Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Hello. I am on the 100mb connection (doubled 50mb), an I am having some problems.

Today I decided to buy a game, The Secret World. I went online, checked some websites, and bought a digital download. I then downloaded the game (14gb) with no issues.

But whenever I play, it seems like my connection dies. I can play for about 5-10 minutes, then I lose connection entirely, cannot browse websites or anything.

I have to turn off the superhub, wait a bit, then turn it on. Once it's booted up, the connection seems fine, I can surf and download at full speed. But once I try and play my new game it goes bad again :(

Here are my stats from the last time the connection went down. Everything looks normal to me, but I couldn't use the internet at all.

Date Time Error Number Error Description
03/08/2012 15:16:39 2436694078 TOD established
03/08/2012 15:16:39 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response ;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2012 15:16:16 2436694074 CMTS DCC 323000000 MHz
03/08/2012 14:01:39 68000600 TFTP failed - configuration file NOT FOUND;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
29/07/2012 23:03:00 2436694074 CMTS DCC 283000000 MHz
29/07/2012 13:33:10 84000400 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to receive MAC SYNC frame within time-out period;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
28/07/2012 06:34:11 82000500 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established Time Not Established 68000200 DHCP FAILED - Request sent, No response;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established Time Not Established 68000100 DHCP FAILED - Discover sent, no offer received;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;
Time Not Established Time Not Established 68000300 DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response ;CM-MAC=2c:b0:5d:06:5a:bc;CMTS-MAC=00:30:b8:d1:52:50;CM-QOS=1.0;CM-VER=3.0;

odem Initialisation Stage Status
Downstream Acquisition Locked
Primary Frequency 323000000 Hz
DHCP Complete
TFTP Complete
Time Of Day 17:16:36
Security Enabled
Counters T1,T2,T3,T4,Sync,Resets 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Internet Connection IP Address Status
WAN IP Address 86.27.55.147
Lease Time Remaining 5 days 19:47:09
Expiry Thu 09 Aug 13:03
Current Network Time Fri 03 Aug 17:16
Downstream Channels Lock Status Channel ID Frequency Modulation Rx Power SNR Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors
Locked 96 323000000 Hz QAM256 7.3 dBmV 42.8 dB 328 145
Locked 91 283000000 Hz QAM256 6.8 dBmV 43.9 dB 100 0
Locked 92 291000000 Hz QAM256 5.7 dBmV 43.3 dB 99 0
Locked 93 299000000 Hz QAM256 4.8 dBmV 43.0 dB 119 9
Locked 94 307000000 Hz QAM256 4.8 dBmV 43.2 dB 123 13
Locked 95 315000000 Hz QAM256 6.5 dBmV 42.5 dB 74 13
Unlocked Unknown 0 Hz Unknown 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB Unknown Unknown
Unlocked Unknown 0 Hz Unknown 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB Unknown Unknown
Upstream Channels Lock Status Channel ID Frequency Modulation Tx Power Mode Channel Bandwidth Symbol Rate
Locked 1 45800000 Hz ATDMA 36.0 dBmV 16QAM 6400000 20480 Kbits/sec
Unlocked 0 0 Hz Unknown 0.0 dBmV Unknown Unknown 0 Kbits/sec
Unlocked 0 0 Hz Unknown 0.0 dBmV Unknown Unknown 0 Kbits/sec
Unlocked 0 0 Hz Unknown 0.0 dBmV Unknown Unknown 0 Kbits/sec

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Something dodgy is going on with the connection to the CMTS. I cant say whether it is the shubs fault or a network issue because the config file it is trying to download through tfpf doesnt hit the internet, it is off a seperate maintenance network. Your power levels are fine. I would give tech support a ring and tell them you want a new modem sending out and if that doesnt work then you want an engineer round.

Btw, you need to be careful downloading games and stuff during the day, there is a 20gb limit between 10-1600 and 10gb limit between 1600-2100 and if you go over that your ass gets stm'd which wont help your gaming.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

If he hits STM his speed would be reduced to 50% ?

This would be 50mb if on 100mb, I am pretty sure 50mb is fine for gaming ;-)

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Ok cheers for the info. I have tried again, and this time I played for about an hour before stopping, no problems at all with my connection. Maybe it was a one-off issue, I'll leave it for now and try a new modem if it happens again.

Also thanks for the info about the limits. I think it's very bad that Virgin managed to change the terms of their packages and not notify anyone. I probably would have stayed with them, but I've been through this before with another company and it was a real hassle.

I only decided to get TSW because there is about a month before Guild Wars 2, then another month before Borderlands 2, and another month before Assassins Creed 3. Lots of wait time between my preorders :)

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

I know but I wanted to mention it because someone else mentioned a couple of days ago that as soon as they were stm'd they couldn't get more than 1mbit

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Perhaps they were confusing STM with P2P shaping? (I don't recall the thread/post).

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

The downstream levels are a little high and the upstream is to low at 36dBmv this need sorting. Some pre+Post errors as well. The Upstream SNR is low as well you a Service visit to determine the installation is good and if is ok the referring to networks to check out forward and return levels

I can see that you Download and upload alot everyday

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Power levels are fine the pre and post RS errors are a bug in the firmware and cannot be relied on

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Well the downstream levels are a little high and the upstream is to low so needs attention

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

no they are not, anything below 7 is good for downstream and anything above 33 is good for upstream. I would only be worried about the upstream power if he lived a million miles away from the cab.

If you want to settle the arguement (op) buy one of these and we'll see if it makes any difference:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/forward-pa...item2a2061a632

edit: I have just remembered that the shub can only tollerate something like a total of 33db across all the channels it is using otherwise it dies. While each channel is within spec cumulatively they are too high so I defo recommend buying that attentuator to see if it helps. Apologies to sollp, you was right in a round about way.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Someone on 100mb got throttled to 1mb ?

Can you point me in the direction of the post please ?

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

absolutely, hang on a sec

Edit: I stand corrected, it 1.1mb/sec = ~10mbits

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33689013-stm.html

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

And I thought you were a scientist? ;)

1.1MB/s is approx 10Mb/s

Less usefully of course:

1.1mB/s is approx 10mb/s

But I hope you didn't really mean 'milli'...

Always check your units...

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Point of clarification - that was on Steam.

I have never had full speed on Steam, whilst half an hour later I have had full speed downloading stuff from work servers.

As I am sure you know, only getting 1.1MB/s Steam doesn't mean you only have 10Mb/s download speed restriction.

You actually stated in the following post

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

you arent related to carlwaring are you? :)

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

General M, I think you are being a bit disingenuous with your post reference STM, you implied that the STM reduced the speed to 1mb, if I am reading the thread you linked to correctly, steam never maxes the connection anyway, so it's possible that steam was using the maximum it could of the 50mb available, which at that time (probably because of everyone else using steams servers) was only 1mb.

The OP didn't put up a speedtest unfortunately but quoted the download speed from Steam itself so I guess we will never know.

It's always a good idea to remember that VM are only one side of any download and there are reasons why the supplier of the data may limit the rate at which you can download data from them ;-)

My point - slow downloads are not always the fault of the broadband provider (whether its VM, BT or anyone else)

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

That type of attenuator will only reduce to forward levels and not the reverse levels, so it will need putting on a higher tap port in the cab,(if available) this will attenuate the forward and reverse levels.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

As we are being anal lets get it right. I didn't imply any such thing and instead recommended edging on the side of caution and avoiding being stm'd as another user which I referenced mentioned only being able to achieve 1mb/sec once he had been stm'd


really? If you was reading the thread correctly you would have noticed I said pretty much the same thing


exactly, so I went on the information I had at the time and gave sound advice to the op on how best to improve his gaming performance.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

Nothing anal about, i think your posts are misleading, others may not, i called you out for it, you have taken exception to it.

The end.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

I'm getting something similar to this on Star wars the old republic- the game around 9pm seems to knock over my modem and it resets - then does this again and again every 5 minutes or so. It's only been happening recently since the last game patch but I'm trying to work out if it's the mmo or my modem at fault. (On 20 megs ntl cable modem- not the superhub)

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

I usually get my full 50meg on Steam.

Usually use the Manchester server, but if thats ever slow I change it to the Netherlands.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

It does when you're on BT.

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

You missed 'if am reading the thread correctly' and was quoting from this thread :

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33689013-stm.html

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming
 

You missed "you are not reading that thread correctly, or this one for that matter".

Re: Constant Drops While Gaming