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johnbristol
13-03-2008, 21:58
And whether I'm typical, or just unlucky, or plain barking mad.


I'm not asking for a full analysis necessarily, though some suggestion would be useful. I think it has to be "speak to support".

What I'm asking is:

1. Does Virgin Support really take more than 24 hours to respond to a Contact Us Broadband Technical Support request? I'd expected at least an autoresponse with my full text in it within minutes just to show me what was happening.

2. Is there no way to raise a Ticket from the customer end?

3. Is it known for week-long poor ping times to suddenly happen to a customer? I'm quite sure it's not my doing.

4. Am I really going to have to spend 25p a minute getting the attention of someone at the support centre or will I end up with a reply if I wait long enough?

5. Should I have used the newsgroups from the start?






1)What, specifically, is your issue? Some packet loss, ping times start around 700ms and go up.
a) Is there a specific time that this issue is most prevalent? no
b) How long has this issue been going on? (days, weeks, months etc) a week
2) Do you have cable TV? If so, is there any reception degradation? yes, not that I'm aware of
3) Have you contacted customer support about this problem? If so, what did they say? Yes, by "contact us" 24 hours ago, no response as yet
4) What troubleshooting steps have you taken to resolve this problem? (aka: if you haven't tried to help yourself, why should *we* help you?) The only weapon to hand, changing Upstream Channel ID. It brings the ping times down to sensible levels for maybe 5 minutes occasionally. The improvement doesn't last.

5 Who you are and what you have
a) Where in the country are you? Bristol 77-102-x-y.cable.ubr12.azte.blueyonder.co.uk
b) What is your operating system? linux 2.6.24.3 Slackware 12
c) What is your home network setup? Provide details. PC cabled to Linux Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC cabled to a passive switch cabled to Surfboard 4100, all 100Base-T.
d) If you have more than one computer, is the problem occuring on all other machines? n/a
e) Are you running a firewall of any sort? Have you ever installed one? Did you try to turn it off during troubleshooting? yes and I turned it off. I've not bypassed the router, my cables won't reach.
f) Please supply a traceroute from you to www.bbc.co.uk in text format

1 77-102-x-y.cable.ubr12.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (77.102.x.y) 0.533 ms 0.000 ms 4.300 ms
2 10.221.200.1 (10.221.200.1) 548.579 ms 628.286 ms 1019.039 ms
3 80-192-0-3.cable.ubr01.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (80.192.0.3) 493.116 ms 983.839 ms 563.254 ms
4 aztw-t3core-1b-ge-010-0.inet.ntl.com (80.1.240.129) 948.677 ms 1099.984 ms 991.636 ms
5 bir-bb-b-so-110-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.175.161) 920.795 ms * 1084.012 ms
6 nth-bb-a-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.105) 769.285 ms 1151.876 ms 1083.540 ms
7 gfd-bb-b-so-010-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.98) 1100.051 ms 996.992 ms 831.274 ms
8 redb-ic-1-as0-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.78) 1055.854 ms 812.486 ms 1068.219 ms
9 212.58.238.189 (212.58.238.189) 1094.672 ms 1102.949 ms 968.099 ms
10 212.58.238.149 (212.58.238.149) 891.979 ms 886.647 ms 944.066 ms


c) For latency issues please post traceroutes and pings to some major sites in the UK. www.bbc.co.uk, www.nildram.net, etc Here's the text of the Contact Us that went to Virgin last night, for completeness.



I have long ping times even to blueyonder.co.uk and packet loss. Changing my Upstream Channel ID sometimes temporarily improves ping times for a few minutes and sometimes clears the packet loss. The improvements don't last.

After powering down all the euqipment, booting up the cable modem, then booting the router, then booting the computer, I can see the following.

My Surfboard 4100 fails to Establish Time Of Day.

My latest reboot log shows:

************ 4-Error D4.3 ToD request sent - No Response received
************ 8-Debug F504.1 Bridge Ethernet Hook. Failed to learn CPE MAC Address.
************ 4-Error F507.5 MAC Filters. Add MAC Address can't add entry. Table is full.
************ 4-Error X501.35 Unit Update Failed.
************ 8-Debug F502.1 Bridge Forwarding Enabled.
************ 4-Error E107.0 SW Upgrade Failed after download - Incompatible SW file
************ 4-Error X501.28 Unit Update - Not updating. This image is not for this platform.
************ 8-Debug M571.6 CM Cert Upgrade Enabled. Initiate via SNMP
************ 8-Debug M571.9 Missing CM Cert Upgrade TLVs.
************ 8-Debug M570.1 Motorola CM certificate required
************ 8-Debug F502.2 Bridge Forwarding Disabled.
************ 7-Information X500.0 Attempting Unit Update
************ 6-Notice E102.0 SW Download INIT - Via Config file cm-cpe2-20480-768
************ 8-Debug I503.0 Cable Modem is OPERATIONAL
************ 8-Debug F502.1 Bridge Forwarding Enabled.
************ 8-Debug F502.3 Bridge Learning Enabled.
************ 8-Debug B918.0 Baseline Privacy is skipped
************ 6-Notice I401.0 TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
************ 6-Notice D501.10 TFTP, Unknown SNMP 30 11 06 0C 2B 06 01 04 01 8B 15 4D 01 03 08 00
************ 6-Notice I401.0 TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
************ 6-Notice D501.10 TFTP, Unknown SNMP 30 15 06 10 2B 06 01 04 01 A2 3D 02 63 01 01 02
************ 6-Notice I401.0 TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
************ 6-Notice D501.10 TFTP, Unknown SNMP 30 11 06 0C 2B 06 01 04 01 8B 15 4D 01 03 02 00
************ 7-Information X519.8 Unit Update - GGFGGD - SCD flags
************ 8-Debug I500.1 DOCSIS 1.0 Registration Completed
************ 7-Information I500.4 Attempting DOCSIS 1.0 Registration
************ 7-Information D509.0 Retrieved TFTP Config File SUCCESS
************ 7-Information D507.1 Retrieved Time....... FAILED
************ 5-Warning D4.1 ToD request sent - No Response received
************ 7-Information D511.0 Retrieved DHCP .......... SUCCESS
************ 5-Warning D3.0 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response
************ 4-Error D530.8 DHCP - Invalid Log Server IP Address.
************ 4-Error D530.6 DHCP - Invalid Time Offset.
************ 5-Warning D520.2 DHCP Attempt# 1 BkOff: 5s Tot DSC:1 OFF:1 REQ:1 ACK:1
************ 7-Information D0.0 DHCP CM Net Configuration download and Time of Day
************ 7-Information T500.0 Acquired Upstream .......... SUCCESS
************ 8-Debug T503.1 Acquire US with status OK, powerLevel 36, tempSid 170
************ 8-Debug T505.0 Acquired Upstream with status OK
************ 3-Critical R2.0 No Ranging Response received - T3 timeout
************ 7-Information T501.0 Acquired Downstream (331000000 Hz)........ SUCCESS
************ 8-Debug T509.0 Acquired DS with status OK, DS Freq 331000000, US Id 4
************ 7-Information I510.0 *** BOOTING *** SB4100-0.4.9.6-SCM01-NOSH

Signal page:

Frequency 331000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 37 dB
Power Level 7 dBmV
The Downstream Power Level reading is a snapshot taken at the time this page was requested. Please Reload/Refresh this Page for a new reading

Upstream Value
Channel ID 4
Frequency 29200000 Hz Ranged
Power Level 36 dBmV

Addresses:

Serial Number 053701032904544502021000
HFC MAC Address 00:20:40:x:y:A4
Ethernet IP Address 192.168.100.1
Ethernet MAC Address 00:20:40:x:y:A5
CM USB IP Address 192.168.100.1
CM USB MAC Address 00:20:40:x:y:A5
CPE USB MAC Address 00:20:40:x:y:A7

# Known CPE MAC Address (Max 2) Status
1 00:13:10:x:y:17 Learned
2 00:18:39:x:y:67 Learned

PING ntp.blueyonder.co.uk (194.117.152.85) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=468 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=395 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=285 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=4 ttl=57 time=260 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=5 ttl=57 time=324 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=6 ttl=57 time=363 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=7 ttl=57 time=236 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=8 ttl=57 time=119 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=9 ttl=57 time=187 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=10 ttl=57 time=103 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=11 ttl=57 time=15.9 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=12 ttl=57 time=339 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=13 ttl=57 time=348 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=14 ttl=57 time=147 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=15 ttl=57 time=196 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=16 ttl=57 time=331 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=17 ttl=57 time=359 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=18 ttl=57 time=340 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=19 ttl=57 time=363 ms
64 bytes from ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85): icmp_seq=20 ttl=57 time=416 ms

--- ntp.blueyonder.co.uk ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 20 received, 0% packet loss, time 19012ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 15.971/280.349/468.023/115.355 ms

PING www.l.google.com (66.249.93.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=260 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=363 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=383 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=311 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=5 ttl=239 time=192 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=6 ttl=239 time=347 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=7 ttl=239 time=449 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=8 ttl=239 time=388 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=9 ttl=239 time=325 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=10 ttl=239 time=384 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=11 ttl=239 time=399 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=12 ttl=239 time=431 ms
64 bytes from ug-in-f99.google.com (66.249.93.99): icmp_seq=13 ttl=239 time=243 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
13 packets transmitted, 13 received, 0% packet loss, time 12008ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 192.988/344.973/449.132/72.743 ms

1 77-102-x-y.cable.ubr12.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (77.102.x.y) 4.106 ms 0.510 ms 0.482 ms
2 10.221.200.1 (10.221.200.1) 394.600 ms 385.151 ms *
3 80-192-0-3.cable.ubr01.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (80.192.0.3) 253.805 ms 241.972 ms 316.016 ms
4 195.188.230.30 (195.188.230.30) 396.051 ms 451.784 ms 451.759 ms
5 194.117.136.182 (194.117.136.182) 428.613 ms 169.556 ms 188.613 ms
6 * * *
7 pc-62-30-251-209-ro.blueyonder.co.uk (62.30.251.209) 429.283 ms 272.013 ms 236.011 ms
8 ns3.cableinet.co.uk (194.117.152.85) 224.011 ms 344.354 ms 411.383 ms

1 77-102-x-y.cable.ubr12.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (77.102.x.y) 0.598 ms 0.497 ms 0.461 ms
2 10.221.200.1 (10.221.200.1) 357.458 ms 413.257 ms 390.686 ms
3 80-192-0-3.cable.ubr01.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (80.192.0.3) 422.223 ms 389.602 ms 255.847 ms
4 aztw-t3core-1b-ge-010-0.inet.ntl.com (80.1.240.129) 208.010 ms 317.419 ms 376.901 ms
5 bir-bb-b-so-110-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.175.161) 439.007 ms 421.384 ms 335.074 ms
6 nth-bb-a-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.185.105) 397.776 ms 249.020 ms 179.276 ms
7 pop-bb-b-so-120-0.inet.ntl.com (213.105.64.18) 222.395 ms 243.860 ms 298.348 ms
8 tele-ic-2-as0-0.inet.ntl.com (62.253.184.6) 258.097 ms 433.834 ms 389.601 ms
9 212.250.14.138 (212.250.14.138) 442.340 ms 462.325 ms 304.749 ms
10 209.85.252.76 (209.85.252.76) 244.637 ms 162.185 ms 347.228 ms
11 72.14.232.149 (72.14.232.149) 405.336 ms 447.836 ms 484.770 ms
12 209.85.255.137 (209.85.255.137) 500.060 ms 483.039 ms 385.175 ms
13 72.14.233.77 (72.14.233.77) 479.776 ms 72.14.233.83 (72.14.233.83) 553.950 ms 382.443 ms
14 216.239.47.229 (216.239.47.229) 407.417 ms 458.849 ms 453.728 ms
15 ug-in-f104.google.com (66.249.93.104) 439.498 ms 252.867 ms 154.715 ms

fatassmichael
13-03-2008, 22:03
John, Welcome to the forum, i would edit out the mac addresses and your ip address for security.
It sounds like the modem is begining to die, contact tech support on the newsgroups, they are much better than the phone techs, and dont cost you.

johnbristol
13-03-2008, 22:12
John, Welcome to the forum, i would edit out the mac addresses and your ip address for security.
It sounds like the modem is begining to die, contact tech support on the newsgroups, they are much better than the phone techs, and dont cost you.

Thank you, I edited them out. I'm a poor soul with nothing to steal except my virtue, mind, and it's a long time since anyone had a grab for that.

I'm rather attached to that modem, it's served me man and boy. Ah well, all things pass I suppose. Perhaps they'll allow me to bury it in the garden.

fatassmichael
13-03-2008, 22:19
I'm rather attached to that modem, it's served me man and boy. Ah well, all things pass I suppose. Perhaps they'll allow me to bury it in the garden.

Lol, you may find that more true than you think ;)

johnbristol
14-03-2008, 22:52
I posted on the newsgroup - not easy, given the slow speed. I've been replied to politely by the staff and sent a replacement modem.

I was also reminded why I'd stopped using Blueyonder's newsgroup support way back - the same gentleman came in and made a pointless comment about my post who'd made the earlier place uninhabitable years ago doing exactly that in support thread after support thread. Why the staff can't just remove write access in such cases I don't know.