Modem losing connection regularly since last Thursday (26th)

nofrills · 29-04-2007, 11:12

Hi everyone,

My modem and also my v+ box (v box seems ok) have been losing their connection resulting in flashing lights etc since last Thursday. The modem is the Ambit 200 and I'm on the 10meg service. I'm based in Norwich.

Connection will drop randomly for a random amount of time, from a few minutes to several hours.

An engineer is coming out tomorrow (Monday) to have a look and if anyone has any info which may help them I'd be grateful. They can probably fix it anyway it's just I'm concerned that maybe this is being caused by ubr upgrading or that kinda thing and I thought you smart peeps would be the ones to know lol

I find it weird that it suddenly stops working like this. Started happening after my V boxes firmware updated, tho I'm guessing that's unrelated..

I've tried unplugging the STB's to see if the modem can get a better signal but it makes no difference.

Many thanks

Toto · 29-04-2007, 11:15

If there was a planned network upgrade and the agent had access to that information and was on the ball, then an engineer shouldn't have been booked.

So it is likely then that there is a fault that requires the service of a competent technician.

nofrills · 29-04-2007, 11:30

Thanks Toto, had a look at my power levels and I'm getting -8.5 downstream power, and 61 upstream, I'm guessing it's cause for concern? I've seen several people in different threads being told of network upgrades on the 26th and ppl having connection problems, too many coincidences made me curious whether network upgrades could be the cause of mine and others recent problems..

Or maybe my neighbour has got themselves a shiny new hacked cable box and is messing up my connection. Or they have a legit connection installed by an enginner which is doing the same

Toto · 29-04-2007, 12:14

If your neighbour is using the service without paying for it, it shouldn't impact you at all, and especially not your V+ box.

The engineer will use a power meter to check your signal levels, and attenuate if needs be. Perhaps there is a line fault, and a re-pull will be required.

Whatever it may be, I hope its sorted.

neilpike · 29-04-2007, 18:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by nofrills

Hi everyone,

My modem and also my v+ box (v box seems ok) have been losing their connection resulting in flashing lights etc since last Thursday. The modem is the Ambit 200 and I'm on the 10meg service. I'm based in Norwich.

Connection will drop randomly for a random amount of time, from a few minutes to several hours.

An engineer is coming out tomorrow (Monday) to have a look and if anyone has any info which may help them I'd be grateful. They can probably fix it anyway it's just I'm concerned that maybe this is being caused by ubr upgrading or that kinda thing and I thought you smart peeps would be the ones to know lol

I find it weird that it suddenly stops working like this. Started happening after my V boxes firmware updated, tho I'm guessing that's unrelated..

I've tried unplugging the STB's to see if the modem can get a better signal but it makes no difference.

Many thanks

I'm one of the others affected (same modem / speed) - engineer for mine isn't coming out till Tuesday. So we'll see what yours says first :-)

nofrills · 01-05-2007, 08:53

Engineer seems to have fixed the problem. My upstream of 61 was too high so he's managed to get that down to around 55, which he said still isn't the best but hopefully will be ok. If I still continue to have any problems he's asked me to request a Home Distribution Unit (HDU) be fitted, so if you read this message in time Neil you may want to suggest one.

I was really angry yesterday as I was told last week it would be Monday the engineer would be coming, I take the morning off and sit around waiting for the doorbell to ring and nothing. Phone up and told it was Tuesday, the woman I spoke to to arrange the appointment didn't even mention dates she just said Monday. I got Virgin to credit me the tenner they normally charge for missed appointments

neilpike · 01-05-2007, 09:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by nofrills

Engineer seems to have fixed the problem. My upstream of 61 was too high so he's managed to get that down to around 55, which he said still isn't the best but hopefully will be ok. If I still continue to have any problems he's asked me to request a Home Distribution Unit (HDU) be fitted, so if you read this message in time Neil you may want to suggest one.

I was really angry yesterday as I was told last week it would be Monday the engineer would be coming, I take the morning off and sit around waiting for the doorbell to ring and nothing. Phone up and told it was Tuesday, the woman I spoke to to arrange the appointment didn't even mention dates she just said Monday. I got Virgin to credit me the tenner they normally charge for missed appointments

Thanks for the info. Engineer's coming this afternoon (or supposed to anyway), so I'll see what they have to say. I'm surprised about it being an upstream level type thing - why that should make the modem/connection completely fail as opposed to giving bad/intermittent performance I don't understand.

I've just forced my connection to fail so the engineer can see it whilst it's broken. (I find that if I kick off several torrents at once it forces a failure in a few hours). Luckily I have both cable and adsl running in parallel so I can leave the cable broken until they come.

nofrills · 01-05-2007, 10:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilpike

Thanks for the info. Engineer's coming this afternoon (or supposed to anyway), so I'll see what they have to say. I'm surprised about it being an upstream level type thing - why that should make the modem/connection completely fail as opposed to giving bad/intermittent performance I don't understand.

I've just forced my connection to fail so the engineer can see it whilst it's broken. (I find that if I kick off several torrents at once it forces a failure in a few hours). Luckily I have both cable and adsl running in parallel so I can leave the cable broken until they come.

Sounds exactly like the problem I had at my last address lol. Again that was a balancing act with the power levels so *fingers crossed* they can fix it today. Was a difficult one for them to get the power right on as the cabinet was outside my door and apparantly this gives great downstream but your upstream can be a mess, or so I was told.

I don't understand why it would suddenly stop working when it was ok this time last week, nor could the engineer give any reasons apart from heat. They did mention something about the network being constantly worked on to balance out the power levels so I'm suspect that may have been the root cause but can only speculate.

neilpike · 01-05-2007, 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by nofrills

Sounds exactly like the problem I had at my last address lol. Again that was a balancing act with the power levels so *fingers crossed* they can fix it today.

Engineer turned up, took one look at the 200 modem, said "ah, one of those old crap things" (or words to that effect), and swapped it out for a VM 255. Fingers crossed that does the trick.

On the upstream/downstream levels I'd already checked mine and they were well inside the normal tolerance levels. Check them again with the new modem and they're near enough the same.