Limited or No Connectivity (50MB)

[cjramze]

Hi All
I work in the ole Internet trade so I'm not a idiot but I am in need of help and advice. I worked with ADSL all my life so cable is a new one on me.

Similar to another thread I've seen (Whos been asked to post more info) Once-Twice-Three sometimes more times per night my modem will fail. The way I've narrowed it down is by swapping the routers between myself and the modem.
Currently I'm using the DIR-615 router but I've also used the Linksys WRT300N router.

When I say the modem fails, The following happens, Either I or my girlfriend (Or both) will be using the internet and suddenly both my LAN and her WLAN will suddenly state (LIMITED OR NO CONNECTIVITY) Logging into the router however will show you that the internet is online and active however no data can be passed through the router, to the modem and onto the internet.

The only way to solve this is to walk over to the modem/router, Power both down and power back up.

Sometimes it wont happen at all and we can do days without any issues, and times (Like last night) it failed twice in under 15 minutes and 4 times in total over the night.

Mine is wired via LAN
Hers is Wireless,
2x Routers tried and still the problem persists.
When this problem occurs no outbound traffic at all (Ping, Traceroutes, URLS or IP's)


[Step 1] Reboot Virgin Media Modem & Router
Do this every time

[Step 2] How – are you connected from your PC to Virgin Media.
Myself Wired, The Mrs Wireless.

[Step 3] Timing -Is there any specific times, you have your connection troubles. We will need to know, to rule out STM
We both only ever use it at night

[Step 4] We need to see, PING results.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Chris>ping www.google.com

Pinging www-tmmdi.l.google.com [216.239.59.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=55
Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=55
Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=55
Reply from 216.239.59.104: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 216.239.59.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 30ms

C:\Users\Chris>

[Step 5] – We need to see a trace route
C:\Users\Chris>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www-tmmdi.l.google.com [216.239.59.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 21 ms 23 ms 8 ms cdif-cmts-11-lback-20.network.virginmedia.net [80.3.30.1]
2 8 ms 7 ms 48 ms cdif-core-1a-ge-300-699.network.virginmedia.net [62.254.252.137]
3 9 ms 18 ms 28 ms brhm-bb-1a-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.109]
4 12 ms 14 ms 13 ms manc-bb-1b-so-510-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.185.134]
5 45 ms 28 ms 20 ms tele-ic-3-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43.163.70]
6 41 ms 39 ms 45 ms 158-14-250-212.static.virginmedia.com [212.250.14.158]
7 19 ms 14 ms 15 ms 209.85.252.76
8 26 ms 30 ms 50 ms 209.85.251.190
9 29 ms 27 ms 28 ms 66.249.95.164
10 34 ms 30 ms 28 ms 72.14.232.241
11 30 ms 36 ms 36 ms 216.239.49.114
12 35 ms 40 ms 29 ms 216.239.59.106

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Chris>

[Step 6] Power levels
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/BsrDNbgJs-80cQX5pIZ6dg?feat=directlink

[Step 7] Speed Test / Downloading
We were using the net at the time
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2010/03/32.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[Step 8]
AVAST, Both machines.
never caused a problem here nor on parents connections.

Thanks

[Sephiroth]

I suspect your circuit fails because your downstream power level at 10 dBmv is too high. It really should be above 5 dBmv otherwise it amplifies RF noise. This can cause your modem not to respond to what I call the "keep-alive" requested from your CMTS (VM's server) every 30 seconds.

I get the odd occasion when the router shows connected but I've only got limited connectivity. When I look at the modem event log (which you didn't post), I notice a glitch.

Frankly I would have expected poorer download speed. So you might care to check your power levels a couple of times and see if the power is stable. If you paste the results (you can just copy & paste rather than bother with Picasa), we can also see what's happening to your uncorrected codewords.

[cjramze]

Hi Thanks for all the info,
Sorry about the picasa thing, I thought when I pasted it in here all the tables would shift around making it harder to read.

Part of my even log looks like this:
Wed Mar 10 09:38:14 2010 Wed Mar 10 09:38:14 2010 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC= REMOVED ;CMTS-MAC= REMOVED ;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Wed Mar 10 09:38:20 2010 Mon Mar 15 23:10:53 2010 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC= REMOVED ;CMTS-MAC= REMOVED ;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Nothing from the past 6 days though? and its been down alot since.

---------- Post added at 23:31 ---------- Previous post was at 23:30 ----------

Cable Modem Downstream

DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4
Frequency 299000000 307000000 315000000 323000000
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y
Channel Id 17 18 19 20
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 6.952
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17
Power Level
(dBmV) 10.01 10.32 9.93 10.50
RxMER
(dB) 37.94 38.26 38.61 39.40
Correctable
Codewords 44 22 26 6
Uncorrectable
Codewords 302 1004 928 256

---------- Post added at 23:31 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ----------

Cable Modem Downstream

DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4
Frequency 299000000 307000000 315000000 323000000
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y
Channel Id 17 18 19 20
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 6.952
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17
Power Level
(dBmV) 10.01 10.32 9.93 10.50
RxMER
(dB) 37.94 38.26 38.61 39.40
Correctable
Codewords 44 22 26 6
Uncorrectable
Codewords 302 1004 928 256

[Sephiroth]

The codewords don't seem to be going upward (I'd have expected it to). Anyway your unstable connexion looks like a downstream problem based on the high power level.

You post a help request on the VM support newsgroup, who are 2nd line support techs and will respond quickly to you. It beats the offshore debacle by a long mile.

If you're on XP, the VM web site tells you how to connect to the newsgroup using Outlook Express (Outlook doesn't support this).

If you're on Vista or Windows 7, you would use Windows Live Mail (a standard part of your system). To get on the VM Newsgroup you need to be operating through the VM broadband system.

In Windows Live Mail, you'd click the "Newsgroups" link at the bottom of the screen and then Tools/Accounts then Add/Newsgroup Account.

Give your Display Name (like CJ), your e-mail address (which can be fictitious) then your server address for the newsgroup which is "news.virginmedia.com".

You'll then be able (via the Newsgroups menu item) to select the Virgin media icon on the left of a search panel, click on "All" and wait a few minutes till it's finished listing thousands of newsgroups.

Scroll down to "Virginmedia.support.broadband.cable" and double click it.

[cjramze]

Cheers fella, I'll add the VM server to my Newsbin app and I'll find the support for VM.
Thanks for your help and thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Nice to find a forum with helpful folks!

[Turkey Machine]

Edit your post one up from Seph's to remove the MAC code. :)

[cjramze]

Thanks whomever edited it.
Should look before I post!

[AndyCalling]

Just a thought, do you use an Nvidia network interface card (LAN card) at all? This is a common type fitted onboard many motherboards.

If you use Win7 then you may be experiencing a bug. Nvidia have just released a new chipset driver pack with new network card drivers that solve this known problem (network driver version 73.2.0.0).

Just in case it helps. :angel:

[Lord Nikon]

While there may be issues with the modem power levels I suspect the limited or no connectivity issue to be unrelated.

'Limited or no connectivity' is when DHCP ranging to the computer failed and the failsafe default '169.254" IP is selected. Try the following

From a command prompt (Start, all programs, accessories, Command Prompt (XP)) or Administrative command prompt (Start, programs, accessories, RIGHT CLICK command prompt and 'run as administrator' 7 & Vista) Type in the following commands

netsh int reset all
netsh winsock reset

Then reboot the machine and see if it's improved. You may also want to run a scan with Malware Bytes Anti Malware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and a decent Antivirus program such as Avast, all of the above are free for personal use and very good at their jobs.