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A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

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Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#71

Post by ted_dunning »

fortran77 wrote: post #67
tfvlrue wrote: post #17

I had a similar problem with a different ISP, Optimum, in Northern NJ. It wasn't as regular as the author's problem -- my cable modem would desync intermittently throughout the day despite the signal strength numbers being in spec. I replaced everything downstream of the drop from the street, all new wiring inside, a new modem/router/etc. All signs pointed to the problem being outside the house. I went so far as to c…

I’m wondering how you used an oscilloscope to diagnose the ~1ghz bandwidth DOCSIS signals on broadband cable. I have a (expensive!) gigahertz bandwidth scope but I’m not sure what I’d look for on it if I connected it to my cable.

The high capacity of an internet link does not translate directly into high bandwidth signals in the analog domain. The DOCSIS standard includes modulation patterns as high as 32768-QAM which allows 15 bits to be transmitted per symbol change. For 1Gb/s, that means that you only need The upstream channels are squarely in the HF to VHF range. The downstream channels (which typically require more bandwidth) start at about the same HF frequency (42MHz) but can extend above 1GHz. Each channel, however, is relatively bandwidth limited.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#72

Post by djhedges »

Reminds me of the cable internet I had in college. Every night it would drop for several minutes at a time. My homework included cisco labs using equipment we had to reserve remotely so loosing my SSH connections was maddening.

Numerous phone calls and technician visits. At some point was logging into the cable modem to measure the signal strength. Eventually a tech moved my coax connection at the drop? Problem went away, they said another tech would come back out and check on it.

One week later outages again. Lucky for me they offered one month money back guarantee. I returned that modem on the very last day to the dismay of the receptionist.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#73

Post by hurricanepootis »

ted_dunning wrote: post #69
hurricanepootis wrote: post #65

I got a problem with my AT&T Fiber service at the house. We pay for a 500 Mbps plan, and I can get 600 Mbps up and down via ethernet on speedtest (probably due to over provisioning). However, I can only download stuff about 8 MB/s from most places. I believe this to be an internal issue as whenever I connect to any VPN service, I can get the full 600 Mbps. Furthermore, some servers are able to serve me at full speed,…

If you can't document your attempts to document and resolve the issue in your FCC complaint it will have far less credibility.

Ok, thank you! I'm gonna gather as much documentation as I can.

Considering the fact that I get full speeds everywhere whenever I'm using a VPN, am I right to assume that there is an issue with AT&T's internal routing? And, that issue doesn't effect every path? I'm not really an expert at doing networking stuff, but I wanna gather as much empirical data to construct a report and do statistical tests n stuff.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#74

Post by HumanOstrich »

netbioserror wrote: post #57

Couldn't cell or Starlink substitute in this day and age? 5G cells are pretty prolific now. So even if you might not want to actually leave, it's a perfectly good threat and functions as competition in their eyes.

Nope. Usually much slower with higher latency, and CGNAT limits what you can do with your connection. Starlink uses CGNAT and some mobile carriers do as well.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#75

Post by HumanOstrich »

devwastaken wrote: post #30

1. get a starlink. 2. else, use their modem. having your own modem excludes it from their service tracking infra and you dont show up when theres problems. your modem also isnt optimized for their docsis configs and isnt what theyre targeting. 3. the reason for the problems is mainline signal noise causing the modem to drop. cable modem is a conductive signal shared across customers and requires constant maintenance.…

1. Starlink is not an alternative for 1Gbps cable. It's slower with higher latency. It uses CGNAT which limits what you can do with it.

2. Can you provide a source for that?

3. According to the article, the neighbor has the same issue with the same timing. So it's not the modem or inside wiring.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#76

Post by matt123456789 »

mh- wrote: post #34
themafia wrote: post #27

The comment at the bottom of the article I believe is correct. I believe this because our neighborhood had the same problem. One day my neighbor, frustrated beyond his capacity, and seemingly very high on something, went outside and started ripping infrastructure out by hand and damaging everything else he could find with a hammer. They came out and replaced a lot of the damaged equipment and did a few upgrades. Afte…

I was merely pretty sure that the comment was AI generated as I read it. After reading it, I became a lot more confident when I noticed the username above the comment: Gemini 3 . Is this a Wordpress plugin the blog author is using?

I think it was someone trying to help and being cheeky about it.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#77

Post by altairprime »

razingeden wrote: post #54
altairprime wrote: post #10

If OP is reading this, try downgrading to a Docsis 3.0 modem. Docsis 3.1 in Comcast’s deployed infrastructure has severe repeating outage issues when there’s a cracked line somewhere allowing RF leakage into it, that cause a partial 3.1 reset but have no effect on 3.0.

i touched on this in a longer comment in this thread because i think that docsis 3.0 goes up to 900-1002mhz if downgrading to docsis 3.0 (or downgrading to 500/700mb) “fixed” your issue, you probably have a 5-1000mhz splitter thats not just a rf splitter but also, a filter and its JUST leaky enough to allow 1002mhz through. or maybe the modems happy negotiating down to 900mhz. but maybe not quite enough for 1008-1100…

In my case, one of the main loops had a cable break under a roadway, in a place on the loop that was wholly Comcast infra rather than subscriber. You’re not wrong about the general case! But for that reason, they basically stopped acknowledging the issue to me at all, never followed up on support calls ever again, and it took them maybe three years to close that roadway overnight and fix their cable. (I was able to manifest the issue at a service speed of 125mbps when capacity up to 1+ gbps was available, but of course that low limit didn’t stop the modems from negotiating whatever full-width max-QAM links they could.)

Diagnostics mastery note: logically ruling out a readily testable possibility is only (somewhat) logical when one hasn’t exhausted all other possibilities. Displeasing and successful diagnostic tests that ought not to differentiate but do are how one exposes issues hiding in the blind spots of other experts. (If they hadn’t explicitly said ‘I have no ideas left’ in as many words, I probably wouldn’t have posted at all.) Here is an idea they hadn’t openly said they considered. The reasons this idea might or might not pan out are still interesting to me! TIL! But it was a beautiful and consumer-accessible scalpel of diagnostic and earned me a walkthrough of the signal contamination specifics by the senior truck tech who showed up to help the lesser truck tech, so perhaps it’ll help another.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#79

Post by yaur »

You need to get someone out there. Just tell them over and over again its an outside wiring problem and demand they dispatch a tech. the tech will have different phone numbers with people that sort of know what they are doing. At least this worked before chat gpt ate the world.

Re: A monopoly ISP refuses to fix upstream infrastructure

#80

Post by rmoriz »

Germany/Vodafone: A couple of years ago my DOCSIS connection that worked flawlessly for years started to fail in almost the same pattern. All reporting and support communication went nowhere, had to use the procedure by German IT/Telco regulator to cancel my contract early. It sucked because VDSL is slower but Vodafone wasn’t interested in fixing.

They claim something/someone in the curb is interfering but neither trace it down nor fix it.

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