Intermittent Connection Drops, T3 time-outs. Up to two technician visits

[RonM17]

Issues started approximately 3 weeks ago. Timeline of events:

1. Standard "reset your modem, reset your router, hardwire your computer to isolate the router, etc."
2. Bought a new modem, tried that for a few days. No fix.
3. Technician visit. Checks my apartment equipment. No fix.
4. Xfinity goes radio silent for a week+. I make 10+ calls and chat attempts.
5. (Today) Xfinity sends outside technician. Am told they fixed something outside. 
6. 2 hours after visit -- connection drop. 

Imgur link with my router logs and signal levels. It's obviously working now as I'm writing this post.

https://imgur.com/a/LIN9HdE

I'm completely lost at this point, and continuing to chase this issue down with Xfinity is costing me my sanity. 

[rrembisz]

Same issue is prevalent to me at the moment.

[EG]

.@RonM17

The upstream power is too high, and it may be intermittently fluctuating even higher to out of spec levels. That can cause random disconnects, spontaneous re-booting of the modem, speed, packet loss, latency problems, and the un-bonding of channels.

In a self troubleshooting effort to try to obtain better connectivity / more wiggle room, check to see if there are there any excess/unneeded coax cable splitters in the line leading to the modem that can be eliminated/re-configured. Any splitters that remain should be high quality and cable rated for 5-1002 MHz, bi-directional, and no gold colored garbage types like GE, RadioShack, RCA, Philips, Leviton, Magnavox, and Rocketfish from big box stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Wal-Mart etc. Splitters should be swapped with known to be good / new ones to test

If there aren't any unneeded splitters that can be eliminated and if your coax wiring setup can't be reconfigured so that there is a single two way splitter connected directly off of the drop from the street/pole with one port feeding the modem and the other port feeding the rest of the house/equipment with additional splits as needed, and you've checked all the wiring and fittings for integrity and tightness and refresh them by taking them apart then check for and clean off any corrosion / oxidation on the center wire and put them back together again, then perhaps it's best to book a tech visit to investigate and correct.

[RonM17]

@EG 

Took this advice from another thread. Removed a coax splitter used to also provide my Xfinity TV service. I've enjoyed a slightly more stable connection at the cost of no longer having television. Up to 3 drops in the past 12 hours versus the normal 3 per hour. Frankly, that is not an acceptable long-term solution, and I hope Xfinity reps will not point to that as part of this process. 

The biggest issue here seems to be Xfinity's claim that the signal being sent to my house is fine. That is obviously not the case to support stable use of my Internet and Television services, both of which I pay full price for. 

At this point, I'm half-convinced it is Xfinity internal strategy to make its troubleshooting/technical support process so cumbersome that customers are motivated to simply drop their complaints altogether -- the power of a monopoly, I suppose. 

I will continue to inundate Xfinity chat and phone support with technician requests until they resolve the issues with their equipment.

[EG]

Good luck with it !

[RonM17]

You'll see my previous post regarding this issue notes my difficulty in resolving frequent T3/T4 timeouts I have been experiencing for over two months in my apartment. 

When this all started, I did the prudent thing and got a new modem to replace my SB6141. When that did not resolve the issue, I had an in-unit technician visit. He measured the signal in my apartment, which obviously came back as nominal. I went back to my SB6141 and continued to have technicians visit my apartment without doing anything. 

I finally got a technician to run a new line from the box on the back of my apartment in to my unit through the outside wall. Problem solved! Maybe not. 

I am still experiencing T3/T4 timeouts. Ok -- maybe it's half line, half modem. So I go and get a Netgear CM500-100NAS. 

The issues persist. I have now experienced 3x T3 and 3x T4 timeouts today. These have been consistent over the past week since the new line was installed.

I am totally lost. New lines, new cables, new modem. Am I just going to continue to pay full-price for degraded service? It seems like I had one technician come out that actually cared about my issues, and his best work didn't resolve my issues.

What should I do?

[EG]

Does the upstream power look any better now after the install of the new line ?

[RonM17]

Upstream does indeed look better, right around 48. We are still seeing multiple disconnects a day. Not sure what else there is to do besides moving. 

[EG]

It's ok as long as it holds stable.  Not much wiggle room. 40 to 45 is the preferred range. Good luck !

[RonM17]

What would the next step even look like from a technical perspective? I feel like the last technician exhausted his options. Surely he'd have adjusted anything at the box if that would have been an easier fix. He seemed intent on resolving my issues. 

[Cipperon]

Hey Ron, I am in a very similar pickle at the moment, I am definitely not an expert but one thing you should check out as it seems very feasible for your scenario is an Active return cable amplifier. Usually is for issues with high Uploads like yours. Here are some links you can check out (hopefully they will work) and good luck!

https://youtu.be/i_X1xnnvz1g?t=171

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0873WMVTB/

[EG]

FWIW, amps should be used only as a very last resort ! They are a band-aid approach when things should be fixed the right way in the first place. Sometimes they can actually make things worse, especially in an unclean / noisy environment. Garbage in = even more garbage out ! YMMV.

[RonM17]

@Cipperon, thanks for the heads up.

For what it's worth, I was told the next technician visit was going to cost $40.

Another ISP is coming to set up their gigabit service next week, and I will be cancelling Xfinity.

[erwinhq]

Same issues for the last 2 months since I signed up for internet service.   Just about to give up on Xfinity....