50M : What can cause this intermittent power level fault

[General Maximus]

that is the thing, I don't understand why there isnt some sort of network management software monitoring connections going off each optical node so it says "****, we have just lost all the connections coming off port 1 going to LN6 ..."

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jb66

I think if 100s of mac addresses go offline it can be traced but cant say for sure as I've not seen that side of the business

You could ask or go on the intranet, JB.

Project Storm.

[mikep]

Engineer came and gone (at 8am), he couldnt find a fault with the connection due to it working for a number of days.

He did change the position we were in the Tap or another tap, and replaced everything in on the wall box outside. He got a better signal for when he started with so he felt he did some good work at least.

[mikep]

Spoke to soon Lost everything:

Downstream Channels
Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Max Raw Bit Rate Frequency Power SNR Docsis/EuroDocsis locked
Locked QAM256 204 55616000 Kbits/sec 315000000 Hz -15.1 dBmV 28.8 dB Hybrid
Locked QAM256 201 55616000 Kbits/sec 291000000 Hz -15.3 dBmV 28.3 dB Hybrid
Locked QAM256 202 55616000 Kbits/sec 299000000 Hz -14.9 dBmV 28.8 dB Hybrid
Locked QAM256 203 55616000 Kbits/sec 307000000 Hz -14.9 dBmV 28.8 dB Hybrid

Upstream Channels
Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Max Raw Bit Rate Frequency Power
Locked ATDMA 2 20480 Kbits/sec 35800000 Hz 46.5 dBmV
Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV
Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV
Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV

So area fault?

[craigj2k12]

sounds like something wrong network end, an amp or laser, your downstream power and snr has dropped

[mikep]

Happened again last night got virgin media indian support to admit theres a low SNR intermitment fault F9194992.

People in the know, will this cause the problems i been having fully?

[Risco]

Don't believe ANYTHING offshore tell you, they lie all the time to get you off the phone. I have been having issues for the last 2-3months, and the only time I got any truth was from UK call centres.

My internet went down for 12 hrs the other day, I rang offshore and they said there was no area fault, and promptly booked me an engineer. I did not believe them, so rang up and demanded to speak to a UK manager. After a short wait, I was put through to one of the wonderful staff called Margaret in Glasgow. She confirmed that offshore was lying, and that there WAS an area fault, in this case a low SNR issue. It is supposed to be over 20 for the network, mine ubr was sitting @ 11.5. She could not understand why they had not seen the problem. I was also assured this was classed as a serious fault and would be fixed inside 5 days but probably quicker. My internet did return inside 24 hours and the fault was fixed.

Offshore are totally clueless, they should move all their customer service to Scotland as they are bloody great there!

[mikep]

I had an engineer out who couldnt find a problem. and he said likely a network issue. And today every postcode in my area is practically listed as a fault when you phone them. (Currently on ADSL i have backup BT ADSL line luckily!).

[mikep]

The latest on my woes is:

New engineer turned up today, and found "inverted tilt" on my connection.
So he installed a eletric device on my main tivo box to supply the property with 15/15 connection. (HDU I think he called it) as it was dropping to 15/7.

He spent his time getting this sorted, and said we needed a new omibox, but the connection should be ok. In the time he took to get a new omibox he had to travel all over the area to get one. It dropped again. Since then we spoke to the neighbours again and they went "now you mention it, we are getting pixelated tv channels around the same time we were originally getting it, but didn't bother phoning up".

We told the engineer when he came back with the onmibox, however its now dropping as much now, but it is still dropping some, Thursday/Fri it was down, and it only been down twice since he has left. So he thinks the HDU is working to mask our problem and make it less apparent. So either the wire coming in the property or a faulty amp on the cab, but the beancounters wont let him sort an installation of a new amp unless more than 1 is effected. So hes going to look at the system snapshot on their network tool to see if it is effecting other people on the cab and get back to us on Monday.

[General Maximus]

nice, I love it when you can get to the bottom of things and finally get it sorted out

[mikep]

As you can see from the graph it still dropping now and again (engineer finished at 12 yesterday, but its not too much. but we still losing cable modem and sometimes the tv.

[philipp]

As explained in another thread I'm the OPs brother and its my connection as well. Last night and this morning it came back which lasted longer than a resync. Heres a snip of the superhub log:

Mon Apr 16 08:13:02 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 08:12:54 2012 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 08:12:47 2012 Warning (5) B-INIT-RNG Failure - Retries exceeded;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 08:09:02 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing;;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 08:08:17 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 08:07:27 2012 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 07:58:17 2012 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 07:18:32 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Request sent, No response;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Mon Apr 16 07:18:02 2012 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:41 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:36 2012 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:33 2012 Warning (5) Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:33 2012 Warning (5) MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:17 2012 Warning (5) Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:52:17 2012 Warning (5) MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:48:29 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:48:02 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:47:43 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to receive MAC SYNC frame within time-out period;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:42:02 2012 Critical (3) No UCDs Received - Timeout;;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:41:43 2012 Critical (3) No UCDs Received - Timeout;;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:41:25 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:38:26 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Discover sent, no offer received;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:38:08 2012 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=00:00:00:00:00:00;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:38:06 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing;;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 23:34:58 2012 Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 08:59:38 2012 Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 08:54:15 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing;;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Sun Apr 15 08:53:31 2012 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;

Also I have noticed. Occasionally before the timeouts that 1 or more channels on the superhub becomes un-usable the snr drops to about 9 and power levels go to lower than -20 and QAM256 becomes unknown. It then goes back to where the other channels are or the superhub loses complete sync.

Is there anything there that may suggest if its the line coming in at the property or at the green box or beyond?

Are there any functions (hidden or otherwise) that will show the ranges of power levels and snr during the time its on? (If not there should be!)

[philipp]

Just a little update. It seems to be a faulty amp in main box that feeds our local box thats causing a power drop and snr drop at varying times of the day causing different things to happen to different equipment connected to it. It seems to be only effecting our local box. As the times are not peak when it happening and not long outages they found it only by looking at cardy.

Work has been scheduled to fix it (which should be tomorrow)

Local engineer will come and check everything is fine with our levels once work is completed.

[Risco]

Originally Posted by philipp

Just a little update. It seems to be a faulty amp in main box that feeds our local box thats causing a power drop and snr drop at varying times of the day causing different things to happen to different equipment connected to it. It seems to be only effecting our local box. As the times are not peak when it happening and not long outages they found it only by looking at cardy.

Work has been scheduled to fix it (which should be tomorrow)

Local engineer will come and check everything is fine with our levels once work is completed.

Little tip, you now have a good engineer who actually knows what they are doing. If you ask, he should be able to provided you with his mobile number if the issues arises again which saves you messing about calling faults. Good engineers are few and far between @ Virgin so when you get one, you wanna keep hold of him!

Glad you are getting it sorted, it infuriates me that it takes constant moaning and credits and useless calls to offshore to fix what is clearly a problem their end!

[philipp]

Originally Posted by Risco

Little tip, you now have a good engineer who actually knows what they are doing. If you ask, he should be able to provided you with his mobile number if the issues arises again which saves you messing about calling faults. Good engineers are few and far between @ Virgin so when you get one, you wanna keep hold of him!

Glad you are getting it sorted, it infuriates me that it takes constant moaning and credits and useless calls to offshore to fix what is clearly a problem their end!

Yes I have his number. He asked us to text him if it drops again between and times. We did and he replied in the same day with the diagnosis from the local network guys. But unfortunately hes moving to a different part of the company and country in a few weeks. The one before that also left his number but offshore said it was a wider area fault so we told him that with the reference so we felt obliged to contact support again.

He did say while he still in the area and it happens after the fix to contact him directly and he will sort it out!