Internet Connection Issues - 2017 experiences.

[User14]

Various disconnect problems have been reported back in 2012 all the way through to 2015 from what I can tell. I have read most of them and the tendency is to blame it on adaptors, modems, applications, etc. and rarely on the Rogers line. When this happened to me, I tried tracking the connection with Pingplotter for 2 weeks and I did notice breaks up to 4 to 6 minutes with the Rogers connection. It was not always at the same time. Sometimes around 9 am, sometimes 11 am, rarely in the afternoon or in the evening.  I have included an image of what a break looks like with Pingplotter for the imap.mail.yahoo.com server connection. Using Win 10 with Office 2010 in Outlook the pop up error is always 'Your IMAP server closed connection' so I thought I would track that connection with the Outlook application left on throughout the day.  There could also be a problem with the Outlook setup as this pop-up can appear every hour or every time you have selected a scheduled send-receive query. That is a different issue that I am not addressing here but the IMAP pop error would be on my screen two of three times indicating the connection dropped. This post is for the observation that the internet connection on the Rogers line does actually cut out for short durations at times! Below is only one screen capture out of many over the two weeks of monitoring the IMAP server.

Reporting this to Tech Support resulted in a query:  Does this happen on all your devices?... with no further follow up.  It is difficult to watch all your devices at the same time, and the breaks are only for short durations, sometimes only two minutes and then it reconnects. By the time you try to switch on your other devices the connection is re-established. Finally it did happen with my iphone so I wanted to post this here to get some feedback from other users.

So my question, before going back to Tech Support, is quite basic:  Has anyone else tracked their Rogers internet connection to see if they have breaks like the one shown above?   It would be nice to know when discussing it again with Tech support.  

***Edited Labels***

[Alex4161]

@User14 @RogersDave 

Lets take a different approach on this and focus on the Modem itself vs. what happens to the servers. On the server side, there are other variables to contend with which may/may not be correlated to what you see. 

In my situation, I notice that my internet issues correspond to the modem logs when I get messages that list the following events:

Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;

warning Lost MDD Timeout

No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

Whenever I get errors like this, my internet connection goes offline and the modem loses sync.  I been seeing this quite a bit lately in the last week on my CODA modem.  

If you can see this and find a timestamp that matches with what you logged, we may be on to something.

[User14]

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@Alex4161 wrote:

@User14 @RogersDave 

Lets take a different approach on this and focus on the Modem itself vs. what happens to the servers. On the server side, there are other variables to contend with which may/may not be correlated to what you see. 

In my situation, I notice that my internet issues correspond to the modem logs when I get messages that list the following events:

Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;

warning Lost MDD Timeout

No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

Whenever I get errors like this, my internet connection goes offline and the modem loses sync.  I been seeing this quite a bit lately in the last week on my CODA modem.  

If you can see this and find a timestamp that matches with what you logged, we may be on to something. 

---

I thought it might be the rented modem also, so I exchanged it on 9 Dec 2016 with another refurbished modem.

At the time all parameters were within standard limits and the logs didn't reveal anything unusual.

Downstream Power (-15dbmV to +15dbmV) - measure of the signal level received by the cable modem
Most modems are rated from -15dB to +15dB, however it's best to have it between +8dB and -8dB. Anything less or more than that and you may have quality issues. You can remove splitters on the line if you need to raise and clean up your signal level a bit. You can also use a tap (directional coupler) to get a cleaner signal to the cable modem instead of a splitter.

Upstream Power / Modulation(37dbmV to 55dbmV) - the strength of signal transmitted by the cable modem
Generally a lower this number is better. Above 55dB will most likely cause problems, over 57dB and you probably won't be able to connect. Ideally between 42 and 50dB. Lower than 40 may start introducing some packet loss (especially if you have much noise on the line). If you hit 58 the modem will likely drop the connection and resync. 

Signal/Noise Ratio (SNR , >30dB) - measure of how clear the signal is
SNR is best over 30, (the higher the better, might work well with as low as 25 at times). Anything less than 25 will cause dropped connections, packet loss, slow transfers, etc. This is true for both the "DownstreamSNR" and the "Upstream SNR", which may be different values. Typically, cable modems show the Downstream SNR, the Upsteram SNR can only be calculated at the remote end of the coax (usually at the node). Just remember that higher SNR means cleaner signal. A value well over 40 may mean you have too much power.

In this case, changing the modem made no difference whatsoever.  As an aside - the person at the store had not even heard of "speed boost" for downloads when I made the exchange so I didn't get into any detailed explanation of my internet disconnect problem(s). 

Be advised that I may also have two problems which makes this diagnosis difficult.  The Outlook IMAP disconnect is easy to recognize when it happens.  When an internet connection is dropped for a couple of minutes you have to be on the computer doing something to actually notice it. When it happens on Google  the error messages are different.  I believe this is something that is happening with the ISP but I need to know if anyone else has tracked their internet connection status with Rogers to be sure.

[Alex4161]

@User14

Your comment about the Upstream Power / Modulation(37dbmV to 55dbmV) - the strength of signal transmitted by the cable modem is partially correct.

With the changes to the rogers network, getting values in the 30's is fine as @Datalink and others have mentioned that the system works fine.  In the older networks, the 37 to 46 rule held true.  I think there is a lot of troubleshooting links on the site that needs updating to bring it up to the 2017 CODA Docsis 3.1 generation.

As for the browsing hiccups, they are captured in the modem logs with the various timestamps  (assuming if you set the timezone correctly).

Can you post your signal levels just to check?  There could be something others might see.

thanks

[User14]

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@Alex4161 wrote:

@User14

Your comment about the Upstream Power / Modulation(37dbmV to 55dbmV) - the strength of signal transmitted by the cable modem is partially correct.

With the changes to the rogers network, getting values in the 30's is fine as @Datalink and others have mentioned that the system works fine.  In the older networks, the 37 to 46 rule held true.  I think there is a lot of troubleshooting links on the site that needs updating to bring it up to the 2017 CODA Docsis 3.1 generation.

As for the browsing hiccups, they are captured in the modem logs with the various timestamps  (assuming if you set the timezone correctly).

Can you post your signal levels just to check?  There could be something others might see.

thanks

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Here are a couple of screen captures for the signal strength.

If there are troubleshooting sites for the CGN2-ROG modem, send me a link.

Where do you find the modem logs? I am using the Windows Event Viewer for "modem".

The Ping Plotter also seems to indicate that nodes other than the modem node are failing.

The signal to the imap.mail.yahoo.com IP node from the modem is the one I was tracking at 5-15 sec intervals.

[Alex4161]

I thought most of the newer modems had 20 to 32 channels?

As for the modem info, you can go to 192.168.100.1 and enter in cusadmin and password to log in.  There should be a tab there for events and that will show you what you need to see.  Perhaps @Datalink can guide you through it.

[TobiasFunke]

I'm also seeing the "Lost MDD Timeout" warning message and "No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out" critical message in my logs about 5-6 times a day since I signed up for Rogers gigabit service (previously with TPIA cable). These appear to correspond with brief interruptions in service. I can't figure out why it's happening.

I have the new CODA modem. Signal levels are well within spec (2.7-5.7 dBmV signal, 39-41 dB SNR, 32-36 dBmV upstream signal).

Happy to post additional info if it helps.

[User14]

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@TobiasFunke wrote:

I'm also seeing the "Lost MDD Timeout" warning message and "No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out" critical message in my logs about 5-6 times a day since I signed up for Rogers gigabit service (previously with TPIA cable). These appear to correspond with brief interruptions in service. I can't figure out why it's happening.

I have the new CODA modem. Signal levels are well within spec (2.7-5.7 dBmV signal, 39-41 dB SNR, 32-36 dBmV upstream signal).

Happy to post additional info if it helps.

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@TobiasFunke @Alex4161 Have either of you tried Pingplotter (14 day free trial) or other application to see if you have internet packet losses? Here's a screen capture from 19 Dec 2016 of a loss of connection that lasted 4.5 minutes.  If I am connected to a site at that time, I loose all connections.  I have other examples of signal loss that I can post but you can see the result.  I have even recorded two interruptions that lasted 5 seconds each which were 10 seconds apart. Mostly the interruptions lasted approximately 4 minutes and there is at least one per day.  One day there were four interruptions.  I thought it might be maintenance on the lines, but when I tried calling this in, they said that there was no work being done.  I just want to know if anyone has monitored their Rogers internet connection over a day or a few days?  I used my Rogers email IMAP server because it is on most of the time and I often got IMAP Server closed the connection. Calls for support always indicated normal service which by then was quite true. This IMAP problem may be with MS Office, but in trying to monitor the internet connection, I was very surprised to see these short interruptions in service that others may not have noticed. 

[User14]

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@Alex4161 wrote:

I thought most of the newer modems had 20 to 32 channels?

As for the modem info, you can go to 192.168.100.1 and enter in cusadmin and password to log in.  There should be a tab there for events and that will show you what you need to see.  Perhaps @Datalink can guide you through it.

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@Alex4161 I used 192.168.100.1 but I probably don't get the same screen that you do with your modem. I get System Status info which lets me know how long my "new" refurbished Rogers modem has been working. It hasn't hung up, but I have rebooted it on principle a couple of times since I exchanged it. It has been on and working for a while. If you can't read it, it say 25 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes. The list of info on the modem is on the right, but there is no modem error log that I can see.

[sti2006]

I been getting the same issue and call Rogers CSR twice and 1 technician came out and took out the splitter in my basement and install a power amplifier and he says is passive. Will help and not distort other output. Issue continue and call in again they ask I go swap out my modem to the new Hiltron Coda version and last night has the .19 firmware and still keeps dropping for a few minutes and comes back for a few more hours and does it again.

[sti2006]

Hitron
Status
This menu show the status of the device

System Information
DOCSIS Provisioning
DOCSIS WAN
DOCSIS Event
Wireless
DOCSIS WAN
This menu displays both upstream and downstream signal parameters

DOCSIS Overview


Downstream Overview
Port ID Frequency (MHz) Modulation Signal strength (dBmV) Channel ID Signal noise ratio (dB)
1 615000000 256QAM -7.300 35 37.356
2 363000000 256QAM -6.500 10 38.605
3 369000000 256QAM -4.500 11 38.605
4 375000000 256QAM -6.300 12 37.636
5 381000000 256QAM -5.400 13 38.605
6 387000000 256QAM -6.300 14 38.605
7 393000000 256QAM -4.800 15 38.605
8 399000000 256QAM -6.500 16 38.605
9 405000000 256QAM -4.700 17 38.605
10 411000000 256QAM -6.600 18 38.605
11 417000000 256QAM -4.200 19 38.983
12 423000000 256QAM -6.100 20 38.605
13 429000000 256QAM -4.500 21 38.983
14 435000000 256QAM -5.900 22 38.983
15 441000000 256QAM -4.600 23 38.605
16 447000000 256QAM -5.100 24 38.605
17 555000000 256QAM -6.000 25 37.636
18 561000000 256QAM -5.200 26 37.636
19 567000000 256QAM -5.800 27 38.605
20 573000000 256QAM -6.100 28 37.636
21 579000000 256QAM -6.100 29 37.636
22 585000000 256QAM -6.100 30 37.093
23 591000000 256QAM -6.200 31 37.356
24 597000000 256QAM -6.700 32 37.356
25 603000000 256QAM -7.000 33 37.636
26 609000000 256QAM -6.600 34 37.636
27 357000000 256QAM -4.400 9 38.605
28 621000000 256QAM -6.300 36 37.636
29 633000000 256QAM -6.300 37 37.636
30 639000000 256QAM -6.500 38 37.636
31 645000000 256QAM -6.100 39 38.605
32 651000000 256QAM -5.400 40 38.605
OFDM Downstream Overview
Receiver FFT type Subcarr 0 Frequency(MHz) PLC locked NCP locked MDC1 locked PLC power(dBmv)
0 NA NA NO NO NO NA
1 NA NA NO NO NO NA
Upstream Overview
Port ID Frequency (MHz) Modulation Signal strength (dBmV) Channel ID Bandwidth
1 30596000 ATDMA - 64QAM 35.250 1 6400000
2 38595570 ATDMA - 64QAM 38.500 3 3200000
3 23700000 ATDMA - 64QAM 31.000 2 6400000
OFDM/OFDMA Overview
Channel Index State lin Digital Att Digital Att BW (sc's*fft) Report Power Report Power1_6 FFT Size
0 DISABLED 0.5000 0.0000 0.0000 -inf -1.0000 4K
1 DISABLED 0.5000 0.0000 0.0000 -inf -1.0000 4K

[User14]

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@sti2006 wrote:
I been getting the same issue and call Rogers CSR twice and 1 technician came out and took out the splitter in my basement and install a power amplifier and he says is passive. Will help and not distort other output. Issue continue and call in again they ask I go swap out my modem to the new Hiltron Coda version and last night has the .19 firmware and still keeps dropping for a few minutes and comes back for a few more hours and does it again.

Below is a small example of the event logs

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@sti2006  Where did you find the DOCSIS event log for your modem? Maybe my CGN2-ROG modem doesn't have it.  Lots of info to read from 2014 here on:  Intermittent connection - DOCSIS Event log displaying critical errors   

[User14]

Just for info, I am still getting interruptions from 15 seconds to 4 minutes.

Example of the duration from 9:42 to 9:46 today for the imap.mail.yahoo.com server I have been tracking. 

[TobiasFunke]

I've set up SmokePing on a Linux box I have and it's set to do the following:

ICMP ping localhost, my wireless router and the Hitron admin IP (192.168.100.1) -- 5 pings every 10 seconds

ICMP ping to DSL Report's EC2 server - 5 pings every 10 seconds

EchoPing HTTP requests to web.mit.edu - 5 requests every 10 seconds

DNS request to Google Public DNS and my Rogers DHCP-provided DNS - 5 requests every 10 seconds

I checked my CODA-4852 event log this morning and saw a ranging error overnight, which appeared to coincide with some high latency and a few dropped packets. This couldn't have lasted more than a minute.

Other than that, SmokePing shows some increased latency and jitter with all remote hosts last night (nothing terrible, mostly staying under 80 ms) until about 1:30 am, then very consistent latencies (20-30 ms) from 1:30 am til this morning.

The latency/jitter I'd expect from a busy node and peak browsing times, so I'm not too fussed about that. But I'm still wondering about the occasional "hiccups" that coincide with the ranging errors in the modem's log.

I'll continue to keep an eye on things.

[mhs2]

I get this error "SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync" at 2:00 pm every day in my CODA-4582 modem log.  I think I had the same issue with my CGN3ACSMR but didn't realize that it occurred at the same time every day.  It's not a big deal, but what would cause it to happen every day at the same time?

[Dragus]

Something bad must have happened in my area yesterday. Guess I should happy I still have internet vs no internet? 😜

RIP Gigabit speeds.

[User14]

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@mhs2 wrote:

I get this error "SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync" at 2:00 pm every day in my CODA-4582 modem log.  I think I had the same issue with my CGN3ACSMR but didn't realize that it occurred at the same time every day.  It's not a big deal, but what would cause it to happen every day at the same time?

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Over the 11 days in December 2016 that I tracked the imap.mail.yahoo.com server connection I was able to capture the lost connection time which all seemed to be about 4 to 5 minutes in duration. There were others that were 1 minute or less in duration and the loss of connection did not happen at exactly the same time each day, but it was close. I am leaning toward some daily check or update on the Rogers IMAP4Rev1 server that is used for emails. It seems this daily server event changes the IMAP data which ultimately gives you the "Your IMAP  server has closed the connection" error. I cannot be absolutely sure as only one of my Rogers email accounts constantly gives me this error message. The other does not!  1 to 4 minutes is hardly noticeable so I am sure most customers just think it is a glitch in their application, not with the internet connection. I would still like to get independent confirmation that the imap.mail.yahoo.com server does go offline for approximately 4 minutes daily before the next step of raising a trouble ticket. 

15th 9:44-9:48

16th 9:48-9:53    + 13:12-13:17 (short)

17th missed

18th 10:05-10:09

19th 9:34-9:38

20th 13:46-13:47 (short)

21st 10:41-10:45   +15:03-15:04 (short)

22nd 9:24-9:25 (short) + 9:30 (15 secs)

23rd missed

24th nil

25th 10:41-10:46 + 11:17-11:22

[User14]

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@Dragus wrote:

Something bad must have happened in my area yesterday. Guess I should happy I still have internet vs no internet? 😜

RIP Gigabit speeds.

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Those speeds look reversed. Try the Rogers Speedcheck Tool under Help and Support -> Internet.  Depending upon your DATA  PLAN, Roger's will give you a modem that limits your speeds. I have a CGN2-ROG modem that advertises 5 Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. With Speedboost, I can get between 10-18 Mbps download which is good enough for me. 

[Dragus]

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@User14 wrote:

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@Dragus wrote:

Something bad must have happened in my area yesterday. Guess I should happy I still have internet vs no internet? 😜

RIP Gigabit speeds.

---

Those speeds look reversed. Try the Rogers Speedcheck Tool under Help and Support -> Internet.  Depending upon your DATA  PLAN, Roger's will give you a modem that limits your speeds. I have a CGN2-ROG modem that advertises 5 Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. With Speedboost, I can get between 10-18 Mbps download which is good enough for me. 

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I'm actually on gigabit plan and issues started on Jan 3.

It's either the new CODA modem (which I switched around Dec 28-30) and/or some artifacts left over from last tuesday (Jan 3) outages.

Called rogers yesterday and the technical support guy said the work was completed in my area so everything should have been back to normal. But when he tried to connect to my router it would time out and he saw I had pretty bad packetloss. 

Nothing much has changed in the past 2.5 years besides the new Asus router I got 3-4 months ago.  I already had a tech come by around September that had fixed my signal strength and replaced my splitter and the cable wires.

So they have a tech coming over on Sunday and hopefuly he can resolve it.

[User14]

The internet disconnect/server availability is still happening. 2017-01-11     9:58 to 10:01 and a bit.

Does anyone know if report this on  Rogers Outages  is useful?  Some people seem to report this type of information here, but I'm not sure what they can do about it.

[ElegantTetris]

I'm a relatively new customer to Rogers (though I'd used cable through a TPIA provider several years ago with no major issues at all). In the past couple of weeks, I've been experiencing events of what I believe to be severe node congestion on the upstream side for the past week. The symptoms are severely diminished upstream speed (bouncing between 0.5 and 1.5 megabits), along with heavy latency (1000+ ms) when the upstream is used at all. When a similar event happened in December, a tech was dispatched but the issue resolved itself a couple of hours before the tech arrived.

Line stats look great:

Downstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Signal noise ratio (dB)
1	591000000	256QAM	6.400	31	38.983
2	657000000	256QAM	6.000	41	37.356
3	663000000	256QAM	6.100	42	37.636
4	669000000	256QAM	6.000	43	38.605
5	675000000	256QAM	5.800	44	38.605
6	681000000	256QAM	5.400	45	38.605
7	687000000	256QAM	5.700	46	38.605
8	693000000	256QAM	5.400	47	38.605
9	699000000	256QAM	5.700	48	38.605
10	705000000	256QAM	5.800	49	38.605
11	711000000	256QAM	5.800	50	38.983
12	717000000	256QAM	5.600	51	38.605
13	723000000	256QAM	5.800	52	38.605
14	825000000	256QAM	7.200	53	38.605
15	831000000	256QAM	7.300	54	37.636
16	837000000	256QAM	7.300	55	37.636
17	843000000	256QAM	7.200	56	37.636
18	849000000	256QAM	7.100	57	37.636
19	567000000	256QAM	6.400	27	40.366
20	573000000	256QAM	6.200	28	38.983
21	579000000	256QAM	6.300	29	38.605
22	585000000	256QAM	6.400	30	38.983
23	855000000	256QAM	7.100	58	37.356
24	597000000	256QAM	6.300	32	38.605
25	603000000	256QAM	6.500	33	37.636
26	609000000	256QAM	6.500	34	37.636
27	861000000	256QAM	7.000	59	37.636
28	621000000	256QAM	6.100	36	37.356
29	633000000	256QAM	5.900	37	36.610
30	639000000	256QAM	5.900	38	37.356
31	645000000	256QAM	6.000	39	37.636
32	651000000	256QAM	6.000	40	37.636

OFDM Downstream Overview

Receiver	FFT type	Subcarr 0 Frequency(MHz)	PLC locked	NCP locked	MDC1 locked	PLC power(dBmv)
0	NA	NA	NO	NO	NO	NA
1	NA	NA	NO	NO	NO	NA

Upstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Bandwidth
1	38595766	ATDMA - 64QAM	44.250	3	3200000
2	30596000	ATDMA - 64QAM	42.500	1	6400000
3	23700000	ATDMA - 64QAM	41.750	2	6400000

But the speed tests do not:

The historical traffic graphs from the past month tell most of the story:

I'm on the new NEW CODA-4582 with the black sticker wired-only in bridge mode and using a Mikrotik RB2011 router which should be good for a gigabit of throughput. Roughly once a day, I'll do a factory reset on the modem and retest with just a laptop plugged in to the modem in the hopes that will change things. Thus far, it has not.

There has been a flurry of vans in the area over the past week actively working on the lines in my neighbourhood and there's a couple of obvious cuts/resplices that have appeared near the node box in the area (on Courtland). Thus, I'm reasonably sure that someone at Rogers knows about this and is actively working on it. However, at this point I have no idea when I will once again be able to use my connection for anything other than light web browsing. Would it be possible to get an ETA for when node work will be complete in my area (Cedar Hill, Downtown Kitchener)?