Here we go again, part 3
As I've mentioned in my previous posts, my connection works flawlessly for about 6 weeks before it requires maintenance. For the past few days, upstream packet loss and T3 timeouts have returned. Looks like the cable network needs maintenance again. The items below are a representative sample from the past few days. The T3 timeouts are ongoing as recently as a few minutes ago. As always, downstream is flawless and upstream power levels are fine. The issue is clearly noise ingress on the upstream. Cox could waste money rolling a truck to my house, or they could look at my account and see that the problem has always been in the plant and never with my premises equipment, saving themselves the cost of an unnecessary tech dispatch. I wonder which one they'll do?
| 11/08/2020 17:18 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/08/2020 12:02 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/08/2020 10:04 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/07/2020 18:49 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/07/2020 16:43 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/07/2020 15:00 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/07/2020 11:50 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/06/2020 21:05 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/04/2020 19:01 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/04/2020 16:56 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
| 11/04/2020 12:56 | 82000500 | 3 | "Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=(redacted);CMTS-MAC=(redacted);CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;" |
UPDATE: Tech came out and somehow diagnosed the line from the tap to my house as being bad, even though it was just replaced 7 months ago. He had some unusual theories about what causes lines to go bad, so I didn't push back on this. Needless to say, replacing the line didn't resolve the issue. I don't like making unnecessary changes to something as delicate as the cable network since there's always a risk of making things worse, but it seems like there was no net effect from this cable replacement.
Return visit, the tech identified packet loss at the tap and opened a maintenance ticket. As of this morning, T3 timeouts have stopped and packet loss has been resolved. This process took 2 1/2 days which is about average.
The moral of the story is what I always say. The cable network requires constant maintenance. My connection is stable for now, but I know that won't last for more than a couple of months. I wish Cox would be more proactive about network monitoring and maintenance, but nothing I can do to change that. All I can do is call for a tech each time my connection becomes unstable.
