Cloned Modem?
 

Hi there I wonder if anyone can give me some advice I have been having problems with my cable broadband from Virgin for months I have been with them for years through freeserve etc with not many problems. I signed up for 8mg and it suddenly went down to 1-2mg when I contacted them they told me that I had been given too much discount & they had taken it down as that was all I was paying for. The problems really started when thay pursaded me to upgrade.
We had the TV & telephone as well they Tv we could only get channel 5 so we had it taken out.
The 20mg broadband drops the connection & runs at less then 1mg quite often.
They have changed the cable to the house and we have lots of engineers have told us it is the network the cable etc etc etc.They have confirmed an intermittent fault.
The shock was when Customer Care announced that the problems are caused by my modem being cloned TWICE by me or some one in the house.
I have no idea why anyone would do this much less how.
My husband can only just work the kettle and bearing in mind we are both nearly sixty it has come as a terrible shock to us to be accused of such a thing can anyone advise how I can look into this or how to find out about it.
The broadband is still not working properly and they have said they will only change the Modem for the last time & if there is still a problem it is down to my cloning activities!!!
Can anyone help I don't know what to do and it is constantly worrying me.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Can you clarify if you have Virgin Cable Broadband or Virgin broadband through a BT telephone line?

I ask as you said above 8meg which is through a BT line then also said 20 meg which is Cable broadband

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Drop the modem in a bucket of water (or just disconnect it). Ring Virgin and tell them you want a new modem as the old one is faulty.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Hi thanks for the rely
.
I have the broadband through a cable I have had three new modems the engineers have put in after the last change of modem the speed was even slower & it disconnected if I stayed on a web page longer than a few seconds.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

What is the make and model of the modem, should tell you on it.
If it's cable, open your browser type in 192.168.100.1 (if ex-ntl type root for username and password) and if you can post the info from the signal pages that would help. Things like power levels, snr, frequency etc.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Well first of all dont worry about it.

Your modem may well have been cloned but certainly not by anyone in your house. That would as far as I know defeat the object.. (Brighter members may correct me as I dont know much about the subject, but I thought cloned modems were typically on a different UBR and that is what allowed them to work?)

I cant see how Customer Care would have that information either, its not something normally included on customer account memos etc.

I'm staff and I would offer to help but this isnt something I have the knowledge to help with.

Mods?

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

A cloned modem would knock the original offline every time it came online. Shouldn't affect download performance though.

Cloned modems done by someone in the same house have only one purpose which I won't go into.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Is this the thing you mean?
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 3
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 13.3 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 42.7 dB
Sorry to be so dim none of it means anything to me there are some events logs I have copied and pasted is this anything to do with it?
Wed Aug 27 17:19:16 2008 Wed Aug 27 17:19:16 2008 Warning (5) DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response
Tue Aug 19 07:38:53 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:38:53 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Tue Aug 19 07:37:10 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:37:10 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Aug 19 07:36:18 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:36:18 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Tue Aug 19 07:24:42 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:24:42 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Aug 19 07:21:59 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:21:59 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Tue Aug 19 07:05:25 2008 Tue Aug 19 07:05:25 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Aug 19 06:49:59 2008 Tue Aug 19 06:49:59 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Tue Aug 19 06:45:39 2008 Tue Aug 19 06:45:39 2008 Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Tue Aug 19 06:41:03 2008 Tue Aug 19 06:41:03 2008 Information (7) New UCD in effect
Thank you all so much I hate being in this position.

---------- Post added at 22:35 ---------- Previous post was at 22:33 ----------

Sorry the Modem says Ambit on it and EO8C013.00

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Your downstream power is a little on the high side..what about the upstream?

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Is this the right thing?
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 4
Upstream Frequency : 37500000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 51.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2
They did say on time they had turned it upbut the next engineer turned it down I should say that the cable plugs into the computer and we only have one computer in the house no wireless system.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Do any of the lights on the modem go off..


That kinda looks ok to me..
i cant spot anything thats wrong altho the downstream freq is normally 331000000
but i think that can vary on what platform you are on..

do you know if you are in an EX NTL area? Or an Ex Telewest Area...

The main things to look at here is the
upstream freq
downstream freq
upstream power level
and downstream power level
along with Signal to noise (SNR)
they all seem fine

The Receive Power Level is a bit high
normal readings are meant to be between -12 to +12 but can Vary..

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

What's worrying me is that this forum is seeing a marked increase in complaints by Virgin Media customers who have phoned up customer services only to be spun a pile of BS.

It's absolutely shocking that anyone officially representing Virgin Media, should basically accuse you of criminal activity when all you have done is call them to get your faulty broadband service fixed.

We at Cable Forum have a back-channel through which we can reach some fairly senior customer services people at Virgin Media. They have been quite good in the past at picking up issues we flag up with them, and resolving them.

I'd be quite happy to pass your case on to them, however I'll need your real-world name, email address and Virgin Media account number. If you'd like me to take this up for you, please send me those details in a Private Message (don't post them in public in this thread!).

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz is the standard frequency for ntl's Langley platform.

13.3dBmV isn't ideal for downstream power but should be alright.

---------- Post added at 12:47 ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 ----------

Noticed that too, some truly shocking 'tech support' being given out, noting one case where a customer was being told his wireless was at fault when he was using a wired connection, another where support gave completely irrelevant replies. It's not about lack of knowledge it's about just coming up with complete nonsense to get the customer off the phone :(

Re: Cloned Modem?
 

It is because they want call times lower to achieve impossible targets set by management and the client, so the the quicker they can get you off the phone the better the call statistics look.

I think they forget that they are offering a customer based service, that relies on keeping the customer sweet.

Some agents may achieve the targets set, but they are the ones that are spoken about on here and other threads and other forums.

I am not one of these people.;)

Re: Cloned Modem?
 

What is even more shocking is that VM have admitted that a modem can be cloned.

So the next question should be WHAT are they going to do to FIX it so they CANNOT be cloned, Or are more people going to be accused of doing this so VM dont have to fix there customers broadband problems. ???????????????

Re: Cloned Modem?
 

This is what happens when you assess and incentivise staff based on crude measurements like call volume rather than on more challenging, but more rewarding criteria like treating customers fairly.

Re: Cloned Modem??????
 

This is only true if the clone was on the same node. if its on a different node it would not cause this effect.

Impz