Basic Internet Connectivity And Modem Help

[RabidPickle]

My internet keeps going out throughout the day for 2-4 minutes at a time. Sometimes it will happen 3 or 4 times in 30 minutes, sometimes it happens only twice in a day. I have Blast Speed pack or something (cable internet) with like 20-25 MB/s speed I believe. I have a Cisco Docsis 3.0 cable modem. I have a cisco wireless router. This is the 3rd modem I've had in 2 weeks, every ethernet and coax cable has been switch out, I've tried without the router, with only computer hooked into modem, only XBOX hooked into modem, my internet still goes out.

I will say it seems to happen more when I play an online game on my XBOX (I haven't been able to get through a single Mass Effect multiplayer game in a week before it disconnects).  The XBOX has been hooked up both wired and wirelessly.
Any ideas??

[hunterxy]

go to 192.168.100.1 on ur web browser

your Upstream power should be 30 and 50 dB

your Downstream power should be between -12 and +12 dB and SNR above 32

if they are out of those ranges your net will drop out, techs know this

if they are within the ranges then its possible you need to have your cable outlet rewired or drop replaced, call and ask for that to be done, they are no charge when doing that

[EG]

Those ranges are actualy even tighter now in upgraded to DOCSIS 3 systems.

[RabidPickle]

thank you so much for your reply

When I go to 192.168.100.1, I see on the side some boxes "Downstream channels" and "Upstream channels" but they are blank.  Would I have to log in to see this?  And what would my login be...?

[RabidPickle]

Oh I'm sorry, I was reading the page wrong, I understand what i"m looking at now

Downstream power ranges from 2.3 to 3.6 on all the different channels

upstream is 37

SNR is 39

[hunterxy]

there are some modems that dont show the levels, i do not know why, if thats the case call customer service and ask them to tell you the levels, their internet department can see them on their end, in these past tech visits did the techs replace your modem, your outlet from your ground block (starting point on side of your house) to the cable plate itself? and did they bother to run their meter tests to check those levels

[RabidPickle]

what does getting my drop replaced mean exactly?

[hunterxy]

those signals are good, im gonna guess that your outlet or drop may be damaged, even a kink in the cable line causes problems

[EG]

The stats as read at the modem level at that moment in time were o/k. But there are two additional signal stats which can't be read at the modem level. They can only be read from their end by them polling the CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) at the local headend facility.

They are the 'Upstream Receive Power Level' and the 'Upstream uSNR' (upstream Signal To Noise Ratio). Both of these are as equally important in diagnosing connectivity issues as are the modem's stats.

You can call in and ask what these figures are. The Upstream Receive Power Level should fall within the range of -10dB to +10dB with 0dB being in the middle and perfect.

The Upstream SNR should be least 30dB, and the higher it is the better. You could have a noise ingress issue in the upstream channel.

[hunterxy]

your drop is the line from the box in the yard or the utility pole to the side of your house at your power meter

[hunterxy]

replacing the drop is kind of a last resort, but from my experience, tends to fix alot, if you have a line coming from a utility pole through the air its very easy for the tech to do (they just dont like to) if it comes underground it can be tougher, most areas of underground dont have conduit ran so they have to bring out a burial crew which takes a few weeks

[RabidPickle]

Awesome, great advice.  So when I ask them to replace my drop or rewire the cable outlet, do they have to? Or will they give me some excuses because they don't want to?

I hope they do. The two techs that have come out after checking the modems and cables and things have both said they have absolutely no idea what else it could be. They said multiple times "Everything on our end is perfect. Everything is running smoothly."
One tech took me to his truck and showed me a bunch of stuff I didn't understand on his computer.

[hunterxy]

if you call and ask for an appointment to have those things done the tech has to, they may try and say they cant find anything wrong why should they when they come out, just tell them to do it

[RabidPickle]

Hmm it really seems like my XBOX has something to do with it. My internet will be fine for hours then when I try to play a game online, it will drop.  It dropped 4 times in a short time when I was trying to play a game online.  But I've been connected both wired and wirelessly so what could it be? Also, it doesn't seem to do this with Netflix through my XBOX.

[SGTAngry]

I've been having a ton of issues as well, and it was first noticeable when playing on Xbox. 

However, I don't think it's the problem because I'll have the same problems on the PC. 

What I've found tonight is that if I'm downloading / streaming ANYTHING at all, or even trying to load 2 web pages at once, my connection will tank. Massive pings, some packet loss, major speed drops, and bad jitter. However, after giving it a rest for 30 ~ 60 seconds it will recover and be "normal". 

I've been tracking the issue on my end for several weeks now, and I've had techs out 3 times, 4 modems, cable, connector and splitter replacements, and no luck. This all started after an outage on 3/21 - my threads here: 

First full thread:

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Connectivity-and-Modem-Help/Latency-issues-in-Emeryville-Oakland-CA-sta...

Latest thread:

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Connectivity-and-Modem-Help/Emeryville-CA-latency-issues-since-3-21-ano...

So, I'll have a chat with the tech tomorrow, and then have a tech come out AGAIN, and then have them tell me that everything looks great on their end. I'm frustrated. No one has answers, no one can tell me what the heck happened on 3/21 (I had an outage for several hours, and after it came back that's when the problems started). I don't know if we're going to be able to find a solution. The latest techs have been very helpful, and they seem optimistic that we'll figure out the problem, I am not feeling as optimistic about it.

Anyway, I'll update my other threads with info as I get it.

[RabidPickle]

Almost positive its my XBOX now. I tried playing an online game and it disconnected after 10-12 minutes. Didn't try playing anything for about 45 and my connection was fine. Threw in a different game, started multiplayer and it went down within 5 minutes. I'm connected wirelessly right now but it happens wired also.

[i-am-nerdburg]

Can you post your error logs pls? What are the lights on the modem doing when you are having problems?

[RabidPickle]

How do I get my error logs.
The modems lights all go off except for the power light and then one by one come back on. Usualy only takes about a minute