Roadrunner Issues

[festivus]

I've been having issues with my roadrunner connection for the last 2 months or so. Here's what's going on:

I drop my connection for about 2 minutes every 15 to 30 minutes or so. But it's really unpredictable. I called TW about it and they refuse to help much at all unless I'm at home and the modem is connected directly to a PC. I had an older Belkin B router. I just upgraded to a Linksys G router and I'm still having the same issue. When I connect directly to a PC I, of course, lose all other connectivity and have to basically wait for the issue to arise. It's very sporadic. I drop the connection on all PC's including the one wired to the router.

Anyone else encounter anything similar? If so, what was the resolution?

[csujjhoov]

Not having issues with mine, but here is something you may want to try.
Open up IE/Firefox and go to http://192.168.100.1 this will bring up your modem diagnostic page. Go to the signal page and look at what the downstream signal to noise ratio and downstream power levels are.

Power level should be around 0 but within the range of -8 to +8 if it's in the range you are fine, anything greater than 8 or less than -8 means you have signal strength issues.

Signal to Noise ratio for QAM256 (encoding scheme) should be greater than 33 dB if it's less then there is more noise than signal for QAM256 to work.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Y2K SE]

Also keep an eye on the upstream levels. I had a similar problem related to upstream issues.

[festivus]

power levels:
downstream - 12
upstream - 41

Looks like I have issues but what do high power levels mean? Will the TW folks understand?

[Timcredible]

i had problems with tw also, spent hours and hours with tw tech support, ended up that my only solution was to change to dsl, which has worked out great. don't know if you have that option or not.

[Y2K SE]

power levels:
downstream - 12
upstream - 41

Looks like I have issues but what do high power levels mean? Will the TW folks understand?I don't remember what the levels should be. The specific problem I had was that the cable modem was having to raise the upstream power level up to high, eventually crossing a threshold that caused it to lose connectivity and restart. I lived in an apartment at the time; someone else was having a problem with poor signal quality on the TV and the fix the technician put in place impacted my cable modem.

[festivus]

Well, I'm not getting anywhere with TW. The tech that came out on Saturday called my signal very "hot" and wouldn't give me any details. He checked the signal at the box in my yard and noted the same. He then said that he would have to send it to "maintenance" to fix the problem, whatever that means. I called TW yesterday for a "maintenance" ETA. The CSR saw the tech notes but nothing was yet scheduled.

TW is a freakin' joke. If my email address wasn't going to change I would switch to DSL immediately.

[snodgrass23]

TW is a freakin' joke. If my email address wasn't going to change I would switch to DSL immediately.

This is the exact reason I don't use my provider's supplied email address anymore and haven't for a few years. I use a hotmail account for generic stuff (would rather use gmail more, but have lots of stuff already tied to this address) and my own domain for a personal email address. This way, these will always be available no matter what service I'm using.

[bspvette86]

Well if it's any consolation, I have been having issues with TWC for the last few months as well. In my case it was problems with cable while roadrunner was working fine. Cable has been plagued blocking errors, missing digital channels, and stuttering. I can't tell you how many hours have been spent rebooting cable boxes, swapping out cables, swapping out the cable box etc working with their support... They made me swap the cable box at their center before they would even send a tech out. :doh: (talk about bad service) I have been mentioning "switching providers" every time I call lately and think they finally are on the right track after their house call tonight. The guy that came tonight was very suprised the techs that came before never checked the pole. They finally looked "outside" today (which I've been telling them to do all along). They walked the line back to the pole and out to their distribution point. They found a 20' section of their pole line up the street had been patched with RG6 and another section had a tree growing around it. (as in the cable was completely imbedded in a branch) DOH! :doh: They went ahead and replaced everything from my residence to the pole after determining it had been there for over a decade, and put a call in to have the line on the poles replaced. <sigh> This has been W-A-Y-Y-Y-Y more trouble than its worth. Had uverse been available, the switch would have already been done.

:cheers:
BV

PS: I have switched providers many many many many times but still have the same webmail account I've had since before Al Gore invented the internet. I use the RR mail accounts as my "registration" accounts to attract all the SPAM that would otherwise go to my main email. :o)

[festivus]

I think that the issue has finally been fixed. On Friday a tech guy stopped by that really knew his stuff. The solution? I had a line directly from the box to the house to the modem. That's too much power for the modem to handle. I've had it this way ever since I switched to Dish and didn't need to split to TVs. So all that he had to do was install a tap just before the modem. Now my modem readings are in the acceptable range.

It would be nice if TWC had phone techs that knew this stuff. Or better yet, if all of their field techs knew it. Seems like a pretty simple thing to me.

[bspvette86]

Good to hear yours is fixed. I'm still staring at a log haning in the middle of the RG6 out between the poles and getting random blocking errors. :doh:

Uverse, take me away..... <sigh>