Xfinity, please fix your upstream equipment. It is leaving us with a half-working connection.

So I find myself here again. After multiple attempts to have my issue resolved - a completely normal and everyday issue for a  provider - I try again, this time on the forums.

I have Blast! internet, using my own Surfboard SB8200 modem. Not complicated.

For a week and a half, we have been having connectivity bounce at random. It corresponds with usage any heavier than an ICMP ping echo. It will drop for seconds at a time, dropping all packets en route, then come back up for a few seconds, then drop again.

Yesterday it got bad enough that both residents that this connection serves could not reliably do any work. (We are both working from home) Teams and Zoom meetings are impossible. Any VPN connection is up down up down, reconnecting... please wait. It's clearly a signal amplitude or power issue.

So Yesterday I contact xfinity. Get the robot lady. Can't get an actual person unless she reboots my modem and I wait ten minutes for the service to call me back. It didn't help. I have already done this. I finally get an agent. She walks me through her flow chart to the point where she literally tells me "there's nothing more we can do". I tell her the problem isn't us, it's xfinity. She blames my modem. Says this may have to go on until the pandemic is over, so that they can safely get a tech into my home to check.

So do it all again and get another agent on the phone - this one seems to have some knowledge. I ask her to check the signal quality for down and upstream of my modem. She says it looks fine. I ask her to ping to my modem. She can't reach it. Then she can. I am then told to contact the manufacturer of the modem because it is obviously the problem. I tell her it's not. I ask if there is a network team she could escalate my ticket to, she says because this is a consumer-owned modem, there is no team, and please contact the modem manufacturer.

So I get arris on a chat. They have me confirm my modem is functioning, then I ask if I can show the logs from the modem to confirm what I'm seeing - I tell them the highs and lows of downstream and upstream, and other details of the channels. THE MANUFACTURER SAYS TO CONTACT THE PROVIDER. THE SIGNAL IS MISCONFIGURED OR DISRUPTED.

Here are the exact words:

( 34m 20s ) Seshan R: What we are checking here is the way the signal comes from out to inside the home. There are some important things that should be within a specific range in order for the internet to work properly.
First, the SNR should be above 33 on all of them. The downstream power should always be between -15 and +15. The closer to 0 the better connection. Finally, your upstream power should always be between +45 and +51
On all of those values you should not have more than 3 decibels (or dB) between the lowest and the highest
By having the values in less than that, your device will have interrupted connection, slow or no connection at all.
( 35m 35s ) Seshan R: Your downstream power has a lot of difference and the Upstream power level is very low.
( 35m 51s ) Seshan R: Its Cable signal level issue.
( 36m 7s ) Seshan R: In your case, your coaxial cable is sending poor signal, and is affecting the device itself to communicate properly, we would recommend that you contact your service provider to make the appropriate adjustments to those levels for you. If they advise that the levels they are sending are within those ranges, this would indicate a possible issue with a faulty cable splitter or a coaxial cable line in your area in need of maintenance.

So, with confirmation in writing, I contact xfinity to chat with someone, just hoping I can get a tech scheduled to look at the upstream equipment and fix whatever is garbling my signal so much. I explain to the person the whoe schpiel, she recommends I contact the manufacturer, I tell her I have and that they agree with me that the problem is xfinity. She asks me to then change my coaxial cable "per the suggested troubleshooting methods for consumer-owned modems". I tell her I can't - and this isn't a lie, I really can't.

When Xfinity installed this in my home, they pulled the cable all the way from the trap installed on the side of my house directly in, through the floor, and up where the modem is. I cannot change the cable without running new cabling - it is a single piece. Plus, that's past the demark - that's Xfinity's problem, not mine. Considering the pandemic situation, I would be happy to install it should xfinity provide me with the materials, but it's not my responsibility to fix.

At this point she - to her credit, she was the most helpful so far - asks if it is ok to have a technican come by today between 3-6pm to check the cabling outside. I am overjoyed. Thank you! I agree with the times, thank her, and close the chat. 

I receive no email of this appointment. I get a bad feeling.

I literally wrote a full page note to the Xfinity tech, taped it to the side of my house where the cable comes out and connects to the trap, informing him of what's going on and thanking him for fixing it. I also taped another slip of paper to the wall by where the cable comes out, pointing to exactly which coax cable is mine, so no confusion occurs.

By 6pm, nothing.

Then, I see an Xfinity van drive down my street... past my house...... it turns around, then leaves the street. Never to be seen again.

I wait a bit. Maybe the change takes a bit to happen.  My modem restarts...awesome!! I didn't do that! It must mean something has changed!

Let me check the levels on my modem:

Channel ID	Lock Status	Modulation	Frequency	Power	SNR/MER	Corrected	Uncorrectables
5	Locked	QAM256	549000000 Hz	7.8 dBmV	41.9 dB	0	0
1	Locked	QAM256	525000000 Hz	7.4 dBmV	42.1 dB	0	0
2	Locked	QAM256	531000000 Hz	7.3 dBmV	42.0 dB	0	0
3	Locked	QAM256	537000000 Hz	7.3 dBmV	41.8 dB	0	0
4	Locked	QAM256	543000000 Hz	7.3 dBmV	41.9 dB	0	0
6	Locked	QAM256	555000000 Hz	7.5 dBmV	41.7 dB	0	0
7	Locked	QAM256	561000000 Hz	6.8 dBmV	41.6 dB	0	0
8	Locked	QAM256	579000000 Hz	5.9 dBmV	41.0 dB	0	0
9	Locked	QAM256	585000000 Hz	5.9 dBmV	41.1 dB	0	0
10	Locked	QAM256	591000000 Hz	6.2 dBmV	41.3 dB	0	0
11	Locked	QAM256	597000000 Hz	5.8 dBmV	41.1 dB	0	0
12	Locked	QAM256	603000000 Hz	5.8 dBmV	40.9 dB	0	0
13	Locked	QAM256	609000000 Hz	5.4 dBmV	40.8 dB	0	0
14	Locked	QAM256	615000000 Hz	5.6 dBmV	40.8 dB	0	0
15	Locked	QAM256	621000000 Hz	5.5 dBmV	40.7 dB	0	0
16	Locked	QAM256	627000000 Hz	5.6 dBmV	40.7 dB	0	0
17	Locked	QAM256	633000000 Hz	5.5 dBmV	40.7 dB	0	0
18	Locked	QAM256	639000000 Hz	4.9 dBmV	40.3 dB	0	0
19	Locked	QAM256	645000000 Hz	5.0 dBmV	40.5 dB	0	0
20	Locked	QAM256	651000000 Hz	5.1 dBmV	40.4 dB	0	0
21	Locked	QAM256	657000000 Hz	5.1 dBmV	40.4 dB	0	0
22	Locked	QAM256	663000000 Hz	5.1 dBmV	40.5 dB	0	0
23	Locked	QAM256	669000000 Hz	4.7 dBmV	40.3 dB	0	0
25	Locked	QAM256	495000000 Hz	8.3 dBmV	42.0 dB	0	0
34	Locked	QAM256	507000000 Hz	8.1 dBmV	42.0 dB	0	0
35	Locked	QAM256	513000000 Hz	8.0 dBmV	41.8 dB	0	0
36	Locked	QAM256	519000000 Hz	7.8 dBmV	42.1 dB	0	0
37	Locked	Other	762000000 Hz	10.2 dBmV	0.0 dB	10680748	29068
38	Not Locked	QAM256	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	41.1 dB	0	0
39	Locked	QAM256	471000000 Hz	6.0 dBmV	41.7 dB	0	0
40	Locked	QAM256	477000000 Hz	7.1 dBmV	41.8 dB	0	0
41	Locked	QAM256	483000000 Hz	8.0 dBmV	41.9 dB	0	0

(Note: these two are the worst, and they mean the signal is unrealiable, at best.)

And the logs (MAC addresses removed to protect the innocent):

05/06/2020 18:02	84020300	5	"MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:49	74010100	6	"CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 4; Chan ID: 37; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: N/A.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:49	84020300	5	"MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:48	74010100	6	"CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 4; Chan ID: 37; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: N/A.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:48	84020300	5	"MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:48	74010100	6	"CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 1; Chan ID: 37; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: N/A.;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:48	84020300	5	"MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:38	74010100	6	"CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 4; Chan ID: 37; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: N/A.;CM-;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:38	74010100	6	"CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 1; Chan ID: 37; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: N/A.;CM-;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"
05/06/2020 17:38	84020300	5	"MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=;CMTS-MAC=;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;"

( The bolded messages mean things are bad.)

Nothing has changed. Connection still has numbers not within range, and it is causing packet loss.

So, please - Xfinity, Comcast, whoever I give my money to - please, can I have this looked at and fixed? We need to have an internet connection to do our jobs. It's how we order some of our groceries now. It's how I check in on my mom. The inconvience is not just a creature comfort issue.

Please have our service fixed. I have been running a ping and right now have 20-24% packet loss. This isn't stable.

You have a fault in your equipment, on your side, and I can't do anything more to fix it.