Flaid

Well, ever since I contacted my ISP (and they did nothing) and started testing speed regularly, I have not had to reboot the modem and everything has been smooth as silk.

So I'm really thinking they must've just unchecked the "mess with this guy" box on my account.  Oh well!

Well, I have been running automatic speed tests every 30 minutes for the past 5 hours (ever since the last time I power cycled), and everything seems to be working as expected.  A minor drop once, but I was also using the Internet on a different machine throughout the day, so that could easily explain that.

I guess I'll just have to keep monitoring it and see if it is really degrading over time or if it is happening all at once.  I assume it is over time because I've seen it at 20 Mbps, 15 Mbps, 10 Mbps, and even 2 Mbps.  Unfortunately, I only ever notice when something starts buffering or seems particularly slow... and by that time it is already crawling.

https://testmy.net/quickstats/Flaid

On 7/28/2016 at 1:29 PM, mudmanc4 said:

I could put my tin foil hat on, and say the ISP is playing games to force you into a rental, but I wont suggest that, it's absurd.

I don't know, I may have fought them quite a bit about their "activation fee" when I first signed up.  Since I had the equipment in hand, I wasn't sure why a tech needed to come out to the place and screw on the cable.  They gave me a lot of mumbojumbo about checking to make sure the line hasn't been damaged by wildlife, etc, etc...  When I asked to speak to the corporate office, they gave me $10 off.  And maybe flagged my account for being snarky (?)

I just moved to a new town.  Coming from a DSL connection, I bought a refurbished modem, Arris Surfboard SB6141 v7.0 (so that I wouldn't have to pay their $7.50 / month rental fee).  

I get the advertised speed of 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up... at first... but then over time (18-24 hours) the speed degrades to as slow as 2 Mbps down.  Interestingly, the upload speed remains good (between 15-20) even when the downstream is slow.

The power levels and SNR are within an "acceptable range" according to http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5862 even during slow periods.

Power cycling the modem (unplugging, waiting 2 minutes, plugging back in) fixes the issue, but then it just happens again within 24 hours.

I guess I should mention I also have a NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 router, which is brand new, but I believe I've already ruled it out as the speed degradation persists even when I connect my laptop directly in to the modem.

Here's my question, essentially:

Is it normal to need to power cycle the modem every 24 hours?

Is it the modem?  Since it is refurbished, I suppose its possible its still broken...?
Is it the ISP?  I tried contacting them but (of course) they said since I wasn't leasing the modem from them I would have to contact the manufacturer.

Thanks in advance!