Techs are clueless to find connection problem.

[Calderross]

Hi, I'm new here. Hopefully someone here can diagnose my problem better than the three Comcast Techs that have been out to my home.

My problem is not speed, its stability. The error my Modem shows in its log is something to the effect of "T3 Timeout - No ranging response received." Whats odd about this is how random it is, it will go some days without a single error/disconnect/hitch, others it will be constant outages every 3-5 minutes for 30-60 seconds (Something to note is that it can be off-and-on for weeks at a time, or be solid for weeks at a time).

Another thing that is odd is how the modem reacts. Sometimes it will show the error, but pick up again right away, other times the modem will reset itself without any input from me (Frustrating because I lose the logs every time). Either way, when a disconnect does happen I am unable to access the modem's Information page until it regains connectivity, or finishes resetting.

Like I said, I've had 3 tech guys out to my house. The first guy replaced the line from my house to the street, which accomplished nothing. The second guy, after checking my signals, decided it was something on the street and said he would have their Street Techs look at it (I'm unaware if anything ever came of this, as my net's performance never changed). The third tech, who was here just yesterday, determined that it was a problem of noise in the lines and put some noise filters on my modem and on some of the older lines in the back of my house.

I wish I had more information to give you. My connection doesn't go through a router, my modem is connected directly to the outside line (except for the filter the 3rd guy put on it), and my computer connects directly to the modem with an Ethernet cable. I've tried manually power cycling the modem, and resetting through its software. As far as I can tell my signals are fine (I cant really see them when the net goes out because the modem software freezes up until it regains connectivity). I'm not super experienced with this stuff, but I'm tired of trying to play any sort of game online and getting owned by my connection, so any and all comments are welcome. Thanks.

[disturbed]

ive had a similar issue with my provider...cox hsi - ....it was a pain in the ass...took 7 techs to come out to my house for them to finally do something about it - regardless of what the issue, only you calling them and complaining all the time will fix the problem.....what you can do to speed up things a lot is call someone to come out and request that it is a field supervisor and that you won't accept anything else - request that they bring a new modem to isolate the issue....

....since your problem, just like mine, is very unpredictable as it happens from time to time finding out what the problem is might be hard.....tell them to run a line straight from the box into their new modem and into their laptop - that will hopefully isolate the problem to either your equipment or theirs....

in my case i was on a node which was pretty much overloaded so after 3 months of calling over and over again they finally did a nodesplit and the problem is now gone......

......those t3 timeouts can be causes by many things as I researched - from what I could understand your modem, every once in a while, needs to receive a test signal to verify that it is online - if that signal cannot reach it your connection might die.....another thing is that tx/rx signals can affect and cause that particular issue ( dont ask me what in particular because I wouldnt know ) - something about upstream problems.......

.....hope you have better luck than I did and they repair your issue in time faster than 3 motnhs heh

[Swimmer]

Wow this is pretty sad... What state are you in?  Like disturbed said ask that a field supervisor come out and bring a new modem just for kicks.  Of all of the comcast tech that have been out o my houseit normally only took 2 maybe 3 times before everything was better for my signal issue.  I am really shocked that the entire new line from the curb didnt fix the problem. 

[Blunted 2]

I am having problems too and they dont know why and i had a new modem and new line from the pole and the same thing still.  I am able to get 26/4.5 from nyc speakeasy but everywhere else is like 2 mb including my ISP's ftp server which should be the fastest.  A tech is coming here tomorrow with a laptop and a new modem and if he has to will run another line to the pole for another modem. 

how can i get more from another isp's speed test rather than my own.  It has to be something along the route it takes because nyc would be slow if it was on my end but look what i get.

also i get about the same speed to Washington , DC but look at Washington, DC now.

Last Result: NYC Speakeasy

Download Speed: 23881 kbps (2985.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 4567 kbps (570.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Last Result: Washington, DC Speakeasy

Download Speed: 4077 kbps (509.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 4590 kbps (573.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

I usually get about the same as NYC to testmy.net and its dead now.

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Download Connection is:: 1860 Kbps about 1.9 Mbps (tested with 20972 kB)

Download Speed is:: 227 kB/s

Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net

Test Time:: 2007/07/02 - 4:41pm

Bottom Line:: 32X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 4.51 sec

Tested from a 20972 kB file and took 92.36 seconds to complete

Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 14.24 % of your hosts average (optonline.net)

D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-76UK3294C

User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4 [!]

[Calderross]

Thanks for quick replies!

I live in Washington State, the city of Kirkland to be specific (Just slightly north of Seattle).

I talked with Comcast again today. They're sending one last tech out tomorrow before they send the supervisor, the guy on the phone thought it sounded like a problem with something on the street, but wanted to try and have a tech see the problem in action. Hopefully it will be off and on when he gets here (knowing my luck it will be totally smooth and it will be another useless venture).

I'll be sure to suggest they try switching around the modems. I use my own modem (Surfboard SB5120) that has been through good weeks just the same as bad, so I don't understand how that could cause it, but I'll try anything at this point.

[Blunted 2]

Mine got really after those storms last  week

[Calderross]

Heres an update:

Had a tech over once more, problem wasn't occurring while he was here unfortunately. However, he left a really long cable for me to experiment with. Basicly I waited until the problem started happening again, and then plugged the long cable DIRECTLY into the street line (no splitters, no TVs, no cables in the walls, just roof > modem). The problem continued even with this direct setup.

Obviously I'm going to be talking with them again. Is there anything specific you guys can think of that I should say or ask for?

[Spook63]

Tell them to check the nearest node out on the street. I had the same problem and after numerous Tech visit's they checked the node at the end of my street to find out that there were loose connections on the node board. No problems since.

[spicyxw]

I just went through the same thing with Comcast.  Called the night it started and the Tech on line saw that I had a Node gone bad and that they were working it.  He told me that 60 of 69 people on the node had already called in.  There was no other info beyond that.  No estimated time of repair or even what was wrong other than node issues.

I call the next day and they told me there was no problem and it was on my end.  They continued to tell me that my signal way good.  You could not get them to understand that it was a connectivity issue and that they were having partial node issues.  I kept loosing sync every 3-5 minutes.

Called again the next day and after the fox went around the rabbit hole several times I asked for a manager.  Instead I got a Sr Tech and he again insisted that it was on my end.  I explained that I'm a Work Group Manager and I had brought my tools home and from the box to my house was perfect.  I caved and told him to send a tech then.  The Tech said I had the best line and signal he has ever seen and could not see any problems.  Then I showed him my logs from broadbandreports line monitoring I had been doing.  32% availability for 7 days then it went to 56% then to 72% and dropped to 21%.  Then he followed me to the front of my neighborhood and I showed him the node.  I wounder why the node cover was gone and the ground was freshly dug up.  He called in and after 10 min he said that I did have a partial node connectivity issue and they had no idea how long it would take to fix.

I e-mailed my spreedsheets and got three months credit due to the trouble and no one knowing anything.  Don't let them talk you in a circle.  Monitor it yourself, log and track it and send them the proof.  I guess they fixed it tonight, my speeds are back up and running.  Good Luck

[Calderross]

This is going to sound crazy, but I'm having the same problem again. Almost exactly a year later I'm having the same symptoms I was having before.

Before, I guess the street tech's found the problem and fixed it after six or seven calls.

I've already called and talked with comcast twice, they sent the obligatory tech out regardless how much I told them it wouldnt help, and now I'm just waiting for them to "get around" to it.

Its kind of pointless to be even posting this, but I guess i'm just hoping that maybe someone else has had this strange problem and knows what causes it.

[AlucardHS]

yea for some strange reason my max DL was at at 4.4mbps and im on a 6 meg line, and no Powerboost at all. Had 2 techs come and test the line and they say it has a good signal. So i put on a new modem gave them the new mac address and still wont go past 4.4mbps. Basically im tired of Crapcast ! As soon as Fios gets to Chicago im switching ASAP! And im gonna call them again to see if I can get them to check the node box at the end of the block.