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Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021

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ARRIS G36 Downstream and Upstream Signal Levels

Hello!

I recently ditched my modem rental and purchased an ARRIS G36 modem from BestBuy (new). I also decided to upgrade to Gigabit because the modem appeared to support it AND was listed as supported on the Comcast Xfinity website.

However, I started noticing almost immediately that while my speeds were good, my connection was unstable during Zoom calls and stuff would just drop randomly. Similarly, WiFi calling on my iPhone stopped working well. Please note that during these drops the modem does not reboot itself. It just drops for a split second and comes back almost immediately.

I should mention we do not have TV or Phone service, only internet. I spoke with ARRIS customer support, and fairly quickly they were able to identify the issue as a problem with the Upstream signal levels being out of range. They mentioned that they should range from 45 to 51 considering there are 3 upstream channels. I was getting an 40 for each channel, which logically to me seems to be the problem, so I decided to give Xfinity a call. Long story short, they tried a bunch of steps and decided to send a tech out (who will be here Thursday) and they will hopefully be able to troubleshoot the signal.

However, I started Googling and I noticed some more discussions around similar issues with other ARRIS modems and Xfinity. This got me investigating my home setup, and I found out there were several unnecessary splitters and stuff (probably from the previous home owner) that I was able to remove pretty easily. The result is that I am now pretty much directly going into the line coming from the pole on the road. However, it seems like it might have resulted in me making the problem slightly worse?

Here are the latest readings:

Downstream
Index Frequency (MHz) Power Level (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Lock Status
13 333 5.099998 40.946209 QAM256 Locked
14 339 4.900002 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
15 345 4.800003 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
16 351 4.699997 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
17 357 5 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
18 363 4.699997 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
19 369 4.5 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
20 375 4.099998 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
21 381 4.5 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
22 387 4.699997 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
23 393 5.099998 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
24 399 5.300003 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
25 405 4.800003 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
26 411 4.699997 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
27 417 4.5 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
28 423 5.099998 40.366287 QAM256 Locked
29 429 3.5 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
30 435 3.099998 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
31 441 3.5 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
32 447 3.400002 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
33 453 2.900002 38.983261 QAM256 Locked
34 459 3.099998 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
35 465 2.799999 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
36 471 2.5 38.605377 QAM256 Locked
Upstream
Index Frequency (MHz) Power Level (dBmV) Channel Type Symbol Rate (KSym/sec) Modulation Lock Status
3 21.2 33.270599 US_TYPE_ATDMA 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM Locked
1 34 33.270599 US_TYPE_ATDMA 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM Locked
2 27.6 33.270599 US_TYPE_ATDMA 5120 KSym/sec 64QAM Locked

What really confuses me is how did my upstream signal get weaker as a result of removing splitters? And I can confirm these were splitters, not amplifiers or anything else. Another thing is, where is the OFFICIAL documentation on the specification for the ranges? I've seen numbers posted in the forums, better never a source article.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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