DOCSIS 3.0 modem status

[sean5900xt]

I not long ago got a DOCSIS 3.0 emta and a DOCSIS 3.0 speed package from my cable co. I was wondering if my signal levels and everything are where they should be. Haven't had any problems or anything speeds have been great as well. Just wanted to double check and make sure everything is how it should be. This screen shot was taken while downloading a game at about 40Mbps if that makes any difference. Thanks guys.

[Pgoodwin1]

The picture isn't clear enough for me to read it.

[dn0]

Look good to me. 35-36 SNR.

All levels actually look average, which in the digital world is good.

[mudmanc4]

Yep looks ok although your downstream power level would be better off closer to 0 , what you have afaik should be working fine. Here's mine .

And select, or click it goodwin

[sean5900xt]

Thanks for the information guys. I have one more question. Figured I'll ask here instead of making another post. For the past week or so I keep having to reset my cable modem every 2 days or so. What happens is the cable modem just stops responding. All the lights are still how they should be but I cant go anywhere online. I know its not my router cause I tried hooking straight to the modem and the problem still happens, and to fix it I only have to reset the modem and not the router. When I check the cable modem log their is a entry that says

"TLV-11 - unrecognized OID;CM-MAC=00:1d:cf:e3:68:cb;CMTS-MAC=50:3d:e5:0c:57:61;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;"

That shows up in the log every time the modem stops responding. Was wondering if you guys know what this means. Saw a bucket truck working on the lines on my street today and now the power level on my downstream channels are a little closer to zero, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this problem. Thanks for any help guys. If I cant figure something out I will ask the cable company to come out and take a look.

[mudmanc4]

Again here I'm no cable tech by any means, at the same time , the 'error' you think you are seeing , I believe this has nothing to do with your issue. It simply is a reset of your modem, so as it requests network access it has no data stored at that point, so it tosses a ' gee -- I've got nothing' which is spit out to the log.

If i were to take a stab at it , blinded as i may be, I'd say it's a mis config, or time stamp issue between a master and a slave DNS within your ISP. Or considering you've witnessed work, it might be a card in one of the nodes shitting itself.

Hell, even line leakage for this matter. Which pisses off those trying to fly people over your state, and is actually a big issue since lines are aging, and so many line owners have their hands full with new customers they take not the time to run up and down the streets testing.

[TriRan]

I've had the same issue every now and again Sean but it usually is a dns issue to test that theory the next time it happens try opening up command prompt and pinging 4.2.2.2 if it receives a response then it's just a dns issue if it times out then it is something else entirely

[sean5900xt]

I've had the same issue every now and again Sean but it usually is a dns issue to test that theory the next time it happens try opening up command prompt and pinging 4.2.2.2 if it receives a response then it's just a dns issue if it times out then it is something else entirely

Thanks for the help man. I e-mailed my cable company and they offered to come out to the house and check things out for free. But thankfully the issue hasn't occurred in about 6 days. It does seem to be better ever since the power levels improved. I'll try using PingPlotter if the problem happens again and try to trace to or ping that IP address and see what happens. I use OpenDNS, I'm not sure if that would help the problem or not.

[sean5900xt]

Well just had this issue occur twice in the last 4 days. Sent a e-mail to the cable company asking them to call my cell to schedule a time for a tech to come out. I told them I would prefer to get a different model modem or a newer model because I have seen post's on other sites with users of this same modem having the same issue (Arris TM802G). Don't expect to see anyone till at least after christmas which is fine since this isn't that serious just annoying. Got my fingers crossed I will get a different model.

One question though. I know you can buy your own cable modem and use it, but if you have phone service through the cable company can you buy your modem of choice that supports the phone service as well and use it?

[TriRan]

Yes you can just make sure it supports the correct protocols and I use the Motorola surfboard 6120 I didn't like the modem my cable company provides

[sean5900xt]

Well I'm glad to say that this issue seems to be fixed. If anyone else see's this that has a similar issue with this modem I wish I could tell you what to do to fix it. But the cable company just came out to my house then went and did some work on the node in my neighborhood and now the issue has not happened in the last 8 days. I noticed a very big drop in the number of "errors" that occur on the columns "Correcteds" and "Uncorrectables" both are much lower then they used to be. Still using the same exact modem, so I guess it was something to do with the node I use in my neighborhood.

[TriRan]

That's great news Sean! I experienced a similar outcome when I had that problem last year my cable company replaced the amplifiers at our local node and the problem went away

[sean5900xt]

That's great news Sean! I experienced a similar outcome when I had that problem last year my cable company replaced the amplifiers at our local node and the problem went away

Well I'm about to give up. Just had it happen again and had to reset the modem. I checked and it turns out that our home phone stops working as well when this happens so it must be something with the modem. Gonna ask for a different modem, and maybe cancel our home phone service so I can get just a regular DOCSIS 3.0 modem. Don't really see the need for a home phone anymore.

[TriRan]

Well I'm about to give up. Just had it happen again and had to reset the modem. I checked and it turns out that our home phone stops working as well when this happens so it must be something with the modem. Gonna ask for a different modem, and maybe cancel our home phone service so I can get just a regular DOCSIS 3.0 modem. Don't really see the need for a home phone anymore.

thats exactly how i have my cable setup... home phones are really out dated and not really needed anymore unless you have some sort of a home business or need to fax a lot of things

[sean5900xt]

I really need some info if anyone can help. We had our modem, my computer, and a cable box plus the new tv that was hooked into it get fried by lightening saturday night. When we looked at the cable line the next day it turns out it was not grounded in anyway at all. We never work on anything to do with the cable outside of our house. The cable company are the only people who have run lines from the pole to our house. Is the cable company responsible for grounding the cable line? The cable guy came to the house while I was not there and only my mother was there. When he saw that the line was not grounded he said that he was going to write on his work order that it was grounded when he got there so that we wouldn't be charged a 300 dollar fee. I have never heard such a thing. To me it sounds like he was trying to cover the cable companies butt. What do you guys think?

[TriRan]

I really need some info if anyone can help. We had our modem, my computer, and a cable box plus the new tv that was hooked into it get fried by lightening saturday night. When we looked at the cable line the next day it turns out it was not grounded in anyway at all. We never work on anything to do with the cable outside of our house. The cable company are the only people who have run lines from the pole to our house. Is the cable company responsible for grounding the cable line? The cable guy came to the house while I was not there and only my mother was there. When he saw that the line was not grounded he said that he was going to write on his work order that it was grounded when he got there so that we wouldn't be charged a 300 dollar fee. I have never heard such a thing. To me it sounds like he was trying to cover the cable companies butt. What do you guys think?

i have never heard of anything like that before, i would imagine that its their responsibility to make sure the lines are ran properly that includes grounding... it seems very odd that they would not ground it

[mudmanc4]

AFAIK the line needs to be grounded as close to the modem as possible. Usually at the main splitter, either to the copper pipe or better yet a grounding rod. 

 

Each time I've had an ISP out , they have always made sure that grounding was done for several reasons, even if half assed. Where I have beat a rod into the dirt and completed the job once. 

 

As far as the tech falsifying documents, this could go either way. If they deem grounding was proper , this could leave you liable, whereas if not you may have a say in moving forward. 

 

Let us know how this pans out if you don't mind. Interesting !

[sean5900xt]

Well so far not much has happened. I wrote a heck of a post on their facebook wall about the whole deal. We had lightening take out our modem on Saturday night. A tech came out Monday afternoon and swapped the modem, but he left without testing our internet connection at all. So the modem he put in had a Ethernet port that didn't work. After I wrote a post on their facebook about the modem and the thing with the cable line not being grounded I got a phone call from the general manager this morning. First thing he did was apologize for the whole incident and immediately offered a month of free internet service credit on our bill ($130). unfortunately when he called I was on the way to a college class so I couldn't talk for long. A tech was leaving the house as I got home today from class and now I have another new modem, which thankfully works. I didn't want to pursue the incident with the cable not being grounded till I knew that it was their responsibility to ground it. My mom was with the tech when he first checked to see if the line was grounded and he told my mom that it was not grounded in any way shape or form. Which ever cable tech hooked up the lines made no attempt to ground them. The fact that he told my mom that he was going to go ahead and write that it was grounded is what sounds fishy to me. It makes me think that he was doing that to cover the cable company's butt.

I'm not sure if I'm going to try to get anything out of this though. I get the feeling it would be way more trouble then its worth. The only thing I could ask them for is to pay for the TV and computer that were damaged from the power surge, but im sure there is no way to prove the the cable line not being grounded caused it. I think I will just consider my self lucky I got a credit for a month of internet, and that everything is fixed and up and running. We are going to go through home owners insurance like last time for my desktop computer, and the TV repair. And on the plus side I ended up with a different model modem then I had since we cancelled our phone service so the original issue in this topic should be fixed now, what a heck of a way to get it fixed haha.