Outages - GU4 area *grumble*

[weezel]

heya

Since early this morning, around 6am, the connection died. Very stormy weather outside ALOT of wind! anyway, the modem is currently sat with the power light solid, enet light blinking randomly, up and down lights are off, and sync flashing. ready light is out. about 7am ish, it managed to syncronise, but still the ready light was flashing. since then til now (9.50am) it's been as first described. tech support were useless, only telling me what the website said (which id already told them that ive checked)

additionally, the last few weeks the connection has been rather flakey, speed fluctuating massively but not disconnecting me.

Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Sync Start
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...

ive noticed too, that its cycling through frequencies, presumably trying to lock on. ive searched the forums looking for geographical numbers to ring, but i understand the calls are answered on a first come first serve basis.

aaaaa! annoying. anyone else having similar issues in this area? Burpham / guildford / surrey.

some additional crap:

power fluctuating alot:
Downstream Receive Power Level : 13.7 dBmV
Downstream Receive Power Level : 17.8 dBmV
Downstream Receive Power Level : 0.0 dBmV
Downstream Receive Power Level : 19.0 dBmV
Downstream Receive Power Level : 14.2 dBmV
Downstream Receive Power Level : 31.8 dBmV

downstream page takes along time to load:

Downstream Lock : Not Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 0
Downstream Frequency : 850000000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : unknown
Downstream Symbol Rate : Unknown
Downstream Interleave Depth : Unknown
Downstream Receive Power Level : 16.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR

upstream page loads right away:

Upstream Lock : Not Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 0
Upstream Frequency : 0 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 0 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 8.3 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size :

quite often the downstream page will show some details like modulation, power, etc. other times it shows nothing. im guessing its wise to assume its a network outage :D

[Sephiroth]

You gotta laugh at VM's capabilities. There was an outage in the GU4 area (Aldershot). This is what the incident web page says:

Placename Aldershot

Detailed Description

Customers in the Great Yarmouth GU12 area may currently be experiencing a loss of their services. This will include broadband Internet, digital TV and telephone services. Our engineers are currently investigating this issue.

Anyway, reading your stats - there is a circuit problem. I'd say it's not a modem problem due to the fluctuating downstream levels which are beyond your control.

So yes - your guess seems wise.

[weezel]

yeah, that's what i saw too. i scratched my head at the Great Yarmouth bit on there when i saw it :P

an interesting point to note perhaps, the upstream power reading remains constant. it might show as not locked all the time, but it's the one thing i noticed that's consistant.

[weezel]

update: 3.42pm and modem still can't syncronise. still same goings on as above. frustrating!

[Sephiroth]

So - you need to contact CS and get an engineer or a service update.

[Digital Fanatic]

update: 3.42pm and modem still can't syncronise. still same goings on as above. frustrating!

You checked the Status Page and there was nothing there (so not a major outage)....So you've reported it to VM? What did they say?

[weezel]

You checked the Status Page and there was nothing there (so not a major outage)....So you've reported it to VM? What did they say?

the last time i rang them, (the only time today) was that there was no outage, that it all seemed fine. im not in any desperate need for it to be working just yet, so im going to give it the evening and then ring them in the morning to see if they can look further into it.

[Digital Fanatic]

the last time i rang them, (the only time today) was that there was no outage, that it all seemed fine. im not in any desperate need for it to be working just yet, so im going to give it the evening and then ring them in the morning to see if they can look further into it.

ok... just out of interest, what speed are you on? <edit> just saw you are on 20mb!

I'm not in work today, so can't check your area... let us know how you get on :)

[weezel]

20 Mbit service. about 1 week ago it outright disconnected me, and since then, til now, the speed has fluctuated massively, but still stayed online. then, this morning all that happened.

ill let you know how it goes : )

[Sephiroth]

A quick idea related to the wet weather.

Do you think that a lot of water got into they grey box on your outside wall and into the coax? If you have Cable TV, there might be an effect like pixellation or freezing.

[weezel]

i checked the box outside, inside was dry, cable itself was dry too. i could try unscrewing it i guess and making sure, but the v+ box i have recieves TV fine. no pixilation, and no kind of disruption in any sense to the picture quality. that's what got me confused, the box itself works fine, just not the modem. its the downstream power that fluctuates, upstream is fine *boggles* sometimes shows modulation as 64, or 256 QA .. whatever it is. other times doesnt. and since that weather its syncronised once, and at that time, it went through the usual things, and seemed to stop short at finding a DOCSIS config file, something like " ..config file NOT FOUND" along with some other random crap that i should've saved lol. since then, its just not even syncronising.

could VM have blocked the mac of the modem? and would that affect its ability to syncronise ?

[Sephiroth]

What does the event log say?

There'll be a failures to synce and failure to get upstream parameters from the CMTS. Might provide a clue.

[fireman328]

OK in Reigate

[weezel]

What does the event log say?

There'll be a failures to synce and failure to get upstream parameters from the CMTS. Might provide a clue.

Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Sync Start
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...

currently, thats all it does. not at home at the moment so cant check how its currently doing though.

[Sephiroth]

Is that all? Can't deduce anything from that.

[weezel]

Is that all? Can't deduce anything from that.

that literally is all it says in the log. quite frustrating :E

[weezel]

ok... just out of interest, what speed are you on? <edit> just saw you are on 20mb!

I'm not in work today, so can't check your area... let us know how you get on :)

as a matter of curiosity digital, when you check a persons area, are you checking something that's more or less identical to what a customer sees on the website? or are you looking at something that is far far more detailed about an area vs the site?

the call i had earlier was to an indian call center / call center manned by someone of indian origin, and it felt rather scripted. but all she could tell me was that there was a fault in the gu12 area, which on the site was labled as great yarmouth :P bit odd, but yeah, no apparent faults.

[Digital Fanatic]

as a matter of curiosity digital, when you check a persons area, are you checking something that's more or less identical to what a customer sees on the website? or are you looking at something that is far far more detailed about an area vs the site?
the call i had earlier was to an indian call center / call center manned by someone of indian origin, and it felt rather scripted. but all she could tell me was that there was a fault in the gu12 area, which on the site was labled as great yarmouth :P bit odd, but yeah, no apparent faults.

What I would be looking at would be a lot more detailed, yes. Because obviously I don't have your account info (and can't on here, sorry) I would be checking the cabs in your postal area for simlilar issues/trends and then checking it in more detail at cab level.

Support staff will look for your franchise area first and see what faults are open, they will then check your cab or UBR info against the logged outages.

The GU12 issue on the newsgroups/website was a typo by a colleague... but that isn't the same information the Support staff see, it's more detailed for them. we can't advise customers what cabs are affected as it meansd nothing to them, but a general postcode usually helps :)

My job is Outage related ;)

[weezel]

its been a while, but its fixed. from what i can work out, my contract was cancelled mid june / july (!) and i never got to know about it. the modem, up until i created this thread, worked. god knows why, but i chose not to ask.

anyway, given the setup i have for remote downloading, i resubscribed, to the 10mbit service. my next question is, when clicking the "upgrade my broadband" link in selfcare, i see this:


Pick your new package
Your existing package is Virgin Media broadband Size L . This is a £25 per month subscription.
Upgrade to Virgin Media broadband: Size XL £37 per month subscription
Upgrade to Virgin Media broadband: Size XXL £52 per month subscription

yet, to sign up normally it costs waaaaaay less. a typo perhaps ?

[Sephiroth]

No it's not a typo. It's what justifies all of BenMcr's replies on the price of XL.

I'm on BB XL and the bill shows £37. With all the loyalty discounts and other contrivances, my overall bill is sufficiently close to the web page headline prices for my bundle as not to worry me.

The disreputable aspect of this pricing policy of VM is that they call this (in their upgrade section) Virgin's recommended retail price (£37). Their headline price on the main web page is not accompanied by an RRP statement.

So this duplicity is what hacks off me and many others and brings VM into disrepute.

If you re-signed shouldn't you have been treated as a new customer if your old contract had been cancelled? In which case you'd be on whatevers stated on the broadband web site. (Like £20/month with sone first 3 months discount).

So what happened when you re-signed? I don't think we've got enough of the story.

[weezel]

ok so for the sake of argument, my contract was over. i basically am a new customer in thier eyes, i signed up for the 10mbit at 15 a month for the first 3 months, then 20 a month thereafter. and thats how it currently is. when i log into selfcare, those are the upgrade prices that i see. thats all there is to it.

so out of curiosity, i phoned them, and asked the guy if this was right, and he told me that those are old prices, that whats on the frontpage is correct. i recall 50mbit being 57 at launch too so it sounds right.

the only thing i can think to do now, is call the 50mbit phone number and ask them what my monthly cost will be if i want to upgrade. and see what they say.

[Sephiroth]

Well, keep us posted. Write down the name of the agent that told you tjhe self help web site was wrong. Keep all records of conversations and confirm them back to VM CS by e-mail!

Keep us informed.