Dodgy STB?
 

Quick question, sometimes when I'm on the Internet happily surfing away my connection will go dead.:( When I check the STB its crashed. Been happening a couple of times a week. Is this an indication the STB is on the way out? Over a year old this one. Or is there something making it crash that comes from my PC??

Martin

i sort of happens to me.
i use the bb, then i might use interactive. i will then lose the schedual data, and a few minutes the box reboots itself.
so today i phone cs, they sent signals to my box. and about 1 hour later the box rebooted!
martin, do you have a di4000 box (all buttons on right hand side of the display panel)? i do, and i believe there is a problem with the 4000 boxes and the cr3 software.
i asked the cs lady about it and she said it has nothing to do with it, but i am sure it does.
i'm going to call cs in a minute and see what they say. maybe a new box?

Hi bigitup_j,
I have a Ditv 1000. Mine just completly locks up.:( Never touch Interactive thats a definate crash.;) Its only started doing it last few weeks. A new boxs sounds good.:)

yeap, i think you might need a new box. broadband should not have that kind of affect on the box, so the box is broken.

i called cs a second time, and i am getting an engineer sent round in two weeks. maybe a new box?

New box doesn't fix the issue I'm affarid. I've been having this since day 1 with broadband (about a year or so ago). CS were utterly useless and said it was the software I was running (compelte nonsense) - but recently with the storms some areas had problems with ground dissipation from lightning. basically it fritzed my box, and they had to install a replacement (DITV 1000). An hour after the bloke left I had my first STB crash.

I think the service being provided is attrocious - I'm *trying* to run a basic webserver from home but when the connection keeps dropping it's kind of useless.

Seriously considering switching providers, even if they are more expensive - I'd ratehr pay and know I'm going to get a good service - with a decent upstream at that.

:mad:

If it only started hapening a few weeks ago it does look like the box is worn out....if you have added some thing to your comp in that time try not running it for a few days and see if that makes any difference

The DiTV 1000 boxes are pants... when they come out to replace it ask for a DiTV 2000 box... NTLs policy is to normally replace like with like, the 2000 is MUCH better..

Only thing you will have to do is disconnect the crossover adapter on the cable to the PC as the 2000 doesnt use one.

If you have problems with your connection itsa more likely to be the Green BOX on the Street than your STB.

Especially if it is intermitant, Martin you live in the same NTL area as me where the cabinets are not ventalated.

Therefore taking into account the weather the analog amps for the datastreams drift which causes a change in return power and SNR .

This brings more noise on to the signal and it disconnects.

THE STB range the paths to deliver you the service but change the resistance with heat or cold and it all falls over.

NTL would prefer to send out techs to peoples homes to then call other network techs out than sort the problem with putting adequate ventalation in the cabinets.

The amplifiers where designed to be on poles as in the usa so they have adequate ventalation.

I have been experiencing similar problems as described in this thread.

I have had 2 tech's visit to try and sot out my connection, 95% of the tome I maintain a continuous link, but then for no apparent reason my connection drops!

The first tech that visited plugged in a different attenuator to the back of the box, as he diagnosed a problem with noise on the return path. This fix appeared to solve the problem for a month or so, but lately I am getting the recurring disconnection.

It has got me thinking about changing suppliers, because i do not feel I am being supplied with the service I pay for!

:td::td:

th'engineer who do you use for your connection, Cable or ADSL??

Heaven help us, you had to ask didn't you ...

;)

Yeah!

Thanks for that Eng:)

Might be worth me keeping an eye on the SNR then.:) Just looked now and its 30.5db whats the average for this?? Am I right in thinking I will have probs if this goes up and down?

Mine does this every so often - about once every couple of weeks or so. Unplugging the STB for 30 seconds resets it, and the router picks up the connection again without needing to be rebooted. Happened about 1am last night - which was annoying as I had some files uploading at the time, and so the upload hadn't finished by the morning :(

ntl:disturbd:

Its usually round 30 retrurn path under 55

With all due respect th'engineer, are the 2000 boxes more fault tolerant then? I ask as I went through 5 DiTV 1000 boxes in a 3 week period, and then switched to a 2000 series box which worked for well over 12 months. During this time no engineer visited the Green cab...

I have been told by multiple sources that the DiTV 1000 boxes can become unstable and that the 2000 is preferable. This would correspond with my experiences.
Please note I am not saying that a cab fault is unlikely, merely that a STB failure on the 1000 series is more likely. Especially with the failure type mentioned earlier, which is loss of BB and a nonresponsive STB, Signal level faults seldom freeze the STB.

The 2000 is the best, am quite jealous myself most of our family have 2000 STbs, they seem to be better on interactive.

They do not have Broadband on them, so can not comment on Broadband on them but they are supposed to be the best.

Remember there are different 1000 STbs as well 1000 and 1000+.

I have the 1000+ which seems to be very tolerant on BB but not on interactive or TV.

STB troubleshooting is featured on robins site here

so 4000 crap and 1000 crap.
i need 2000 box or i'll hit the engineer. :)

Well its been much cooler in Manchester the last few days and no dropped connections or box crashes. There may be something in th'engineers theory.

i don't think my problem is because of the heat. as it happens when it is cold(er), and the green box on my street only sees sunlight for about 1/2hour in the evening.
interactive makes my 4000 box loose schedual data, can't use interactive or tv on demand or anything.
then the box locks up, when i sometimes use th broadband and it rebooots itself.
now that is not good. it reboots everyday. so i lose my bb for a few minutes (which is very annoying) everyday. :(
well see what the engineer does tomorrow...

The 1000+ works well most of the time for broadband, hope you are not wanting perfection from NTL

well i can't see that it that hard to have schedual data always available. as i lose it everyday (the data, not mind).
i hope they can do something

engineer visit today. and changed the connector at the back of the box from a 10dB to a 6dB. the 10dB was weakening the signal to the box. and now i can surf the interactive for ages and the data is still there and everything works. (which helps!)
so anyone with the same problem should call ntl (it's not that painful) and an engineer should replace the connector.
by connector i mean the socket were the coax lead goes into before being connected to the set top box. like this:
------- >>>>>>>>[
coax Connector digi box

:)

If you read the previous posts, this probably will work until the weather changes again. The "connector" he replaced is an attenuator and it is there to filter out the noise from the signal.

The tradeoff from this is that it also filters out some of the signal.

i see now.

but it was too good to be true. and now it has stopped working again. looks like ntl will be getting a call from me again! :(

Yes its a cabinet problem from my experience over heating cab again, dodgy analog amps that over heat .

It makes you realise what a bunch of T**** work on the service side if they can not sort a simple amplifier problem out .

The Techs treated the symptom not the fault what a T*** how many truck rolls does it need to get a problem fixed.

Bigitup_j I've just sent you a PM with advice on who to contact in NTL about this.....

My Stb someitmes faisl in hot weather although it seems to do it most of the time the connection just drops on my pc for no reason then sometimes it comes back within a few minutes, otehrtimes i have to restart my pc - i dont alwyuas check the stb but that is usually fine - it has crashed a few times but not that often!

In fact if anyone else has problems with their STB, PM me and I'll give you the email address of a manager at NTL who will help :)

ok - ill Pm u!

cheers Russ D

Not really, attenuation in the freq actually used by the services is very controlled with all other freq getting negligable attenuation.
They do not filter out noise afaik they are there to control slope/tilt, simulate extra cable length to balance signal and lower signal by a set db. Somewhere if you search for attenuator you'll come across a full post on dot com explaining this in full.


[edit]look at the last post in this thread :)

I'm not sure if my problem is the same but it's certainly similar - though I wasn't blaming the STB.

Anyway, I came here to post a query and found this thread so, rather than start a new one, I'll just tack it on here.

I have experienced a dropped connection, several times a day, from day 1 of connection (actually, I can't really remember day 1 as I was too excited :D , but it was definitely around then).

I live in the POOLE (Dorset) area and have a 2000 STB (unattenuated, I believe) with a USB connection. AFAIAA the TV reception is unaffected. Noone uses interactive, so I don't know about that

The connection is reestablished by un/replugging the USB or rebooting the PC. Hence I figured it was either the PC, the USB driver, or the server - but not the box.

I have never noticed the connection re-establishing itself without intervention.

I have a packet sniffer but, as the disconnects are random, I have not yet managed to capture the connections dying words.

However once the connection is lost the PC sends a poll, once a second, as follows:

Source MAC : 00:00:00:00:00:00
Dest MAC : FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (Broadcast)
Protocol : 0x0806 (ARP)
ARP Header
H/W Type : 0x001 (Ethernet)
Protocol Type : 0x0800 (IP)
Operation : 1 (Request)
Source Address : MY IP ADDR
Dest Address : 60.5.234.1 (NTL public pool 2)

I am not sure if this is significant, although it is interesting that my IP address is retained.

I wondered whether the server is sending some kind of handshake to me to which the reply is blocked by my firewall, so it eventually times out and kicks me off.

My questions for you knowledgable guys, therefore, are:

1. Is the handshake/no response theory a possibility?
2. Any ideas as to what is happening (or not) with the ARP poll?
3. Do you still reckon it could be the STB?
4. If so, can it be fixed or is it just another little pile of dog do on the path of life?

Thanks very much.

Dest Address in previous post should, of course, read 80.5.234.1 not 60.5.234.1.