Comcast, outbound dropouts, questions - Resolved

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 09, 2005 Posts: 1

On your cable modem diag screen, you need to monitor your downstream signal (measured in dB) and upstream power (measured in dBmv). The downstream should be between 0 and +3 for a good signal; any lower and you get downstream errors. The upstream should be around 40 or 50; any higher and there are upstream errors (lower signals indicate a very clean upstream signal).

Hope that helps someone in the future. For what it's worth: I dealing with cable techs. When I have to have them come out to fix problems, I do all of their troubleshooting for them and they get confused easily. That's all I'll say about that.

Posts: 114 · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:12 pm Post subject:

OX wrote:

On your cable modem diag screen, you need to monitor your downstream signal (measured in dB) and upstream power (measured in dBmv). The downstream should be between 0 and +3 for a good signal; any lower and you get downstream errors. The upstream should be around 40 or 50; any higher and there are upstream errors (lower signals indicate a very clean upstream signal).

Hope that helps someone in the future. For what it's worth: I dealing with cable techs. When I have to have them come out to fix problems, I do all of their troubleshooting for them and they get confused easily. That's all I'll say about that.

For what it's worth, my downstream is between -2 and -1, and upstream is 41.

My testyourvoip results taken at the same time are:

MOS
4.4 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.58 93.0%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.04 7.0%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 108 ms
Packet Discards 0.3%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 0 ms
Avg: 6 ms
Max: 30 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Dial Delay 47 ms
Call Setup Time 63 ms
Media Delay 969 ms

MOS
4.4 / 5.0
(Best with G.711 is 4.4)

Degradation Sources
Codec 0.57 96.8%
Latency 0.00 0.0%
Packet Discards 0.02 3.2%
Packet Loss 0.00 0.0%
Codec G.711 (PCM at 64kbps,
20ms RTP payload,
80kbps IP BW)
Round-Trip
Latency 108 ms
Packet Discards 0.1%
Packet Loss 0.0%
Loss Periods
Min: 20 ms
Avg: 20 ms
Max: 20 ms
Random Loss
Jitter
Min: 4 ms
Avg: 7 ms
Max: 42 ms
Signaling Quality
Post-Pickup Delay 897 ms
Call Setup Time 84 ms
Media Delay 930 ms

Also known as "perfect". Comcast did an amazing job fixing our connection. It never drops the connection anymore (except for a complete outage for about 3 minutes a few days ago - we lost our TV service as well).

-Craig

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

Thanks for the details of your saga with comcast. I'm in the same boat as you were. What's funny is, my line seemed fine enough, but comcast decided to replace it last week (underground service) saying something like i was leaking signal.

Well, now my downstream is absolutely fantastic, but my upstream keeps dropping out - maybe every 2 - 3 minutes i lose connectivity for 10 seconds?

This impacts both my remote desktop connection to my home machine (it pauses) and my outbound voice.

Comcast refuses to believe it's their problem... guess i'm going to have to show them this thread!

Thanks,
Jeff

(FYI -I'm in andover, MA)

Posts: 114 · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:28 pm Post subject:

Just run pingplotter for a few days, pinging comcast.net, and show them the complete packet loss. As noted in this thread, you should disconnect all other routers (including Vonage) while doing this since they'll likely blame the hardware. Connect the cable modem directly to the PC.

Keep us updated on what Comcast says.

Good luck.

-Craig

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

Thanks for the advice.
Comcast is coming on thursday, so I'll do the plots for at least 12 hours before they show up. It fails so frequently that it shouldn't be hard to show them... i will plug the PC directly into the cable modem as well...

Thanks,
Jeff

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 01, 2006 Posts: 12

Does not surprise any of us. They always seem to pawn it off on each other. Have you tried pruchasing another router/adapter as a back up and calling them to activate it on yoru line, just to see if you can replicate the same issues? I've found that helpful. You can emilinate the settings on the adapter/router that way.

You may also want to stop being a Red Sox fan. That will help you the bitterness and hatred you feel against the Yankees. 20 more World titles to catch up. I think not. Teaching the kids vulgarities is someting that Vonage and Comcast considers when providing tech support. I suppose you could chant "Vonage ****" everywhere you go. That seems to work so well with this hatred thing with the Yanks.

Good luck....

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

LOL

Very nice. My dad grew up in the bronx and is a sinner, er, i mean yankees fan too. His comcast line works great most of the time, but when the pressure is on, it craps out. LOL

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 17, 2005 Posts: 24

I am also in Ma. (Springfield) and have also found that frequently the person who I am speaking with all of a sudden can't hear me. They hang up and I have to call back.
I use Comcast but am having trouble believing that the problem is from them. They also have Voip and charge much more than Vonage. I need a fix for this and soon.

nuff said

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

Well, a tech. from comcast showed up tonight and was able to see the problem, but had no clue how to fix it. He replaced the splitter and a cable coming into the house and we tried a different cable modem (RCA), but no luck.

Still getting my stupid drop outs and now the problem has been pushed to a new department. ugh.

FYI - my levels look perfect. With Moto 5120:
Tr: 39.6
Re 5.9
sig 31.2

with RCA
Tr 35.5
Re 2.3
Sig 38.7

I really want to test someone elses house on the street to see if it's a problem that's common to all in my neighborhood...

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jeff

Posts: 114 · Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:06 am Post subject:

As noted in this thread, Comcast will send a "normal" tech out 2-3 times before calling in the guys who can sit in a truck for hours and monitor the line with higher-tech equipement that can look at both up and downstream. The normal techs can only monitor downstream (which doesn't help you).

One of the normal techs replaced every coax connector from the street, into the basement, and into our office. Didn't help us, either.

It has to be escalated to the next level support. This is all detailed within the thread. I would also use the Moto 5120 over the RCA, as people have reported better luck with the 5120 (it's a very good cable modem).

Craigwp: Read this entire thread. I suggest you do what I recommend. It's the only way to prove to Comcast that it's something to do with their lines and not Vonage. Even if you join their Voip service, you'd have the same exact problems (if it's the broadband line that's the culprit). Nice name by the way. Smile

-Craig