[TelstraClear] Can I ask TCL to change my modem?

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KellyP

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#12841 9-Apr-2007 04:35

I've been having a flakey connection for the past 2 months. My neighbour is on the same plan as me and he never gets drop outs however he dosn't have the same Motorola modem as me. I'm currently on a SB4100.

I called TCL when it first started happening but they only told me to reset the modem and it did work for a few days, then it started all over again.

sbiddle

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#66621 9-Apr-2007 06:38

I would request a service call. It's not nesessarily your modem at fault, it could be a number of things such as a damaged cable or poor signal strength.

jpollock

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#66636 9-Apr-2007 11:45

I had the same problem late last year. After several service calls (where they either arrived late or forgot to show), they were unable to determine what was going wrong. However, the problem has since disappeared. Replacing the cable modem made no difference.

My symptom was that the modem would stop transitting traffic (incoming or outgoing), however it was still accessible from the internal network. It was also accessible through TCL's management interfaces (they are able to reset it remotely).

In other words, I couldn't ping my home machine from offsite, the local machines couldn't ping the internet. Interestingly, as soon as they started closely watching the modem to see what was going wrong, the problem vanished. However, nobody has told me what was changed.

There were extreme levels of frustration when dealing with TCL, I even caught their support engineers lieing to my face about tests they were performing.

Terrible, terrible experience. The only reason that I'm still with them, is that everyone tells me that TNZ is even worse.

Jason

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kingjj

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#66884 12-Apr-2007 00:44

Out of curiosity, OP & jpollok, what sort of traffic was affected? Was it all traffic or just HTTP? I'm having a similiar issue with HTTP traffic only and just wanted to see if it could be the TCL connection rather than my router (which I think it is).

Cheers

jpollock

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#66893 12-Apr-2007 09:15

In my case, it was all traffic. I would notice it because my email client wouldn't be able to retrieve my email anymore. :)

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amigo

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#66951 12-Apr-2007 18:50

I had a few technicians baffled for several hours over my connection a year or so ago... It was flaking out, sometime it was fine, other times it wouldn't go at all and other times I got a message about an IP conflict... Had my IP number changed, had my signals tested, had the modem replaced. In the end they said it could only be my computer that was at fault or conflicting software etc... I knew it wasn't though. So they bought in a laptop to prove it... and couldn't get it to go either...hahaha... Eventually the guy decided to test the levels again... this time at the wall... as soon as he started to unscrew the cable the connect came to life!... Turned out to be the connection either not being tight enough, or a piece of dust on the end or something. It was so minor that they're levels testers picked up no fault and the modem connect light was on and could be pinged and everything but it made such an impact on on the actual transmission of data.

Try tightening the connections with a spanner or pliers or something...make them really tight.

skykissme

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#67005 13-Apr-2007 09:57

Perhaps, if you can borrow/loan a known working well Motorola modem for a day, and test your connection on it. See if you still have the same problem. As if it is, then it's not modem fault, changing modem won't make any different. And then call TCL to have a look at your line situation. And also check on Internet if they is any known fault or compatible issue for this model and if there is a firmware upgrade for the modem?

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jpollock

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#67006 13-Apr-2007 10:18

The problem can be somewhere other than the modem and still not show up if you change modems.

For example, cable modems are configured to operate on different frequency ranges depending on your account.

Switching the modem will likely result in a different channel being used, with different routes, gateways, etc...

The cable network isn't like a DSL network, a lot of things happen in the cable modem.

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xlinknz

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#67007 13-Apr-2007 10:24

Note if you borrow a modem off someone you will also require to use their TCL supplied public ip address , from memory TCL tie the ip address to the mac address of the modem

I had a SB5100 but don't use TCL anymore as their service wasn't available at my new location. I am very happy with my new service.

michaeln

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#67020 13-Apr-2007 13:39

As has been pointed out, the IP address is locked to the modem, so if you were to borrow someone else's modem you would also have to borrow their IP address (and effectively, you would be 'borrowing' their data cap as well). Every time the modem resets, it checks for new firmware and downloads it if available. You have the latest firmware available.

tknz

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#68997 1-May-2007 00:34

It's fantastic how you can just take your modem anywhere you want within the cable network jack it in and away you go :D signal noise is generally an issue when doing this however a 3dbi gain booster on the end your coax does a charm

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chiefie

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#69008 1-May-2007 07:48

IP address is just one part that lock to modem. The subnet mask is different in each exchange. So putting the modem's IP and gateway, it may not match the exchange's subnet mask.

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#69089 1-May-2007 15:58

Tuikapo: It's fantastic how you can just take your modem anywhere you want within the cable network jack it in and away you go :D signal noise is generally an issue when doing this however a 3dbi gain booster on the end your coax does a charm

Hi Tuikapo,

Are you sure its not a 3dB attenuator that is actually on the back of the modem?