T3 and T4 Timeouts from an ex-field technician
Starting in September of 2013, I noticed my connection becoming intermittent at best. Voice conferencing and gaming would literally go from 23 ms to over 10k ms and then obviously I would disconnect from the server. About a week after this first started happening, it started to randomly disconnect while I was simply browsing the internet. I found the modem was cycling itself. At the time I had an extremely old but trusty Motorola Surfboard SB5100. Despite having this modem throughout the DOCSIS 3.0 updates, and despite it having worked fine through it all hither to the point in time, I figured it may be the modem (after a 12 year run, I wasn't complaining...) I accessed the modem diagnostic page at 192.168.100.1 and saw that in the logs there were massive amounts of T3 timeouts. Being an ex-field technician for Cox, I knew this could have gone one of two ways. It was either the modem or it was something in the node (most likely an amplifier in the trunk line) that was to blame. I called Cox for the heck of it just to see if they could see anything on their end, and as usual, no. Everything on their end was fine, but again, having been a field tech for 5 years, I know that phone based customer service is very limited, they're not at the house, they don't have a meter and they're sure as heck not taking level readings. Ok, fair enough. I purchased a Motorola Surfboard SB6141 to replace the 5100 and finally upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0. I called them, had the modem provisioned, went to the diagnostics page, was "wowed" by 8 downstream and 4 upstream channels, wondering why I had not upgraded the modem sooner, but alas, not 2 hours after provisioning, there was a T3 timeout. Now I know it's not the modem, time to get on the phone and make things happen. I called, they said they would send a tech out. The tech (CONTRACTOR) came out and I explained the whole situation to him. I showed him the modem diagnostics, I explained what I knew about everything, and he agreed with me. He did NOT check levels, he did NOT check the tap at the pole (I have a 340 foot drop from the pole to the house, it's RG-11. A new install was done less than a year ago, including the drop and inside lines, and I told him this, so he probably "assumed" things were good up there...). He scheduled a 5C, which is the "internal" code name for "get a maintenance (plant) technician out to the pole to see what's up". I got a call from my old lead technician about a week later. He told me that the maintenance tech found water in the drop and cut it back to where the "stinger" (copper in the connector) wasn't black from water damage, and that another tech would be out in the next day or two in order to run a new drop. Two days later ANOTHER CONTRACTOR comes to the house to run the new drop. I saw his spool of RG-11 and I knew he didn't have enough left to get from the pole to the house. He removed the drop at the sub pole, and due to not wanting to bother him, I came back inside. 20 minutes later I went back out and he was gone. He never replaced the drop. He probably figured he didn't have enough cable to do it after removing the drop at the sub pole, rehung it, and left. This pissed me off. In the meantime I contacted my old lead and asked him what the deal was, explaining that not only were these T3's still happening, but they were getting worse, and they were leading into T4's. He scheduled for the drop to be re-run AGAIN the next week and made sure it would be an in house guy arriving, NOT a contractor. Sure enough, another lead technician and a field tech came to the house and ran a new drop. They didn't have enough RG-11 so they ran half RG-11, then installed a ground block at the sub pole and ran RG-6 the rest of the way. He said he would be back (this was a month ago and it still hasn't happened) to replace the RG-6 half of the drop with RG-11. He gave me his cell number to contact directly if this kept going on. It kept going on. The T3's were getting worse. I asked him on the phone to set up a 5C, he said he would but this was a week and a half after he replaced the drop and hadn't been out to finish the RG-11, so my faith in relying on him was null. I therefore called customer service. I explained that, despite having JUST bought a new modem, FIOS was a phone call away if this wasn't resolved. Per usual, they went RIGHT back to square one and wanted to send out a tech. I told them to stop reading the script from their screen and focus on their keyboard in order to LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND exactly what I had JUST explained to them. For over a month I was implying that this was a plant issue, no one wanted to listen. The phone techs didn't want to listen, the lead techs did not want to listen, the lead techs kept coming back with 50 other excuses as to what could be causing it. I questioned them as to why they would do this when they knew I used to be a tech and I wasn't an idiot. The final call was made to customer service. Again, they said they had to send a tech out, despite two months of this **, in order to get a 5C scheduled. Ok, last time I am playing this game. The tech came out and I caught him on my way home from work. He was an in house guy and I caught him as he was at the pole taking levels. He told me that every port from the tap was bonkers, he replaced the tap and the levels were STILL bonkers, and that he did not understand how two lead techs and four field techs didn't realize this was a plant issue from day one. I concurred. He took down every piece of information I gave him about the new drop, the new modem, signal levels at the modem, etc, etc, and made a detailed log for the maintenance techs who came out. He also told me that there are only SIX HOUSES ON MY NODE, LITERALLY. This means that the trunk line feeding my house only feeds a total of 6 houses. Do you know how easy that is for plant (maintenance) to troubleshoot? There is one amplifier that is literally humping my tap, if here's an inch of trunk line from the amplifier into the tap then it's a lot. I suspected that amplifier from the get go, but even if it wasn't, there would only be at most ONE MORE amplifier in that node, so yeah, one amp checked out good, guess which one's bad? Real easy stuff here people, real easy. So, the tech scheduled the 5C (the second one that had to happen in this whole fiasco), and the maintenance tech came out. I don't know if it was the same or a different one, but this time around (after TWO MONTHS OF THIS **) the problem was resolved. It has been two weeks and I have not seen a single T3 or T4 in my log. I see where it lost connection due to the maintenance guy doing what he had to do and of course the service gets interrupted during this, but honestly, after the modem cycle, there is not ONE added entry to the log, nothing; whereas every other "visit" would result in a T3 less than 10 minutes later. These T3 (and later T4's due to the issue getting progressively worse) were happening every ten to twenty minutes on some days, other days every hour or so. I use VOIP for telephone. Imagine not having 911 access for the whole day because your ISP can't get it's act together. I held out having FIOS reinstalled (it was installed here when it first came out) because I honestly can't stand those hacks. Having said that, had that last tech not been so thorough, had the second maintenance tech not done his job and resolved the issue, Verizon was seriously the next phone call. I didn't go into a whole lot of detail about levels and diagnostics here because I did enough of that with customer service and all the techs that visited. I wanted to make a point here to Cox. Not all customers are complete idiots. Not all customers have zero clue about how information travels from their house to the MTC. Maybe instead of treating everyone equally as morons, you should start treating them all equally as intelligent folk. Imagine how many folks out there were never field techs, imagine how many would have switched back to Verizon within the first week, let alone sticking it out for two months. I was a field tech, I have working knowledge of the system, I was treated like a complete idiot, how do you think that makes me feel? It actually makes me feel pretty damned good right about now knowing I was right the whole damned time about the issue being a plant related occurrence, but I can tell you right now when these people tell you over the phone and face to face that you're "wrong", and that they need to go through steps that, again as an ex-tech, you KNOW they don't need to go through, all the while the internet that we pay for monthly and (in some cases) our phone service (through another provider in my instance) has fallen to complete useless garbage, labeling it as "infuriating" somehow undermines the true nature of it. I know that not every single problem faced is one of a plant issue, this is obvious. Red flags should be raised, however, after every single other step has been taken and fails, instead of attempting to loop the same damned process all over again; that is simply ridiculous. What is also ridiculous is the fact that contractors are being sent in place of in house technicians and basically this leads to repeat trouble calls. This is something that is completely unacceptable, especially when one has to take time out of their day (or out of work) every time a call has to be rescheduled. I know not every contractor is a bad contractor, but out of the entire bunch, I can name 3 that I would have work at my house, that's about it. To make it relative to the in house technicians, I can list about 20 off the top of my head that I would let work at my house from start to finish with a cable job any day of the year. I hope this type of issue, or at least the steps to the resolution of this type of problem does not happen again. I will definitely be more prone to calling Verizon early on if an issue is not resolved in a suitable amount of time, not TWO MONTHS AFTER.46KViews4likes2Commentsupload packet loss 15-25% please help.
Ok so, i upgraded my services several months ago from preferred to premier. Upgrading to this tier requires a docsis 3 modem as you all know. First day i upgraded my speeds changed from 27/8 to 33/10 average. I was very disappointed. after 2 techs an several hours of phone calls i finally got in touch with someone to fix the issue. it was the "coding" i believe it was worded. Basically they hooked up my modem but didnt adjust the speed form the com center. Bam, i was getting great speed now. One problem, major packet loss. I figured it wasnt that big of an issues as i was getting better upload speeds than before and just wrote it off. Well after comparing voip and video to my parents 25/5 connection with no packet loss, its was a problem. I am a gamer and we spend a considerable amount of time using programs like skype to connect with my family across the US as well as my wife using for conference calls to conduct business. I spent over a decade dealing with internet issues as a teenager living at my parents an was the one who would call and have techs come out. I've never seen this much packet loss and after comparing i got on the phone and started trouble shooting with techs. i have had 3 techs come out for this issue. Things that have been done are running a new line that feeds into the house, one tech added an amp because my signals down where in the -8 and greater range causing some disconnect issues, the last tech to come out got me off the amp stating i didnt need it an that it could be causing the upload packet problem and he also changed splitters and fittings. No luck still. i have seen several of these issues resolved from different things, but all seem to be a long road and a headache. iam inquiring about eatels fiber optics as they are becoming available in my area but before i make a switch i want to give this a valiant effort as my wife loves the tv package we have with dvr that is considerably more money with eatel. Is there a expert team, or a set of procedures to fix this issue or am i just spinning my wheels? any one with a docsis 3 with premier or ultimate getting 0 or very little packet loss? any info at this point would be helpful.16KViews0likes13CommentsTrouble with Motorola SB6141 Docsis 3.0 modem and T3 errors.
I upgraded to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem yesterday, and ever since, I've been having internet drops at random times, seemingly starting with T3 errors, looking at the logs, but I'm not sure about that. What happens is suddenly I am unable to access the internet, and similarly unable to access the router configuration or the modem configuration, which makes no sense to me, but, ignoring that, here's a sample of the log: ***Edited to remove logs contain MAC address The T3 happened around the time everything went wonky. Not sure if it's the cause or not. and here's my signal information: and finally, some information from the help page: Model Name: SB6141 Vendor Name: Motorola Firmware Name: SB_KOMODO-1.0.6.12-SCM00-NOSH Boot Version: PSPU-Boot(25CLK) 1.0.12.18m3 Hardware Version: 7.0 In addition, my download speeds seem to be pinned at 32 Mbps max, I should be getting up to 50, and my upload starts out anywhere from 7-12 Mbps, but then quickly drops to 3-4 and stays there.Solved13KViews0likes15CommentsHigh downstream and upstream power levels
I have seen post about high downstream and high upstream power levels but not at the same time. It seems to always be that only one of the levels is high and the other is low. I am having both high at the same time. Here are my normal readings. Downstream is normally around 8 to 9 dBmV Upstream is normally around 53 to 54 dBmV What could case both to be high at the same time? I am asking because I am having problems with online gaming. Server kicks, lag, ect. Thanks12KViews0likes8CommentsUpload speed spotty, huge packet lost.
I've called and complained to customer service, tech 1 and tech 2 already. They diagnosed my router/modem, determined that I am getting really bad/weak signals. They sent out 3 techs, none of them were able to do anything. I'm not the only one in this area with spotty connection, but my WORK is done through streaming online and I can't get anything done in the past 2-3 weeks. The last tech that came was a supervisor and he said he was going to send someone else out here, but I never heard from that again. The phone techs sent tests and out of 50, only one test came back WITHOUT packet lost. Theres an issue here and it needs to be fixed. I'm paying for ultimate. I can't even stream files at 1800 kbs The last supervisor came, checked everything, checked the outside lines and say that it jumps from 0-30 mbs upload. I'm literally staying under 2 mbs. And its not even stable/constant, this needs to be fixed before people switch services. Why am I even paying for ultimate?9.7KViews0likes29Commentsmodem keeps resetting every 5-10 minutes
Not sure whats going on or why it keeps resetting itself. Tried countless solutions online but none seem to work. Im starting to think its a firmware issue but I cant find any way to update it? Can anyone be of assistance. I pay $62.99 a month for internet service & would like to use it. Moving in a month & might have to switch up service which I really dont wanna do.Solved9.3KViews0likes11CommentsInternet connection stopping every few minutes
I've only had Cox for about a year now. But lately, it has been a pain. My modem keeps shutting off and on, and my internet drops constantly. It's frustrating when you are online, and have to start over, and over, and over... I've tried resetting in, closing my internet page, and clicking on it again etc. You all need to fix Cox! How do I fix this constant dropping?7.8KViews0likes10CommentsPacket loss due to upstream channels dropping
I've been getting outages due to the upstream dropping out on my internet connection for more than 6 months now. Downloads, watching streams, podcasts, hearing and seeing people on voice/video calls and are fine if they've already started. Uploads drop, voice/video calls break up for listeners, website requests take forever, games get disconnected. Modem upstream during packet loss: Bottom row with red question marks is packet loss. Other rows are just hops which sometimes don't respond (`mtr one.one.one.one`): I can't even get a screenshot without packet loss over the past few hours. I've rebooted my modem. I have a new cable and connectors from the box outside directly to my modem 2 times over. I've upgraded my modem 2 times and now have one of the best (MG8702) if not the best one supported by Cox. I've had several techs out to troubleshoot the issue. Some of them have replaced the same cable or connector as previous techs have done. One tech actually worked on something up the street, which improved the connection dropping a little. Another of the techs said there wasn't really anything they could do to fix it and that the lines are over-saturated because everyone is working from home now. If this is actually a problem, it sounds like a case to expand infrastructure rather than telling me it's all used up. I've confirmed with the techs that have visited that there's an issue with the upstream signals somewhere between the box at the utility pole and further up the chain. It doesn't seem like this issue will every be fixed. I've burned a lot of my time (days and days), burned money upgrading hardware that was fine, talking with customer support, and waiting for techs. I've been having to use my phone as a mobile hot-spot to ensure a consistent connection for voice and video calls. If this keeps up I think I'm just going to stop wasting money on useless internet and dump Cox and switch to a mobile hot-spot, since I end doing that anyway.Solved7.7KViews0likes31CommentsInternet Keeps dropping out
I have motorola surfboard sbg6580. It seem like my internet and wireless keep coming and going. I had a tech out here, but still does not seem like it has gotten any better. This is from my event log, but I do not know what this mean or if I can fix anything on my side of it. Wed Jul 24 21:05:50 2013 Error (4) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Wed Jul 24 09:06:33 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Wed Jul 24 09:05:56 2013 Warning (5) Dynamic Range Window violation Wed Jul 24 09:05:52 2013 Notice (6) TLV-11 - unrecognized OID;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Wed Jul 24 09:05:51 2013 Error (4) Missing BP Configuration Setting TLV Type: 17.9;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Wed Jul 24 09:05:51 2013 Error (4) Missing BP Configuration Setting TLV Type: 17.8;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Warning (5) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response ;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0; Wed Jul 24 02:16:25 2013 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Tue Jul 23 20:11:47 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Tue Jul 23 09:26:00 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Mon Jul 22 16:39:49 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Mon Jul 22 10:13:23 2013 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Mon Jul 22 00:41:31 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Sat Jul 20 17:11:32 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Sat Jul 20 00:55:05 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Fri Jul 19 11:07:53 2013 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Fri Jul 19 09:14:18 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Fri Jul 19 03:46:07 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Thu Jul 18 11:18:29 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out Wed Jul 17 22:07:57 2013 Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=3c:75:4a:24:eb:d7;CMTS-MAC=70:81:05:2c:fc:8f;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0; Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out6.8KViews0likes4CommentsBrand New Motorola Surfboard SB6141 Behind Netgear WNDR344 In Constant Need of Power Recycle
I was so proud of myself yesterday when my shiny new SB6141 DOCSIS3.0 modem was delivered to me. Had I known then what I know now, having spent most of the hours in between reading forum post after forum post and troubleshooting every which way but loose, I would have asked the kind UPS man to take that box and put it "where the sun don't shine". Mere hours after I installed the thing and verified with a Cox Support Rep via Live Chat, the modem simply started losing its grip on the internet and could only be temporarily revived via cycling the power. That seems to work very well for about 10 minutes at best. Having read so many posts specifically about my particular model of modem in the last 18 hours, I have yet to see a single definitive answer to any of the very commonly worded cries for help on this very same user experience. I've seen every suggestion from surge protectors draining/spiking the power levels beyond spec to Netgear routers being overpowered by the sheer gloriousness of the SB6141 modem. There were moderators from Time Warner Cable suggesting that there could be too much noise in the copper and a customer of Comcast's claiming that installing a reverse path gain amplifier did the trick. Most of the posts put the blame on the modem itself, but quite a few pointed the finger at the ISP's area infrastructure and the poor quality of signal flowing down the streets. I live in New Orleans. I don't know if the forum moderators have ever seen the condition of the outdoor cabling and wiring in New Orleans, but I can assure you we are only different from the hillside slums and cardboard shanties of Rio de Janeiro in that we at least manage to have working air conditioners sticking out of every window in our homes. The wiring from the pole to these old historic houses looks like something a child would draw to illustrate a nightmare about the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Back when I actually subscribed to Cox Cable TV, my television had a pretty constant 90 hertz feedback stripe on it for the whole year and a half that I kept cable. I have to use powerstrips/surge protectors in every room, because there is usually only one outlet remotely close to where power is needed. When I was forced to upgrade my internet service from Premier to Ultimate in December 2013 after receiving notifications about exceeding my data cap, I did so over the phone without any technician being dispatched to my address to inspect my wiring for its suitability to deliver higher speeds. Nothing was said to me about the need to replace my Cisco DOCSIS2.0 modem at the time. So I am quite certain that everything I've read tonight - all of it - is very likely true of my own case. My electricity fluctuates like crazy, my cable line is probably split in 4 different places and respliced in another 16 knowing the quality of New Orleans workmanship. And there is no getting around the fact that I have more things to plug in than holes in which to plug them. So. Here we are. I'm going to provide all of the reports from the monitor that you will undoubtedly need, but short of having Cox restring copper from one end of New Orleans to the other or getting a little more aggressive with their delivery of gigabit service to the area, I'm already doubtful that we are going to be able to resolve my intermittent connection issues without some amount of exasperation. Bon chance, mes amis! Speed Test 5/30 - Before the Issues: Then when the celebrating stopped, and the headache began, here's the result for this morning's Speed Test. Keep in mind that nothing in my configuration, connections, or settings has changed other than the earth's position relative to the sun. I should mention that this loss of internet connection happened back-to-back, again and again for several hours in the late evening, throughout most of the wee hours before dawn. For the last few hours or so, though, it's behaved itself and has not dropped me once. Of course, it started to rain pretty heavily around 2AM, so perhaps we can chalk the improved staying power up to the extra humidity in the air bridging circuits, sort of the opposite of what was done to help inCox_Support_SB6141_Error_Log_05312014. In either case, I sure wouldn't mind getting that speed back! Thank you, and let me know if you need any other information.Solved6.6KViews0likes6Comments