Recent Problems w/ ISP

[Necrovarius]

Hey all,

I don't know where else to turn! 

i live in Northern MN, and we dont have a ton of choices when it comes to ISP if we want good speeds. 

As of now I have Gigabit service through Mediacom, and lately, it seems that my modem keeps losing signal and then attempts to reestablish.

Here is whats happening:

1. I have a new modem, I rent the modem, and it's fresh from the box.

2. My modem is baselined, and I own my own router for Port forwarding game servers for friends.

3. My signal strength is normally fine when the techs check it over the phone. I am getting my normal speed.

4. It seems to happen around noon and late in the evening.

5. The lights on the modem for upload and download are normally blue, then they go out, a few minutes later they come back to green, then blue.. 

6. I have no VPN, or external service like that. 

7. I have had one tech already at the house, and couldn't find anything.

 

What could my issue be? I could try a new modem again, but like I said, this one was fresh from the box. 

 

 

[Chronified]

Is it Coax or Fibe based?? I had Gig Coax in my old home and had similar issues, it wasn't until I did my own clean splice where the line met my house and ran a line directly to my modem that I saw reliability improve.

Most homes are filled with splitters and filters which can cause this issue, best bet would be finding the splice on the outside of your home and running a new line to see if it's a home wiring issue. 

[Donut417]

21 minutes ago, Necrovarius said:

Hey all,

I don't know where else to turn! 

i live in Northern MN, and we dont have a ton of choices when it comes to ISP if we want good speeds. 

As of now I have Gigabit service through Mediacom, and lately, it seems that my modem keeps losing signal and then attempts to reestablish.

Here is whats happening:

1. I have a new modem, I rent the modem, and it's fresh from the box.

2. My modem is baselined, and I own my own router for Port forwarding game servers for friends.

3. My signal strength is normally fine when the techs check it over the phone. I am getting my normal speed.

4. It seems to happen around noon and late in the evening.

5. The lights on the modem for upload and download are normally blue, then they go out, a few minutes later they come back to green, then blue.. 

6. I have no VPN, or external service like that. 

7. I have had one tech already at the house, and couldn't find anything.

 

What could my issue be? I could try a new modem again, but like I said, this one was fresh from the box. 

 

 

Does this happen every day or periodically? Have you checked the modems logs? I know when Comcast uploads config files and new firmware to my modem it can cause it to restart. First thing I would do is maybe check with neighbors who have the service and see if they have issues. 

 

As @Chronifiedmentioned. You need to ensure you only have no more than ONE splitter between the modem and the main line coming in to your home. Docsis Cable service requires a certain signal range to work, if yours falls out of that range you have connectivity issues. I know from Comcast's installs that generally a two way splitter is used if you have TV service. One side of the splitter goes to the modem and the other side goes to a TV OR to another splitter to feed multiple TV's. 

[Chronified]

2 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

I know from Comcast's installs that generally a two way splitter is used if you have TV service. One side of the splitter goes to the modem and the other side goes to a TV OR to another splitter to feed multiple TV's. 

Ideally, cut the cable altogether and have no splitters at all. But yes 1 ISP provided splitter is fine, those gold ones you get at the hardware store are a no-no for internet and that's what contractors use for the most-part within the walls of your home. 

 

 

These will be found in your walls if you live in a home made later than the 80s , 10/10 run your own line from where the Coax meets your home from the street! 

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Chronified said:

deally, cut the cable altogether and have no splitters at all.

Some people refuse to give it up. Old people mostly. At my home we dont do cable. We have OTA TV + streaming. But in a world of data caps, for some cable makes sense. Mediacom much like Comcast has data caps. 

[Chronified]

Just now, Donut417 said:

Some people refuse to give it up. Old people mostly. At my home we dont do cable. We have OTA TV + streaming. But in a world of data caps, for some cable makes sense. Mediacom much like Comcast has data caps. 

I'd rather get an internet based cable but yeah I get that, Bell Canada offers one on their fibe that uses internet bandwidth instead of the usual Coax/Dish service they offer otherwise. 

[Donut417]

2 minutes ago, Chronified said:

uses internet bandwidth instead of the usual Coax/Dish service they offer otherwise. 

Comcast does this, but not all channels. I guess some Comcast channels are IP only, so you only get them on their streaming solution. The issue is Comcast charges a ridiculous amount for cable TV. Also, Comcast zero rates this service, but AT&T got in trouble for Zero rating HBO Max on AT&T's wireless services, because California has its own Net Neutrality law, so its kinda a slippery slope. 

[Chronified]

3 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Comcast does this, but not all channels. I guess some Comcast channels are IP only, so you only get them on their streaming solution. The issue is Comcast charges a ridiculous amount for cable TV. Also, Comcast zero rates this service, but AT&T got in trouble for Zero rating HBO Max on AT&T's wireless services, because California has its own Net Neutrality law, so its kinda a slippery slope. 

Is GoogleTV available nation wide yet??? It was initially only available to Google Fibe users but I heard they opened it up to other ISPs given your speed at home can support it. I'm Canadian so I have 0 way of confirming it lol

https://fiber.google.com/tv/

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Chronified said:

Is GoogleTV available nation wide yet??? It was initially only available to Google Fibe users but I heard they opened it up to other ISPs given your speed at home can support it. I'm Canadian so I have 0 way of confirming it lol

https://fiber.google.com/tv/

YoutubeTV is. But keep in mind Google fiber is far and few between. Even then all streaming services count against data caps. Thats the whole reason for data caps so users stay with cable. 

[Chronified]

Just now, Donut417 said:

YoutubeTV is. But keep in mind Google fiber is far and few between. Even then all streaming services count against data caps. Thats the whole reason for data caps so users stay with cable. 

Lame, I'm lucky enough to have Gigabit Fibe with a 2TB cap per month, which just drops to 150-250Mbps. I've only hit it once after sending a drive to be recovered and pulling the contents back off the cloud. Wish you guys luck down there.

[Donut417]

Just now, Chronified said:

hich just drops to 150-250Mbps.

I have 200/10 coax service. When we go over 1.2TB we get charged $10 for every 50 gigs we go over, up to $200 in overage fees. OR we can pay $30 extra a month for unlimited if we own our own modem, or $25 a month if we rent their shit box. I know Mediacom has its caps increase as your service increases but Im not sure what overage charges are for them. Cox has data caps as well. AT&T used to have data caps but their service is so shit I think they dropped them. WOW might be implementing data caps, at least from what people in Chicago have posted. 

[Chronified]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

I have 200/10 coax service. When we go over 1.2TB we get charged $10 for every 50 gigs we go over, up to $200 in overage fees. OR we can pay $30 extra a month for unlimited if we own our own modem, or $25 a month if we rent their shit box. I know Mediacom has its caps increase as your service increases but Im not sure what overage charges are for them. Cox has data caps as well. AT&T used to have data caps but their service is so shit I think they dropped them. WOW might be implementing data caps, at least from what people in Chicago have posted. 

Oh it was $20/month extra for me to get that 2TB "unlimited", caps are 250GB/mo here iirc but if you go over your cap more than twice they incessantly call you to offer you the unlimited upgrade . Nice that they automatically call and offer it, not nice when they forget to take you off the list and you get called every day, 3x a day, for 3 months

[Necrovarius]

I know of one splitter in my basement. I can remove that, i have a tech coming out on the 7th (I have to wait 5 days to get this fixed) and I will have him run a new line for me. Cause, what am I paying them for?

[Donut417]

6 minutes ago, Necrovarius said:

I know of one splitter in my basement. I can remove that, i have a tech coming out on the 7th (I have to wait 5 days to get this fixed) and I will have him run a new line for me. Cause, what am I paying them for?

Well if its a signal issue a new cable can help, if the old one is damaged. I know Mediacom has been having network congestion issues as there is a whole thread over on DSLreports.com talking about them bitching at customers for uploading too much data, even though customers are well within their data cap limits. 

 

If you can log in to your modem, you can check both the signals and logs to see if you can find an issue. https://www.dslreports.com/faq/16085 I know the page says Comcast, but Docsis service works the same on all providers networks. If you compare your signals to that info, it can give you an idea. 

[Necrovarius]

Solved:

Two Techs had to come out on two separate days. It was a transmission problem on the line. As of now they replaced my Docsis 3.1 with the newer model, and removed a splitter off my line. the tech was super cool and turns out we went to the same tech college in the same program. He said as of now from the pole, I am in sync, and I should have no more problems. If I do, at that point he will be replacing my line and all the way up to the node.