Slow broadband since updating modem

[Jonessie]

Hello people,

I don’t want to win another award for moaning so I have adopted the politically correctness approach instead. I recently had to update my modem because the modem I have had for 8 years is out of date and instead of flashing the modem with a new update they decided to update my modem...?
And since then it’s got worse... when I called FMC to get the old MAC Addy taken off and the new one assigned to the network, the guy who dealt with me was. I can only explain as... “A total retard” I know it sounds a little harsh and apologise for saying this but he did not have a clue what he was doing. I had to basically talk the guy through it because he did not know what he was doing, and kep putting me on hold without asking me, which is annoying to say the least. I did explain to the guy I was speaking to, make sure I am put on the correct UBR because if you don’t my connection is going to be terrible. I cannot remember which one I’m on Newport East of Newport West, I explained this to the guy I was speaking to and he said...

“It does not make a difference to which UBR is goes on...” I am 99.9% sure this is incorrect, because my brother had the same experience, where they put him on the incorrect UBR and his connection was dreadful. He managed to speak to somebody who knew what they where doing and they said your connection will be really slow on this UBR. He switched him over and his connection was awesome.

Now I cannot remember if this is still the same, Newport is split into two sections Newport East and Newport West. If I live in the West of Newport and I’m put on Newport East the connection will be affected. I used to have a link where you could find out which UBR your currently on.

Another thing I noticed is the QAM is set to 256, if memory serves me correctly this should be on 64 not 256...? I know I am on Cardiff Cam and can see this but the speed of the connection and the connection itself is decreased since updating the modem.

Thanks in advance

I think it goes by Post Code... East is NP10 and West is NP20 I'm not sure...?

[virginmedia]

What modem did you get?

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Jonessie

I did explain to the guy I was speaking to, make sure I am put on the correct UBR

I have heard (correct me if I'm wrong) that your presence or not on a specific UBR is a physical thing that can only be changed by a resegmentation.

Now what is a resegmentation? I have an idea that someone shuffles a load of PCB's about with regard to their respective sockets in order to better balance the load on the UBR.

Perhaps someone who actually knows would step us through the procedure.

Originally Posted by Jonessie

Another thing I noticed is the QAM is set to 256, if memory serves me correctly this should be on 64 not 256...?

Some UBR's have been upgraded to QAM256 to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure while others remain on QAM64. Should be transparent to the end user.

[Jonessie]

Originally Posted by virginmedia

What modem did you get?

May I apologies for the delay in answering, it's the Ambit U10C018 Data Cable Modem, prom experience, this should be on QAM 64 not QAM 256, I can recall when there were modems on QAM 256 years ago and it caused a major problem with browsing, the connection does work but not to the full potential. If my memory serves me correctly, it was with a new batch of Motorola SB 4100 which were configured to QAM 256. we had complaints from all customers who where configured to 246...

Also, I have recently discovered, my UBR is Newport West, the guy at FMC said it does not matter, unless things have changed in the last couple of years, it has always been down to the nearest UBR to your location, I'm in Newport West therefore I should be on Newport West not East. This would have an affect on my connection. My connection since being upgraded to this tiny modem, has decreased and browsing is so slow. I wanted to flash my own cable modem to update DOCSIS but they would not let me, even though I know how to perform a Flash upgrade to a cable modem.

Newport is split into two sections East and West, if you live in the West of Newport putting a MAC Addy on Newport East will affect the performance of the connection, this is not rocket science, it is plane and simple, even a graduate cable engineer can work this out.

Downstream
Frequency Range 88MHz ~ 860MHZ
Modulation 64 / 256 QAM
Maximum Data Rate* 30Mbits/sec (64QAM)
42.8Mbits/sec (256QAM)
Symbol Rate 5.057/5.361/Msymbols/sec
RF Input/Output Power -17 to +15dBmV (64 QAM),
-15 to +17dBmV (256 QAM)
Input Impedance 75 Ω
Channel Bandwidth 6 or 8 MHz

Upstream
Frequency Range 5MHz ~ 42MHz
Modulation A-TDMA:QPSK, 8, 16, 32, 64QAM
S-CMDA:QPSK, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128QAM
Maximum Data Rate* 0.32 ~ 10.24Mbits (QPSK)
0.64 ~ 20.48Mbits (16QAM)
0.96 ~ 30.72Mbits (64QAM)
Symbol Rate 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120 Ksymbols/sec
RF Input/Output Power A-TDMA:
+8dBmV ~ + 58dBmV(QPSK)
+8dBmV ~ + 55dBmV(QAM)
+8dBmV ~ +54dBmV (32/64

Unless they have made changes, then usually they are set to 64 not 256, or because of the changes on the network they may need to change the modulation to 256, but it still does not answer the question about the rubbish browsing. I used to have access to MRTG tools but they changed the password...? and I could see which part of the network I was on. A little naughty but, they never removed me from the system. Doh...?

[Jonessie]

I could not edit my message for some reason so I replied instead.

Please view cable modem event log attached to this message. If you look at the event logs there is a problem, trying to explain this to FMC is very difficult indeed. It is not renewing the IP Addy, and sometimes it looses sync. I am 99.9% sure this is on the wrong part of the network. I know my cable modem was on the right part of the network because I put it there in the first please when I first had a cable modem. Since the update of the cable modem and speaking to FMC the connection has been very poor indeed, to the point of at times, I cannot browse at all, downloading has decreased to a very poor rate indeed.

The file should open, but if you have any problems just update to Acrobat 8.1 Standard this should resolve the problem, if any.

[Jonessie]

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

I have heard (correct me if I'm wrong) that your presence or not on a specific UBR is a physical thing that can only be changed by a resegmentation.

Now what is a resegmentation? I have an idea that someone shuffles a load of PCB's about with regard to their respective sockets in order to better balance the load on the UBR.

Perhaps someone who actually knows would step us through the procedure.


Some UBR's have been upgraded to QAM256 to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure while others remain on QAM64. Should be transparent to the end user.

You are sort of on the right track... Example, where I live the nearest UBR is (I think I am not aloud to state the location) it is not that far away from my location. If you lived in Cwmbran and they put in on Newport West instead of on the Cwmbran UBR you connection would be very poor indeed.