Unplugging the coax from SACM

richgm · 24-02-2006, 17:55

Had to ring broadband tech support last night due to my connection dropping all the time. My upstream power level was too high which I new before I phoned.
Whoever it was on the other end wanted me to unplug the cm (Which is normal) and then unscrew the coax from the box. I've never had to do this before and to be honest wasn't happy about doing it when it didn't need to be done. Anyone else been told to do this ?
On the up side A big Thumbs up to NTL for getting a Techie out today and for getting network out to the local box and sorting it.

Ignition · 24-02-2006, 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by richgm

Had to ring broadband tech support last night due to my connection dropping all the time. My upstream power level was too high which I new before I phoned.
Whoever it was on the other end wanted me to unplug the cm (Which is normal) and then unscrew the coax from the box. I've never had to do this before and to be honest wasn't happy about doing it when it didn't need to be done. Anyone else been told to do this ?
On the up side A big Thumbs up to NTL for getting a Techie out today and for getting network out to the local box and sorting it.

Heh totally unnecessary from your point of view. The only thing this would have done is introduce noise onto network from the unterminated coax that was in the back of your modem to be honest.

If the coax is in firmly that's all they need to know really.

Chris W · 24-02-2006, 18:05

unscrewing the coax used to be (and may still be) used when pc's can't lease a valid ip and the modem is online...

if with the coax out the pc picks up a 169 then it is likely to be a pc issue, but if it picks up a 192 address it is likely to be a network/ modem issue.

Can't see why it was necessary in this case though

BarFly · 24-02-2006, 18:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

Heh totally unnecessary from your point of view. The only thing this would have done is introduce noise onto network from the unterminated coax that was in the back of your modem to be honest.

If the coax is in firmly that's all they need to know really.

used by techs to see where a fault may lie. Quick, easy & realatively painless for the customer, also the tech wouldnt see the same diagnostics as the customer would be able to get off the admin page, so tech wouldnt be able to see the high upstream.

richgm · 24-02-2006, 18:12

Wouldn't ipconfing/release and renew be better??? and less chance of the customer bending or breaking the centre srand of the coax.

BTW Chris can you ad http://192.168.100.1/startup.html to the cable modem signal level sticky for those of use who still have surfboards ?

Rich

Ignition · 24-02-2006, 18:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarFly

used by techs to see where a fault may lie. Quick, easy & realatively painless for the customer, also the tech wouldnt see the same diagnostics as the customer would be able to get off the admin page, so tech wouldnt be able to see the high upstream.

Really? Tech support have tools (assuming they try and use them) which can pull all the parameters on the diagnostics pages along with the uBR side diagnostics.

If the modem isn't online due to upstream issues it'll still be hitting the uBR but with a stupidly low receive power. I think even basic Bluetools should show this?

Then you have the flap list, power adjustments, details of time online, also on Bluetools.

Other ways for sure to diagnose DHCP issues beside pulling coax out of modem.

KevAmiga · 24-02-2006, 18:51

So what if the coax connection is bad or loose on the back of the modem?

Nothing wrong with removing / re-seating the coax imho, its not going to hurt really.

I guess it doesnt do a lot tho, unless it is a bad connection.

Ignition · 24-02-2006, 20:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignition

If the coax is in firmly that's all they need to know really.

Nothing majorly wrong but if it's in fine it should be left alone really, always chances of things going wrong, and it's a pointless exercise unless it is loose.

One of many pointless things that some, I'm not saying you personally are like that, of the techs tend to get people to do before they decide to see if the modem is actually connected to the network at all.