NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Hello, in the past week my cable connection has started "dropping".

What happens is, my modem will randomly lose connection, all network traffic will stop(tried pinging ntlworld.ie, tried pinging my NTL gateway) and after 5-15 seconds, it will fix itself.

I posted on ntl.discussion.broadband.cm, and several other people have reported the same problems(one in Swansea, one in Loughborough).

I'm in Dublin on the 3mb, and before anyone says - ntl ireland seems to be still using UK's network.

While I do have a router, I've been using it for 3 and a half years with NTL cable, and I havent changed any settings or upgraded it's firmware recently.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Do the lights on the modem slip off when the connection drops?

Sounds like a possible signal strength/ modem issue. what sort of modem is it?

Have you spoken to ntl about this problem?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

The lights usually dont switch off, but they do on the longer drops.

Modem is the Terayon one, as for NTL, I have plenty of experience with their CS, and as this seems not to be a localised issue, I dont see any point going through the hassle :erm:

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

If you don't contact CS and go through the "hassle" it's unlikely that the problem will get resolved. If it's a signal strength problem then it will require an engineer visit and about 5 mins to fix.
Any chance of you posting your signal levels before, during and after a connection loss?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

People in other parts of the country may well be experiencing similar symptoms to you, however this is certainly a local issue. Either with your modem itself, the signal strength, or the local cabinet- hence it needs to be brought to the attention of ntl.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

How?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

This might help, think it applies to your modem too, if not post back and someone will let you know how to access the information :)

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Err, what might help?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

This, must have been having a moment when I posted it last time lol

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

No that doesnt apply to the Terayon.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Hi Ave,

If you can get me the MAC address of your modem, I will have a quick look at it on the system to see if I can spot anything obvious.

PM me the details please

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

PM sent, just had another 5 minute burst of total non-connectivity.

Trying docsdiag atm, no idea how well it may work.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Hi Ave,

I have just run ping tests to your modem (2 minutes ago), and it all shows it's okay. Response times were excellent for the modem, and your return path transmit levels are 0db, which don't get much better than that.

I'll just re do it and try to look at the history to see if I can narrow it down for you
__________________

Hi Ave,

I have just re-run the tests 5 times in the last few minutes and it's all coming back okay. I am not saying there is not a problem, but it's difficult to diagnose when I can not see the modem myself.

The only thing I can possibly think of off the top of my head is the modem itself is causing you the problem.

I'll keep running the tests to see if it throws anything up in the mean time

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Came online at 02:37 last night.
07:07 > 07:08 < first loss
11:31 > 11:33 < Second loss
12:08 > 12:12 < Third loss

I tried doscdiag, but even knowing my UBR and MAC, it couldnt find my ISP IP.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Ave,

I have continually run ping tests for your modem and they are all coming back with good response times.

The only thing I can see that looks out of the ordinary, is your CM's S/N ratio. It seems to jump from +26-+30. However, I am not sure if this would stop your modem from working/dropping out, but that's the only thing I have seen after 20 ping tests.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

It's fine 99% of the time, it only lost connection 3 times in 10 hours, for about 9minutes total.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Ave,

If you have a digi box, could you get me the Smart card number for that? I can have a look at the serving cab to see if there are any problems coming from that.

Again, if you could pm me the details please

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

I'm afraid it's just Analog TV, the cable modem wire comes from a splitter(the splitter's second connection is to a cablespan 2300 for another TV point and what used to be a second phone line)

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Ave,

For some reason your ping times just went south in a big way:-
10 packets sent: 0% lost; 1290ms / 2091ms / 4163ms (Min/Avg/Max)

I would not like to say 100%, but there does seem to be something going on there.

As I said earlier, without being sat there, or knowing what the network make up is I really wouldn't like to second guess why that dropped away so much

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Is there any diagnostics/tests/checks I can do on my side, when I lose connection?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Ave,

I can not think of anything of the top of my head right now. It might be worth asking for a Network engineer to call out and check the Node alignment and the reverse path set up. Other than that I really can not say I am sorry.

This is the part that frustrates me a little. If I could see your pc/modem I would have a better chance of knowing what to chase down.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Any info I can get you?

The main reason this confuses me is, I've had the same modem, on the same router, with the same settings for over 3 years.

The PC's have changed, but none within the last 3 months.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Ave,

Have you just tried the modem straight to your pc, bypassing your router? or is that not possible?

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Tried, dropped once so far.

And a second time.

And a third time.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

There seems to be a lot of this going on at the moment.:td:

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

I noticed, both here & on the newsgroups.

I also noticed that despite getting engineers out, no-one suffering from this problem has reported it fixed.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

ya, i see it that way allso, allso something going on in the post about network....?????????

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

ok, here we go. What is going on? It was 1825hrs and there i was running norton like a good boy, whan bang :Yikes: lost connection :mad: . Will see how many more times it goes down to night.:rolleyes:

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

It's lovely, 3 months on and I'm still getting this, as are many others.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Hello Ave,

I have been getting exactly the same issues as you for the past 6-8 weeks!

I have done the following (the problem is still not resolved):

Numerous calls to TS
Three engineer visits
Upstream power level upped (was a little low)
New modem (now NTL 250)
Network engineer visit last week

I lose my connection for 2-5 seconds, but never lose the lights on the modem. Just the connection drops, then comes back.

Not exactly sure where i go from this point, but i am still getting connection drops. I do not use a router, and connect via ethernet. I do not have cable TV, just phone and BB.

I use a prog called Netmeter to monitor my upload / download. When i lose the connection, it seems i lose the download side of things completely... I am only uploading. This is the same scenario every time. I have screenshots of this, but don't know how to post them here.


Sherlock

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

You can host them at http://imagehero.us or http://www.imageshack.us

I've gotten a new router and new NIC's, hasnt solved the problem either.

Dont see any point in contacting NTL, when all they'll do is replace the modem.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Thanks for the link :)

This is one of a few screenshots i took when the connection dies.

The mass of yellow is where i was playing Counterstrike. The green denotes upload and red is download (yellow is both upload and download) . As you can see when i lose the connection i am uploading, but not downloading anything at all. This is the same every time i lose the connection.

http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/3...11060wm.th.jpg



Sherlock

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

I'm also having similar problems with my connection on an NTL 250 modem...it's only when I'm surfing the web...email works fine...just can't connect to sites via IE or Opera...a modem restart seems to do the trick??

Divil :)

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

It seems to have gotten worse, had mirc on for 12 hours yesterday, and had 9 disconnects.

Do NTL do tech support via e-mail? I dont fancy spending 2 hours on the phone.

Re: NTL Cable randomly dropping connection
 

Please dont use imageshack they tend to kill the image after so many hits, ntl offer free hosting for images :)

but on topic I have noticed today my traffic halts for about half a minute then just carries on the modem doesnt reset so I think it isnt losing synch. Ftp download dropped to 0kB/sec and ssh sessions stop responding then all of a sudden ftp resumes and all my live apps ssh and irc play catchup and I get a burst of text. Happened at least 3 times today, I have been out for a while so may have happened more.