in between.

If a "manager" from a call center they have little intimate knowledge with our specific Headend and area .. as they aren't here.

There has always been a big disconnect between Charter's phone support and the local techs, system techs, network admins/engineers, plant mangers and so on -- IE: They don't speak with one another (at least not that I know of).. They are two different entities and I've always internally complained at the disconnect between local techs and their fellow workers and charters technical phone support -- It seems an obvious gap that needs someway to contact and relay information between one another in real time. But,.. shrug...

Like I said, I would send a letter to Corporate:

ATTN: Eric L. Zinterhofer
ATTN: Thomas Rutledge
Charter Communications Inc.
12405 Powerscourt Dr
Saint Louis, MO 63131-3673

Obviously you can just Attention one person to avoid mixups


Detailing the problem, and all the steps you have taken, how long it has been since service has worked properly,.. just be nice, yet detailed,.. Sending it to Corporate, with the Attention to the Chairman of the board, and the CEO isn't the "Wrong" thing to do. Will they personally see to your case.. no.. But one of their aids, or some high level management will eventually get the email and you will have some level of corporate contacting you regarding your problem.

Corporate knows how to get into contact with your local plant.. this isn't to get anyone in trouble, it's to close the disconnect I mentioned above between the call center and the local guys. It finally gets your issue to the right people who can do something about it, and coming from Corporate doesn't hurt anything.

This is why some signatures of your neighbors wouldn't hurt to represent more than just one customer.. but by yourself should still warrant some sort of response.

It's what I would do without any other ideas.

I used to know 2-3 people who worked in our Plant,.. but I've since lost contact with them, when I did I could send them an email and a problem would get taken care of VERY quickly that had been unresolved by using the phone call center and scheduled technicians for 6+ months. Suddenly a problem that had no solution for 6-12months would be fixed in a few days.

But those contacts are mostly gone.. unless any of them would like to PM me

Sometimes some local guys will contact you here in a PM.. or even if they don't they will see your issue, know your area,.. and look into it themselves or pass it on locally to someone who can.

I know Charter, for some reason, frowned on employees publicly "helping" us out online here.. I have no idea why, it seems like the right thing to do.. but it is what it is.

Later tonight after everyone in the house is in bed, I'll plug my laptop into the modem and see if I can check the SNR levels and post a screenshot. In the past, when I could reach that address, I have always had really good SNR levels across all channels.

That modem does have issues once it is provisioned by Charter in accessing the signals.. I would take the thing to the local office there in Vestavia/hoover and swap it out for a Cisco .. like I did .. They gave me a Cisco DPC-3008 -- nice 8 channel modem. I hate modems that for whatever reason you can't see the basic signal level power readings and SNR's..

Here is a link to a thread talking about that modem and it's issues with Charter:

»Accessing Arris TM822 modem

I would try to unplug the power to the modem,.. unscrew the coax.. and then power it up and hold the reset button in for 30 seconds (if it has one).. Keep the coax out of the modem.. Then plug the ethernet into a laptop (or any computer).. then as it's trying to synch (obviously not going to without the Coax in it) browse to 192.168.100.1 with the computer.. It may let you in.. then once on that page hook in the coax and refresh that page while it's synching , unless it refreshes on it's own. You may get a peak that way.

All of that said,.. I don't believe you have any signal issues based on what you are saying.. especially if you aren't alone with this and it's occurring at the same time every day.

I do have a Ubuntu machine on my network that I have running a script to do a speedtest every 15 minutes. I have a months worth of speedtest data showing what times the speeds get really bad. I've showed this information to the countless line technicians who have come to my house, and it has largely gone ignored. The data that I have doesn't show an intermittent problem. It shows a very predictable consistent problem every single day at almost exactly the same times every day.

Yup -- This goes back to either techs who don't care, or just don't know what to do. If it's an issue they know can't be resolved .. they used to generally just not say anything and be puzzled.. Some techs (everyone is different) may say .. look man it's X and Y and until that gets fixed this is going to happen.. but you can understand why they wouldn't tell you their company is sort of screwing your neighborhood over lol.. it is their job.

Lastly.. sorry this is so long -- but It's been a while.. but years ago I had luck going to the Headend and being courteous with the employees eventually getting to talk with the Plant manager and while he didn't have much time to talk to me.. just a few minutes managed to get my issue resolved rather quickly.

Obviously this is REALLY going out of your way .. just mentioning all possible solutions I have personally used with some success in the last 10+ years. Note: I have not used any of these since 2005 or so,.. so it's been a while, and I don't if everything is basically the same as it was or is a bit different.

Good luck with it all!
shreezbot
Premium Member
join:2014-04-28
USA

shreezbot

Premium Member

Thank you all for your replies. I'll attempt to answer them as thoroughly as possible.
said by B4Knight:

If your area has 8 channel bonding that should help alleviate congestion during peak times, but not always. Sometimes you need to have your node split, but that doesn't seen to be necessary in your case.

I did have a period of time where I was told by a Charter technician that I had to have a business class modem because I way paying for the Ultra 100 (he was the first and last person who made that claim). During this time, I was also told that because I had the business class modem that I would have to contact Charter business, even though I wasn't a Charter business customer. I contacted them and they began to look at my problem. Two technicians there said that they found a blade at my head-end that was going to 100% utilization around the time I was having issues, and that they were creating a ticket to see if they could get it resolved for me. On a later call to check status, they told me that they had attempted to swap the blade and several customers modems failed to rebond, so they had to back out the change. I haven't heard anything from anyone else regarding this blade (when I mention it to other technicians, they ignore me), and the ticket no longer appears to be in the system (and since I've had my modem switched back to a consumer grade modem, I can't call Charter business anymore).
said by neofate:

I know your backbone is not over-saturated.. I'm ON the backbone and I get my speeds 103/5.5 or so constantly.. So that narrows it down a bit .. that's a GOOD thing, because when it's a backbone capacity issue it's just a waiting game.

I think you are probably right about this, I think if the backbone were saturated, everyone in the area would be complaining like crazy. I'm thinking it is more than likely the blade issue mentioned above that seems to have gone unresolved as far as I can tell. This would make sense, and would explain why only me and my close neighbors seem to be experiencing difficulties.
said by neofate:

You've said you have been talking to managers -- Are these local plant managers here? Or managers from calling the Charter Call center? Big difference there..

The managers who I've talked to have claimed to be from the Vestavia main office. I have never talked to a plant manager, nor do I know how to get in touch with one other than starting from the top of the executive tree and working my way down like you mentioned.
said by neofate:

All of that said,.. I don't believe you have any signal issues based on what you are saying.. especially if you aren't alone with this and it's occurring at the same time every day.

It would indeed be very strange to have perfect signals during the day and then suddenly have them drop off during peak hours. Signals are usually either good or bad all the time. Not always, but usually.
said by neofate:

Lastly.. sorry this is so long -- but It's been a while.. but years ago I had luck going to the Headend and being courteous with the employees eventually getting to talk with the Plant manager and while he didn't have much time to talk to me.. just a few minutes managed to get my issue resolved rather quickly.

Do you mean that you actually drove to the headend datacenter and asked to speak with a manager? If so, can you tell me where our headend datacenter is physically located? This is something that I'd be willing to do. I have no intentions of being rude or confrontational, but I'd love to speak with a manager in person to see if there is anything that can be done. I'm a technical person (I work on IBM mainframes for a living) so not much of this stuff is bound to be over my head to the point that I can't understand it or at least grasp the basic idea.
aguen
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Grants Pass, OR

aguen

Premium Member

said by shreezbot:

Do you mean that you actually drove to the headend datacenter and asked to speak with a manager? If so, can you tell me where our headend datacenter is physically located? This is something that I'd be willing to do. I have no intentions of being rude or confrontational, but I'd love to speak with a manager in person to see if there is anything that can be done. I'm a technical person (I work on IBM mainframes for a living) so not much of this stuff is bound to be over my head to the point that I can't understand it or at least grasp the basic idea.

What I will point out here may NOT be accurate for everybody BUT on my monthly bill/statement there is a line of text that gives the info for finding your "local" Charter store. This is where one might go to exchange equipment or pay a bill. In some cases this store also houses the "head end" and is where the local service/installer people start/end their work day. It certainly is in my area.

On my statement the line starts off with "Local Charter Store: local address here no phone number provided and ends with the hours that it is open.

YMMV but whaddaya gots to lose?

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine to shreezbot

Member

to shreezbot
said by shreezbot:

I usually can't get more than ONE megaBIT per second (yes, bit, not byte!)

It's always bit, not byte. You don't get 100Megabytes.
shreezbot
Premium Member
join:2014-04-28
USA

shreezbot

Premium Member

said by howardfine:

It's always bit, not byte. You don't get 100Megabytes.

You are correct. In the IT industry, we always use bits to refer to data transmission and bytes to refer to data storage.

The reason I made the distinction here is that I have had several Charter technicians ask me to clarify because they were dumbfounded and could not believe that I was actually getting less than a megabit per second downstream. They were certain that I must be talking about megabytes per second and were even more dumbfounded when I was able to articulate to them that I knew the difference...

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine to neofate

Member

to neofate
said by neofate:

Sometimes some local guys will contact you here in a PM

Or guys like me who can look out their window and stare right at that building