Internet trouble

[paulh]

Hi, I've had big problems with my NTL internet over the last couple of months, and I wonder if anyone can help.

My setup is as follows: a white box in on the wall with 2 wires coming out, one to a cable model (it says NTL:250 on the bottom) and a settop box for my telly. I'm in Cambridge.

Firstly, about 2 months ago my internet disappeared. The symptoms I got then are common throughout all the faults I've had: ready light flashes slowly and no amount of power cycling the modem helps. In addition, the 'on demand' section of my tv stops working (although the rest of the tv works fine).

Engineer 1 comes out (I have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment). He diagnoses the problem as faulty cabling - between the white box on the wall and the modem, and the white box on the wall and the set top box. I have my doubts that 2 pieces of cable can simultaneously fail, but everything starts working again so I assume it's actually fixed.

A few weeks later... exactly the same. Another call to tech support and another engineer appointment (2 weeks again). After one week I manage to get a connection again; powercycling the modem was ineffective, but I unplugged the other end of the coax from the ntl box and that seemed to work. A day before the engineer arrives I ring to cancel the appointment - but the guy at tech support checks my power levels and tells me they are too low and I should take the appointment. So I comply, and the engineer comes out the next day. He tells me that the tech support guy can't actually test the levels and there's nothing wrong with my connection. He says he will change the tap(?) (port?) at the station because it might fix my return path. He notes that sometimes connections can come and go throughout the day even though noone understands why that is, and changing the port might improve matters.

Of course, 2 days after the engineer's visit my internet drops again, and has now been down for 4 days.

Now, my plan is to ring tech support again, but I wonder if anyone has any advice in actually getting this problem fixed. I don't want to have to go through another wasted 2 weeks waiting for an engineer unless there's a good chance they can actually sort the problem.

Thanks!
Paul H

[Paul]

TS can't check power levels ???? Hmmmmmm
Try a read of here
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=26006
and see if you can post your levels

[th'engineer]

sounds like levels, you can check them on the stb its usually the up down buttons followed by the blue button .

not sure what platform you are on bromley or langley check out the fixes in the forum

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=26006

[Paul]

STB? Thought he said NTL:250 cable modem in the start of his post

[paulh]

Here's my levels.. looks like my downstream power level is too low. The engineer claimed he checked them on Friday (not in my house, I assume it's possible to check them externally somehow). He even said 'I'll go an get my meter and show you the levels if you don't believe me' which seemed rather odd at the time because I wasn't questioning anything he said.

================================================

Acquire a Downstream Channel 402750000 Hz Locked
Connectivity State In Progress Upstream Parameters Acquired
Boot State In Progress Unknown

Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 60
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : -8.1 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 39.0 dB

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Not Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 2
Upstream Frequency : 25600000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 27.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

[paulh]

OK, I rang tech support up again and made good progress:

1. they checked the power levels and confirmed that the receive power was low
2. an engineer's coming on Monday (not 2 weeks away, hurray!)
3. I'm getting compensation for my trouble (I didn't even ask for it)
4. She apologized a lot

I hate to admit it, but I've been impressed with NTL tech support; they're vastly better than they were a couple of years ago.

I may be back here after Monday when my connection is still broken, but otherwise, thanks to all that helped.

Paul H

[Paul]

LOL last time I called them I got grief until I mentioned the power levels that I could see on the modem screen. They shut up then