PCA Forums

I'm having connectivity issues with Comcast the past 2 days. Tech support is grudgingly sending someone out later in the week, and I want ammunition since they are trying to tell me there's nothing wrong.

Seems like this happens every 6 - 8 months and I have to go through this B.S. I'm losing my connection every 20 minutes for 2 minutes at a time. VERY ANNOYING.

I need a tool that will continously do a ping or traceroute all day and then show me a graph that shows when I've lost the connection and for how long.

Anyone have an app they can recommend?

Thanks.

what router are ya using?

Might wanna try this page:

http://www.networkingfiles.com/PingFing ... finger.htm

I'll check those out, thanks.

Go figure, after bitching at tech support it's been working fine this afternoon.

I don't mind when it's DOWN. Then I just use the dialup until it's up.

It's this intermitten shit that's annoying. Having it hang every 10 -20 minutes while you're trying to worjk or play in NO FUN

Seems like every 6 months after a good storm this crap starts happening and tech support tells me there's nothing wrong because my modem reports it has a good signal, then I insist they send someone out and the guy they send out puts a signla strength meter on the line and tells me "Yup, you have a weak signal - right on the edge." and he tightens connectors, and replaces some splitters and gets it working reliably for another 6 months.

All the site techs tell me that eventually I probably need the cable coming in off the pole replaced. I KNOW that Comcast doesn't want to do that - I live on 20 acres and my house is 600 feet from the road. They don't want to pull a new cable if they don't have to.

I really like the bandwidth I get with Comcast (3Mbit/300Kbit) but I may need to switch to DSL. I need better reliability than this, and DSL is generally pretty reliable around here.

FP i work for Charter installing Pipeline do maybe i can help, do you happen to know what the signal strength is? I know on our system a modem might work at -15 but it will have moments where it drops off. Is your ground block on the outside of the house in one of those plastic boxes? Sometimes water will get in around the fittings and cause problems. The tech should check your signal at the tap, then at the ground block and finally at the modem and then calculate the loss from the tap. Simple math. Also the return signal may me dropping off. We use a Trilithic RSVP meter to check return strength and line noise. Our low and high limits are 25-55. If its border on either one then its gonna drop from time to time. At 600ft I would assume you have hard line running to your sub pole then RG6 to the house. Rewiring the drop from the tap to the house is everyday work for me however the hard line is another case altogether. Is your modem line "home run" meaning running all the back to ground block? If not then they should do that and at that would give another 3.5 db's to play with. Can you pull up your modem diagnostics and get those signals for me? I never understood how flaky cable modems were about signal strength until i started installing them.

Mega: Thanks!

Blade_146:
Yes the modem is on a home run, that's how we fixed it last time this happened (it used to be on a splitter with the livingroom TV). It's also on a splitter that has a tap that sends more signal to the modem than the other taps.

HOWEVER the splitter is in less than an ideal location. It's not in a box - it's under an overhang but can get wet, although they have rubber seal on all the fittings.

Also we have a LOT of TVs in this house - not something I'm willing to live without. There's a TV in the livingroom, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, computer room. That's a lot of taps and weakens our signal even more.

I don't know how to bring up the diagnostics on this modem.

I just see this being a continual problem. DSL is looking like a more attractive solution from a reliability standpoint. From experience with business clients DSL around here is very reliable, assuming your phone wiring is good and have the modem on a homerun to the phone box.

If the modem line is home run then it shouldn't be the signal strength providing the tap up on the pole is hot enough. Most of the lines i run the signal is anywhere from 1 to -9 at the modem. It could be that the return signal is borderline. Only way to solve that is to rework the drop from the pole to house or check the tap and nearest line amp. Having a bunch of tv's wont affect the modem if the line is home run. What brand of modem do you have and Ill see if can find out what the internal ip is on that model and then we can get the diagnostics.

Motorola Surfboard SB5100.

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EDIT

Quick Google Newsgroup found the IP - it's http://192.168.100.1/

Here's what I've got (mind you it's been behaving itself the past day now - no glitches at all). I'm going to make a not of this and compare it next time it acts up:

DOWNSTREAM:
Frequency 555000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 36 dB
Power Level -7 dBmV

UPSTREAM:
Channel ID 6
Frequency 30000000 Hz Ranged
Power Level 38 dBmV

Cool, the log shows all the sync syncronization failures the other day. I can use the log as ammunition next time.

Yesterday I went outside and tightened all the splitter fittings and sprayed silicon spray on all the rubber boots and seals. However it had already started behaving before that.


I originally had one of those old 3Com "Shark's Tooth" modems - that's what Comcast originally gave me 4 years ago. Last year I replaced it with the Motorola when it started acting up. Similar intermittent problem like this time - but it lasted for 2 weeks with a longer cycle time. There was nothing wrong with the old modem though - I gave it to a friend and it's working fine for him.

same thing happens to me, FP.

your power level looks too low. mine drops to that when i get bumped off (anywhere from 1x per week to every day). it'll reconnect when the power hits 44-48dB.

the tech that came to my house tried to blame it on the internal wiring (no splits to the modem)...so i tested that by moving it to a different port last time it died...same weak power level.

It's as good as it's going to get. There's a 2 way splitter on the cable from the pole. That goes to the modem on one tap and to a 4 way splitter for the rest of the house. So the modem is getting like 50% of the signal.

I do have a weak signal in the house - picture is grainy on the end farthest from the splitters.

Tech is coming Thursday and I'm going to get on his case. I want more signal or I'm going with DSL and they can bite me.

Those signals look good to be honest FP. Well they're good for our system anyway. And it is wired properly. But we quit using surfboards if that tells ya anything. You could get an in house amp but with only a 2way and 1 4way you really dont need one. If your drop from the pole to the house is over 150ft it should be RG11, anything under that and RG6 is fine. They might could try to put in a hotter tap on the pole but that might take some arm twisting. Wish I knew something else to help ya but I dont. cratch

Well what will be interesting is to see what the signal level is when it starts acting up again.

Thanks for your input.