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Cable Modem RFI

V

Vey

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Something" is interfering with my cable modem and causing it to reboot.
All the wire to the telephone pole has been replaced. The modem has been
replaced. I had cable service here with no trouble. A month ago, 15
cable trucks descended upon my neighborhood, they said to "Clean things
up." After three weeks, they left and left me with an inop connection.

"Something" between the time of 7:54 and 9:54 is causing constant
reboots, then after 10:00 am, thing smooth out so I "only" get a reboot
every hour or so. Sometimes it exactly on the nose, on the :30's or the
:15's. Other times, it will be fine for 2 hours, then reboot.

When I say "reboot" I mean the cable light goes out while the power and
PC lights stay on, then the cable light slowly flashes, then rapidly
flashes, then comes on solid.

Once I saw a pattern, I started using Ping Plotter, to keep track. It is
easier than hand logging.

My house is simple. I have nothing on timers, not even a VCR. After 3
truck rolls and numerous tests when nothing is wrong, there is no fix.
All the wire and the modem has been replaced. They suggest that maybe a
pool pump is to blame? I don't have a pool.

So today, I ring all the doorbells and ask about their pool pumps. One
of my next-door neighbors has a pump that comes on a 7 am and shuts off
at 12 pm, but all the others have other times. I turn off the neighbors
pump, go home and look to see no fix.

I was able to get a SNR reading from my modem, but I can't keep it up
since the cable company won't allow SNMP. I have to fiddle like crazy to
see what I have.

Here are the numbers I can get:
Power Level:
Received: 4.4 dBmV Transmitted 41.6 sBmV
Received SNR: 32.5 db

Sorry, but that's all the Toshiba PCX2500 will let me see.

I am open to ideas.
 
T

TimPerry

Jan 1, 1970
0
Vey said:
"Something" is interfering with my cable modem and causing it to reboot.
All the wire to the telephone pole has been replaced. The modem has been
replaced. I had cable service here with no trouble. A month ago, 15
cable trucks descended upon my neighborhood, they said to "Clean things
up." After three weeks, they left and left me with an inop connection.

i had something similar happen recently. there is nothing to do but keep
reporting the problem.
 
J

JW

Jan 1, 1970
0
When I say "reboot" I mean the cable light goes out while the power and
PC lights stay on, then the cable light slowly flashes, then rapidly
flashes, then comes on solid.

I had the exact same problem with a Motorola Surfboard. The culprit? A
noisy splitter! Try removing all the splitters if possible. Other things
to check would be to remove all other equipment on the line - VCRs, TVs,
etc.
 
V

Vey

Jan 1, 1970
0
JW said:
I had the exact same problem with a Motorola Surfboard. The culprit? A
noisy splitter! Try removing all the splitters if possible. Other things
to check would be to remove all other equipment on the line - VCRs, TVs,
etc.
Try removing all the splitters< . . .

Done before I hollered for help by calling the cable company in the
first place. I guess I have some sort of "guilt complex" and assume when
things go wrong that it is something *I* did. The guilty boy complex, I
suppose you could call it. When I was a boy, I might have touched
something and broken it . . . well, my Dad never let me forget it.

So I try to eliminate *everything* that I did or could have done before
I call and complain to the company. I sometimes waste a lot of time this
way. A sloppy technician left things in a bad state, and I spent a 8
hours a day for a week trying to fix something that I couldn't because
there was no way I could.
 
V

Vey

Jan 1, 1970
0
TimPerry said:
i had something similar happen recently. there is nothing to do but keep
reporting the problem.

Tim Perry, I think you are on the right track. I think if the "cable"
light goes out, there is nothing, on my end to do about it. I had a
technician out here today. I won't say much because I don't want to jinx
things, but he knew how to take the modem down from the PC end. I would
have never known how to do that, but there is, technically, a way it can
be done.

But other than that way, I don't know a way.

Constant complaining finally sent me a tech that knew a little
something. Whether he has acutauuly fixed it, will take a day or two,
and maybe three to know.

I will post the results.
 
R

Ross Herbert

Jan 1, 1970
0
JW said:
Done before I hollered for help by calling the cable company in the
first place. I guess I have some sort of "guilt complex" and assume when
things go wrong that it is something *I* did. The guilty boy complex, I
suppose you could call it. When I was a boy, I might have touched
something and broken it . . . well, my Dad never let me forget it.

So I try to eliminate *everything* that I did or could have done before
I call and complain to the company. I sometimes waste a lot of time this
way. A sloppy technician left things in a bad state, and I spent a 8
hours a day for a week trying to fix something that I couldn't because
there was no way I could.


Have you tried looking up your modem status?

My Motorola Surfboard SB5101 is accessed by typing
http://192.168.100.1/RgStatus.asp in my web browser.
 
V

Vey

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ross said:
JW said:
Have you tried looking up your modem status?

My Motorola Surfboard SB5101 is accessed by typing
http://192.168.100.1/RgStatus.asp in my web browser.

Can't do that with BrightHouse owned modems. They lock the modems down
so that they won't display anything. The technician had a magical
password protected http address that he used to access the docsis pages
by way of the MAC address. He could look at that and see that the
numbers were pretty bad.

So far, everything is working fine again.
 
M

Michael A. Terrell

Jan 1, 1970
0
Vey said:
Ross said:
Can't do that with BrightHouse owned modems. They lock the modems down
so that they won't display anything. The technician had a magical
password protected http address that he used to access the docsis pages
by way of the MAC address. He could look at that and see that the
numbers were pretty bad.

So far, everything is working fine again.


Really? I have Earthlink broadband through Brighthouse. I just tried:
http://192.168.100.1/ and got:

Name WebSTAR DPC2100
Modem Serial Number 201455763
Cable Modem MAC Address 00:11:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hardware Version 2.0
Software Version v2.0.2r1244-050319
Receive Power Level -2.7 dBmV
Transmit Power Level 36.5 dBmV
Cable Modem Status Operational

and the same address workes with other cable modems in the area. Some
funtions ARE locked, but only form the user's end. For instance, I can't
do a software reset of the modem, but their techs can.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
W

William R. Walsh

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi!
but he knew how to take the modem down from the PC end. I would
have never known how to do that, but there is, technically, a way it can
be done.

Try typing http://192.168.100.1/ into your web browser's address bar. Most
cable modems have an internal web page that lists statistics and may even
allow you to reboot/reset them:

http://greyghost.dyndns.org/cablemodem-page.jpg (840x559, 76KB)

There are some that also have TELNET or FTP servers running, but those are
far less common.

William
 
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