Connection dropping with Comcast

[F5ing]

Splitters add up to 9dB.

If you've gotta split, and you're already high, try a tap instead.

due to the illegal 4-way splitter (not under my control) I discussed earlier

In my case, neighbor unknowingly had 25 year old splitter in MY coax in HIS attic. Lord knows what happens in the other 3 attics, including damaged coax. It can be too that neighbor is stealing service. CableCo can't know.

Wonder if the OP is in similar situation, as he mentioned he only had one device in his system.

 

[scotte]

I realize this isn't the OP's issue, but I had similar symptoms once where our Comcast Internet would randomly stop working and the cablemodem would reset. I called Comcast and of course they said everything looked normal from their end and did a reset and to call them if it persisted ("take two resets and call us in the morning"). I usually go through the script for awhile until my patience runs out. Anyway, of course the reset didn't fix the issue and I was just about to call back in, as I call it, Customer Support Nightmare (CSN) mode. I decided to just go ahead and check the cables outside the house.

You can see where this is going... In a "DERP" moment I found that some firewood was stacked up against some coax that was coiled up on the side of the house. I didn't even realize it was connected in to anything, as a relic of a former resident, but it was - and a piece of firewood fell at some point and shorted the center conductor to the ferule of the F-connector.

It's pretty common that it's Comcast, or whoever's fault - but sometimes it's not...

 

[floorguy]

So then I finally have figured out whats going on....and of course it comes from knowing someone inside, and not talking to the stupid "tech support"

turns out there is a bad line in my neighborhood....hopefully it will be fixed in the next day or 2....hopefully

 

[floorguy]

SOOOOO the tech came out today...(wish i didnt have a job at that time)

Anyway after he fiddled around, he said it was the router...

So i told my wife to let me chat with him (she had called me)

We talked, and concluded (not that it couldnt be AN issue) that the router couldnt make the modem reset its self, and that the problem was my upstream...

They did in fact fix a line today up the road...looking at my levels they are 38-42 range and down stream power is now down to 0, where it was 3-5 range...

So here the cookie thing.....took forever to get the router to see the modem

I could access the control panel, but kept say disconnected.....unplugged it, for a good 5 minutes, and decided to call comcast to see if they could "see" my router....yea that was a joke, but while i was on the phone and plugging it in to see if they could see it.....the router decided to grab the Ip from comcast....

I dont even know why that happened for the day....

But heres to hoping its fixed, and no more issues.....

any ideas as to why the router was acting like it couldnt "see" the modem???

 

[F5ing]

I could access the control panel, but kept say disconnected.....

Which control panel?

Need more of a step by step explanation of what was done to understand why the router might've lost the connection to the modem.

Those signals look good. Monitor them to ensure they remain relatively stable. By the way, what are your S/N ratios now?

 

[floorguy]

Which control panel?

Need more of a step by step explanation of what was done to understand why the router might've lost the connection to the modem.

Those signals look good. Monitor them to ensure they remain relatively stable. By the way, what are your S/N ratios now?

I have no idea how the connection from modem to router was broken so bad, that a simple reboot from console or a quick unplug, didnt help....

had to be a "hard" reset??? unplugged for over 5 minutes to do it...in fact I got into the router setup section (dont ask i was just clicking around lol) and made it go look for it, at that time it even asked me to unplug modem....

over all holy crap i hope its fixed.....

ummm readings let me check upstream readings are in the high 30s on all 3...best I have ever seen it...1s and 2s, on the down side power levels....they have been in the 0s when i checked earlier... so a little but not much flux....they were as high as 7 soooo

and no hiccups.....since i posted last......

Thanks guys for your brain storming, and if you can find a tech and get friendly with him, see if he will listen to you instead of the dumb play cards they go by...

 

[KGB7]

Glad it was fixed.


2 of my neighbors had some kind of an issue, so the tech ran a new coaxial cable from junktion box splitter( the green dome looking box) and left it on top of the grass for over a year. A 100 feet of orange cable.

Now that I and most of my neighbors switched to FiOS, i no longer have to look at an orange cable laying around. I kind of miss it, as i developed a love hate relationship with it.

 

[floorguy]

well not so fast....still having issues...

so tomorrow a tech is coming and we are going to hook up one of their modems, and run with it for a few weeks and see what happens....


NEXT!!!!!

 

[F5ing]

Have you ever tried resetting the modem back to factory defaults?

 

[floorguy]

So we have the provided modem hooked up, no issues....

while he was here for good measure he went out and cut and replaced 4 out of the 6 ends, the other 2 had the newer connectors on them....they all had a little issue with each end, not a ton, but some....

While it rubs me the wrong way to have to rent a modem, it is what it is...$8 for my crap working, is well worth it...

bad principle but worth it...

and my readings are down 36-39, on this modem.....and 0s give or take 1 or 2....on the down power levels.....

 

[stevech]

Watch the upstream modem power readings over days, esp. in the busy evening hour.

Check it every hour or two. If it gets to the 50's, take a screen grab and that's your evidence.

Power cycle or unplug/replug cat5 from router to modem. See if you can get the DHCP that happens after reconnection to not complete in a minute or so. If that happens, try to get a different router to do the same. If so, the modem is at fault.

 

[F5ing]

Wonder what the readings would've been, after the cables/connections were replaced, with the modem you already own.

If I were in this predicament, I think I'd reinstall my own modem, call to have them re-authenticate it, and see how it goes.

But that's me. You've got to have the time/opportunity (no access for a period of time) and be willing to spend the time give it a shot. Also got to have time for monitoring/testing.

Also got to know if they charge for doing the re-authenticating a few times, etc.

And yes, keep an eye on those signals. On the two main machines I use at home I have the modem's signal page set as one of the home pages for the browsers I most often use. So by default, the data is in my face whenever I launch the browser. The data on that page is static, however, so it needs to be refresh as required. Guess I'm kinda anal like that.

 

[philmiami]

So we have the provided modem hooked up, no issues....

while he was here for good measure he went out and cut and replaced 4 out of the 6 ends, the other 2 had the newer connectors on them....they all had a little issue with each end, not a ton, but some....

While it rubs me the wrong way to have to rent a modem, it is what it is...$8 for my crap working, is well worth it...

bad principle but worth it...

and my readings are down 36-39, on this modem.....and 0s give or take 1 or 2....on the down power levels.....

you want on Comcast readings between 36-39 like you have.
I had to run a separate line from ONE splitter at the connection point from Crapcast to my Motorola SB6141
All those SYNC and MIMO events in the logs mean nothing.
they have no bearing on signal attenuation

 

[stevech]

My cable modem's feed from 150 ft. of coax to the demarc.. for years, in the summer goes up to 50's and sometimes loses lock. In the heat of the day. As it cools, the upstream returns to normal (43-45dBmV)

Problem for 10 years. Some 20 techs have tried to fix it. 2 or so are competent.

Long story short.. damaged somewhere out of sight en route. I'm going t trench to neighbor's house where there's a cable co. 4 way tap two unused. That's the only cure, other than paying someone $1000 to try to run new cable through three adjoining townhouse attics. I've used a coax to that tap, laying on the ground for days and it does now waver on the upstream. I think the cable problem is a bad spot where the center conductor has a tiny air gap. High freqs (downstream) is not affected. Upstream (just 30MHz) can't cross the air gap nearly as well. Heat causes the gap to worsen. That's my theory. But just can't find the damage in all those attics filled with insulation and the coax penetrates 4 firewalls en route.

 

[philmiami]

you say trench, but you live in a multiple townhouse complex or you talking about the front yard?
Ever since Crapcast went digital people don't mess with the cable taps/demarc trying to get free cable.
They still steal the amplifiers but Crapcast has starting using thicker grade steel enclosures with locks that can not be cut without a plasma torch cutter.
I had problems every time it rained, and it rains a lot in Miami
then I had new feeds run into the attic (1 story,10 feet from demarc/tap)
problem went away. it was the 20+ year old RG58 crap cable used originally. Place was built in 1984.
If your going to run it, dig 12" down, use 3/4" PVC SCH80 electrical conduit, glue the connections real good and then pull the wire, plug the ends real good with silicone and use a wire for direct burial even thou you pull it thru PVC conduit. Never can tell when someone else will go outside with a shovel and start digging a hole to plant a flower and snap thru your new wire.

 

[KGB7]

You cant just grab a shovel and trench the cable at the depth you want it to be. The cable has to meet the local laws and regulations as how deep a cable should be.
Last thing you want, is a gardener, hitting the cable as he plants a tree.


When we had fios cable ran in our neighborhood, it was around 3 feet deep under ground.

 

[philmiami]

look here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_cable

RG60/U cable

 

[Deleted member 22229]

You cant just grab a shovel and trench the cable at the depth you want it to be. The cable has to meet the local laws and regulations as how deep a cable should be.
Last thing you want, is a gardener, hitting the cable as he plants a tree.


When we had fios cable ran in our neighborhood, it was around 3 feet deep under ground.

That may be true but not with comcast they dont have anything marked and they bury the cable about 4 to 6 inches thats it.

 

[philmiami]

Like I said
dig 12"/30CM down
use 1" PVC SCH80 (the gray conduit/electrical) and put it down, glue the connectors real good, cover it up and then use a fiberglass "snake" to pull the new wire thru the pipe. Be sure to use good amount of clear silicone on the ends to keep water/bugs from getting into the conduit and degrading the insulation on the wire too.
If you don't know what a snake is (or using a vacuum cleaner and a "mouse" and some jet line) then ask a union electrician. They'll know (I'm one and I did not stay at a Motel 6 last night )
Anyway, going 12" down is well over NEC/NFPA electrical wiring code for depth of low voltage wire
unless someone brings in a back hoe and starts digging up the ground, I doubt you would ever have a problem going that deep, and using the pvc conduit
and use RG60/U cable. The wire resistance is less/better and it is tuned to the same impedance as RG58/U, and it has better shielding.

 

[KGB7]

That may be true but not with comcast they dont have anything marked and they bury the cable about 4 to 6 inches thats it.

I lived in a house that was built in the 70's. Over the years, tree roots got under the cable and pushed the cable on to the surface. I cant tell you how many times i almost cut the cable with a lawn mower.




philmiami has a good suggestions. Just stay away from young trees that are less then 10 years old.