CTBC
08-03-2010, 23:03
Note: I had 10Mb/s package at the start of the problem, and recently (since saturday) I was upgraded to 20Mb/s.
Note 2: All tests have been repeated with a direct ethernet to the modem.
Right, it all started about 3 and half weeks ago, on a sunday afternoon. The download speed dropped massively to around 1.5Mb/s. This was very unusual I have been with Virgin Mediafor a very long time, way before they changed their name from NTL. There was never a problem with download speeds (apart from when I get capped for downloading too much, but hey thats my own fault). I monitored the download speeds over the next few days. And noticed generally would be fine in the morning to late afternoon. But in the evenings around 6pm right through way past midnight it would not get over 3-4Mb/s (I had not been capped, I hadn't downloaded anything bigger than a few MBs). I understand that during the peak times that the connection may drop a few Mb/s but to around 1-2Mb/s, it was not an acceptable service. Also, the connection would not pick up again after the peak time.
I waited this out for about a week and half, and decided to call their extremely helpful, well education and don't forget articulate customer services. After the first call they admitted that there was a fault with the connection, they did their test on their end, and lo and behold they said I was experiencing packet loss. And we agreed on a time for an enginneer to come. When he arrived the following week, the connection wasnt playing up, but this is expected a 8-9am. He said he could not find anything wrong with the connection. I tried to explain that this has been exactly how it had been over the last few weeks ( that it was fine during the day, but got considerable worse into the late afternoon/evening). He said he could not help any further, and suggested making a log of when the download speeds were extremely slow(erm... the evenings as I stated previously), he said he would remove the 'Forward Path Attenuator 10dB' attached to the modem. By now I could tell that he was not going to help anymore, and I understand it would be difficult to tell, if by magic, his presence has fixed the connection. Unsuprisingly, in the evening I was experiencing slow speeds. On saturday, I recieved a call from Virgin Media that they will upgrade my internet to 20Mb/s as I have been with Virgin Media for 3 years, I accepted this offer as I thought it may fix the download speed issue. In the evening I was experiencing around 8Mb/s download speed, I was resonable happy, it was some of the best speeds I was experiencing for quite a few weeks. And even more happy the folllowing morning that I recieved a whoppppppppppping 18.5Mb/s. Once the afternoon approached the download speed was starting to drop, and again to around 0.5-1.5Mb/s. I waited for a few hours before deciding to act on the problem once again. After 12 calls, 3 supervisors, 7 'The other person has cleared....'s, I managed to get another engineer out for the next day.
Earlier today I was reading this forum about 'Download Speed Power Levels', I decided to check on this on the modem, and I was surpised to see 17dB. Then engineer, now second engineer, arrived later on. This time I booked him for as late as possible, so that he could see the poor download speeds. At the time I was getting around 5Mb/s. He said it should be around 12MB/s minimum before he would leave. I mentioned the high power levels and he then reattached a 'Forward Path Attenuator 10dB', which the previous engineer had removed. And the power levels did drop quite a bit to around 5dB. He then said the modem may have been broken with the high power level. He kindly replaced the modem. He did a few speed tests and managed to get 9Mb/s, he then said it should rise over the next couple of hours. (notice not agreeing to fix the issue until over 12Mb/s). It did not increase at all, infact it dropped dramatically over the couse of the evening. By 8pm I was recieving around 5Mb/s and at 9.30, I recieved 2Mb/s. Oh yay of 20Mb/s I get 2Mb/s (good one virgin media). I phoned up their support, this time was definetly better, I guess I was just lucky. The woman seemed like she actually wanted to help me, after only 5 minutes of testing, she decided that another engineer was needed. And is now booked for this saturday in the afternoon.
Now, is there anything that I can tell the virgin engineer to look at? Would anything suggest that there is a problem outside of my house???
Thanks,
Note: Modem stats below (taken at 11pm).
System
Name WebSTAR EPC2100R2
Modem Serial Number ****** <-- not sure if I should or shouldn't comment this out.
Cable Modem MAC Address ************
Hardware Version 2.1
Software Version v2.0.2r1256-070601
Receive Power Level 4.0 dBmV
Transmit Power Level 39.0 dBmV
Cable Modem Status Operational
Downstream Channel
Downstream Status Operational
Channel ID 6
Downstream Frequency 402750000 Hz
Modulation 256QAM
Bit Rate 20480000 bits/sec
Power Level 4.1 dBmV
Signal to Noise Ratio 37.7 dB
Upstream Channel
Upstream Status Operational
Channel ID 4
Upstream Frequency 37500000 Hz
Modulation QPSK
Symbol Rate 768000 bits/sec
Power Level 39.0 dBmV
Event Log
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Mon Mar 08 17:08:24 2010 Critical (3) Resetting the cable modem due to docsDevResetNow
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
Time Not Established Critical (3) Resetting the cable modem due to console command
Note 2: All tests have been repeated with a direct ethernet to the modem.
Right, it all started about 3 and half weeks ago, on a sunday afternoon. The download speed dropped massively to around 1.5Mb/s. This was very unusual I have been with Virgin Mediafor a very long time, way before they changed their name from NTL. There was never a problem with download speeds (apart from when I get capped for downloading too much, but hey thats my own fault). I monitored the download speeds over the next few days. And noticed generally would be fine in the morning to late afternoon. But in the evenings around 6pm right through way past midnight it would not get over 3-4Mb/s (I had not been capped, I hadn't downloaded anything bigger than a few MBs). I understand that during the peak times that the connection may drop a few Mb/s but to around 1-2Mb/s, it was not an acceptable service. Also, the connection would not pick up again after the peak time.
I waited this out for about a week and half, and decided to call their extremely helpful, well education and don't forget articulate customer services. After the first call they admitted that there was a fault with the connection, they did their test on their end, and lo and behold they said I was experiencing packet loss. And we agreed on a time for an enginneer to come. When he arrived the following week, the connection wasnt playing up, but this is expected a 8-9am. He said he could not find anything wrong with the connection. I tried to explain that this has been exactly how it had been over the last few weeks ( that it was fine during the day, but got considerable worse into the late afternoon/evening). He said he could not help any further, and suggested making a log of when the download speeds were extremely slow(erm... the evenings as I stated previously), he said he would remove the 'Forward Path Attenuator 10dB' attached to the modem. By now I could tell that he was not going to help anymore, and I understand it would be difficult to tell, if by magic, his presence has fixed the connection. Unsuprisingly, in the evening I was experiencing slow speeds. On saturday, I recieved a call from Virgin Media that they will upgrade my internet to 20Mb/s as I have been with Virgin Media for 3 years, I accepted this offer as I thought it may fix the download speed issue. In the evening I was experiencing around 8Mb/s download speed, I was resonable happy, it was some of the best speeds I was experiencing for quite a few weeks. And even more happy the folllowing morning that I recieved a whoppppppppppping 18.5Mb/s. Once the afternoon approached the download speed was starting to drop, and again to around 0.5-1.5Mb/s. I waited for a few hours before deciding to act on the problem once again. After 12 calls, 3 supervisors, 7 'The other person has cleared....'s, I managed to get another engineer out for the next day.
Earlier today I was reading this forum about 'Download Speed Power Levels', I decided to check on this on the modem, and I was surpised to see 17dB. Then engineer, now second engineer, arrived later on. This time I booked him for as late as possible, so that he could see the poor download speeds. At the time I was getting around 5Mb/s. He said it should be around 12MB/s minimum before he would leave. I mentioned the high power levels and he then reattached a 'Forward Path Attenuator 10dB', which the previous engineer had removed. And the power levels did drop quite a bit to around 5dB. He then said the modem may have been broken with the high power level. He kindly replaced the modem. He did a few speed tests and managed to get 9Mb/s, he then said it should rise over the next couple of hours. (notice not agreeing to fix the issue until over 12Mb/s). It did not increase at all, infact it dropped dramatically over the couse of the evening. By 8pm I was recieving around 5Mb/s and at 9.30, I recieved 2Mb/s. Oh yay of 20Mb/s I get 2Mb/s (good one virgin media). I phoned up their support, this time was definetly better, I guess I was just lucky. The woman seemed like she actually wanted to help me, after only 5 minutes of testing, she decided that another engineer was needed. And is now booked for this saturday in the afternoon.
Now, is there anything that I can tell the virgin engineer to look at? Would anything suggest that there is a problem outside of my house???
Thanks,
Note: Modem stats below (taken at 11pm).
System
Name WebSTAR EPC2100R2
Modem Serial Number ****** <-- not sure if I should or shouldn't comment this out.
Cable Modem MAC Address ************
Hardware Version 2.1
Software Version v2.0.2r1256-070601
Receive Power Level 4.0 dBmV
Transmit Power Level 39.0 dBmV
Cable Modem Status Operational
Downstream Channel
Downstream Status Operational
Channel ID 6
Downstream Frequency 402750000 Hz
Modulation 256QAM
Bit Rate 20480000 bits/sec
Power Level 4.1 dBmV
Signal to Noise Ratio 37.7 dB
Upstream Channel
Upstream Status Operational
Channel ID 4
Upstream Frequency 37500000 Hz
Modulation QPSK
Symbol Rate 768000 bits/sec
Power Level 39.0 dBmV
Event Log
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Mon Mar 08 17:08:24 2010 Critical (3) Resetting the cable modem due to docsDevResetNow
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
Time Not Established Critical (3) Resetting the cable modem due to console command