Restarting modem far, far too often. Still highly problematic Internet

[Razersauber]

Hey guys, I posted a short while back about my VM Internet not being any use, it cuts off upwards of 5-6 times per hour now. That's less than 10 minutes browsing before a nice 2 minute wait before I can have another 10 minutes.

I use skype extensively so, of course, I know when it goes off and just how long it takes to return. I can restart my modem and router upwards of 10 times a day on a weekend before I get some more time but it never lasts and I end up hugely frustrated.

I called VM. They said my router was at fault, tried a different router and it was the same. Tried without any router at all and it was still the same. Called AGAIN and managed to arrive at the conclusion that VM are *ahem* idiots and can't diagnose my problem. They said my computer was at fault. My computer has been running flawlessly for months and this problem has only occurred recently. They still had the nerve to say the computer I built worth around £1500 is crap.

In my previous post, I had my Modem stats up and they were said to be fine so I'm sure it's not that.

Any help on who I can get in touch with on this would be massively appreciated because it's really starting to hinder me and irritate me to no end.

Will post modem stats again if required, thanks guys!

Razer

[Harryn9000]

best posting stats aswell

---------- Post added at 22:41 ---------- Previous post was at 22:35 ----------

also what speed u on

[Razersauber]

Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 7
Downstream Frequency : 339000000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 5.4 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 40.0 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 3
Upstream Frequency : 18800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 48.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

They're my stats. A tech fella came out the other day and said all was fine, replaced something at the top of the road and all was solved! For 10 minutes then business as usual. It's really hacking me off!

I'm on the upgraded 10mb connection, was 2 before hand.


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Just saw this in a log:

Fri Feb 25 18:16:04 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:16:04 2011 Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Fri Feb 25 18:16:03 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:16:03 2011 Information (7) Locked on the rescue CMTS ds. try to re-acquire ds sync...
Fri Feb 25 18:16:03 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:16:03 2011 Information (7) Downstream lock ok
Fri Feb 25 18:16:02 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:16:02 2011 Information (7) Downstream lock failed
Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Information (7) CableModem software upgrade failed
Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Error (4) SW upgrade Failed after download - Incompatible SW file
Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:03:19 2011 Information (7) SW dload: Invalid image signature!
Fri Feb 25 18:03:16 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:03:16 2011 Notice (6) SW Download INIT - Via Config file 73254k;fg87dsfd;kfoA
Fri Feb 25 18:03:16 2011 Fri Feb 25 18:03:16 2011 Information (7) CableModem software download started

[zekeisaszekedoes]

They say a bad workman blames his tools. In a similar fashion, increasingly it seems that bad ISPs blame their CPEs.

[Razersauber]

Yup, and VM will outright deny that any of their hardware is bad when there's a log up there that says there's something failing to update. I just want it sorted out now, it's beyond "Dial-a-monkey". I don't want some probably Indian fella telling me that it's my hardware at fault. I don't want him telling me that it can be solved by restarting. What I want is the Internet that's being payed for.

[badboybubby]

its definitely the pooperhub at fault

got mine on Thursday, drop outs every 20 mins or so since.

[Razersauber]

I'm not on a superhub, got one of these tiny things with 6 lights on the front and a massive health and safety message on the top. I got that one becuase I had Internet issues in October.. It's managed to relieve me of issues for a whole 2 months!

Edit: The irony! The net cuts out as I try to post this message.. Gotta love VM!

[Traduk]

The last fault I had pre-superhub was an on an Ambit 256 which repeatedly dropped out.

The second or third engineer to call was a really keen guy who wanted to solve what the others had left failed. Everything tested OK but his laptop was great but my modem rubbish so a change of modem solved the problem.

The problem was mangled firmware caused by a VM own goal as they flashed between Docsis 1.0 and 1.1.

Mine did not even show software (firmware) failed but yours does which may or may not have relevance.

Get them back out, show the engineer the logs, ask if a change of modem is appropriate and you should find that your problem will be solved because the engineer will almost certainly change it because it implies that if a subsequent change clears the fault he failed in the face of evidence.

I have had that nonsense about "it must be your computer" but they soon change tack when I ask back "OK but which one of the 5 is it or are you suggesting that it is all of them".

[Razersauber]

Will call them tomorrow, see what they say. Hopefully it is the modem and it's a simple swap to get back to life!