Cable modem restarting endlessly

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Cable modem restarting endlessly

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#157656 8-Dec-2014 17:52

We've been having problems since 12:30am with our cable connection (130/10Mbps) going up & down every minute or two. Nothing has changed recently.

I've discovered that one of the downstream channels on the Cisco cable modem reports zero for both signal power and SNR. Internet still works for half a minute then the modem restarts the ranging process, presumably to try to reacquire the signal on that missing channel. It's been restarting all day.

Has anyone seen this issue before?
Any tips or suggestions for explaining this issue over the phone when I get through to VF?

timmmay

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#1191737 8-Dec-2014 18:00

Nothing reported on the Vodafone website status page, but they may have a different one for cable. Call them - from your cell, on speaker, so you can move around for the 30-60 minutes you'll be waiting.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1191742 8-Dec-2014 18:07

Thanks, I'll definitely use speaker.
I've been at work all day but a flatmate tried earlier and gave up after an hour on hold.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1191758 8-Dec-2014 19:26

I received a reply from a lovely person on Vodafone's twitter.

They had me email the details of the issue to an address that created an incident in their support system and DM the number. Hopefully it will get looked at soon. I'll report back progress.

heapsort

248 posts

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#1191759 8-Dec-2014 19:27

Hmm, frequent cable modem restarts - me too.

Our modem (Motorola SB5101 as we're still on 15 Mbps down) has been having frequent restarts since Friday evening. Intermittent, they can hit 5 minutes or hours apart. Every time, the cable modem diagnostic log shows "DCC-ACK not received" - and it's only the Internet modem, cable TV remains uninterrupted.

I called the ex-TCL 0508 line on Saturday, they thought it was fixed, but it keeps happening. Called again tonight (from a mobile this time, and got called back after 45 minutes, sure beats hearing that repetitive on-hold playlist!) and got a tech visit booking later this week.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1192331 9-Dec-2014 17:52

23 hours have passed and we heard zero from Vodafone.
Flatmate spent some time on the phone today and got through after 45mins but was told wrong department and put through to Telstraclear. This had a callback option which he selected over an hour ago. I've also hit up their twitter again, but nothing there either.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1192362 9-Dec-2014 19:34

After 1.5 hours the system called back as we were "10 minutes" from the front of the queue. After 30mins on hold we were hung up on!

richms

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#1192376 9-Dec-2014 20:15

This is hillerious. Sorry for your troubles but the service from vodafone is totally laughable.

Richard rich.ms

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#1192380 9-Dec-2014 20:34

richms: Sorry for your troubles but the service from vodafone is totally laughable.

Not so funny when you're on the wrong end of the phoneline

Sideface

richms

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#1192386 9-Dec-2014 20:45

and the sad thing is you cant cancel the account if you cant call them to cancel it because they dont answer.

Richard rich.ms

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#1192387 9-Dec-2014 20:46

richms: and the sad thing is you cant cancel the account if you cant call them to cancel it because they dont answer.

Vodafone Catch 22.

Sideface

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1192401 9-Dec-2014 21:05

Sideface:
richms: and the sad thing is you cant cancel the account if you cant call them to cancel it because they dont answer.

Vodafone Catch 22.

Wrong. For that you would press 1 for sales. We tried, they answered before it could even ring, then put us through to the tech support queue.

Slight improvement to the situation though.... finally got through to tech support & they're going to send a technician out.

mwh

43 posts

Geek

#1192599 10-Dec-2014 08:33

I've been having the same thing (or similar) since Friday. I have found that turning off the modem and leaving it for 20 minutes before plugging it back in makes the connection come back up for a couple of hours. The longest I've had is 2:40 before it dropped out completely again.

It was also dropping out every couple of days for the week before that, but it got much worse starting Friday night. I've been on the phone with them multiple times and it hasn't gotten very far - apparently it looks from their end like the modem isn't even turned on - but I also have a technician booked to come and do I don't know what.

Sideface

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#1195234 10-Dec-2014 21:17

mwh: ... I have found that turning off the modem and leaving it for 20 minutes before plugging it back in makes the connection come back up for a couple of hours...

Is your modem overheating?

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mwh

43 posts

Geek

#1196404 12-Dec-2014 16:09

That was my guess, which was why I tried leaving it off longer in the first place. Since it did work temporarily it seems like a plausible explanation. They've now replaced the modem and suggested the original was faulty, but didn't say anything specifically about heat, so I don't know for sure. No problems since then though.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1196905 13-Dec-2014 15:24

Update:
Technician visited yesterday morning and replaced the modem.
He mentioned that he had multiple jobs in our area with the same symptoms and that there were issues at the other end but Vodafone was ignoring him regarding these.
He left use with functional internet, but flatmate reports that one chancel (channel 2 this time) was down. In the afternoon, some hours after the tech left, the modem started endlessly rebooting again and did this until 1am this morning, then returned to functional internet.

Ever since the technician visit, speed tests have suspiciously close to 50/2, though even though we pay VF extra to be on 130/10. Yay, more problems to deal with.

I am looking into getting copper connected this week to test it for a month or two, probably with Bigpipe. The Snap website shows us having VDSL in our area, but Chorus map shows us as being a 5Mbit zone, so I'm not too optimistic. Still, I've been exclusively on cable for 5 years now, so I can't judge what xDSL is like in my area these days without giving it a try (I've moved twice since last being on copper).

Does anyone know how to find out whether one's copper line is on a cabinet or exchange and what the likely distance will be? House is Urban 1997 build.